Famous London department store Selfridges has opened its Christmas shop.

The retailer, which generally opens its festive shop in late August, opened its Yuletide shop early this year in order to maximise profits from the tourist trade.

A Selfridges spokeswoman said: “It gets earlier and earlier every year. This year there are a lot of tourists in London because of the situation with sterling, which means sales to tourists are up this year.”

Commenting on the 23ºC London temperature that greeted the opening and how it might affect demand for festive stock, she said: “We wouldn’t launch it now unless we thought there was a market for it.”

Customers looking out for vast variety of festive collections will have to wait until September however.

At present, the store in the capital sells baubles adorned with Union flags as well as “We Love England” and “We Love London” slogans.

Artificial Christmas trees are also on sale in bright pink and bright purple. The retailer is expected to sell real trees for the first time this year in December.

Christmas shops at Selfridges’ Manchester and Birmingham branches will open at the start of October.

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