MY mum is making a lantern out of a rather large pickle jar; she is decorating it by sticking insulation tape on it, then with a bit of string round its neck she hangs it from a pole. Hey! It looks rather good.

Now it’s time for the carol singing posse to be readied. Long scarves are crossed over our chests and pinned at the back.

Mum ensures that our mittens, which are fastened to each other by a long strip of elastic running up one sleeve and down the other, are on, then a quick kiss on the forehead and we are off.

It’s after dark and with no grown-ups with us it is an adventure in itself but, wait, we have another thrill.

We can knock on doors and when people answer, it won’t be the usual response of ‘you do that again and I’ll knock your blinking head off’, as happened when we played nick-nacking, which was one of our evening pastimes.

The knock and run away game was our second favourite, after buck and stick, but, as children, we also enjoyed throwing a rope over the arm of the old style gas lamp and swinging violently to and fro, whilst hoping that the lamppost wouldn’t fall over!

The evening’s ‘take’ for carol singing, was quite sparse, but the few pennies it did yield were as manna to us and if we got up to anything like a sixpence each we were rich beyond our dreams.

As it got closer to Christmas I kept dropping hints as to what I wanted Father Christmas to bring.

I continued long after ‘I knew’, keeping up the pretence for as long as possible, in order to ensure I got the presents wanted and not, heaven forbid, the socks and useful stuff my elder brothers got.

I don’t know about you, but this time of year always prompts me to reflect on the Christmases we enjoyed as children.

  • On Saturday, I went to the open day at QEGS, our Andrew’s old school. It’s great that Blackburn has such a good school and I was suitably impressed by the facilities and obvious enthusiasm of the staff.

But then again, surely all schools should be good, and all children should have the best of education, if we want our country and our people to retain their position as best in the world?