Ordinarily, working over Christmas frustrates me - as, I’m sure, it does many who have to work over the holiday periods - and it’s the one thing I really find myself not enjoying about running a pub business.
Before anybody accuses me of bleating, I’m not. I understood the sacrifices I was making when it comes to leaving the children on Christmas Day when I bought in to the business and, for the remaining 350-plus days of the year, I thoroughly enjoy what I do; those Christmases in the early years of having a pub were also quite enjoyable to work.
But in the more recent, austere times, people’s attitude to using the pub over the festivities seemed to change. We were made to feel like we should be grateful that they wanted to spend their money with us at Christmas, and that we should be servile and acquiescent. Closing at 2pm on Christmas Day after a couple of hours of serving drinks was frowned upon - how dare we, for just one day of the year, want to spend some time with the kids? - and on one occasion I was called a particularly rude four-letter name for refusing to serve somebody after I’d called time.
After three Christmases like that, and with newspapers declaring a double-dip recession for the new year and the Mayans announcing that the world will end in December 2012, I was expecting another torrid time of it over the holidays.
But it didn’t happen. Business did, and it was good business at that. It’s not hard to achieve better figures than December 2010 given that, then, there were inches of snow on the ground and heating oil prices were at an all-time high, but the joy of Christmas didn’t come from an increase in like-for-like sales but from an increase in joviality.
The pub was busy, everybody was enjoying themselves, and the customers were actively encouraging us to make sure we got family time this year. When I rang the bell at 2pm on Christmas Day, nobody mithered, everybody shook my hand, and I finished the shift feeling full of the joys of Christmas and ready to go and unleash my snowman jumper on the children.
In fact, the only downside to the whole of Christmas came on the morning of 25th December itself. Rather than being woken by the sound of my children’s screeches of delight at seeing Santa had been, I woke to hear my eleven-year-old returning the fast-food meal I’d treated him to the evening before...
Happy New Year
Despite the prophet warnings for 2012, I hope it’s a profitable one for you all this year!
Mark Daniels is the licensee of The Tharp Arms in Chippenham. Follow him on Twitter @marktharparms
