Does everybody still do Christmas in the traditional way we did once? Stockings on the end of the bed - bulging in the morning. Nobody too young for one and certainly no one ever too old. Church in the morning with children and, when they were young, Christmas lunch. Now that they are . grown up - well OK - last year it was smoked salmon and champagne before presents, a slumbersome afternoon walk and Dinner at 8. Very nice too!
But, looking back I can remember many variations on the theme. The year I lost my wristwatch and found it roasted under the turkey. The year I forgot to take the giblets out. The first year of the war - my husband newly called-up, and staying in a hotel by myself. There was the year when I remember seeing two Father Christmases fighting in Oxford Street and the one when we expected twelve for lunch and twenty turned up. And there was the year when I was supplied with the traditional Christmas Stocking and had to open it alone. There was also the year when someone's paper hat caught fire and the one when the children did a Nativity play and the Angels and the shepherds had a fight and Mary came in Wellington Boots.
So many to look back on - happy and poignant - nostalgic and hilarious.
So this year - if your True Love doesn't bring you a partridge in a pear tree (which wouldn't actually be top of my personal list) and your preference might run to not twelve but even one Lord-a-dancing or one maid-a-milking. I only hope that he/she will bring you the present you really did want. And for the rest of us may the New Year at least bring better news, better times, hopefully goodwill and maybe - just maybe - even Peace.
Margaret Briggs