New Year Champagne, from France and tall Champagne glasses - news to you? News to whom?

Angela Lansbury with a Champagne glass containing Champagne on New Year's eve, 2021 (actually after midnight and already January 2022). Photo by Trevor Sharot.

I was wondering whether I was stating the obvious when I described a Champagne glass and bottle. 

Champagne comes from the French region of Champagne. 

However, I was asked about Champagne by a Sri Lankan engineering student. He was part of a group of us from an online only Toastmasters club meeting online on New Year's Eve 2021. 

He asked, 

'What does Champagne taste like? We don't drink it in Sri Lanka. And we don't celebrate New Year. Our New year is lunar and it will be on April 14th (in 2022).'

Champagne Flavours

What does Champagne taste like? Nothing much, to me. Expert wine tasters will say that this one smells of bread or yeast. I taste a lemony after taste lingering in the mouth. After reading the notes on the Champagne, my husband tastes more flavours, but wonders if this is auto-suggestion. If so, well and good. Just read the notes to enjoy more aroma, and taste.

The magical effect is the fun of the bubbles, and getting tipsy, not quite drunk, happy and tired.

I like the sweeter Prosecco for flavour. I am a typical woman, and British, and of a certain age, my tastes rooted in the (nineteen) Sixties.

Champagne is dry. The word brut, French, sounds like brute, meaning dry. 

The opposite of doux, literally soft, but, in the context of wine, sweet. Or sec, sweet wine. 

Looking at the label of the bottle, this Champagne is Laurent-Perrier.

Angela with Laurent-Perrier Champagne bottle on New Year's Eve. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

The Champagne Glass

The glass is not a tulip, more like a flute. The company Reidel produces glasses for red and white wine and organizes tastings where you try drinking the same wine from different shaped glasses.

I am small, but with a big nose. So, for me, glasses with a narrow top are a nuisance.

Look at that Champagne bottle again. It has a cap designed to keep the fizz in.

Useful Websites

https://www.laurent-perrier.com/en/

https://www.riedel.com/en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne

The Author

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

Fun Food, Cards and Blessings at Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah

 

Cards for Rosh Hashanah, New Year. Symbols for the sweet New Year are apples and honey. Photo of cards by Angela Lansbury.

Rosh Hashanah means Head (Rosh), (of), The (ha), Shanah (New year).  The lunar calendar date for Rosh Hashanah 2021 is from Sundown Monday Sept 6 to sundown  Wednesday Sept 8. In Israel most holidays are celebrated for one day. However, because other countries further away overlap by two days, to be sure of celebrating the whole holiday and the right time, two celebrations are held. If relatives cannot attend because they are holding their own celebrations, they can come to you on the second night. Alternatively, the hostess on the first night can give a daughter or sister or sister in law the leftovers of food and tableware to make it easier for the other person to hold a second celebration of the holiday on the second night.

You can see and buy Jewish New Year greeting cards online such as on Amazon and in newsagents and stationery shops.

We arrived early. We were asked to arrive at 7.15. We wondered whether that was arrive earlier for a prompt start at 7.15, or Jewish time, any time after 7.15.

We checked the time of sunset. We set off and arrived early enough to sit in the garden drinking kosher blush wine. Because of the baby grandchild, who does not yet have any sense of time, we started late.

Our meal started with the pre-meal blessing over wine, known as the kiddush. I was impressed by the wine dispenser which I have shown in an earlier post. 

The first blessing was over wine, the second over bread or fruits of the earth. the blessing starts with the word for bless and ends with the word for wine. (I listen for ha - the gafem - drinkwine? or eretz/aitz - land adom/adam/adum - earth.)

The meal started with the apples and honey which you see on many cards. We dipped apples slices in honey and then sesame seeds.

A good time was had by all.

Useful websites

Transliteration of blessings from Hebrew to English

https://18doors.org/blessings_over_bread_and_wine/#:~:text=Kiddush%20(Blessing%20over%20wine)&text=of%20the%20vine.-,Phonetic%20Hebrew%20transliteration%3A,%2Day%20peri%20ha%2Dgafen.

Jewish greeting cards

https://www.moonpig.com/uk/personalised-cards/p/shanah-tovah-hand-and-floral-card/dvr089-sq/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4eaJBhDMARIsANhrQAAxVYLDRBx8RAJOn2Q5MGGtRsOgh7xDYQrHy7kiGr9SfiP4VaR3aN4aAspEEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&size=13&utm_campaign=shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google

Christmas isn't over yet! Prepare for Easter, Valentines, Halloween and next Christmas

Problem (I wrote in January)
It's New Year and the Christmas decorations look so limply last year. (Not simply but limply!) Shall I clear Santa's red hats and the green plastic tree and the Christmas crackers with Santa in a red nose ready for New Year's gold and glitter?

