We had a very busy show on a glorious sunny Boxing Day morning. In the first hour my guests were Ellie and Rose Whitwam. They told us about celebrations for Christmas at Ingatestone Juniors and Chelmer County High. They had each read at one of the very busy crib services at Ingatestone Parish church, where a very large number of toys had been brought in to be given to Kids Inspire. They told us about Christmas dinner at home in a very amusing was, much at the expense of Dad Jonathon, who was sitting in the corner of the studio! After 11 I was joined by Jonty and Adrian MacConnaughie from Brentwood School, where Adrian is the chaplain. They had also had a very large number of people as guests for Christmas dinner. They had been to a busy church service on Christmas morning at Christ Church, Warley. Adrian had organised a Christingle service at school to raise money for Crisis, and this had raised over £3,000. His involvement with the show on Friday evenings has given Jonty an appreciation of LPs and vinyl recordings. For Christmas he had received a portable vinyl player. At noon I was joined by Isabella Codling from Ingatestone Juniors and Tim Lee from Brentwood Churches Together. Isabella told us about a special family tradition on Christmas Eve where the family eat a loaf of bread with different coins in it. This tradition comes from Bulgaria. Depending which coin you get, this is a prediction for the following year. Apparently Isabella is going to be very rich! She also told us about the school service in church last week, where each class gave a presentation about traditions for celebrating Christmas in different countries. She is a member of class Australia. They presented the Australian version of ‘The 12 days of Christmas’. This started with, ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, an EMU up a gum tree’. Tim talked about the events he had attended and also that whatever happens in the world, we should not let this over-shadow the Christmas message of peace and love to all. We also read through all the e-mails and message that we left about family Christmas traditions. For me, one tradition started in 1962 when one of my gifts was Brenda Lee and her 45rpm single Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. I have played it every Christmas morning since. Barbara remembered war time Christmases in London when she was very young. She remembers it always being foggy and damp and cannot remember the sun shining on any Christmas Day. Read many of the others below.
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