Christmas
The infantilism of Advent calendars for grown-ups
Anything goes with Advent calendars
I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas
I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas
You can’t cancel Christmas, stupid
You may have seen this interesting exchange on CNN between ‘America’s top infectious diseases expert’ Dr Anthony Fauci and CNN…
Backsliding on a lockdown end-date has begun already
Will England’s lockdown end on 2 December? Even before this morning’s media round there was good reason to suspect it…
‘The Melania Tapes’ reveal she’s even cooler than we thought
Just a couple of hours before President Trump announced that he and his wife, first lady Melania, had tested positive…
I spent Christmas Day helping the homeless – and I was bored out of my mind
When I told friends that I would be spending Christmas Day helping the homeless at a Crisis at Christmas centre…
My recipe to cure a hangover
Journalists exaggerate, often reaching for superlatives to chronicle mildly interesting events. Even so, there are times when it is necessary…
What did psychics predict was going to happen in 2019?
Bah humbug Some of the things reported to have been banned this Christmas: — Mulled wine banned from being sold…
Letters: Should conservatives be worried that high-spending Boris has a majority?
My father’s imprisonment Sir: Harald Maass’s piece on the plight of Uyghurs in China (‘A cultural genocide’, December 14) captures…
Neil Woodford could do the washing-up at my fantasy Christmas lunch
It’s the season for kindness and conviviality. In that spirit — and recognising that business, like personal life, rarely follows…
The best Christmas gift you can give yourself is to learn some poetry by heart
Every Christmas I find I am living in the past. I blame my father. He was born in 1910 —…
The King of Christmas: A short story by Owen Matthews
The Christmas King steps slowly from his house and sniffs the evening’s chill. His tread is dainty, for all his…
Away from the manger: the holy relics of Bethlehem
‘No crib for a bed,’ says ‘Away in a Manger’ rather puzzlingly, since a crib is a manger. ‘No one…
Gay giraffes and dead in ditches: The Spectator 2019 quiz
They said it In 2019, who said: 1. ‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.’ 2. ‘I didn’t sweat…
Christmas with my brother
Ever since I was a child, I’ve associated Christmas with my mentally disabled brother Chris. Technically, he’s my half-brother —…
Christmas without God in the Appalachians
Christmas: without being grand and Proustian, this is a season when time present inevitably takes one back to time past.…
Andrew Sullivan: The evidence against Trump is overwhelming
When people ask me what the mood is in DC these days, the only word I can come up with…
The unwritten rules of sending Christmas cards
No one sends Christmas cards any more. Except that I do, and you might, and a few other people do…
Trump’s 19ft Christmas tree and 300lb gingerbread house are quintessentially American
The most obnoxious advert on American television this Christmas season features a thirtyish man telling his wife he ‘got us…
Prue Leith’s Christmas kitchen nightmares
Christmas in our family seems to guarantee tears and tantrums as well as jingle bells and jollity. Indeed, in my…
The boy who dreams: A Christmas short story by Susan Hill
‘Wake up, boy! Wake up…’ My father was shaking me and I was confused because it seemed that I had…
After five days of being snowed in, awe and wonder starts to wear off
It took three hours for cabin fever to set in. Last Christmas, snowed in at the Oxfordshire homestead, my brother…
Why you should never read your own diary
At the turn of the century, I started a diary. I’ve mostly typed it on old typewriters, bashing out a…
In the midst of Brexit agony, one thing remains certain: disputation needs drink
It is enough to drive a fellow to the bottle. I am not given to agnosticism. My view is that…
Neil MacGregor: belief is what holds a society together
‘But what must it be like for the fish?’ We’re talking about cormorants, Neil MacGregor and I, and the spectacular…
