Fond Christmas Memories

Pat Keenor is a well-known Devon journalist who brings her wit and wisdom to our pages every month

- Pat Keenor

IS it that time of year already? It seems like only yesterday I was writing my December column for 2016 and wittering on about Umble Pie, made from the innards of a deer. Umble Pie is now so far from ‘umble that Heston Blumenthal serves it with powdered duck and smoked confit fennel. Powdered duck? Don’t ask me…

Yes, Christmas looms on the horizon. I know lots of people love the festive season and everything that goes with it but there are plenty who dread the whole affair. There’s the perennial cry of “it’s too commercialised” and some think it’s just for the children.

I’m not surprised children love Christmas when you look at how much money we spend on them. It’s shocking that some families get into debt because little Tyrone absolutely has to have the latest games console or else he’ll be a social pariah (or a social piranha, as I heard one person pronounce it) at school. Some cost around £500, and that’s even before you buy any of the games that go in it.

Oh dear, I’m becoming one of those boring people, always harping back to the good old days when all I got was a new frock and a tangerine in the foot of a (very small) sock.