Christmas is coming

Term is over and suddenly there are Christmas tasks to be done, like shopping for presents and writing cards. I am determined this year to be as non-Christmas as possible, but I can't abandon it entirely without causing huge offence to certain parties - unfortunately. I'm sure I can't be the only person who can quite happily do without a tree, decorations, cards, mounds of food and hopelessly inappropriate presents.

We have decided to send an e-card to business associates, and donate the money we save on cards and postage to a charity. Due to the hullabaloo recently about the send-a-goat schemes, we are sticking to a local charity, Chicks, which provides seaside holidays for kids, often carers for parents, who otherwise would never get a break. I have now decided to go a step further and send an e-card to friends and family who have an email address, thus with any luck doing good for the environment as well as the charity!

In fact I must start writing some cards now, so that I feel justified in going out at 2 pm as planned! We are going to sign up for a year's membership of the Eden Project for a fiver, an irresistible offer. It's the usual story - just up the road there is a world-famous attraction that pulls in visitors from far and wide, and we haven't been for ages. It will be an excellent refuge on miserable winter afternoons like this one when a walk is not appealing.