What is the Dickens Christmas Festival?
Every year, on the first weekend in December, Christmas lovers from near and far gather together in Rochester in Kent to celebrate the genius of Charles Dickens. Although he was born in Portsmouth, Dickens spent many happy years in the Rochester area, living in Gads Hill nearby, setting the opening scene of his novel, Great Expectations in nearby Cooling and using many local places in his writing. Rochester has always been rightly proud of the Dickens connection and hold two festivals each year to mark his connection with the city. The Dickens Christmas festival was first held in 1988, and with the exception of 2020, has been held every year since.
What’s On?
There is a huge amount going on at the festival, and everywhere you look there is something to catch your eye and a myriad of Dickensian characters walking around the city. There are street entertainers in various sites around the city with Morris dancing, singing, storytelling and brass bands amongst many other attractions. In the shadow of Rochester Castle there is a Christmas market and a funfair. At 12 noon there is a parade featuring a pipe band and all the Dickensian characters you can imagine. There is also a parade at 4.45, which precedes the highpoint of the festival. At 5pm with the Cathedral behind and the Castle in front a huge crowd gathers to sing Christmas carols such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing and favourite songs like Jingle Bells. Everyone joins in with enthusiasm, and for our family it has always been the real start of Christmas.
Where can I get more information?
If you want to come along, Rochester is well served with trains from London which take around 45 minutes to get there. All the details are here and you are guaranteed to get into the Christmas spirit. I will be there on Saturday as usual and will be making merry, whether Scrooge approves or not!
Christmas Morning
Christmas Day dawned very early in 1974, as I woke up at about 5am to see what Father Christmas had left for me. Perhaps mindful of my parents, he dropped a big bag of presents off in my bedroom. I saw a fairly big rectangular box and, as most 9-year-olds would, I opened that first. To my delight it was my first cassette player, and it came with two cassettes. The Greatest Hits of Walt Disney and Keep on Wombling were the two main reasons why I was kept quiet for pretty much the next few days as I played both endlessly to learn the words. How do they sound now that I am no longer 9 years old? Well, vinyl now has the answer. I got the Disney album two or three years back, and I got Keep on Wombling earlier this week. So, it’s time for that time travel that music is so effective at providing to start. Let’s give classic Disney a spin first.
The Greatest Hits of Walt Disney
This record contains tunes from pretty much all of the Disney films from Snow White to Robin Hood, the ‘new’ Disney film which had come out the year before. All of the songs are taken from the original soundtracks, and feature artists such as Peggy Lee, Phil Harris, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. It is a goldmine of catchy tunes, emotional tunes and flat-out odd tunes! On the first side, the catchiest tunes are definitely Bare Necessities, and Everybody Wants to be a Cat, which both feature the brilliant Phil Harris who played Baloo and Thomas O’Malley. The latter needs to be listened to through the prism of the time as it does feature some fairly broad and, in the case of the Chinese cat, borderline offensive stereotypical accents and lyrics. Of course, as a 9-year-old in the 70s I found it funny and, in any case, it just reflected culture and society of the time. The gorgeous, and atypical, song which shines above all the others to adult ears is The Age of not Believing from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, sung by the legendary Angela Lansbury. It reflects the skill of the Sherman Brothers who wrote a song aimed squarely at the adults in the audience, but which I loved as a child. It is scarily accurate, and as of yet I still appear to be in that age.
With 12 songs on each side that just zip by, it is a real lesson in the way that the studio could write songs that appealed to everyone, and which packed in multitudes of emotions in 2 or 3 minutes. Side 2 carries on in the same vein as the familiar tunes just follow each other with scarcely a break. From Mary Poppins comes Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and from The Jungle Book comes I Wanna Be Like You featuring a jazz style duet from Phil Harris and Louis Prima. They are two of the most celebrated songs of the studio’s history, but they are overshadowed by When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinocchio which became the theme tune of Disney almost as soon as it was released. For an opening trio of songs on any side of any album they take some beating. When I first got the cassette The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers from Winnie the Pooh was my favourite to learn and then sing along with, and it still hits the spot! It’s worth remembering that in those days of three channels the original Disney films rarely turned up on TV, so we had little chance of seeing them after their original release. It made the cassette both a treasure and a time capsule, and it’s perhaps even more so nowadays, ironically, as Disney’s original songs have been quietly shelved in favour of the more modern tunes. It is a reminder of a more innocent age that just melted away all those years and left a nostalgic smile on my face.
Keep on Wombling
Anyone who has ever read my tweets will be in no doubt as to the extent of my love for The Wombles, and the Keep on Wombling album in particular. That was the cassette that I kept returning to after that first few days for the sheer range of music that it introduced me to. The album goes from classical to music hall to rock ‘n’ roll to country and ends up with one of the finest Christmas songs ever written. For my 9-year-old self it was an album that set up my ability to appreciate a whole range of music, something that has stayed with me for the rest of my life.
