Steve Litchfield

I was going to put in a much longer blog post about this, but Ewan Spence has beaten me to it.... See his version . With Christmas on a Thursday, you've then got Boxing Day and the weekend and - crucially - New Year's Day also on a Thursday. Chances are that very little work gets done on the 29th, 30th and 31st Dec in any offices, assuming they're still open at all. And then it's Jan 1st and people recovering from their celebrations on Jan 2nd still and then it's the weekend..... As Ewan points out , the country just lost almost 3 weeks of potential up-time through these compulsory celebrations.... BAH HUMBUG! 8-)

For personal reasons, we've ended up having our Christmas Day today, the 23rd December. Just for a change. Interestingly, it turns out that there are some pros and cons with this arrangement: Pros: 1) The supermarkets are all OPEN all day, should anything be needed! 2) No deciding 'do we open presents before, or AFTER church'! 3) If a present is wrong, it can be opened, taken back and exchanged before the actual official Christmas Day... 4) It's less time for impatient offspring to wait between end of term and present-giving day! Cons: 1) Bit of a sense of anti-climax on the 25th. 2) Have to rewrite most of the carols: "On the 23rd, the 23rd, .... etc." 3) Others might expect me to work....