I think I should not clear Christmas decorations until the 12th day, which is January 6th. Why? In order to get maximum value and the maximum number of hours of pleasure from the effort I put into buying or saving the Santa decorations. Do you agree?

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

Benjamin Disraeli

Solutions To Saving And Preparing From February Onwards

If you are shopping early for next Christmas, try the Christmas shop in the UK which has a website for shopping online. In addition to Christmas they have seasonal goods for Easter, Valentine's Day and Hallowe'en.

Lots of clearance items are under five pounds and even under a pound. The website choices are neatly divided into categories such as for the table and for the tree (Xmas tree).

Lots of British themes pop up, too, taxis, red letter boxes, and Pooh (Winnie the Pooh) and Piglet pencils.

Items for Valentines day include loads of hearts.

What an entertaining website to read.

Useful Websites

http://www.thechristmasshop.co.uk/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What To See Christmas and New Year One Week in Singapore or London

Singapore Flag.

Public and private places are selling their tickets for the Xmas period from November 1st.
To be sure of getting a place in a restaurant or on a tour you need to start planning now.

For my relatives travelling to Singapore I am putting together a one week plan.
You will want to see Christmas lights in Orchard Road but you can see them on the way to other sights.


Xmas tree and decorations outside Tanglin Mall. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My plan for the perfect one week stay is work in progress and looks like this.

Tuesday Dec 24th 7 p arrive See Waterfall at Jewel
Wednesday Dec 25 - Day 1 Gardens By The Bay - or Botanic Gardens
Thursday Dec 26 -2 Sentosa cable car and Trickeye museum
Friday Dec 27 -3 Gardens by the bay - or Botanic Gardens
Saturday Dec 28 - 4 Night safari, and or zoo combined ticket and bird park
Sunday Dec 29 - 5 Singapore flyer lunch at Tanglin
Monday Dec 30 - 6 Duck tour
Tuesday Dec 31 - 7 National Museum and Art Museum and Clarke Quay and Fullerton hotel and statues
Wednesday Jan 1st 2020 - 8 Butterfly Garden at Changi Airport, Coffee bar local dish Kaya toast
Check in 21.45 hours
23.45 hour departure Singapore Airlines evening flight

Evening of arrival:
Jewel waterfall:

Waterfall, Jewel Mall, Changi Airport, above Changi MRT. Singapore

1 GARDENS BY THE BAY


Look for a combined Gardens by the Bay and

Singapore Flyer (big wheel) package.
Singapore Flyer alone cost per adult about $33, - that was November 1 2019, by Xmas the fares may have changed.
MRT Promenade.

Duck tour

Open top bus tour

NATIONAL MUSEUM OPEN HOUSE

RAFFLES HOTEL.
Dinner at a club if you know anybody who belongs to one. The American Club is in the centre of the city and opposite it is the Tanglin Club.

Angela at the Tanglin Club. Napkin with buttonhole. Copyright.

If not, Raffles Hotel.


Singapore Sling or Millionaire's Cocktail.


I had a free Singapore Sling on Singapore Airlines. But the one at Raffles hotel is better.

1 FORD FACTORY MUSEUM (Morning)
A look at WWII. The Battlebox Museum on Fort Canning shows Singapore's surrender. This is more cheering, a happy end for Singapore with the surrender of the Japanese.






Swim?
Little India lunch on banana leaf.

2 NIGHT SAFARI

3 BOTANIC GARDENS

Botanic Gardens Symphony Canopy.


Chopin Statue near symphony Canopy in Botanic Gardens, Singapore.

4 JEWEL
Lights at Jewel on central waterfall - free Coffee Museum at back of coffee cafe

5 SENTOSA

6 MALAYSIA J B nearby not interesting? / Malacca  - pink city, means renting a car or going by bus. KL too far? Try Peranakan Museum.
Admire the mosque by Pending LRT station near Cashew MRT.


7 INDONESIA BATAM AND BINTAN day trip by ferry

8 MARINA BAY SANDS - Observation deck.






BUTTERFLY PARK in Changi Airport.

Butterfly Park, Changi Airport.

For those not leaving London, or going there from Europe or the USA, from November 1st 2019 tickets are on sale for Christmas the Dickens Museum in central London.

