Blogathon 24/23: Christmas!

A very long, long time ago I starred in a Christmas play at one of the junior schools I wasn’t expelled from. It actually was a starring role. The play (can’t remember the title but that’s probably not important) was a series of vignettes each depicting different types of Christmases in different countries around the world. I say ‘different types of Christmases’ because one country didn’t celebrate Christmas at all. Poor souls. The central theme to the play was a kindly old gent who shepherded a young brother and sister through each vignette, introducing them to the lead player in the different scenes, and saying things like ‘I’ve brought these children to Norway/Denmark/Iceland/India (delete as appropriate) so you can show them how you celebrate Christmas here’. The kindly old gent who had a speaking role in each scene was me. Autographs later, OK? Each little scene was a window on the differences rather than the similarities between each country. For example Icelanders have 13 Father Christmases to choose from (but choose wisely, because some of them are downright naughty trolls!). And let’s not talk about all the reindeer they eat in some Scandinavian countries (but not Iceland) for Christmas dinner. And in Sweden they celebrate Christmas on December 24th. And then there’s the Austrians and their very scary Christmas Festival of Krampus.

In this house we do Christmas in a very big way. And when I say we I mean I just bumble along for the ride while the good lady her indoors goes absolutely mentile about it. However, in a break from the stereotypical tradition (I say stereotypical because it’s blatantly untrue in my case) I have bought my first Christmas present. For this year. Ten months early.