please empty your brain below
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I counted 14 different Christmas locations in my 51 years, including one on a beach in Goa and several with family in Ireland.
Happy Christmas to you and yours DG and thank you for another year of interesting, funny and thought-provoking content.
THC | 24.12.22 - 7:11 a.m. | #
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Today I learned: to some people, "Christmas Night" means the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, not the following night. And I grew up less than 40 miles from you!
Merry Christmas to you, and thank you for the lovely writing all year long.
toddy | 24.12.22 - 8:08 a.m. | #
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Festive greetings DG and thanks for all the blogposts this year.
I think I was up to 5 different locations before I moved abroad at the end of the 20's after which it's too many to count. My happiest memories are of staying at my granny's when I was very young and trying to eat as many home-made mince pies as possible.
cjw714 | 24.12.22 - 8:40 a.m. | #
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Merry Christmas to you and yours DG. Thanks for another great year of writing.
Kevin | 24.12.22 - 8:40 a.m. | #
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Merry Christmas DG! I spent most of my teenage and twenties at my aunts for Christmas, and it was always a mixture of good fun and “actually I’d like some peace and quiet and time on my own now”.
This year my situation is complex and I was offered a four hour round trip for Christmas lunch, which I declined. So home it is.
Kirk | 24.12.22 - 9:03 a.m. | #
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Happy Christmas DG and to all the readers.
I've only been in 4 houses for Christmas night. First childhood home, Second childhood home (which is still my parent's home), Parents-in-law home, and home in Zambia (this will be my fourth Christmas here.)
Friar Sven | 24.12.22 - 9:04 a.m. | #
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Happy Christmas DG. Thanks for all the splendid and informative posts in 2022 and indeed for the many years before. Wishing you all the best for 2023.
Dave B | 24.12.22 - 9:40 a.m. | #
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Well done on keeping up another year of interesting daily blogging - a dying art. Merry Christmas DG.
CG | 24.12.22 - 9:49 a.m. | #
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I had Christmas night down as 25th-26th but wish all a happy one. It's just 5 places for me. All have been at the parental home except one in Australia and one at home in 2020. The longest run was 32 years, though the location of dinner varies a lot between 'home' and 2 different 'away fixtures'.
Getting different branches of the family around the extended table peaked at around 22 but with the 3rd of 4 generations expanding rapidly, the centre of gravity pinballs in all sorts of directions at once. Cheers!
NickW | 24.12.22 - 9:49 a.m. | #
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I will never forget the radio!!
bblb | 24.12.22 - 9:50 a.m. | #
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Off soon to spend our first Christmas with our younger son and daughter-in law in their new first home, to be joined by our elder son and daughter-in-law and grandson tomorrow. Our first Christmas all together since 2019. As the sofa has not arrived, it will mean only having dining and office chairs to sit on. At least just in time we will have something to sleep on. My mother and I moved on so often when I was young that where we spent Christmas Day is lost in the mists of time.
JohnC | 24.12.22 - 9:55 a.m. | #
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4 homes and one hotel for me - my childhood home then 3 of my own as it's now fallen on me to host.
Wishing you and all your readers a very merry family-filled Christmas.
Cornish Cockney | 24.12.22 - 10:44 a.m. | #
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Enquiring minds need to know about the radio! (you can open the sealed envelope now ;))
Happy festivities to everyone in the DG family, real and virtual.
And thanks to DG for doing what the BBC now fail to: "inform, educate, and entertain," but also enrich.
Blue Witch | 24.12.22 - 10:45 a.m. | #
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To me Christmas night is the night Jesus was supposedly born, that is the night preceding Christmas Day - the night when Midnight Mass takes place and Santa Claus comes down the chimney (although, as St Nicholas, (Sint Niklaus) he had his own day three weeks ago).
The liturgical day starts at sunset, not midnight.
Being in a church choir does tend to mean you usually end up at home at Christmas, although there have been some long drives, or even flights, on Christmas Day to Christmas dinner with parents or inlaws.
I think I can count five or six addresses, all of them mine, my parents' or my inlaws, except for one in a hotel in Malta. The first two were in the flat in which I was born.
timbo | 24.12.22 - 11:04 a.m. | #
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Can't remember the number of Christmas venues because we moved so much when I was child, but 5 as an adult.
Another vote for a transistor radio being one of the most memorable Christmas presents. Mine in 1967 complete with leatherette case!
Thanks for another year of entertainment & information.
Andy S | 24.12.22 - 11:09 a.m. | #
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Merry Christmas all, our first time hosting this year as we’re the ones with the small person and the new larger house, benefit of sleeping in my own bed but drawback of having to cook!
TomH | 24.12.22 - 11:18 a.m. | #
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I am distinctly Bah! and indeed Humbug! when it comes to Christmas. But I wish you, your family and all your readers a relaxed and fun yuletide.