It starts with a David Bowie style track, Womble of the Universe, which borrows from Space Oddity, but which makes its own way through space. I will never tire of this song, and its opening chords are as familiar to me as any song in my vast musical memory bank. The other highlight on the first side, in a very strong opening sextet of songs, is the incredible Underground Overture which takes in a range of classical inspirations, and which just captivated me from the very first time I heard it. On Side 2, the Rock ‘n’ Roll of The Wombling Twist was a huge favourite of mine at the time as I was then, and remain now, a massive Showaddywaddy fan, and this just channelled that 50s sound perfectly. Listen, in particular, for a Jerry Lee Lewis style piano solo that the man himself would be proud of. The country ballad Wipe Those Womble Tears from Your Eyes would be a bit much for the average 9-year-old without Mike Batt’s beautiful lightness of touch and incredible ear for a tune. In his hands, it became a song that made me emotional as a child and still does nowadays. Well, the final track is their biggest hit and perhaps The Wombles’ finest single track. It is Wombling Merry Christmas which never fails to move me and make me feel like the festive season has started. I have, of course, played it every Christmas to my own children and they are, I’m glad to say word perfect! No group and no album can compete with Keep on Wombling when it comes to recreating my childhood. The dizzying creativity of Mike Batt has arguably never been better showcased than it is by this album. It is The Wombles own Sergeant Peppers!
How did it feel?
The interesting thing about the two albums wasn’t that I remembered the words. That’s par for the course with me. It was that I remembered the order and knew exactly what was coming before the first note was played. It has made me realise anew how influential your first musical loves are. These two albums set my musical tastes in a big way, and they have one vital thing in common. Not one of those songs talks down to its audience. Quite the contrary. It requires the young listener, and the older listener, to rise to meet them. What a privilege it has been to recreate that Christmas morning of so many years ago.
This year I am taking part in Blogmas for the first time. I am looking forward to it, although I have more than a bit of trepidation as I consider the size of the task! I will be writing a number of entries in advance and hope to keep up the pace by being organised.
However, I feel that I need to have an incentive. This post is my incentive, as well as being a trailer for December, because by making this public I will have no choice but to complete it to avoid looking silly!
I also need to have an order to my entries. For me, it has to be like my music mixes in that there are no abrupt changes of tone, so I have been tinkering with the subjects and the order for the last two weeks. Now, I am fairly satisfied, so I want to get the entries down in black and white rather than the red and white they are in now in my Christmas Planner! So here goes!
25 Days of Blogmas
- The Dickens’ Christmas Festival Rochester
- A Christmas Carol and Me
- 20 Facts About Christmas
- The Christmas Wish by Lindsey Kelk Book Review
- The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett Re-Read
- Christmas Traditions
- Christmas TV Classics
- Christmas Pop Songs
- Christmas Pop Songs? Not Quite!
- Christmas Carols
- Children’s Christmas Music
- Children’s Christmas TV and Films
- Children’s Christmas Books
- The Christmas Attic by Trans-Siberian Orchestra Re-Play
- The Original Now Christmas Album Re-Play
- A Classic Christmas Re-Play
- Isla by Isla St Clair Re-Play
- A 70s Christmas
- Christmas in Australia
- Christmas Jumpers
- 5 Less Familiar Christmas Movies
- The Christmas Truce 1914
- Christmas Cooking and Baking
- The Queen’s Christmas Messages
- My Christmas Message
December Might Be Magic Again!
Well, I hope that at least some of those entries appeal and that you check out even those that don’t! Please let any other Christmas fanatics know about this and I will see you for the start of this Blogmas attempt on December 1!
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1&2
Why am I revisiting this?
I came across this post on my other, now mothballed, blog and wanted to reintroduce it to my new audience – small though it is. The review was written a couple of days after the play and so it reflects the thoughts I had at the time. Looking at it now, it’s perhaps overenthusiastic in places (!) but it was a brilliant day. It also reminds me that my reviewing style will always be a work in progress! Despite that, I still think it reads pretty well. I know that the storyline has been described, not without some justification, as akin to fanfiction in places, but as a spectacle it’s just outstanding and that’s what I still remember. I now think that I might like to see it again, so I will still #keepthesecrets !
The Original Review
On July 3 2016, I went with my family and my youngest daughter’s best friend to watch both parts of the new Harry Potter play. Our ages ranged from a young at heart Grandmother of retirement age to two 15 year old girls. All of us were Harry Potter fans, which is a good start, but for some of us the magic had diminished slightly as the books and films had finished and there was little new Harry Potter on the horizon. For me, the magic was rekindled to some extent by watching the 8 films over 3 weekends so I was really looking forward to the play and I was ready to enjoy it.
