'So Here It Is - Merry Christmas!'

Yes, I know that I probably used a line from the Slade classic to announce Christmas Day last year but what the hell - it is the best Crimbo song ever!

I'm feeling quite emotional this morning for a number of reasons. One is that I watched a Christmas version of the EXCELLENT, 'Back In Time For...' series last night and it brought back so many happy memories of my Christmases as a kid. For those of you unaware of the series it revolves around a modern family (The Robshaws) who agree to embark on a social experiment the aim of which being to place the family in a home that has been re-decorated to mimic this era or that. The whole family are given clothes to represent that era, have their hair done up in the popular styles of the day and are supplied with a manual telling them all about the 'social etiquette' of the period etc...
In effect, the experience is about as near to jumping into Doctor Who's Tardis and whisking yourself back in time as you can get!

Well, with a remit like that you can understand why an 'old fashioned dinosaur' like me loves the programme! Watching it is not only interesting to see how the family cope with life as it was back then (the things they discover that are now long gone they love, the modern things they miss, the lifestyle and how they cope with the social changes) each programme has LOADS of 'I remember that!' Or 'I had one of those!' Moments and as such can be a bit of an 'emotional battering ram'.

In last nights episode The Robshaws had to live through a 1970's, 80's and 90's Christmas and it was lovely to see some previously familiar  household 'old friends' on screen again. Each Christmas the family have tasks to do in keeping with the era and so in the 1970's they had a large Christmas tree to decorate with as much tinsel and stuff as possible! The tree was a real one that had been specially treated (by being dipped in a special liquid of some design) to ensure that it would not be a fire risk and that it would not drop pine needles all over the place. On Christmas Day of each year the family would unwrap Christmas presents popular from the time and so in the 1970's Mrs. Robshaw got a fur coat and the presenter of the show, Giles (he pops in and out of the show) received the Evel Knievel toy that I had as a kid that you wound up and then released.

Thanks to Glenn E Walker for use of this pic

 It was GREAT fun and BRILIANT for inspiring the imagination as it came with some cones, a couple of ramps and other accessories that you could use to create 'death defying' leaps for your Evel to master! In reality, of course the toy was pretty USELESS at even travelling in a straight line as the model of 'Evel' was rather 'top heavy' and thus the motorbike had a tendency to fall over more often than not shortly after you released it from the 'winding up ramp'. Whatever its failings, however, LOADS of kids of my age had lots of fuj lining up the ramps, using some of their Matchbox toy buses to give Evel something to jump over and then trying to get him to complete a successful jump! When you think about it? The real Evel Knievel was more famous for his spectacular crashes than for his successful stunts so I guess in that respect the toy was a pretty accurate representation of the man! (lol)

If you get a chance try to catch a re-run of the 'Back In Time For Christmas' series. I missed the first part myself covering the 1940's, 50's and 60's so I will be looking for that myself.

As for 2018? Well, I don't look forwards with much positivity these days but who knows? Each new year is a fresh start one way or another and so you can never discount something magical happening!

LOTS of love to all of my family and friends this Christmas and to all of you who subsequently find this post on the Internet xxx