FIVE reasons your cat is a dangerous ninja, writes Jeffrey Ball at Brewin Dolphin in Newcastle. 

EIGHT reasons Darth Vader could be in One Direction.

Weird and wonderful lists, they are all the rage online these days, writes Brewin Dolphin’s Jeffrey Ball.

Sadly these two are fake but a real one I did not make up was 36 signs Christmas is here.

It struck me how just how many commercial marketing campaigns there were.

The John Lewis advert; the Starbucks red cups; the Coca Cola truck, and, of course, Greggs’ mince pies.

Ah, Greggs mince pies, arguably the best around.

A number of papers have thrown their opinions into the ring (yet more lists); each slowly considered, hotly contested and finished with a sprinkling of decorative language.

Yet all share the same conclusion; Greggs’ mince pies are top notch.

8.5 million was the record amount of mince pies Greggs sold over Christmas a couple of years ago.

Along with its breakfast range, they have emerged as a serious revenue stream for the baker and a key area analysts will look at when sales figures are released in the new year.

Seasonal offerings are an increasingly important part of the food on-the-go market with novelty and scarcity tempting more and more consumers to top up their purchase of a sausage roll with a smiling reindeer cupcake.

This is not new.

Cadbury’s have been denying us Creme Eggs for eight months of the year for decades, ever since launching in 1971.

A brief foray into 12-month sales 20 years ago was tried but ultimately failed and they returned to their traditional January-April slot.

The wider consumer discretionary sector too continues to hang a sale sign on more and more promotional events, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday being the latest Americanised additions to the festive shopping schedule.

Online, it worked.

The £1bn sales mark was passed for the first time ever in the UK this year and Cyber Monday came close too.

On the high street though, the declining trend continues.

With Christmas goods filling the shelves no sooner than the Halloween pumpkins have been cleared, there are creeping signs consumers are becoming fatigued with what is now a two-month Christmas selling period.

TV crews hoping to find masses fighting outside the shops at 4am on Black Friday were left disappointed as shoppers largely stayed in bed.

Black Friday has not been helped by the admittedly rare moments of violence that have featured on the evening news, yet retailers still felt they had to respond.

The likes of Argos have offered Black Friday deals across a whole week to appeal to shoppers wanting to avoid the one day crush, while Asda said they were not undertaking any in-store or on-line deals this time, after some of their staff unexpectedly became Black Friday boxing referees last year.

Asda may be ahead of the game, especially if you go by the research they commissioned the Centre for Economics and Business Research to carry out for them.

Despite a ten per cent increase of the average household discretionary weekly income in the last twelve months, the report found the majority of people are planning on spending the same or less this Christmas.

This makes sense.

With the level of spend rising in recent years as employment and real wages have crept up, we are still to reach that point economically where anyone feels comfortable to be splurging at Christmas.

As the analysis drips through of which shops have done well this Christmas, we will see if it was the right move.

Indications are that the move towards online shopping will continue its unerring stomp away from the high street.

But until you can order Greggs’ mince pies online for same day delivery, the Brewin bunch for one will keep the shop door swinging.

It would be rude not to.