The North Pole wasn't the most original name for a year-round Christmas shop, but you can't say people didn't know what they were in for. From the spray-on snowflakes round the window to the ho, ho motion-sensor Santa, it was floor-to-ceiling tinsel and glitter, complete with flashing fairy lights, gilded pine cones, and plastic holly. Nodding reindeer? Second aisle, on the left. Solar polar bear? Top shelf on the right. Snowman candles? Far corner, between the little wooden chalets and the sexy elf costumes, and yes, madam, we do stock glow-in-the-dark angels. Doesn't everyone?

And it was the perfect store to launder money...