A blog about anything to do with Christmas be it music, film, T.V. holidays, reviews, comment or personal memories. If you love Christmas you will love this blog!
Showing posts with label operation spread Christmas spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label operation spread Christmas spirit. Show all posts
I was delighted the other day to receive a Christmas card from a couple called 'Lisa & Tony' that I do not actually know!
So why did they send me a card, I hear you ask? Well, I popped a card in to their house LAST Christmas on my Christmas Eve travels to deliver my 'Santa' cards in honour of the lovely Christmas light display they had put on. Seeing as initially I failed to receive a single card from any that I delivered last year that Lisa & Tony made a note to send me a card THIS year shows that my efforts WERE all worthwhile after all!
I think the snag with delivering my cards on Christmas Eve is that people think its too late to send a reply by then and so, while (I hope) I give them a smile and spread some festive cheer, I don't get any cards back. Unfortunately, it looks as if I won't be able to put 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' into action this year as I don't have any spare cards and STILL haven't caught up with writing cards for family and friends - let alone got all of my presents bought...
That's a real pity as Lisa & Tony's lovely card proves that my campaign was proving a success - I mean, for all I know LOADS of people may have started doing the same thing now because of me!
On a serious note, Lisa & Tony's card was a charity one and so my campaign could also help to raise a lot of extra money for good causes if it were to catch on in a big way! What a lovely thought, eh?
Typical me, I walked into town yesterday and came back to Hollington via St Helen's Rd. I was going to 'pop in' on Lisa & Tony to say 'Thanks' for the card but was looking for 279 St Helen's Rd not 249! Well, there isn't a 279 as the last house is no 277! Instead of 'fearing I was being stalked' like (seemingly) 50% of the population would these days, however my reaction to this was to think, "Ah, HA! I bet it was SANTA who really sent me that card!
Well, it is nearly time for me to cease writing this blog again for another year... Christmas has not really 'kicked into life' for me in a lot of ways this year but I am happy in the circumstances how I have defiantly tried my best to enter into the spirit, keep doing all the festive things I love and stay jolly.
Ironically, I now have another good friend in hospital! I spent part of Christmas Day with Robert and he made us both a nice christmas lunch. We pulled crackers (both of mine went off as well!) shared a bottle of wine, had a few laughs and watched the Queen's speech. Robert has been a 'creaking gate' for a while now and his health has not been great but on the 27th he had a heart attack and is now in the James ward at The Conquest hospital. I saw him yesterday and he was tired and sounded awful
(he has a chest infection as well) but thankfully was still his usual self so, hopefully, all is not lost just yet. He is at least in the best place for care now and will HAVE to eat the right things rather than stuff that's not good for him...
Add to this the shock of finding out that George Michael died on Christmas Day and you have a lot of 'time is passing so blooming fast' like memories and thoughts buzzing around your head, don't you? I was one of the first people in this country to become aware of Wham! I bought the original 12" version of 'Wham Rap' in Flyright Records in Bexhill-on-Sea when it ended up in the 'cheap bin' and think I still have it somewhere. 'Young Guns ( Go For It!)' followed and was a hit and that started the ball rolling. I always admired George Michael as a gifted songwriter as he was capable of writing what I call 'candy floss pop tunes' alongside brilliantly adult and emotive songs like 'Father Figure' and 'A Different Corner'. Both of the latter are I feel classics as is 'Last Christmas'. It is sad that George had such a troubled personal life but he obviously had a heart of gold from what we are now hearing of his legendary generosity. I was not so keen on his later work ( a bit too self-indulgent) but there was no doubting the man's genius...
On a more personal note, while I lost (as usual) on the Boxing Day Gee Gee's, this time I did share a win as well when my nap, 'Does Your Dog Bite' won at Kempton at 8/1. I only got the one winner all day so lost 50p myself but in my joint bet with my 'punting pal' Vakis we won about £50.
Finally, my post about 'getting up to a lot of good' is probably best forgotten as though I had the best of intentions my act of kindness was not so well thought out as it should have been and so I caused a bit of heart ache as well as fun by what I did. Still, all is sorted now so I must 'live and learn' and not let the spirit of Christmas carry me away in future...
P.S) I am glad to say that I received a card from one of the 18 households I carded this year as part of 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit'. Last year I posted over 50 cards and failed to get one back so to receive the card you can see here was extra special...
Another year, another Christmas day! Well, I'm STILL waiting for the 'fanfare of trumpets at dawn', the Willy Wonka like experience to cap the morning, the LAVISH and happy family present opening gathering this evening and to look out on a freshly laid carpet of snow BUT it is CHRISTMAS! Ho! Ho! Ho!
To keep my newly installed Christmas tradition going, I DID manage to write and deliver 18 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' cards yesterday. I was not able to do it under cover of darkness this time and did get more than a few 'funny stares' from local residents while peering closely at their homes as I walked slowly around with my bag of cards over my shoulder... Still, 18 people will have discovered a card from 'Santa' on their mat ( or stuck in their blooming awful, very stiff letterboxes!) either yesterday or this morning and a few festive chuckles will ( I hope!) have been caused due to the wording inside. I came up with all kinds of silly but fun tales to put in the cards this year including about how Rudolf had a cold and because of that his red nose went out! Poor old Santa (me) could not see a thing and was only saved from crashing the sleigh by the families lovely light show! Now, what more Christmassy a tale could anyone tell to someone they don't know but wish well, I ask you?
