Christmas in Alnwick

Well it's finally starting to feel like Christmas in our little town and whilst the lights have been up for nearly a month now, the spirit has been a bit lacking.

I suppose that's because of the on-going recession affecting Britain.

But today for the first time, the local shops are busy and children are starting to get excited.

In England, the shops are only shut on Christmas Day, but that never seems to prevent people from buying enough food to withstand a siege.

This always, for some reason means you cannot get a loaf of bread before Christmas Day and will mean that the landfill sites will be full of the stuff come January.

Christmas Day is always a quiet time for me, Manuela is back in Brasil, with her family, Justine will be in Scotland with Michael, and Barry, my son, is going to his mothers, although we are planning a couple of lunchtime pints at The George, before he goes.

The landlady at my local pub opens for two hours at Christmas lunchtime, just for her regulars, so it would be churlish of me not to attend!

Besides it's tradition to go and laugh at the new jumpers, the dads will have got for Christmas!

Why is it families buy chaps jumpers that you can only look at whilst wearing welding goggles?

I'll then go home to cook lunch for Dad and I.

Dad will be wanting to watch the Queens Speech on the television, which he always enjoys, being a Royalist of the old school.

Then I shall join him to spend the afternoon watching mindless drivel suitably anaesthetized, with vintage port!