There will be no boxing this year

Today is the second day of Christmas, the feast of St Stephen or Boxing Day.  These days, Christmas starts so early that it's hard to think of Christmas day as only being the first day. I like to think of our family day in London as the first day of Christmas, which, as it all happened so quickly this year was the 24th.

Even though it was on the wrong day, our day in London was perfect. I have found that when you mention the words 'day tickets' people in theatre box offices become even more lovely. Even when they only have two left and you want four they say, "As it's Christmas I can give you 4 seats in the stalls at £25 each rather than £75," and then they look up things like whether Winter Wonderland is open to save you having a wasted trip. We saw The Duck House with Ben Miller, which was a proper laugh-out-loud farce. I was worried that my son would struggle with it, as there were many topical news references but he laughed as much as the rest of us. We had brunch at Bills; walked to Oxford Street; looked at the Selfridges  windows and food hall; went to Trafalgar Square to look at the tree, where my son made us all laugh by asking, "Why is there a giant cock on the pillar?" We ended the evening with a walk around Winter Wonderland (a bit too loud and flashy for me) and dinner at Garfunkel's.

Big blue cock on the 4th Plinth

The real first day of Christmas crept up so suddenly that I'm glad Santa was organised because I certainly wasn't.  I  forgot to buy cinnamon sticks, giving the LSH a who day of hilarity.  On Christmas morning I also realised that although I'd bought an oasis and some silver sprayed leaves for the table centre piece I hadn't made it and I didn't have any flowers to go in it. It's quite amazing what you can do with a pair of scissors on an early morning dog walk.

Centrepiece of stolen foliage

The LSH buys the most beautiful Christmas presents and always makes me feel a bit inadequate but I think he was happy this year and if he wasn't at least he had the cinnamon sticks to laugh about. Everyone in our house got, 'just what they always wanted,' even the dog, who was the most excited of all of us.

Beautiful girl cclothes

So now we are at the official second day of Christmas, or the Feast of St Stephen, when you are meant to eat pizza (deep pan crisp and even! Cracker jokes never grow old).  St Stephen was the first martyr, who was stoned to death, while praying for his executors.  The church likens Stephen to Christ is ways I can't quite understand, hence placing his day next to Christmas to show his importance.  I like to think that the fact that St Stephen is patron saint of headaches is no co-incidence either.

St Stephen with a headache

When I was a child I used to wonder why today was known as Boxing Day.  I wanted to believe it had something to do with fighting.  Being the day to visit extended family, or the day when resentments about Christmas presents received or not received surface and so  there was always the chance of a punch up.  My sister and I nearly always had a little tussle as the parents slept off their third bottle of wine in front of the Sound of Music.  I also used to think it was the day when you crushed all the boxes that your presents came in.  After all, who had room for boxes in their box-room bedroom?  My parents told me the truth, that it was the day when servants, workmen and the poor received their Christmas 'box' - a sum of money, a Christmas bonus or a share of the Christmas Day church collection.  I knew about the Christmas box because my Nan always used to sniffily check that my mum had given the milkman, dustman and window cleaner theirs (although they didn't get it on Boxing Day because that was a holiday for everyone in the 70s).

Eating leftovers in a onesie

This year, there has been no boxing in this house.  Instead we have been feasting, watching films, wearing onesies and playing games.  There was a spot of pencil throwing during one of the games but it didn't amount to much.  However,  the lack of a good fight hasn't spoilt the day.