Merry Christmas

I spent a heavenly two hours this morning or atleast heavenly by my lights as I curled up on my couch wrapped up in a quilt, it's warmth ably supplemented by a cup egg nog (or was it the other way round?!) and a slice of plum cake within easy reach. While I toasted my feet before the room heater, A Christmas Carol that most beloved of all beloved Christmas stories warmed me to the cockles of my heart.This is a Christmas tradition with me, and a favourite part of one of my favourite festivals. Every year Charles Dickens'beautiful yuletide fable of the true meaning of Christmas tops my holiday reading list and each year it moves me to tears while in the best traditions of great literature also offering new dimensions which may not have struck me on previous readings no matter how numerous.

But since Christmas is a time of bountiful plenty, here is a list of some more of my favourite things that make the Yuletide gay :)

Family and friends

Christmas is the season of reunions, shopping expedition and warm family dinners on cold winter nights. It is the season when friends dine out, crappy food, ambience and service still make for a fantastic evening because of the joy, love and camaraderie shared by the group. Christmas is also the season when my friends return home from the far flung corners of the globe to share new adventures and revive old scandal, laugh, tease, gossip and transport me to that wonderful world where we are all forever eighteen.

Christmas Trees

Small and large, short and tall, white and green, trimmed with snow, tinsel or lights I LOVE them all ( though I admit to a partiality for vintage classics). My tree usually goes up in early December and dismantling it post the New Year is usually so heartbreaking that I have sometimes procrastinated the evil hour almost till the time when Valentine hearts rather than Christmas holly was the decoration of choice!

Plum pudding....
....and plum cake and mince pies and yule logs and stollen and gingerbread men and........well you get the picture :)

Vintage Christmas movies

Its a wonderful life,Miracle on 34th Street, Meet me in St Louis (has any version of 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' come close to Judy Garland's original? NAAAAH) etc etc I love them ALL.

That was my quick list and I'm sure everyone has their own lists of everything that goes into making this one of the most wonderful times of the year. A very Merry Christmas to all and in the immortal words of Tiny Tim "God bless us, every one!"