USEFUL WEBSITES
SINGAPORE
https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-programmes/programmes-list/12-days-of-christmas-open-house



UK Flag

In London it's traditional to see the lights in Oxford Street (and the front facade and windows of Selfridges Department store), Regent Street (and Hamleys toy store), and Harrods department store in Knightsbridge.

As for visits, Charles Dickens wrote the short novel The Christmas Carol. You can visit his home in London. Tickets for Xmas have just become available from November and will probably sell out quickly.

What else to do at Christmas in London? Outdoor ice skating. Pantomime.

Charles Dickens Museum
48-49 Doughty Street,
London, WC1N 2LX

T: +44(0)20 7405 2127

E: info@dickensmuseum.com

https://dickensmuseum.com/pages/christmas-at-the-charles-dickens-museum

Even if you don't have the time or money or luck to get on a tour, you can see the outside of the house and read the plaque and take a selfie.

London has walking tours. If it's cold, wear a ski jacket, hat and mittens.

Plenty to do in London. British Museum, London Museum, Tate Modern Gallery, Madame Tussauds, the British Library, Sherlock Holmes Museum, The London Eye, a Beatles Tour, a Harry Potter studios tour, statues of Paddington Bear, Brunel, Buckingham Palace, and more statues such as Oscar Wilde, and homes of kings and queens and writers and painters, and poets such as Keats, playwrights such as Shakespeare, bankers such as the Rothschilds and the museum of the Bank of England, more than you can remember and count. As somebody once said, He who is tired of London is tired of life.
Grab copies of Time Out magazine, local free newspapers, free maps in hotels and look for vouchers and offers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favurite posts.

How To Use Holiday Snaps And Restaurant Birthday Cake Photos For Greetings

I showed my happy birthday dessert on Facebook and received extra greetings and good wishes regarding my birthday from friends. On Whatsapp a friend sent me a birthday greeting, telling me that her birthday was the same day as mine. She had attached her cake with the words happy birthday attached.

I then realised that you could use your own picture of your birthday cake with the words happy birthday as a greeting to others having birthdays later.



Only when I copied my photo and scrutinised it, considering cropping it, did I notice that the h in happy birthday is lower case.

Why is this? I suspect it is because people going into catering and creative jobs such as art are often visual rather than academic, interested in art and pictures rather than text.

Maybe I am wrong and it is just that visuals are often copied so the small number with errors get noticed.

So, if you are using photos with text, check the text carefully. If I had noticed at the time, would I have sent the plate back for correction?

No. Firstly, I received a free cake and when somebody has taken time to please you I don't like to look ungrateful. It was done last minute in a hurry.

Secondly, I never send things back in a restaurant unless I am on the last course and paying up and will never go there again. I do not wish to upset the person preparing food. They could take revenge on me or other customers or the management. They are probably low paid staff very proud to have a new job. On the other hand I could point out the error so they improve and get it right next time.

I would be more inclined to try to correct the chocolate myself.

To conclude, you can use your birthday cake pictures from any year as a greeting card. I shall collect mine together in an album called birthdays.

A birthday card could be created showing the year's events and successes, of the lifetime of successes and travels.

Other travel pictures can be used as a collage for Happy New Year.  Show highlights of your past year's travels. 

Saved pictures of Valentine's day can be used for next year's Valentine's Day wishes.

Happy travels and happy greetings.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have other posts on Birthday meal at the Tanglin club, birthdays, Valentine's Day, New Year, Singapore, destinations worldwide. Please save links to your favourite posts.

What It Costs To Promote A Meeting on Meetup

Problem
My two Toastmasters Clubs in London get lots of new members, average 2 or more, sometimes 4-6, each of the two monthly meetings. My Singapore club is considering it. But what toes it cost?

Answer
In September 2018 I looked at the Meetup website and found I was offered:

Basic membership for 6 months cost US $9.00 a month. If you have two meetings a month, that's US$4.50 per month.  If you were to advertise more events, it becomes more profitable.

What does basic mean? A limit of 50 members and 4 organizers.  I presume that's 54 in total. That's plenty for a small club of about 20 members which wants to expand.

Fifty members doesn't mean 50 paid up members of your club. I presume it's 50 people on Meetup who signed up to be notified of your meetings. Some of those are phantom members who will never turn up.

I joined a sewing and crafts group meeting in Wembley in London. I never went. It was too far and inconvenient times and days.

If you have two sister organizations you might be able to link them on a mutual Meetup group and share costs. For example, two Toastmasters clubs of the same name, such as the English speaking club and the Mandarin-speaking club which meet at the same venue on different days.

Another option is for a one-off payment of US$14.99 a month, perhaps for one event such as A Christmas party at a restaurant.

