Christmas
Twenty things I will ban when I am elected your Dictator For Life in 2016
The two things I hate most about Christmas are a) Advertland showing me how sparkly and joyous my home and…
Radio is flowering because it’s so much more potent than TV
Who would have thought in this visually obsessed age of YouTube, selfies and Instagram that radio, pure audio, no images…
Tips from Just William on making a Christmas list
William Brown had the right idea about Christmas lists. Under the heading ‘Things I Want for Christmas’, he requests: a…
There’s nothing British about it but one in six Britons now celebrates Thanksgiving
I have always found Thanksgiving, which was celebrated in the United States last week, the most agreeable and least stressful…
Here I am on Twelfth Night with nothing but benevolence to look back on
For the past two and a half years my brother John has been living next door to me in the…
Joan Collins’s diary: The joy of fake Christmas trees
Every year Christmas comes earlier and earlier in America. Cards, baubles and imitation trees were being sold in the big…
Penelope Lively’s notebook: Coal holes and pub opera
I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…
The threat to Christmas carols – and how to save them
A glorious, healthy and intensely pleasurable tradition is in danger
Pippa Middleton on wine, fishing and Kim Kardashian
A few days ago I went truffle hunting in Piedmont. It’s been a bumper year for white truffles in northern…
Snow - art’s biggest challenge
In owning a flock of artificial sheep, Joseph Farquharson must have been unusual among Highland lairds a century ago. His…
Forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us
After lunch on Christmas Day my father always stood at the sink in his apron and yellow Marigolds and did…
Without Jesus and with less Santa, what does Christmas mostly consist of?
More than ever this year I find friends planning to go abroad for Christmas, some to countries such as India…
The curious language of Christmas carols
I could never understand as a little girl why we sang: ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.’…
The price of seeing Santa (and what it gets you)
Dear Santas A £22.50 a head Christmas theme park in Warwickshire designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen closed temporarily for improvements after…
Actually, Bob, they do know it’s Christmas (we checked)
Yeah, Bob, they know The answer to the rhetorical question posed by the Band Aid single, ‘Do they know it’s…
How we lost the seasons
... for tomorrow traditional seasonal rituals may just be ghostly memories of a vanished world, says Melanie McDonagh
Charles Moore's notes: Why Ireland fears Scottish independence
In Dublin, where I am writing this column, people are watching the Scottish referendum campaign more closely than in London.…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my friends giving me Christmas presents?
Q. Over the years my close friends locally have been giving each other birthday and Christmas presents. Now, as I…
