There is no hiding from Christmas.

Since Halloween, every shop I have been in has had Christmas items on display, one shop I went in even had them in September. It is good to know however that in this world of consumerism and capitalising on the religious holidays some companies are at least remembering what Christmas is all about.

Take Clinton Cards for example (a very large chain of card stores in the UK), they sell charity Christmas cards. Not just shabby, poorly made tokens that you find in some stores but actual Christmas cards that you would consider buying. With each sale 25% goes to a range of charities, one of which is GUCH.

I obviously support GUCH and all of the work they do and I would like to spread the word that these cards exist and if you were to buy any charity cards then please buy them from Clinton Cards.

There are many other stores selling Christmas cards to the masses that give something back but another of note is WH Smith who give 20% to various charities one of which is the British Heart Foundation.

The Scrooge of charity cards has to be up-market Harrods which only gives an average of 6.6% of its line of charity cards directly to charity. That to me seems a bit greedy to put a charity label on something and then take the vast majority of the profits.

Boo to Harrods, may their management be visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.