Start the Week #106

Special Christmas Edition 2025

Greetings!

This may be the final newsletter of this year. It all depends on whether I can finish doing my Christmas cards, do some lesson prep, and make a start on reading the four books I have to review by the 14th January.

I was hoping to include a little medley of Christmas songs I recorded using my alto sax. I played them by ear, and while some aren’t too bad, on the whole the recording is not good enough to share in my opinion. I am still in my anti-busking phase in which I take to the streets and play, and people pay me to stop.

But enough of this persiflage! On with the newsletter.

Terry

At last: proof that Santa Claus exists!

Santa’s Grotto, by Terry

I already knew subjectively that he exists, because I was taken to see him when I was five years old. We had the following conversation.

Santa: Ho ho ho. And what’s your name, young man?

Me: Terry.

Santa: Well, Tel, have you been a good boy this year?

Me: I strenuously deny any wrongdoing.

Santa: I see. So you have been a good boy?

Me: Let me judged in the court of public opinion.

Santa: Ho ho ho.

But now we know objectively that he exists because, according to the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, Brighton and Hove Museums, that august bastion of culture whose name we whisper in awestruck tones in the same breath as the Great Library of Babylon or the Library of Alexandria, has declared that Father Christmas is a symbol of the white patriarchy and so must be decolonised. Well, you can’t decolonise something that doesn’t exist, can you? I rest my case.

Why I don’t like Christmas (possibly)

Look, I love the lights, the general gaiety and the feel-good-vibeness, but I always look forward to the end of festivities and the resumption of work. I used to think it’s because I prefer small gatherings to large parties, silence to noise, and because I am a workaholic. I mean, I really enjoy being busy, travelling into town and teaching, and the last two of that list cease at Christmas (or any holiday come to that).

Christmas photos, by Terry

I remember one Christmas morning, when I was in my early twenties, creeping out of the house at 6am to attend a service at a church I’d heard about. I walked the two miles, trudging through snow, and the service, which was High Church, was lovely. I arrived back home at around 9 am just as everyone was beginning to stir. I’m not Christian, and I think my dad would have had a fit if he’d known where I’d been! Well, perhaps not, but I think he would have found it difficult to understand. But I had been told that the service there was nice so I thought I would like to see for myself.

Anyway, a few years later my father passed away — on 26th December. So I am wondering if, subconsciously, I associate Christmas with a sad event. Who knows? I wrote about that, if you’re interested: Bravery.

Season’s Greetings!

Finally, I, Lady Elaine, and the three feline parasites who are eating us out of house and home hope you have a nice break and a wonderful new year.

Freedman’s Xmas Card. From left to right: Terry, Elaine, Willow, Minty, Mocha

Until 31st December you can enjoy an amazing 70% off the normal price of a subscription. I think it comes out to $15 for the year. A snip when you consider that a paid subscription gives you access to all the articles over a year old, which I think amounts to several hundred¹. I am also planning a new nonfiction series provisionally titled “Mr Levy’s Daughter and other stories”, which I will probably write for paid subscribers only.

I have some of it written already, but my immediate priority is getting my lesson prep done! The courses I have alluded to are the following:

The 60 Minute Writer

Writing flash fiction: getting started

Thanks for reading.

All the best

Terry

1. I’ve worked out, in a back-of-an-envelope kind of way, that since 1995 I have written at least 10,000 articles in total. Perhaps I will write about this at some point, because I think longevity is important. What can be more depressing to a keen reader than a newsletter or blog that hasn’t been updated in months or even years?