Doughnuts out, chocolates in!

Easter is early this year, as the bad weather warnings keep reminding us. In fact, I heard on the radio this morning that it's going to be the coldest Easter here since records began. But while you're freezing your toes off looking for Easter eggs behind the snowman in the garden, please spare a thought for the poor old retailers here. An early Easter has meant a logistical challenge on an epic scale.

Christmas with its accompaniment of chocolate Santas, baubles and Lebkuchen had to give way very quickly to the silliness of Fasching - and those giant football costumes seen above can take up rather a lot of space. And hardly was that over when the chocolate Easter bunnies started turning up in force. The manufacturers are not exactly making it easy, either. Not content with simple bunnies in milk chocolate, they are available in dark, white, diabetic and even cow pattern versions. And there are plenty of new products, too. My son demanded that I buy something that could politely be described as a "crossover innovation" and cynically described as "cashing-in" - an "Easter Egg Hunt" with chocolate eggs behind numbered doors in the style of an Advent calendar. I resisted.

The stores have had to be very nifty indeed to keep up with all this and most of them have risen to the challenge in true German efficient style. After all, who would really want to have the Easter bunnies rubbing noses with the leftover cow pattern Santas behind a clown's hat?

Having started this blog, I'm going to go all quiet next week. But I promise I'll be back with the answer to what the glamorous skier is advertising. At least she'll be happy this Easter!