An Agent For The Holidays

Tomorrow it is Thanksgiving Day in America and as an eager participant of over indulgance and alcohol I shall be celebrating with gusto as if the hounds of hell are at my heel. Nevermind that I am Welsh and living in the wilds of West Wales, the turkey will be roasted, the bread sauce whipped and Jagermeister chilled to within an inch of its beautiful life.
November is usually a miserable month in Britain, with its dark early evenings and biting, cold winds so hijacking another countries holiday to brighten up a few days is a much needed boost to the chilled marrow system.
The modern Thanksgiving holiday I understand stemmed from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season, so it might be argued it comes from the British. And as a limey desperate for action I have taken this information as licence to celebrate on turkey flesh and alcohol.
We globally share so many holidays I am suprised we haven't latched on to this one too. Little matter regarding the real meaning as most have abandoned the spirit of other more grand holidays. Halloween has become a gore fest and Christmas long ago been insulted by greed.
Thanksgiving 'feels' like a dressed down version of Christmas from this side of the Atlantic. It is how the Silly Season should be without the silliness and without being bloated to vulgar states. We know of Thanksgiving here and some celebrate it (I cannot be the only one can I?) but we don't laden it with gifts and carols. Of course if I were to skip over the pond it would no doubt feel different but as it is right now, to a writer hammering this out from the lush, green bosom of Wales, it feels right.
Eat, drink and give thanks for Life and a bountiful harvest but forget about the tinsel and gaudy baubels. Who had the Christmas number one song, or gave the biggest gift is neither important or classy. To be blunt they serve only as further proof of how cheap a person is.
It is quite honourable to give thanks to simple things and for one will be in merriment and giving thanks in earnest. It is the only proper thing to do, and one can only hope next months festivities get restored to a more humble level. We are supposedly celebrating the birth of a Saviour afterall. Humans are ever so fallible and often get lost to real meaning and all the cards and glitter in the world won't mean a thing if we forget that.

Happy Thanksgiving all !!

Tabloid Scroodge

The Sun newspaper has an article in todays issue telling us that 'Christmas dinner with all the trimmings can cost just £2.89 a head — if you trawl six different supermarkets'. Crumbs, I feel as if I should be moving in with Tiny Tim's family! Now forgive me if I sound a little bratty here, im aware the world is in financial turmoil, but isn't this just being miserly? I mean the Silly Season comes but once a year, so shouldn't it be a time when we can forget the misery and woes for a while and splash out on the finer things in life? Do we really need to eat cheap foods all the time? Its Christmas for Heavens sake! Cut loose for a while, we need it!
I haven't got anything against cheap food and supermarket own brands, hell's bells a lot of them are superior to the branded rubbish (who use too much salt), but just this once can't we open our wallets/purses a little wider than usual?


Christmas cheer: one drumstick each please

One could swear we were living in Third World Britain the way certain parts of the media paint it. Like I said, I know times are hard but surely not so hard we can't push the boat out once a year? Are things really that bad where you can't afford a lavish feast on December 25th? I think some folk kid themselves they are in this situation. (*Some* not all).
Im not a fan of these big family meals where there is 15 to a table and 4 dogs and a cat underneath but I do enjoy seeing the table and fridge groan from the weight of good food come Christmas, and before that Thanksgiving. There is no scrimping and only the best goes into my squealing trolley. The way I look at it is, there is enough money going out on different things throughout the rest of the year so these holidays are a time for me and my loved ones, a time where hard earned money comes to us for a change.
I urge everyone to do the same. We'll keep sane this way and won't fall completely into the depths of despair. Now pass me a cracker, one of those expensive ones which contain iPods and diamond nose studs.