A Christmas Carol: buying presents

When it comes to Christmas present buying, I seem to have lost my mojo. It wasn’t always so. I don’t want to adopt the Scrooge approach. I read a bit today about Saint Nicholas, and his frequent and anonymous gift giving. That seemed like a good thing. At the same time, I seem to have …

A Christmas Carol: decorations (on repeat)

Christmas decorations. Never mind clouds of angels, it’s the clouds of dust as you bring out the box that remains hidden all year. The art collection that reveals the quality of your handiwork, and the aesthetic instincts of your children. Something like that. It may instead be your annual reminder of the multiple uses for a …

A Christmas Carol: the round robin Christmas letter

You know this one. It’s the extra piece of paper that falls out when you open the Christmas card. The whistle-stop tour of someone’s life over the last year. They’ve been the subject of books, containing spoof round robin letters. They’re a staple of pre-Christmas news stories, from the BBC to the Daily Mail. Are …

A Christmas Carol: daily readings

Readings in the build-up to Christmas isn’t something new. The web is full of daily readings for advent, pitched at a whole range of different ages and stages. What does it mean to share a book – or a series of stories – over nearly a month? === Christmas Past I don’t remember regular reading …

A Christmas Carol: advent calendars

This is the point I love: when a series of blog posts starts to shift away from the original idea, into something a little different. Start that on day 2? Sure, why not. You can read the starting point of the theme here. My original thought was to split the posts into a good number …