Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas Past, Christmas Present & Christmas Yet to Come

Christmas 2008 is different from what I remember in my childhood, but in other ways reassuringly similar.

Yesterday we went out for a family meal in honour of a visiting Auntie from South Africa at my cousin’s home in Berkshire.

The highlight of the evening entertainment was afterwards everyone enjoyed taking part in SingStar which is a karaoke style game on Playstation 3. Two people compete against each other by “singing” into microphones to a music video. You are marked and ranked by the machine for hitting the correct notes and repeating lyrics in time. The programme will also post comments, such as you are doing “Awful” “Bad” or “Cool” “Good”.

The technology is very different from the black and white video table tennis “ping pong” that I can remember enthralling us in the past.

But I also remember everyone in my childhood Christmas gatherings playing “charades” and having singing competitions while listening to vinyl “Sing-along” records. So things are not all that different.

Sharing and enjoying Christmas with family is the common thread. I suspect and hope that the youngest family members present, 18 month twins, Matthew and Emma, will experience similar Christmas Yet to Come.

Of course modesty would have normally prevented me from revealing the real singing star of the evening. However, for some reason the machine obviously was not working property and my family all beat me rotten! Fix...!

Picture is an overlapping collage of my little sister (UNISON member) and her daughter singing their hearts out.

No comments: