It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Wednesday 18 December 2024

Perhaps it comes with age, or just through keeping busy, but each year does indeed seem to fly by quicker than the last, and here we are, seemingly blown in quite suddenly by Ashley, Bert, Conal and Darragh, now deep into December and with the festive period looming. The high streets, certainly around these parts, began to look more than just a little bit like Christmas a good two or three months ago, but with the earlier dusks around the solstice has come a certain festive feel; with not only the townscapes but also their inhabitants now donning seasonal decoration on their walk from car to store, café to bar.

Today’s Blog is really a thank you, a Christmas wish to everyone who has kindly followed my musings over the last year on my various ramblings across the country. I will have racked up about 1,900 miles of ‘boots on’ walking over the twelve months of 2024, with the most ambitious trek being my 40-day LETJOG E2W (East to West) escapade across England, Wales and Ireland last spring. But I have reported also on many other excursions, locally in the Chilterns, further afield around the country, and on a couple overseas trips too – journeys and walks that I have shared with Rachel and with a great many other family members and friends. I have so many happy memories of 2024 – thank you all, and every best wish for a Merry Christmas and for a happy and active 2025! I will leave you now, with just a few pictures from my walks over the last three weeks or so.

As we say goodbye to 2024 in just less than two weeks’ time, I guess my thoughts will turn to some potential New Year walking challenges. I will keep you all updated through these Blogs once my plans come together, but meanwhile I hope that you enjoy the seasonal parties and the wintry wonders of the awesome outdoors!

My Blog heading today, ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’ is of course taken from the festive hit of the same name, first recorded and performed by Perry Como and The Fontaine Sisters with Mitchell Ayers and His Orchestra. The song was written by American composer and bandleader Meredith Wilson whilst staying in the Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (a building whose name features in the lyrics). Many artists have covered the number, and on my playlist I am going with the well known version from 2011 by Canadian baritone Michael Bublé (whose rendition of ‘Winter Wonderland’ I adopted as my Blog heading on 19 December last year). Both of these songs are from Bublé’s imaginatively-named 2011 album ‘Christmas’: I am sure that the golden-voiced songster has reaped a host of festive fruits from his endeavours on this suitably polished collection of crimble covers.