Jingle Blogs.

Christmas is in full swing. Sixteen days to go and all it's hallmarks are omnipresent. Every advert on TV has a festive angle to it. Only at Christmas could Argos use the word 'magical' in relation to itself. A small shop with an underground warehouse, magical? Year on year the decorations people put up outside their house become ever more elaborate. When done well it is truly spectacular, and surely beyond the wildest imaginings of Thomas Edison. What Energy-Crisis? Suddenly, from the first week of December, there is an abundance of chocolate and crisps and peanuts and any manner of snackfood guaranteed to reduce one's life-expectancy. It is literally impossible to end December the same weight as you began it, no matter how much you plan to. It's better just to accept it and eat as much as you want-you've got eleven months to get back down to where you were. And the older you get the more time you need.

But for me, the one signifier-over and above all else-that Christmas has arrived, is the music. A stockpile of 30-40 songs recorded over the last fifty years that get played to death for a month every year. They range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the great to the awful, with a fair amount of mediocrity in-between. You just cannot escape, nor resist their charms. 'Fairytale of New York' by The Pogues has the sublime element covered by itself. A bitter, twisted song of love and hate with an uplifting, skyscraping chorus that screams New York as surely as does the Manhattan skyline. Wizzard's joyous 'I wish it could be Christmas every day' is, like no other song, guaranteed to make me feel seven years old. It has to be the happiest, most carefree 3 minutes of music ever committed to record. Though 'Merry Christmas Everybody' by Slade can't be far behind. And anyone who isn't moved by the childrens choir singing 'War is over, if you want it' on John and Yoko's classic has a heart of stone.

These songs fix you at a certain point in the year, transporting you back and forth through Christmas' of the past. It's hard to hear them and not reflect on the last twelve months. What you've done, where you are and where you might be next December. That's what Christmas is really all about. Time standing still. Workplaces gear up to their Christmas party, then they come down from it. People forget about being 'productive' and write cards, buy presents, stock up on alcohol and plan what they'll be watching on TV. I can't wait to eat, drink and be very, very merry. Then I'll turn my attention to 2007.