“As a child I didn’t give it much thought…do children ever? I assumed that Christmas was just the way we celebrated it. Going to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, then returning to a late dinner of tourtière and eggnog seemed the perfect way to relax and fall asleep. I would have dreamt of sugar-plums, had I any idea what they were.” Nora reminisces about childhood Christmases in Canada!
“Several shops and small businesses, as well as a few private houses, sport half-sized Santa Claus figures shinning up ropes fixed to the gutters. Next year I’ll get one myself, but I also need a stuffed wolf to put at the bottom of the rope to make it more exciting.” Mike Kingdom-Hockings tells of his Joyeux Noël in France.
“Don’t you just love Christmas? The feelings of guilt when that distant relative sends you a card and it’s too late to send them one? … The arguments in the kitchen as mother-in-law insists that you don’t baste a turkey that way? No? This could be the book for you, then.” Dave McMahon reviews a rib-busting collection of stories about other people’s Christmas disasters.
“I’ve now spent Christmas in Aus for twenty-four, out of a possible twenty-six years of living here. Every year it’s the same, the feeling of surprise when hearing the first Christmas carols while shopping, around the beginning of November. I don’t think I’ll ever get accustomed to hot sunny days and Christmas celebrations.” Sydney Sue describes the New South Wales Christmas experience.
This week: Christmas trees – not that great if you care about the planet, according to BE gardening expert Mike Clark.
The problem we have determining the sexes of our hollies goes way beyond the genus Ilex. (cf Holly Aird; Holly Johnson.) I can legitimately use sex…