Nice Christmas Things

Last year I had only just moved in and laid the carpets and had no cooker or fridge and very little furniture so it was hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Also Christmas reminds me of us all being together as a kid and coming from a dysfunctional family this is absolutely not a good thing. However, this year I have decided to reclaim Christmas, restore it to sanity and liberate it from the warped psychology and drunkeness of my relatives. Went down to East street market on Saturday and bought a tree. Winter in the city never really feels like winter, even when the snow settles. I guess when you get out to the parks and suburbs it might. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

I put Charlie Brown's Christmas onto my blog - http://drewgum.wordpress.com and I watched it last night. It's great - Snoopy ice skating, the children dancing, Linus saying what the meaning of Christmas is, Snoopy putting lights over on his kennel, Charlie Brown buying the tiny useless Christmas tree.... It's great!

I'm not there yet, but I will be on 21st December. We always put our tree up then (winter solstice), the Christmas CDs come out, it's open season on the mince pies. Although tonight might help; I'm off to see a panto by a theatre group called Oddsocks. If you ever get the chance to see them, grab it. My favourite of theirs so far has been 'Macbeth - the Panto' a few years ago. They don't tamper with the text - it's all in the presentation. Utterly brilliant.

I bought a little tree in a pot, went to a carol concert, spent a lot of time and money buying presents, and bah-humbugged my way out of the office party. It won't really feel like christmas till I knock off work on Thursday though.

For me, nowadays Christmas starts on the 6th; St Nicholas' day. The people in our inland Andalucian town are in the holiday spirit from this day on. Everywhere you go, every day, an annual Christmas Lunch or Dinner which takes the place of the office party is on in every restaurant and bar. I've been to 2 myself already. The queues are longer in the monopoly lottery outlets; the world and his dog's wife hoping to win El Gordo, the fat one. The lights are strewn overhead and everyone has a smile on their face. And it'll go on until the day for exchanging presents, January 6th - Los Tres Reyes, marking the arrival of the 3 Kings and their presents. I'm not a Christian, but I feel good for a whole month and that's worth more than money can buy.

after trying unsuccessfully to get free tickets from the Alumni Office for the King's College Carol service (they're allocated on a draw system), and being absolutely disgusted that Westminster Cathedral are selling tickets to their Christmas celebration service for £10 -£40, I am going to the non-ticketed, free carol service at Southwark Cathedral on Sunday evening. Their choir is really excellent! jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

this is my favourite seasonal piece by miles http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQIomtXXkc better than Sting's version! j