Today is the Feast of St Nicholas (supposed prototype for Santa Claus). In some traditions this day is actually more important than Christmas Day, and for others it signals the start of the Christmas season. So today seems an appropriate time for a Christmas meme. Sing along Join in with your version as you choose.

1. Favourite Christmas music: Bach, Christmas Oratorio
2. Christmas smell I like: spices
3. TV programme I want to watch: Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
4. TV programme I hate: every film and soap
5. Christmas tradition: our first winter lights go up on the Feast of Christ the King (Sunday before Advent) and don’t come down until Candlemas (2 February); it’s a festival of light combined with a pagan belief in providing light to see us through the darkest months
6. Living person (not family) I’d like to have a Christmas drink with: Prof. Alice Roberts
7. Favourite Christmas drink: just lots of Champagne
8. Christmas food I like: Brussels Sprouts (yes, really!)
9. Christmas present I’d like: restored libido
10. Christmas thing I enjoy: Christmas dinner
11. Christmas thing I hate: “Away in a Manger”
12. Something I want to do at Christmas: relax & read (but I never do!)

13. Tree: real or artificial: artificial, why kill a tree (and we don’t have garden space for yet another live tree)
14. Holly or mistletoe: both
15. Do you send cards: yes, it keeps people in touch
16. When does Christmas start: First Sunday in Advent
17. And when does Christmas end: Twelfth Night
18. Best present ever: Noreen
19. Gold, frankincense or myrrh: Frankincense
20. Christmas pudding with brandy butter or with custard: either
21. Turkey or something else for Christmas dinner: sometimes turkey, sometimes pork or beef
22. Do you buy presents for your pets?: of course, doesn’t everyone?
23. Favourite carol: The Boar’s Head
24. Christmas cake or mince pies: mince pies
25. Is your Christmas sacred or secular?: secular, but with a few Christian bits and some pagan bits thrown in