You need a treasurer who is on top of cancellations, because as with any monthly payment, if you are inclined to forget, you might end up paying for years for something you no longer need.

If you find it successful, no such problem. You are assured that they will roll over the payment.

If you want to organize a free meeting, instead or in addition you can use Peatix, a company which started in Asia.

In the UK Toastmasters meetings are often booked through Eventbrite. If you are not charging, why bother to issure tickets?

a) At a large event such as a conference in an auditiorium with a popular sepaker you might be sold out. Because of fire regulations you are not allowed to have people sitting on the stairs and standing in the aisles and in front of the fire exit doors. To avoid early arrivals grabbing the seats and latecomers being turned away, the first ones to book are given tickets. Others go on a waiting list.

b) The organizers may want to know the numbers in order to cater with enough food and drink or cups for water, or chairs, or to switch to a larger or smaller room according to the numbers.

c) At the other extreme, if nobody books for an event, because it is not popular, too last minute, or people are away on holiday, you might wish to postpone your New Year, Easter, Valentine's, or Summer BBQ until a week later, or postpone your so-called Christmas party until after Christmas.

If you want to pay, the Meetup system was accepting WePay.

Useful Websites
https://www.meetup.com
peatix.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts with your family and friends and colleagues.

When Should You Send Birthday Messages Across Time Zones?

Problem
When I am in the UK and I receive a message that a friend in the middle East (four hours ahead) has a birthday day, it's already lunch time by the time my message reaches them. I'm one of their afterthought friends, second rank. When I am in London or a European city and my friend or business contact is in the Far East / Asia, the time difference is even worse. By the time my message reaches them the day is nearly over.

The same applies if you are in the USA but more so. Your UK and European-based family. friends and colleagues are a few hours ahead of the East Coast of the USA (New York and Florida), another hour or two on from the central area, more so from the west coast such as San Francisco and LA.

Since your friends may also be travelling, you can't know where all of them are when you send a message. They could have gone abroad for a business trip. Their surprise birthday gift from the family could be a flight off to somewhere else.

The same applies to your goodwill messages for a wedding - they could already be off on a honeymoon, or a wedding anniversary. The same applies to Christmas and Easter.

The same applies to Chinese New Year. (This year, 2017, in January - always on moveable dates in January and February - which may catch you out if you are not Chinese and not living in Asia. Chinese New Year is a family reunion time, which means your holiday flights will be expensive and busy.

The same applies to Jewish New Year and Hanukah. Also, Passover/Seder night which moves about around Easter time and like Christmas is a family reunion dinner.,

For years I have been trying to adapt my holiday messages to suit all occasions. I thought belated wishes already put the sender in a bad light and made the recipient feel forgotten and slighted. So I turned my message into something about the recipient's future happiness of success.

Now I realize that if I am sending a message across time zones I can use this to my advantage. If my friend is celebrating a birthday on the second of the month eight hours ahead in Asia when I am in London, England, a message sent at midnight from London, England will reach them at 8 am in Singapore and all of Asia (except Thailand and Western Indonesia which are an hour behind).

We said ahead - I mean behind. If you are not sure, use an online clock to sort this out. Also note that your laptop or phone or computer may be set to the wrong time zone. Or an app or website may be fixed to the time of its country of origin.

You may be able to set your laptop so it is always set to your home time zone, so that your blogs are set to reach American readers in their daylight hours, or your messages to your own family and children reach them in their daylight hours.

This is handy to have. But it means that if you don't know, or forget to change it, your computer may be not telling you the right time for the recipient of your birthday or seasonal message.

You probably know that New Year starts in Next Zealand and Australia, moved to Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, China) across Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, East Coast America and New York, finally the  Mid West and San Francisco and Los Angeles. If you think of that, it will help you to visualize when you should be sending your birthday messages.

So now you have a choice. Adapt your message to the recipient's time zone, or send out earlier if you want them to be sure of getting the message on the birthday morning.

Happy birthday to you, a happy year of sending goodwill messages, whether you are staying home, travelling, or letting your fingers travel.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Celebrating With Balloons For New Year Or Any Date

Problem
What wonderful balloons - where can I get one?

Answer
These two transparent balloons were carried by children sitting on the MRT train in Singapore. Circles of light were reflected in the balloons like rainbows. The effect was magnified by the balloons being reflected in the train's windows.

The balloons were in two sizes.
One had blue led lights around it in circles.

The string of tiny lights flashed on and off and could be turned completely on and off by a switch on a hand-held battery the size of a cigarette box.

I said to my friend, "When we get home, we can check the suppliers and prices on the internet."