What I saw on the stage over 5 hours of stage time was nothing less than the theatrical event of a generation. Starting where the final film left off it takes us through a dizzying selection of revelations, reminders and plot twists that nearly dislocated my jaw, so often did it drop! Clearly the break from the business of writing for her most famous creations has totally re-energised J.K. Rowling, working with experienced playwrights Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, as she has developed a story that ranks with, and arguably surpasses any of the original novels. The pace is unrelenting, but what really gives it life is an element that was lost in the 5th and 7th books in particular, namely humour. The sheer darkness of the final elements of the series, slightly leavened by the love potion sub plot in the 6th book made it, for me, a real slog in places. The stage play puts the humour front and centre without resorting to obvious lines or caricatures and is frequently hilariously funny. I can’t tell you how much it adds to the enjoyment of the story when even the darkest moments have an element of humour somewhere.
The acting is uniformly excellent and, for those who may be a little concerned, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Draco were note perfect and made you forget that you weren’t watching their film predecessors within minutes of appearing on stage. They were simply wonderful, channelling the books and taking the characters for themselves. Harry himself is weighed down by his job, especially the admin, but there are hints that he is happy to take a back seat after his exploits as a teenager. Either that, or he just isn’t very good without his old partners in crime. Ron is a househusband who runs Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and seems to have settled into both roles very nicely. He certainly seems to be the most content of the trio. Hermione is, of course, driven, ambitious and fiercely determined and as before seems a little frustrated with her friends’ tendency to drift through life. Draco was a very nice surprise with his character now a distinguished shade of grey rather than the jet black of his childhood. His magical battle with Harry in particular is a comedic high point and suggests that their animosity has lessened over the years. The two main younger characters, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy were brilliantly played by Sam Clemmett and Anthony Boyle. As with Neville and Harry in the original story, either of whom could have been the chosen one, both Albus and Scorpius could lay claim to being a cursed child with the weight of their famous fathers hanging on their every action.
Finally, I just wanted to say that the magic created on stage is at times truly astounding. There are so many ‘How did they do that?’ moments that you are quite dizzy at the end. The polyjuice potion scene tops anything I’ve ever seen on the stage, but a couple of other effects had me picking my jaw up off the floor! That together with the sheer brilliance of the costumes, set designers, music and choreography come together to create something as near to perfect as you could imagine. I saw a preview, but it was so slick and so brilliant that it would be the finished article anywhere else in the West End. It is, quite simply the most amazing spectacle and the 5 hours I spent in the theatre on one day just flew by. Just a final word of advice. Try to see both parts on the same day as the end of Part 1 is so incredible that it is unlikely that you will be able to concentrate on work or school until you have seen the Part 2!
Secretskept
For many people, Christmas is always a time where finances are stretched to the limit. With the cost-of-living crisis the number of people who are going to find the festive season a financial strain will increase significantly. I decided to go through some of the approaches my family used when we had young children and very little disposable income in the hope that even one person might find one of my ideas useful. I am posting this on October 1 with 85 days to go, so there’s no time to waste!
Keep a Record
One of the things that really helps keep your spending in check is having a record of everything you have bought for Christmas. By this, I don’t just mean presents and cards, but also postage, food, drinks and parties at work or elsewhere. If you keep the information in one place it will make sure you won’t buy too much and you won’t miss anything. My weakness has always been buying too many presents because I have forgotten what I’ve already bought! As well as having a record of what you’ve bought, it will tell you how much you’ve spent, allowing you to keep within a set budget. The book I bought for £1.50 from Card Factory has been fantastic, but you can follow the example of my daughter who used one of her old notebooks instead.
No Unnecessary Presents
One of the pitfalls for Christmas lovers is spreading the joy even when you don’t really have the money to do so. It usually starts with ‘I can buy Paul from work a present, but if I buy him one, I really should buy Julie one, and if I buy Julie one’ etc. etc. You can end up buying presents for people who really don’t need or even want them. Stopping this cycle of present buying is sometimes difficult to do, but in the UK it has been increasingly common since the year the amazing Martin Lewis so memorably spoke about this subject.
It’s time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents – YouTube
Now, if you still want to give something to your work colleagues, your children’s teachers etc. why not make something instead. I make Cucumber Relish every year and last year I asked people at work if they wanted any. I ended up taking 12 jars in. The cost of the jars and the ingredients was way less than I would have spent on a present, but all of my colleagues who took me up on the offer really appreciated it. For a little effort and not much money I had given them a present they enjoyed. Everyone has their skills, whether it’s cooking or drawing or making something so just play to your strengths. I also organise a Secret Santa with a fairly low spending limit. It’s been something we’ve enjoyed at all the places I’ve organised it and, with colleagues bringing in food and drink, it’s created a really nice party for all involved.