Frank F | 24.12.22 - 11:49 a.m. | #
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Best-beloved nearly spent Christmas in isolation having caught Covid (renamed the "Bahum bug") last weekend, but tested negative just in time
timbo | 24.12.22 - 11:58 a.m. | #
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Merry Christmas DG, and thanks for yet another year of interesting posts of all kinds.
Roland | 24.12.22 - 12:20 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas, DG!
Dominic H | 24.12.22 - 12:41 p.m. | #
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An interesting question to ponder - I will need to trawl through the records to work out precise numbers, as I alternated locations year by year for appreciable periods of my life. In the meantime I would like to wish a very Happy Christmas to "all at Diamond Geezer".
cau1khead | 24.12.22 - 12:44 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas to you DG, and to all my fellow readers! May there be no more Christmases spent in flat #8
Simple Simon | 24.12.22 - 1:01 p.m. | #
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17 locations for me in 75 Christmases. New York was probably the most memorable.
Rob Gullen | 24.12.22 - 1:33 p.m. | #
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Merry Yuletide to you and your readers DG. I counted up the other week how many homes in my 3score years and 10. It appears to be 30+
Ambermoggie | 24.12.22 - 2:00 p.m. | #
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The radio: two wrapped parcels containing 'identical' radios but of different designs. I chose. We opened.
We both agreed DG got the better design. 45 years of envy.
bblb | 24.12.22 - 2:14 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas DG, and thank you for all your wonderful blogging this year.
Nails UK | 24.12.22 - 2:34 p.m. | #
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The radios were both GEC Starfinder II. Both now reside at my house and have listened to one this morning. The other is in the garage.
DGD | 24.12.22 - 2:52 p.m. | #
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That said, your radio is on eBay for £47.99 and mine's only £16.99.
diamond geezer | 24.12.22 - 3:37 p.m. | #
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I was apparently more fortunate only having one lone pandemic occasion, but it did allow me cook my preferred chicken with all the trimmings including the oft forgotten bread sauce and onion sauce.
Less fortunately, one year illness prevented me visiting and I probably had no dinner.
One year I went to Barcelona and had a takeaway while watching swimmers in the harbour.
Tomorrow is isolation again due to immobility after a fall last night which inevitably means no dinner again.
Partners are a real problem as they each tend to want their own relatives.
Kev | 24.12.22 - 4:09 p.m. | #
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To add to the dataset that helps decide whether your 8 locations are a lot or not, my number is 7 (one hotel abroad).
Have a lovely Christmas at a familiar location!
commonliner | 24.12.22 - 4:14 p.m. | #
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AAAAAAABBBBBBCBBBBBBBBBBBBDDBBBBBBBEBFBFFB
I had hoped for an invitation to G this year, but my brother and his partner did not feel up to the challenge of hosting Christmas dinner.
RC | 24.12.22 - 4:38 p.m. | #
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From doing the counting it looks like I’ve done more abroad than in the UK. Perhaps the highlight was in the Colonche Hills in Ecuador without any electricity though partying the night away at the Taricaya Rescue centre in lowland Peru must also be up there.
Robert Butlin | 24.12.22 - 6:05 p.m. | #
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Season's greetings DG, thanks for all the blogging, long may it continue!
Strabismus | 24.12.22 - 6:08 p.m. | #
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Happy Winter Holiday everyone. I grew up in the Southern Hemisphere, so the break was also summer holidays, and we were always camping somewhere up a mountain or by a beach. So I was up to 20 at least before turning 30 and the number since then is another 12, including a quarantine hotel last time. Total:more than 32.
Fluff | 24.12.22 - 6:30 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas DG and everyone. 5th tonight: all in London or the southeast, including one in a hotel when I was about seven. I think of it as Christmas Eve or (twas) the Night Before Christmas, with Christmas Night being the evening (rather than actual night) of the 25th, but now you mention it I see what you and others mean.
DavidC | 24.12.22 - 6:50 p.m. | #
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Interesting to learn from timbo that the liturgical start to Christmas is sunset: I was brought up in the tradition that no decorations are deployed until you see the first star on Christmas Eve, so I have just positioned and decorated our tree. Some latitude sometimes has to be allowed in Wapping due to light pollution and the near-inevitability of cloud cover.
My most memorable Christmas location was when I lived in Japan: Korean colleagues asked whether I would like to join them for a Korean Christmas meal, and when I asked "Where?" they said it would be in my tiny apartment (since it was not quite as tiny as any of theirs).
MartinG | 24.12.22 - 7:30 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas to DG and all who sail in this blog.
MartinG | 24.12.22 - 7:31 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas to you DG! Many thanks for all the hard work put into your posts this year, very often the best bit of my day, thank-you.
