Perth Shop Windows Change From Skeletons to Tinsel Overnight; Night Shift Reports Seeing a Witch and a Reindeer Pass in the Street ‘Without Speaking’
1 November arrived at midnight and, by 7am, half of Perth's High Street had gone from spooky to sparkly. The other half are still looking for the box.
A shop window in transition: one pumpkin, three baubles, and a lot of uncertainty. Photo: Kgbo, “Christmas decorations at Australia Post shop window, October 2023”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
It is 1 November, and Perth’s shopkeepers spent the small hours doing what they do every year: taking the skeletons out of the windows and putting the tinsel in.
“I was here at five past midnight with a stepladder,” said the owner of a High Street gift shop. “The pumpkins went in a box marked ‘next year’, the tinsel came out of a box marked ‘next year’ from last year. It’s the circle of life, but with fairy lights.”
A taxi driver working the late shift said Perth looked “very strange” at about 2am. “You’d get one window with a vampire in it, and the next door with Santa in it, and the next door with a vampire wearing a Santa hat because they’d run out of time,” he said.
Not every shop is in a hurry. A St John Street retailer said she would not start Christmas until after Bonfire Night “out of respect for the fireworks”. “Christmas can wait outside,” she said. “It’s a nice night. It’s got a coat on.”
Shoppers seemed relaxed. “I came in for milk and came out with an advent calendar,” said a Bridgend man. “It’s 1 November. I’m not proud. But I’m going to be very organised about opening it.”
Perth’s Christmas lights will be switched on on Saturday 21 November. The skeletons, meanwhile, are back in their boxes and are understood to be already counting the days to next October.
The real story: Perth and Kinross news (The Courier)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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Walked past at 11pm: pumpkins. Walked past at 8am: elves. Nobody heard a thing. Very professional.
— Jean S., Kinnoull, 1 November 2026 -
My neighbour’s still got a skeleton on the porch. He says it’s ‘for Christmas now’. He’s put a hat on it.
— Alan G., Scone, 1 November 2026 -
Some of us would like a wee gap between the two. Like a week. Just a week of plain.
— Moira D., Letham, 1 November 2026 -
Bring it on. I’ve had the tree up since Thursday. Behind the curtains, so nobody knows.
— Kenny W., Bridgend, 1 November 2026
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