Teaching a young French pupil to play guitar arrangements of 'Away in a Manger' and 'Hark, the Herald Angels' wasn't a complete success. He had never heard either of these. Curious thing as, at least 'Manger' is something I'd always heard even though I grew up in another culture with different Christmas music. I don't think I'd heard 'Hark' before setting foot in these islands.

Christmas is a peculiar affair for me. I don't have family here and it was always a family affair. For a number of years I opted for visiting my Italian family which was always lovely (but always came back with four kilos more to me...) but as their circumstances changed it wasn't possible to do that anymore. These days I say with Venezuelan friends in Kent, near Tunbridge Wells -so I do get the family xmas but not with my family. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although the opening of the presents around the tree does make me feel like I'm gatecrashing.

Peculiar thing, also that I'm not a believer but I still feel the need to 'do' things like Christmas. I suppose that's what Dawkins was calling (referring to himself) as being 'culturally Christian'.

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Tags: christmas, life of flav, stuff