The big day is nearly upon us! Here in the UK we celebrate Christmas on the 25th December. That is when children (and adults!) typically open their presents and families gather for a big Christmas meal. This contrasts with some countries where presents are opened on the 24th. Today the traditional Christmas meal in England consists of roast turkey with roast potatoes and all the trimmings followed by the ceremonial lighting of the Christmas pudding when brandy is poured over the pudding and lit! Before we tuck into the food many families pull Christmas crackers which contains a paper crown to wear during the meal, a small gift and possibly one of the worst jokes you will hear all year!
The day after Christmas Day is called Boxing Day. Have you ever wondered where this name came from? Well, the name derives from the Victorian times. Servants were given the day off after Christmas Day and received a special Christmas box containing gifts from their masters. Throughout the year churches would also collect money from their churchgoers which would be collected in a box. The box would be opened on Christmas Day and the money handed out to the poor the next day. Today Boxing Day is a public holiday in the UK. If the weather is good some families go for a walk to walk off the food from the previous day (!), others head to the shops to take advantage of any Boxing Day sales and football fans enjoy a local derby match! Here in Bath the local Bath City football team will be playing Chippenham - for those of you who have caught a train to Bath you may recall that Chippenham is the stop before Bath.
Whatever your plans for the festive period I wish you a wonderful time with loved ones and friends. I hope 2024 created lots of great memories for you. I have enjoyed meeting many of you over the year and showing you around Bath and the surrounding area and I look forward to meeting those who have upcoming trips booked with me. I wish you many wonderful travel experiences in the New Year. I will be going on my own big travel adventure in January, I will share more about that in the New Year! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Daniel.
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