No stars visible tonight, too cloudy. Orange glow of the city would obscure them anyway.

No Vacancies at hotels. When's the last time you got Bed & Breakfast in a stable? Come to that, have you ever seen a stable?

Just as well the pregnancy was terminated, complications avoided. One less crazy-mixed-up kid who thinks he's the bleeding Messiah. Christ! They'd crucify him. Abortion statistics continue to rise, yet too many people grow up unhappy.

Doubt if there's even one Wise Man with the necessary qualifications on the whole benighted planet. Besides, what with the price of gold nowadays...

It may be traditional, but sacrifices have to made for the sake of the economy. In line with other cutbacks in the public sector, the shepherds have been made redundant. There's a Recession on you know.

That notwithstanding, out of force of habit we'll be dreaming of a white Christmas with sleighbell sound F/X just like the ones we used to know in old Hollywood movies. Saturnalia-substitute & ersatz-Yuletide assembly kits have been on sale in shops since last Easter. Business reported brisk, despite hard times. This year's promises to be bigger & better, perhaps a little more expensive than of yesteryear, but...

Still, even with all those multi-colored fairy lights turned on, & the alcoholically-induced glow of good cheer, there's something missing. The childhood magic's gone.

It's not merely that we no longer believe in Santa (the more precocious among us were quite frankly sceptical from a very early age.) The loss of naive innocence is not necessarily a bad thing.

But something else has vanished too, something of value beyond price.

With hardy perennial carols & recycled xmas hits-or-misses blaring full-blast & the TV reminding us (lest we forget or have been in a coma for months) that it's Excess Eve, perhaps what we have really, sadly, lost is this unique night's stillness. Call me a sentimentalist, call me soft. Or on second thoughts, just PUMP UP THE VOLUME!

 

 

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