Christmas Club (5)

And so we've come to the last Christmas Club of the season. It's sort of good (because it means Christmas is nearly here); and sort of not-so-good (because we've reached the end. For now). But, in any case, I hope you've had as much fun as I have.

I wanted a special finale; and so I've reached across the Ocean to bring you - my brother! He can't make it home for the holidays this year so this is my way of having us celebrate the season together. Please, give him a big, warm, blogging welcome as he shares his Christmas memories today...

Now, it's been said that I'm not exactly one of Santa's most willing little helpers, and sad to say that's largely true. No one seeks me out to recharge their own supply of festive cheer, and currently my office is decked not with boughs of holly but essays waiting to be marked.

When I've looked back into the past I always thought I found justification for my disinclination to celebrate. There was, for instance, the Christmas spent far away and largely alone in Taiwan, where I was woken very early on Christmas morning not by Shengdanlaoren (Santa) but by the landlord who wanted to remove my door and windows so that they could join the toilet out in the street. Yes he would put them back, but not for a few days.

And there was another Christmas much more recently when, with a job ended and no new employment in sight, the festive season seemed to bring little cause for celebration.

But as I considered these and other Christmases, I realised a mistake I was making. So used to reading books (well, it is my job) I'd come to confuse the fiction of a holiday with the real thing. After all, nothing does Christmas like a novel. Think of the end of  "A Christmas Carol": a wonderful, wonderful story and I recommend it; but of course it never actually happened.

So I looked again at the Christmases Past, in particular at the ones I felt had failed to satisfy, and instead of seeing my draughty and stable-like accomodation in metropolitan Taipei I remembered that, later on in the day I had joined friends to make mulled wine. We bought the spices not at a grocers, but at a traditional Chinese medicine shop. And as the Taiwanese Government had conveniently designated a Constitution Day, we all had the 25th of December off.

The Christmas of Unemployment too changed on re-examination. I remembered standing at the beach in Los Angeles on Christmas Day, watching a trio of Santas speed by on rollerblades, as only Southern Californian Santas can.

The thing is, whether you've just finished quietly observing Hannukah and are now looking forward to the festiviteis of the New Year, or whether you're still in the midst of hectic Christmas preparations - our holidays are ours, and we needn't feel ther is anything wrong if they don't meet the standard of some book, film or magazine. So even if you have no doors or toilet, or if the purse is a little empty, or if anything is less than perfect, you have every right to seize whatever little moment seems special and call that your Christmas. It may even be sharing a favourite chapter of a book with someone - and yes, even a chapter about Christmas. I'll recommend - in fact, I'll almost insist on - "Dulce Domum" from Wind in the Willows, in which a Mole and a Water rat make a Christmas out of next to nothing. Find it here

Many thanks to Sian for allowing me the opportunity to go on a bit. Things will be back to normal next time...

Thanks, bro - and Happy Christmas! Now, link your Christmas Club story for us all to enjoy