A Week Today It Will All Be Over

Are you looking forward to the long weekend or does Christmas fill you with dread and stress you out? Has Christmas lost it's magic? No, not the subject of a 5Live phone-in or text vote but my comments based on things people have said to me over the last couple of days.

From my point of view I look forward to seeing Nathalie and Janis's face on Christmas morning when they open their presents, beyond that I'm not over or under whelmed to be honest. I don't mean to sound like Scrooge but the mad scramble in the shops, the pushing etc seems a bit OTT, after all it's not as if we don't have Christmas every year is it - a little planning might be useful for some people.

Squirell was saying how she doesn't think Christmas is the same as it used to be, she's probably right but then don't adults and children get different things out of Christmas? I have three vivid Christmas memories, aged seven getting a Hornby-Triang train set, complete with overhead catenary, being a French speaking Joseph at the age of 10 in our school nativity play and a 4 hour phone call from an ex-girlfriend on Christmas night when I was aged 14 - it would have cheaper to have met somewhere!

Beyond those all my childhood Christmasses merge into one big family party, with both sets of Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts and cousins. Then we grew up, some people died, others got married and had their own families and the big get togethers of the sixties and seventies sort of fizzled out.

I actually enjoy driving round on Christmas Eve looking at all the lights, when I was very young my parents would take me and my brother to Regent Street and Oxford Street and I supppose that trip out to 'look at the lights' comes from there.

We tend to do our visiting on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, we've always stayed at home on the Day itself, I don't mind people coming to us I just like to put my feet up and chill out - no television allowed until after six in the evening and no Slade either!