MANAGERS of The Home Company at Skipton’s High Corn Mill say Christmas appears to be coming early and are already doing brisk business across a range of gifts and accessories as shoppers bid to beat threatened shortages and price hikes.

Michelle Swinscoe said: “After a tough year-and-a-half of battling through the pandemic, people now face the prospect of Christmas shortages and price rises.

“As a result we’re finding a lot of people are gift shopping even earlier than usual to ensure they can get everything they need ahead of any potential problems with stock shortages.

“We’ve already had to close our pre-Christmas order books for sofas as manufacturers work to increasingly lengthy lead times, with most not delivering on orders taken now until next year. And only one of our cabinet suppliers is currently still able to deliver before Christmas. The situation hasn’t been helped by factory closures in Vietnam where they are still struggling with Covid levels.”

Selling particularly well on the gift front is a range of funky farmland ‘wiggle’ animals, including a range of sheep and lambs.