Saturday 24 December 2011
Monday 12 December 2011
12 Days to Christmas
12 Days to Christmas.
Have you done all your Christmas shopping? Posted all the cards you need to post? I haven't. Every year I plan to be better organised, more in control, ready for all the festivities... Am I? Not on your nelly....( What does that mean? I don't know, I shall have to look up my Cockney slang to find out... and off I go on another tangent)
And so with 12 days to go to Christmas day I am wondering how best to get everything done, if I need to order online it has to be done this week**, and I can leave a trip to the market until the weekend. That's a start.
The Christmas song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” applies to the days following Christmas Day not those before so no clues there then, besides where can one find all those milkmaids and leaping lords? And Twelfth Night is traditionally the time when the servants rule the house and a lowly kitchen boy is named “King for the Day” or “Lord of Misrule” and everyone plays tricks on everyone else.
Hmm. Well as I am both mistress of the house and chief cook and bottlewasher etc., THAT doesn't give me much to look forward to!
I do, however, love Christmas and enjoy all the preparations; putting up the decorations, going out on Christmas Eve to buy a Christmas tree so that it can only drop its needles for the minimum time indoors, working out how long I'll need to defrost the turkey and where I can put it because its too big to go in the fridge, and searching for the appropriate present for the one person who is always almost impossible to buy for.
And then it is all worth it when on Christmas morning the family gathers around the tree to open their presents before a quick dash to the pub, in-laws, friends or sundry other relatives before dinner is due to be ready. (Can you tell my children are grown up, no longer happy to sit on the floor surrounded by toys and playing with the wrapping paper?)
Everyone eats a huge dinner and falls asleep in front of “The Great Escape” or “It's a Wonderful Life” and is surprised when suddenly Christmas day is over for another year.
However cheesy the music, however much I complain about it all starting too early in the shops, I still find something special about this day when the intention is “ Good Will to All Men”. What a lovely way to be at the turn of the year. May the Twelve Days of Christmas spirit last throughout the year.
Merry Christmas everyone.
**The Drama Queen's Drawers will be taking orders for second class posting up until 17th December, and for Royal Mail Special Delivery until noon on 22nd December 2011
Have you done all your Christmas shopping? Posted all the cards you need to post? I haven't. Every year I plan to be better organised, more in control, ready for all the festivities... Am I? Not on your nelly....( What does that mean? I don't know, I shall have to look up my Cockney slang to find out... and off I go on another tangent)
And so with 12 days to go to Christmas day I am wondering how best to get everything done, if I need to order online it has to be done this week**, and I can leave a trip to the market until the weekend. That's a start.
The Christmas song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” applies to the days following Christmas Day not those before so no clues there then, besides where can one find all those milkmaids and leaping lords? And Twelfth Night is traditionally the time when the servants rule the house and a lowly kitchen boy is named “King for the Day” or “Lord of Misrule” and everyone plays tricks on everyone else.
Hmm. Well as I am both mistress of the house and chief cook and bottlewasher etc., THAT doesn't give me much to look forward to!
I do, however, love Christmas and enjoy all the preparations; putting up the decorations, going out on Christmas Eve to buy a Christmas tree so that it can only drop its needles for the minimum time indoors, working out how long I'll need to defrost the turkey and where I can put it because its too big to go in the fridge, and searching for the appropriate present for the one person who is always almost impossible to buy for.
And then it is all worth it when on Christmas morning the family gathers around the tree to open their presents before a quick dash to the pub, in-laws, friends or sundry other relatives before dinner is due to be ready. (Can you tell my children are grown up, no longer happy to sit on the floor surrounded by toys and playing with the wrapping paper?)
Everyone eats a huge dinner and falls asleep in front of “The Great Escape” or “It's a Wonderful Life” and is surprised when suddenly Christmas day is over for another year.
However cheesy the music, however much I complain about it all starting too early in the shops, I still find something special about this day when the intention is “ Good Will to All Men”. What a lovely way to be at the turn of the year. May the Twelve Days of Christmas spirit last throughout the year.
Merry Christmas everyone.
**The Drama Queen's Drawers will be taking orders for second class posting up until 17th December, and for Royal Mail Special Delivery until noon on 22nd December 2011
Friday 2 December 2011
Pantomime Season
Many people know the line “ It's behind you!” and the dialogue “ Yes it Is” and “No it isn't” is traditional to pantomime, but did you know that this is known as the “ghost spectacle” ?
It always involves one of the characters, usually the Dame, expressing her fear of ghosts, spiders, pirates … anything that can be made to appear stealthily and carry off members of the cast one at a time. Then she will ask for the audience's help to protect her from the scary thing.......do they succeed? It depends how loud they shout!
Audience participation is expected and encouraged by the use of “The Songsheet”, where a simple song has lyrics displayed on a large screen, and all are instructed in singing along, sometimes as a round, or competitively, with the audience spilt into groups to sing against each other. It is also at this point in the panto that young children may be brought from the auditorium to the stage to be “interviewed” by the dame and her male counterpart, who can be sometimes the hero of the piece such as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk, or his sidekick such as Wishee Washee in Aladdin.
And then of course, there is the seaside postcard Double Entendre aimed at the adult part of the audience, supposedly going over the heads of the children, and giving the adults the opportunity to laugh at the ruder bits of the dialogue.
In pantomime, there is something for everyone; fun, laughter, songs and dance, colourful costumes and fantastic special effects. Magic and spectacle to keep all amused for a couple of hours on a chilly winter day. For some pantomime is the essence of a family Christmas celebration and an introduction to the magic of theatre for our children.
Having said that, like marmite, it is a theatrical form that you either love or hate, and not everyone appreciates the mayhem that ensues.
If you want to know more about the history and stories of pantomime, or find scripts to perform, there are some excellent sites : www.its-behind-you.com , www.noda.org.uk/Pantomimes, www.tlc-creative.co.uk/ are just a few.
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