Cottonsocks | 24.12.22 - 7:36 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas to DG and all who use this blog
Michael | 24.12.22 - 8:47 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas, DG, and as always many thanks for all your writings.
And to the regular commenters - Merry be you too, and thanks for adding to the interest and pleasure.
Nedd | 24.12.22 - 9:06 p.m. | #
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11 locations so far. The most interesting was the Christmas I spent on a deepwater survey vessel off the coast of Angola.
James S | 24.12.22 - 9:06 p.m. | #
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Just coming up to my 70th Christmas and I think I have celebrated them in 6 different homes:-
1 - 10 (10): in the house where I was born;
11 - 22 (12): in our next family home;
23 (1): in our first flat (after getting married);
24 - 45 (22): in our first house;
46 - date (25): in our second house.
I know that's only 5 locations, but we may have spent at least one Christmas (after no. 23) at my in-laws - my diary collection is not as comprehensive as DG's!
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to DG, his family, and all his readers.
John Simmons | 24.12.22 - 9:53 p.m. | #
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Merry Christmas, DG. I hope you're having an enjoyable time with your family, all the more after two Christmases without them!
Joachim | 24.12.22 - 10:40 p.m. | #
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Just coming up to my 40th Christmas and this will be our 10th house for Christmas night. 2 family houses, my gran’s, 4 properties I’ve owned and 3 different partners parents.
David | 24.12.22 - 11:07 p.m. | #
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I think my track record is comparatively dull - I've only spent Christmas night at 3 locations - 40 at the family home in South London, another 9 at my flat just round the corner from the family home, and 1 with my in-laws in New Zealand.
Thanks for jogging my memory about all the traditions of childhood Christmases and the joy of discovering presents that appeared at the end of the bed overnight. Merry Christmas DG!
Jack | 24.12.22 - 11:55 p.m. | #
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It's already Christmas Day where I'm meant to be this year but things happen.
I've managed Christmas in two countries including one Christmas night in a hotel where when we got back late on Christmas Eve there was a "petit cadeau" on the bed.
A friend spent Christmas Day in Mumbai. The hotel decided that as they were English they needed Christmas Pudding for breakfast on the 25th. All very embarrassing and heavy going.
Merry Christmas to dg with thanks for something that is often the best read of the day.
ap | 24.12.22 - 11:56 p.m. | #
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Feliz navidad, DG!
Gabriel | 25.12.22 - 3:26 a.m. | #
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The radio revelations made me laugh.
They don't make 'em like they used to. I still have a radio of similar vintage.
Blue Witch | 25.12.22 - 7:07 a.m. | #
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I count nine locations for Christmas. Didn’t think there’d be that many…
Merry Christmas to you DG, have a happy one with lots of stilton and port….
Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 25.12.22 - 10:06 a.m. | #
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4 venues: parents’ farmhouse: 17, parents’ house 6, our flat 1, our house 50. Merry Christmas DG and thank you for all the ideas for thinking and doing. All the best for 2023.
Lorraine | 25.12.22 - 11:27 a.m. | #
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Happy Christmas DG. Thanks for the childhood reminisecents...memories which sounded very familiar. And good to hear from your brother! I've had 8 or 9 venues for Christmas night, nearly all in South West London. Except for the one spent in a hostel for alcoholic men in the west of Scotland aged 18 (I was a volunteer not a resident).
south london lad | 25.12.22 - 1:52 p.m. | #
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DG: apologies: I started replying then drifted off into memories that were prompted by all the interesting comments. My Christmas has usually been in Chingford, plus many family gatherings with cousins at Stock (Essex) and with the other cousins at Bracknell. Sadly different this year as a number of the older ones have died. I will be glad when the year is over. Seems awful to say such a thing. But all the good memories are still there.
Thanks as always for all your posts: they are a great help in many ways.
Wishing you and all your readers a good year.
G
g.chingford | 25.12.22 - 6:23 p.m. | #
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23 in family home a stone's throw from G Chingford, 9 in another such a bit bigger and up the hill, 6 in a farmhouse twixt Chelmsford and Braintree, ten in our Loughton semi, 31 in our present villa, and one idyllic 25th morning overlooking Mount Etna, tempered a moment later when we realised, yes, Alitalia HAD sent our luggage to Turin.
Chrispy | 25.12.22 - 6:55 p.m. | #
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I’m not sure of the total, though it’s probably 12 - 14 or so, but lack of family has meant I’ve spent Christmases with friends posted abroad — Berlin, Stockholm (deep and crisp and even), Warsaw and Budapest (icy) all memorable, though alas I missed out on Fiji and Moscow — as well as more recently at my partner’s family home and childhood ones with my parents. The most enjoyable have really been scratch events with various groups of people who were unable to get home for timing or travel reasons and found themselves all together by chance not design.
Labourer | 25.12.22 - 11:15 p.m. | #
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