The Auntie Marge Conundrum

Last year we wrote a blog about lead times and cut-off dates. You can read it here.

We’re officially four weeks from Christmas 2025, and most supplier cut-off dates have whizzed past faster than Santa on a sleigh. Any orders placed now come with absolutely no promise of arriving before Christmas.

In fact, depending on how swamped they are with guaranteed pre-Christmas chaos, your order might not see the light of day until January. (Uncommon… but like that one distant cousin, it does turn up unexpectedly.)

So here’s the big question: how desperately do you need it?

If the answer is “quite, because of Auntie Marge”, don’t panic. There are perfectly reasonable, budget-friendly solutions to get you through the festive season: temporary paper blinds, no-drill roller blinds — you know, the sort of thing you can stick up in the spare room for Auntie Marge, who has just announced to the family group chat that she's staying at yours for Christmas.

Neither option will empty your wallet, both can be installed DIY-style, and unlike ready-made roller blinds, the no-drill version won’t require you to break out the power tools or mutter festive swear words while trying to cut them to size.

Plus, once the holidays are over, you can take them down and save them for next time — or order exactly what you wanted for that window when it suits you (preferably not four weeks before Christmas).

Of course, you could tell Auntie Marge to book a hotel…But that’s not very Christmassy, is it?