WALKING into a bank in Malton last Friday I had to pass under two large and by now tatty Christmas bells suspended above the entrance.

Turning back towards Wheelgate I saw, caged in festive colours, a large plastic figure, representing either Father Christmas or a snowman, hovering above the traffic lights.

Up the hill towards Old Malton an elaborate "Christmas" contrivance was still active outside the hotel entrance.

In central Malton the festive lights still festoon the main shopping area although, mercifully, they were switched off.

January the sixth, Twelfth Night, is the recognised day when, at least domestically, we take down the decorations.

Neighbours can be known to mutter darkly about bad luck falling on those laggards who forget this tradition.

So what dreadful fate will befall the authority (whichever it is, no one seemed to know) which has, by Fifty-Fifth Night, allowed these stale and tatty symbols to litter the town?

Richard Leigh Perkins,

Lastingham,

Pickering.

Updated: 09:35 Thursday, February 24, 2005