It started in 2009, or at least that is when I first noticed it: the first real clear signs of the death of Christmas.

"Christmas" is an institution that has been around forever. It means different things to different people. Whether it be a religious event, a commercial event, or both to people, it is something that happens every year, without exception, and it requires one to spend money on gifts for family and friends.

Christmas is part of Life.

Well, it has been … until now.

It may not be fair to say it started with the coming of the 21st Century, but definitely since the start of this century, the world has changed and is changing dramatically. The first major turn of events was September 11, 2001. The World would never be the same again.

A new low was reached for Mankind again in September, 2008, with the crash of the US Economy and the resultant domino effect on the rest of the economies of the world. Since then, Life has become tougher than ever before for many more people.

The 21st Century could have been a great opportunity for Mankind. It could have been the start of a new renaissance. Instead we are seeing the continuing destruction of Ethics and Morals, and the accelerated poisoning of the concepts of "right" and "wrong" and a new Generation of young people who know nothing other than these "new" anarchistic, and chaotic "anything goes" concepts and whom will be our future world leaders. Babylon and Rome all over again!

In 2009, here in Australia, Christmas was almost a non-event. Yes, there were still all the TV ads and the pamphlets and fliers in our letterboxes promoting all the "specials" but Christmas was so far from people’s minds being replaced instead by an impending sense of doom and gloom brought about by the instability of the "global economic downturn", then into its second year, and the ongoing backdrop of the senseless "War on Terror" joke, going into it’s 8th year, and still continuing to wear people down!

People stopped buying and if they did, they were not spending the money they would have been expected to spend. This was the first signs of the demise of the financial side of the "Christmas Spirit" in Australia.

In 2010, the same thing has happened, although only worse.

We see the TV ads, we get the pamphlets, but the shopping malls are empty, and the shops are not even open late this year!

Christmas is on the demise.

For Merchandisers and the whole Retail industry this situation is a RED ALERT.

For most merchandisers, Christmas is "the time when you make your money." If you don’t have a good Christmas, you may as well, shut up shop. That has always been one of the fundamentals of Retail in Australia (and probably the rest of the world too, I would expect!) The remainder of the year is a series of usually predictable ups and downs, but overall a treading water scenario until the next Christmas.

The Retail Industry DEPENDS on Christmas to survive.

So, no Christmas? What does that mean? It means the demise of the Retail Industry.

Why is Christmas dying?

People are not spending money.

People are more concerned with their struggle to SAVE money in terrible economic times. This concern has become senior to anything else, including the "peace and good will to all Men" at Christmas time.

To the man and woman living in 2010, anything that encourages SAVING is welcomed.

To the man and woman living in 2010, anything that encourages non essential SPENDING is off the agenda. Christmas is always a time of spending. That spending has to be reigned in.

The world has changed. The 21st Century marks the continuance decline of Mankind. The Renaissance never came.

Kill Christmas and you kill Retail. Kill Retail, and you just create more tough times, more bankruptcy, more unemployment, more dissatisfaction, more conflict, more desperation and more crime. It snowballs and snowballs. And it has already been snowballing since the turn of this century.

Empty shopping malls at Christmas, no one talking Christmas up, people making agreements to not give each other gifts this Christmas – these things are all the signs that the death of Christmas is near. Until the world economy recovers (if it ever will) and CONFIDENCE is restored in the minds of the people of societies we have nothing but black clouds on the horizon.

Buy now while you still can. Some of those products you are looking at now won’t be there in 2011!