Shop in Advance
I know it’s October – well in 2022 when I am writing this! – but you still have two months and more to prepare. To save money, look around all the shops you usually visit and look for the bargains on food, drink or other Christmas items that you can put away. It doesn’t need to be large items. If you see a selection box that’s half price, even a couple of months before, just buy it and that’s something less to worry about. The same goes for anything you can freeze or put away in the cupboard. If you’re reading this now, don’t forget the World Cup coming up which usually means a whole raft of offers. As Shaw Taylor used to say in Police 5 (Very niche 70s/80s UK TV reference there!) ‘Keep ‘em Peeled’!
Christmas for Younger Children
When children are infant school age, Christmas is about the build-up, the wonder, the magic and the experience. They don’t need big presents as they generally don’t think about the money. When our children were small, we had a number of years when things were very tight, so we ended up focusing on the events that marked the month before Christmas and giving them as much magic as we could. The Christmas lights being switched on in your local shopping centre may seem like the height of boredom for older children and adults, but younger children love it as it means Christmas is getting closer. If there is an event in your local area that takes place annually, make it a fixed part of your Christmas. For us, it has been the Dickens Christmas Festival in Rochester, which takes place on the first weekend of December. Each time we went, we gave the children £5 each to spend as they wanted, which usually meant funfair rides and sweets, and watching them have fun was genuinely enough for us.
The focus of Christmas Eve was getting ready for Santa’s visit of course. It started with letters for Santa to read when he got to us. Then, once we had a computer, we sat them in front of the fantastic NORAD Santa site showing his journey around the world, which doubled as an impromptu geography and time zone lesson! Next, was usually me reading A Night Before Christmas and a number of their other favourite stories. After this, the stockings were put in front of our ‘fireplace’ in readiness and finally, the children helped with putting out carrots for all nine reindeer and brandy and mince pies for Santa. This was our tradition for many years, and it didn’t cost an extra penny. Even now that the children are grown up, they still put their stockings out for Santa!
Yes, younger children love presents! Yes, the bigger the better! However, long after they have forgotten what present they got on what Christmas they will remember their Christmas traditions and the years they found the reindeers’ glowing hoofprints in the garden the following morning!
Christmas for Older Children
Now this one is trickier. Christmas can easily become a game of one upmanship between children from Year 3 or 4 onwards, and that just gets more and more difficult when you are on a budget. Here is where you have to rely on grandparents and other relatives, very judicious saving or pure luck to get them presents that they can talk about with their friends. For this short section I will assume that you have relatives, or even very close friends, who are willing and financially able to buy presents for your children. It’s a neat way of getting round the No Unnecessary Presents pact that you have put in place! Often, relatives will ask for ideas. If they don’t then give them ideas unprompted! Ask them to club together on large presents or to get items that you wouldn’t be able to afford yourself. If you are not in that situation, keep an ear open for anything that your child mentions early in the year. If you have 9 months to save up for an item then you can spread the cost and perhaps save £5 – 10 a month for that item. Remember, that e-bay and Amazon are your friends when it comes to bargains. E-bay allows you to set up a search for the items that you want to buy. You get an idea of price outside of the shops and you can be ready to pounce when you can afford it, at whatever time of the year it might be. Remember, children will want an item that looks like new, not an item that has to be new. Amazon, of course, has various sales and sellers to choose from. If it’s something you want to get anyway, then getting some money off on Black Friday means you will be able to buy another smaller present or give them a little more money for a Christmas event. The luck I mentioned? My older children were the objects of fun for a couple of years because we could only afford a second hand PS2 which was, by then, hopelessly out of date. I used to enter loads of targeted competitions for presents and one year I hit the jackpot. In October, a massive parcel was delivered with a brand-new X-Box 360 inside! Now that was a good Christmas and my children took great delight in introducing their friends, who had made the disparaging comments, to a console that was newer than anything they had!
Final Thoughts
Christmas is my favourite time of the year, and I have never lost my love for it, even if finances have been tight. That’s not to say that there haven’t been stressful Christmases, but by using some of the ideas above, we managed to make them as much fun for our children, and ourselves, as we could. Now, with times being difficult and money correspondingly tighter, I hope the ideas above will help you to spread some cheaper Christmas cheer to your family, friends, work colleagues and (Another 70s UK TV reference here from Leonard Sachs in The Good Old Days!) chiefly yourselves!
Oh, by the way. If you enjoyed this, you might want to visit my blog again from December 1 this year when I will be taking part in Blogmas! For those of you who haven’t heard of it, I will be doing one blog entry per day from December 1 to December 25. Hope you can join me for that.
P.S. If you are interested in how to ‘spot’ glowing reindeer hoofprints comment below and I’ll let you in on the secret!
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 