Support business in the West this Christmas

A word this week for readers who live away from home. You could be in New York or Nottingham, New Zealand or Nice, or indeed in any part of the world. There is one of us everywhere these days.

It is that time of year when the only question is whether you are coming home for Christmas or not. For those of you who are, it’s getting close now and the excitement will be building. The further away you are, the less frequent the visit, the higher those excitement levels will rise. Any one of us who has lived abroad knows that feeling and remembers those days.

Fingers crossed for fair weather when the day to travel comes. You will be most welcome when you land. Ireland West Airport, every train and bus station, and every house is waiting for you, and with the light on.

Some of you won’t be able to make it this year. That decision will have been made earlier, and most likely won’t have been an easy one. The pain of being away from home always feels the sharper when you are not home for Christmas, whatever caused the absence – good or bad reasons. Welcome and all as it is, the WhatsApp call on Christmas Day just isn’t the same.

Sometimes you can’t make it for reasons that are unavoidable or even painful, but other times less serious: missing Christmas might be the price of a summer visit. These are the choices we have to make. Of course, it might also be because some young person has decided that this will be the Christmas they have on the beach in Australia. West of Ireland people are as obsessed with that as they are with the price of the pint in Dublin. It is certainly talked about just as much. Christmas on the beach, as roasted as the turkey, both compels and repels. But if it’s a one-off, all part of some exciting phase in a young person’s life, the absence will feel that little less cruel.

But whichever category you are in, whether you are on your way or missing out this time, you can still do plenty of good at home by supporting the traders in our region. I put off writing this article as we all know that Christmas is coming a little too early these days, and November would have felt wrong, but now the clock is ticking. Last week was really the perfect time, but we had all to address what someone else once termed an ‘outbreak of democracy’. With that over, we can really focus on Christmas.

Christmas was always of course an essential time for traders in our region. Back in the old days when so many were in England or America, those vital 10 days around Christmas would keep many a business open during the leaner times throughout the year.

Growing up in the west of Ireland in the 1980s makes it easy to picture it. That was the world of pubs that served only drink, of draperies, of newsagents that sold toys and penny sweets, and where you only could get a meal in the hotel (if you had one) or the chipper. 

There were many quiet days in those establishments, many days when the beautiful old register would barely ring. Online orders were not, it is fair to say, a major part of the business strategy. That was another Ireland, another West, another world. But while what is on the surface has changed, the same dynamic applies. How the commerce of our small towns has changed is not a happy story, and certainly not one for Christmas time.

But that reality sharpens the point: the need to support them has never been greater. So with some time still left, whether you are coming home or not, put your present buying to good use, and support local. The local businesses could sure do with it. If you like that your Mum or Dad can get a great service they love on their doorstep on a cold and wet Wednesday in February, your support for that business in December is a good way to ensure they can continue to do it. By supporting those businesses, you can do more than just help them survive, you can help them flourish.

So if you are travelling a great distance, and you won’t be back in time to shop local yourself, why not do the shopping from afar? Why not let the local shops and businesses in the West take care of the gifts for you? Every business you can think of will take an online order now, or allow you to get a voucher, or let you pay for a good or service over the phone or by email. If nothing else, doing it this way will certainly save you in luggage fees on the plane.

And even if you are not travelling, you can get everything you need for the perfect present within the West, without having to set foot in it. Delivered right to the door of the person you love.

Whether it be a bottle of something nice, a yoga class, some books, the price of a few treats in a favoured café or bar, a Christmas hamper for a home, or a massage or other therapy, there are businesses all over the West that would only be too delighted to hear from you. Many will arrange delivery, and many will literally deliver for you themselves, sometimes in the boot of their own car. It being a season of goodwill, you might also send a few euro to the local chapter of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, in honour of someone who was kind to you when you needed it.

The presents don’t just need to be for people you care for within this region. Many businesses are creating beautiful and distinctive West of Ireland-produced products, and they will deliver all over the world. Whether that be in food or beverage, or jewellery, or books, or a subscription to this newspaper, or any number of interesting products, you can send people all over the world something distinctly West of Ireland. Wherever they are in the world, it will make them smile. And they will tell their friends about it. And that virtuous cycle will continue.

Those businesses and organisations that provide these goods and services are easily found - the advertisers in this newspaper would be a good place to start.

This time of year makes us all think even more fondly of home. We all want to do something to support and enhance it. When you buy your presents this way, you are doing more than just buying a present for a person. By supporting the businesses that sustain it, you are buying a present for the region.