It's Christmas: Part Three

Yes, folks, today is the last entry in my little escape into my favourite Christmas entertainment. And where better to end than with television? Now, admittedly, I am restricted with this by the fact that I live in Blighty and I'm sure there will be some readers - if there are any readers - who don't.

Christmas Day: the television doesn't go on. Full stop. Except for five short minutes where we set the DVD and Video recorders to tape the stuff we want to watch, it just doesn't go on. Not even for the Queen's Speech. In fact, I don't think I've ever watched a Queen's Speech. Why would I want to? It's not like it's actually written by her - if that was the case I'd watch it all the time! It would be great - "My dear people, this year has been rather shit...", and so forth.

A big, big tradition here is The Snowman on Christmas Eve. Now we're pretty busy usually on this day, with two Christingle services and all that during the afternoon, but my sister and I always find time to watch this beautiful, tear-jerking cartoon. Trust me, if you've never seen it before you have to. The music, and there's a lot of it, is haunting and gorgeous and there's quite simply one of the best endings to a television programme ever!

Comedies usually come out good at this time of year. Their Christmas specials can be quite mixed at the best of times, but this is when they can go on for a bit longer or have some special guests on that they wouldn't normally have so they're usually okay watching.

For my family recently the big Christmas television event has been the special episode of Doctor Who. Now, I'm not a huge science-fiction buff, but this is an intelligent, often witty, always exciting series that has been successfully relaunched and whose Christmas specials are always amazing to watch. This year Kylie Minogue is the special guest star. The big names are attracted to this show, believe me!

Were it not for the Christingle services, Carols From Kings would be another on my list, but as I never get to watch them all in full they only deserve a mention for their longevity here. Thanks to cheap DVDs the number of films we have to record this year has also been slashed, seeing as how my mother, who I feel is addicted to buying these said cheap DVDs, has usually got them already!

But throughout these last few days I am reminded of the two most important things about Christmas, namely Christ and Family. Let us never forget these things, at the best or worst of times this holiday.

I should be able to make a final entry tomorrow before I shut down for a few days - hopefully!

Laters!