I’m not sending any Christmas cards this year

It’s amazing how much it costs now, with stamps costing 46 pence, and Christmas cards working out at nearly £1 each, especially if you get charity cards. Last year I spent nearly £100 on sending Christmas cards, which is a ridiculous use of money.

This year I am sending all my greetings online, and using the money saved to buy beer instead.

The UK real ale industry is facing some of the most challenging times ever. Alcohol taxes have gone up at a higher rate even than petrol and tobacco, while the industry is threatened by multinational lagers, which are cheap to produce and lavishly-marketed, and the growth of alco-pops.

The UK’s real ale industry is at risk, and along with it an essential part of British culture. Breweries are some of the oldest businesses in the UK, with firms and factories pre-dating the industrial revolution. These historic industries could disappear, along with the distinctive tastes of tens of thousands of different bitters, stouts, milds, light ales and porters.

The money saved from every Christmas card is enough to pay for a half pint of Old Peculiar or Broadside at my local pub. Altogether, by not sending cards, I could save enough money to buy forty pints of beer.

This selfless act on my part, could save tens of thousands of jobs in the brewing and pub trade, not to mention the livelihoods of the farmers who grow the barley. I don’t want a knighthood or medal for my good deeds, though if you were to offer me a pint of Winter Warmer I wouldn’t say no.