Christmas traditions

Everybody has their own family Christmas traditions. The first time I had Christmas with a family that was not the one I was born into I found myself stopped from opening presents in the free-for-all my own gene pool had embraced and sitting in a circle around a tree festooned with brightly coloured packages waiting patiently. Waiting for the person currently opening a gift to randomly pick a present with my name on it, following which I would duly pass on the present-opening baton and randomly pick the next gift under the tree to deliver to someone. It was a good tradition as we all got to share the giving and receiving of each carefully chosen treat. However, there are less conspicuous Christmas traditions that I was not prepared to bend on. Like the rigid appointment watching of Christmas Day’s Doctor Who. The Queen can wait; the TARDIS is time critical.

Like a well-guarded but irrefutable secret truth, Doctor Who is one of the staples of Christmas TV for my entire family. For others it will be The Queen’s Speech, for some the soap dramas will not be allowed to unfold without their presence on the settee (who can forget Little Mo having her face brutally shoved into her Christmas dinner by Evil Trevor, or Den and Ange’s divorce delivery?).

“The Queen can wait; the TARDIS is time critical”

I, like many, look forward to skimming through the season’s TV guide, scattered with feature-length one-offs that are already displacing the regulars to new and exciting times. This means it’s a special holiday time of the year, and I love it. When else could you have Coronation Street being broadcast at three different times in the evening within one week? It’s magical, even the TV knows the usual rules don’t apply! I get excited before I’ve even selected my favourites from the offerings.

I don’t know where to start. Well, obviously I do – Doctor Who, but that’s a given. Of the new, sparkly Christmas programmes on offer I’m looking forward to a premiere of The Borrowers, featuring Stephen Fry and Victoria Wood showing on Boxing Day on BBC1. I’m also quite keen on checking out Five’s two-part version of Ben Hur, which looks like a technicolour Pulp Fiction feast of swords and sandals. Plus – another tradition here –?the week-long fun on Five that is World’s Strongest Man 2011. I no longer scrunch up my face in concentration to imagine whether I might possibly be able to move that heavy thing to that other place too. I’m older and creakier and a bit more realistic of a regular human’s strength. I do like watching it though, and it almost seems like Extreme It’s A Knockout with the bizarreness of the tests they have to do.

We all have our closely guarded telly traditions, and I’m away from my own family again this year. I have checked though and Doctor Who is one of my hosts’ must-sees on Christmas Day too. Phew! With Bill Bailey as the celeb featured player (also a tradition) I really can’t wait. I haven’t checked when they open presents yet.

Christmas telly runs from now until New Year’s Eve telly kicks in. Happy Christmas and a fabulous New Year!
Victoria Nangle