Sir, - I watch with sinking heart the approach of Hallowe'en. I know that the last illegal banger will hardly have gone off when the witches and pumpkins will be bundled out of the shops to make room for Santa Claus and all the dread paraphernalia of Christmastime, and from then until the feast of the holy nativity it will be nothing but hard sell and aggressive marketing.
The unfortunate targets of this activity must feel that nearly two months of aggression are hardly justified by the scant twelve days of peace and goodwill we are allowed at the end of it all. If shops and advertisers could put off mentioning Christmas at all for even an extra week this year I would consider it an act of real decency - possibly even Christianity. - Yours, etc., Robert Nicholson,
Bayview Rise, Killiney, Co Dublin.