Apparently today is some sort of holiday. In which case, Happy Xmas.
(Actually, today is my first ever Xmas. My family has never done Xmas, which for me has always been a day to make hay on the work front knowing that I'll have peace and quiet. Lunch has been the usual weekday sandwich.
But my wife's family has, like many other Jews, always done a big secular Xmas. So, at the age of 43, I am about to have my first proper Xmas lunch.
Given that Xmas - I use that spelling deliberately - is now an entirely secular festival, I'm pleased to be able to join in.)
UPDATE: So much for the Xmas spirit. There were some very tetchy and, frankly, weird comments sent on this post. I couldn't allow a couple to be posted, so vile were their antisemitic words.
Lawrence Auster accuses me of expressing my "contempt for the majority religion of Britain" and describes the post as "obnoxious". I'd be grateful, Lawrence, if you could point to one mention of Christianity above, let alone an expression of contempt for it. As I say: weird. I simply wrote that I am happy to join in a big national secular festival, which Xmas has now become. How is that construed as my expressing contempt for Christianity?
Verity says I should be aware that "There was an unpleasant feel about Stephen's post". Well, that's for you to judge of course but I'm mytified as to how a post saying I am joining in Xmas for the first time is unpleasant. And she also says that in writing Xmas I'm not "doing anything particularly daring, rebellious or dismissive." Er, no. And who suggested I was?! I'm simply doing what hundreds of millions of people have done for centuries.