Christmas is coming by Angela Caldin
It’s the second of December as I write and I’m thinking about putting up my Christmas tree this weekend. Nothing unusual in that you might think since decorated trees have been appearing and Jingle Bells has been playing in the shops since about the end of October. But I have to admit that it’s unusual for me because for many years I was a Christmas curmudgeon. Everyone else in our street would have their tree twinkling in their front window from early December, but I would make my family wait until two… Read More
Collected thoughts about Christmas by Emily, Trevor, Susan and Angela
The Christmas debate according to Emily I had a rather robust discussion with my three fellow bloggers recently about Christmas. My outtake from it was that the learned trio don’t believe in spinning the myth of the fat bloke in the red suit to kids, and that lying about it to children is wrong and will inevitably lead to disappointment. I got quite annoyed about it and tried my hardest to think of an argument to put forward to explain why I don’t mind perpetuating the Santa clause, which to my mind,… Read More
The two sides of Christmas by Angela Caldin
I was in Newmarket a couple of days ago with my elder daughter doing a little Christmas shopping. In the streets the decorations glittered in the sunshine while in the shops the Christmas songs warbled over the festive wares. That’s when it happened, or perhaps I should say more correctly, that’s when it started. It washed over me like a wave, took over my body and mind and turned my heart into a heavy stone. It’s a malaise, a melancholy, a disquiet and a discontent. It’s called Seasonal Curmudgeon Disorder. The Christmas… Read More
That’s the Spirit by Trevor Plumbly
Tis the season It’s that time again, according to our religious leaders, and of course shopkeepers, a time of celebration and giving. Due to family circumstances I’ve never really been a Christmas person. Children naturally parade their possessions like a thermometer of their parents regard especially at this time, and it’s equally natural for those at the bottom of the social scale to feel envy and resentful. Looking back I certainly did. I don’t dwell on those early years to any great effect but they do cause me to reflect on… Read More
Back in Blighty by Angela Caldin
Six months in New Zealand have passed in a flash and now I’ve changed the Land of the Long White Cloud for the Land of the Rose and its teeming capital city. My fellow blogger, Emily, often refers to her homeland as Blighty and that rather old-fashioned term, so evocative of a bygone era of derring-do and Britishness, always makes me smile. Apparently, the expression was first used by soldiers in the Indian army and was an Anglo-Indian alteration of the Urdu bilāyatī, which means ‘foreign or European’. From there, it developed to be a… Read More
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