What are your christmas Traditions?
When I was fairly young, Perhaps a couple of years older than my eldest daughter who is now 6. There was a programme on the BBC which was made into 6 parts and was created for children's Televison, during the christmas period IN 1984 (It ran up to Christmas eve). It was called, 'The Box of delights'. It must be remembered this was created when the BBC produced programmes that hadn't been dumb down for the audience. This story was adapted from the books by, John Masefield, whom from 1930 to 1967 was the Poet Laureate. It is a sequel to the first book, the Midnight Folk, which contained a lot of the same characters. The Box of delights was chosen to be adapted. As an 8 year old it was a stunning experience. The story was a little bit scary at times, exciting and for the time the graphics seemed quite advanced (though 30 years later you see how far we've moved on), but it has been forever burnt into my mind as something that happens at Christmas. The advent (geddit?) of the Internet and, YouTube, means that over the last few years I have been able to revisit the original series and watch it in the run up to christmas, as it was originally intended to be. There are lots of snowy scenes and it's based around Christmas time, too. I am currently on episode 4 of 6 and plan to have re-watched it all by Christmas eve.
It caused me to think of other traditions I have over the Christmas and new year period. And I do have some. So here they are;
1 - The Box of Delights (as mentioned above)
2 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film Trilogy
The Stieg Larsson books about, Lisbeth Salander, where first made in his native, Sweden as a film trilogy, one for each book. They were brilliantly made and, although Hollywood tried to re-create the franchise with, Daniel Craig, as the investigative journalist. It never took off in the cinema's and never got close to being as well made as the original. The Psychological thriller is a masterpiece in my mind and I think it became a Christmas tradition as I had read the books and found that, Channel 4 were broadcasting the films one year on, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing day and then they replayed them at the same time for the next few years. It's now one of the first things I look for in the Christmas Radio Times (Number 3). Once on, I prepare myself, mentally, to cope with the film content. Such a wonderfully, strong, female character lead. I guess Scandinavia makes me think of snow, too.
3 - The Christmas Edition of the, Radio Times.
I do not buy TV guides and I very rarely nowadays engage with T.V. deliberately, unless something I enjoy comes on. Wolf Hall, being the most recent programme to pull me in. Do watch it, if you can. However, every year, I will buy this magazine. And yes, I am a circler. How much of what I circle I actually get to watch is another story. As I've mentioned, Television is losing it's appeal at the moment. But, it's fun to go through the magazine and see what's available. I note with despair that there are now so many channels, that to be fair, I doubt anyone could really go through them all! I'm also not quite convinced that increased quantity has led to increased quality, either.
4 - The Worlds Strongest Man competition.
Sadly, this has now faded from the great TV event it was in the eighties when, with only 4 channels, the worlds strongest man was a staple of this time of year and every Briton became, Geoff Capes, biggest fans. It's still going but the format is a little more truncated than what it was and is on a relatively obscure channel, at an obscurer time. I, however, still love it. As most people of my generation I think we grew up with it and the idea of watching a man pull a truck still appeals. The men are now, bigger, stronger and some ridiculously small but build like tanks. big Z for example, who's won it a few times but always looks 3ft tall and 3 ft wide.
5 - New Years Day.
No new years day is complete without me playing, at some point, the song, 'New Years Day', by U2. I cannot remember when this one started. It's been running so long I can no longer remember. This is perhaps my longest running tradition.
6 - All my new traditions.
At some point in the past a tradition has been started from new. And that's what number 6 is about. Finding new things that might pass from one off into regular traditions. I'll keep you posted on any I come across.
It caused me to think of other traditions I have over the Christmas and new year period. And I do have some. So here they are;
1 - The Box of Delights (as mentioned above)
2 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film Trilogy
The Stieg Larsson books about, Lisbeth Salander, where first made in his native, Sweden as a film trilogy, one for each book. They were brilliantly made and, although Hollywood tried to re-create the franchise with, Daniel Craig, as the investigative journalist. It never took off in the cinema's and never got close to being as well made as the original. The Psychological thriller is a masterpiece in my mind and I think it became a Christmas tradition as I had read the books and found that, Channel 4 were broadcasting the films one year on, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing day and then they replayed them at the same time for the next few years. It's now one of the first things I look for in the Christmas Radio Times (Number 3). Once on, I prepare myself, mentally, to cope with the film content. Such a wonderfully, strong, female character lead. I guess Scandinavia makes me think of snow, too.
3 - The Christmas Edition of the, Radio Times.
I do not buy TV guides and I very rarely nowadays engage with T.V. deliberately, unless something I enjoy comes on. Wolf Hall, being the most recent programme to pull me in. Do watch it, if you can. However, every year, I will buy this magazine. And yes, I am a circler. How much of what I circle I actually get to watch is another story. As I've mentioned, Television is losing it's appeal at the moment. But, it's fun to go through the magazine and see what's available. I note with despair that there are now so many channels, that to be fair, I doubt anyone could really go through them all! I'm also not quite convinced that increased quantity has led to increased quality, either.
4 - The Worlds Strongest Man competition.
Sadly, this has now faded from the great TV event it was in the eighties when, with only 4 channels, the worlds strongest man was a staple of this time of year and every Briton became, Geoff Capes, biggest fans. It's still going but the format is a little more truncated than what it was and is on a relatively obscure channel, at an obscurer time. I, however, still love it. As most people of my generation I think we grew up with it and the idea of watching a man pull a truck still appeals. The men are now, bigger, stronger and some ridiculously small but build like tanks. big Z for example, who's won it a few times but always looks 3ft tall and 3 ft wide.
5 - New Years Day.
No new years day is complete without me playing, at some point, the song, 'New Years Day', by U2. I cannot remember when this one started. It's been running so long I can no longer remember. This is perhaps my longest running tradition.
6 - All my new traditions.
At some point in the past a tradition has been started from new. And that's what number 6 is about. Finding new things that might pass from one off into regular traditions. I'll keep you posted on any I come across.
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