Today is going to be a VERY quiet one for me and my folks. It doesn't look as if any of the rest of the family are going to come today and Mum has already opened two of her presents at the breakfast table! I despair with my lot about their 'lack of a sense of occasion' and intend to save opening all of my presents until the light has gone, the Christmas tree is twinkling away and I have time to enjoy unwrapping my gifts and thinking of the people who have sent them...
LOTS of love to you all this Christmas day and make sure you spend plenty of quality time with the ones you love...
While this year has been a difficult one it has had its moments when, as if to say 'don't give up old boy' something nice has happened. The day before yesterday my Mum went to put some paper in the re-cycling and found that someone had left a present on our doorstep!
The Mystery Gift!
The present was not labelled nor was there a card but I knew somehow it was meant for me and was the result of either my writing this blog, my work as 'The Clean Up Man' or a 'ripple' from last years 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' campaign...
Sadly, Mum opened the end of the parcel to see what it was before I could stop her so I already know what is in it but I won't enlighten you all until the big day! I am really pleased to know that 'someone out there' also has the spirit of the season in their heart and shares my wacky sense of humour. I hope they had as much fun 'sneaking up' on my house to drop off the present without being seen that I have when trying to drop cards in people's letterboxes on Christmas Eve! Being a burglar may be a horrid and selfish thing to do but I would not want their 'job' I can tell you! HA HA
It looks like today I am going to have to help Mum with some last minute Christmas shopping but I still have one or two presents of my own to get so that's fine. I am SOOO late this year on competing my Christmas present buying and have REALLY struggled to think of what to buy a couple of my friends. I know there are 'safe' options that I can get but I LOVE to come up with something new, un-expected and different that is just right so have been reluctant so far to buy the 'same old same old'. Still, I am sure my friends would rather have something they like than something different they don't and so I may have to concede defeat this year and 'revert to type'...
Overall, I think I have done quite well this year at keeping Christmas in my thoughts but I can't say I have really felt the 'fuzzy warm feeling' I usually get much. I guess that was always going to be a bit much to ask though this year having lost TWO people who were close to my heart...
Oh well, time to get ready for a days shopping and then I will have my last session of present wrapping to do for this year. I have not written any 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' cards out yet either so if I am to do it for a third year...
I have just remembered that I have not yet given you any feedback on the result of my 'Spread Christmas Spirit' campaign last year. To refresh your memories, I spent most of Christmas Eve last year walking the streets popping cards signed 'From Santa' into the letterboxes of people I do not know who had made a good effort decorating their homes with lights and decorations. I also dropped off two 'Secret Santa' gifts - one of which was a nice bottle of wine - as gifts to those I thought had made the best efforts of all.
Well, I can tell you that the response I got from people last year was AMAZING! Yes, NOT ONE CARD nor acknowledgment did I get back for my 46 cards and two prezzies! I had to laugh - what a mug I was walking the ends of the earth delivering cards to (hopefully) put smiles on faces over the festive season on a cold winters night! The previous year I delivered a few less cards ( I think - can't remember now?) and got 7 back - some of which I uploaded here but last year my efforts fell on deaf ears...
To be fair, I did deliver the cards on Christmas Eve so there would not be time after that to post me a card back ( my name and address is always on the reverse of each card as I do not wish to scare anyone) but you would have thought that SOMEONE would have written me a letter or sent me a card or note after Christmas to say how much they had enjoyed it or similar, wouldn't you?
Time is going to be at a premium this year and so I don't know if I will get the chance to write out loads of cards like I did last year. I could include my e mail address in the cards or on the back of the letters to encourage a response but the whole idea of my campaign is to try and get people to engage once more in a traditional Christmas - make an effort to do something festive to interact with their neighbours! I HATE the fact that Christmas card writing is dying off and being replaced by those animated e-mail cards ( though they are lovely!) because cards on the walls or on the mantlepiece are part of what make a Christmas scene and a jolly room to open presents in on Christmas Day. Cards everywhere show that you are thought of, loved and valued and are a permanent reminder over the festive season of that. E mail cards are lovely but once you have seen them they 'live' only on the Internet and even then I'm not sure you can keep them forever, can you?
I used to put up ALL the Christmas cards I had EVER been sent when I was a kid each year! Yes, I did! (lol) The last year I did it I had cards all over the entire expanse of my bedroom walls about two thirds of the way down... The walls of my bedroom are decorated these days with posters, badges, picture disc records and all kinds of other memorabilia and so I can't do that anymore but I still have 100's of Christmas cards from my past...
Oh well, let's see how things pan out this year? Having lost two dear friends I am going to have to work at being my usual happy self this Christmas but I'm going to manage it because I know that is what they would want... More soon.