She took out her mobile phone.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

When can you see New Year's Eve in Sydney and Worldwide on TV?

New Year's Eve at home. Just us and the cats. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I want to watch the New Year's Eve celebrations on TV as soon as they start. When do they start in Sydney?

Answer
Go to SydNYE - a clever pun on Sydney and New Year's Eve.
Their website gives you a countdown a few hours ahead.

Sydney is
three hours ahead of Singapore
ten hours ahead of London
fifteen hours ahead of New York.

Top sites for celebrations include:
New Zealand - lights from the tower
Sydney, Australia - fireworks and lines of lights along Sydney harbour bridge
Hong Kong
Japan
Marina Bay, Singapore
Gibraltar
London, England - see Big Ben clock chime
Edinburgh, Scotland (where New Year is a bigger celebration than Christmas) backdrop Edinburgh Castle
Rio, Brazil
Las Vegas, USA - pedestrianised centre street party
New York, USA

Singapore
In Singapore the big celebrations are around Marina Bay over the water and you can see from skyscrapers in the Downtown (also the name of a stop on the MRT railway) and Central Business District (CBD for short).

The local newspapers, which you can read online, such as The Straits Times, and Today, report on closures of roads to car and bridges to cars and pedestrians. The police also warn that to prevent overcrowding on platforms you may experience delays when attempting to get home. So you won't necessarily be able to get into a station at ten or twenty past midnight. In London, England, the year before last, we went to the station, saw snake barriers and went back to the bar-cum restaurant and had more food and drinks. The latest trains home are posted on stations.

Free
Many local suburban areas have fireworks displays in parks near centre which are free. For example Woodlands, in the open area near the MRT station and bus station.

Rain
It rained most of the day in Singapore and was overcast, a disappointment to photographers. A complete torrential downpour at 7.40 pm. You can hear the rain pelting down.

I also wondered whether grassy areas might be muddy. So I have asked my family to watch on TV and send me photos. You will also probably be able to see photos on Facebook and other sites. Rain won't dampen our plans.

Plans
Plan your outfits, drinks and glasses - and new year wishes. If you are in Australia or Singapore you can continue watching all over again as the New Year is welcomed all over Asia, Europe and the USA.

I found it best to turn out the lights around the screen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Useful website
You tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajEkB3zzuk New Year's Eve

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

What does this Chinese symbol mean? Red packet - prosperity? When can you use it?

Problem
I had a red packet and wanted to know the meaning. My first thought was to take it to an event attended by some speakers of Chinese (nowadays meaning Mandarin) but the symbols are common to speakers of Chinese dialects as well as Japanese speakers.

I realised it was not necessary to carry the packet and risking damaging it or losing it. I could take a photo.

The packet is red. The Chinese like red, especially for red packets containing money.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

My friend told me the first symbol on the left showed clothes. The second symbol on the right has a square divided into four which means field or land and property.  The two together indicate prosperity. 

This symbol is a common wish for new year, Chinese New Year. However, it will also be suitable for other occasions, such as a wedding.

The same sign is hung upside down in houses as a goodwill message meaning prosperity is on its way!

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.

Please share your favourite posts.

Where To Go And Stay and What To Say Over Christmas and New Year

UK Xmas Cracker. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Christmas trees in major cities. This is Prague, Czech Republic, with a free band playing music. They pass a hat around.

Prague: We went to a free midnight mass concert and hymns in Czech, Prague on Christmas Eve. No charge. But have coins ready for the collection box carried to each row of the audience for the poor and needy.

UK. Christmas decorations in English front garden. We drive around taking photos. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problems
Where or when do you say Santa Claus and where or when do you say Father Christmas? Where's best to celebrate or see celebrations of Christmas and New Year?

Answers What To Say
The choice of wording of Santa or Father is a religious distinction. Santa is short for Santa Claus, a saint, and also Latin, Italian, and Spanish as in the American place name Santa Barbara. 

Saints, created by the pope, are Catholic. (Catholic churches have statues of saints and Jesus on the Cross. Protestant churches are more austere.) 

After Henry VIII started the Church of England the word Saint fell out of favour, hence Protestants will use Father Christmas. 

The abbreviation 'Santa', short for Santa Claus, tends to be a kiddie word. 

Russia and China In Communist Russia and China religion was banned. So the Russians, who have colder winters in their northern capitals, celebrate and brighten mid-winter with a snow-white-haired and bearded gentleman called Grandfather Frost. 

Scotland The Scots are Protestant make less fuss of Christmas but more fuss over New Year. Go to Scotland or watch on TV in the UK.

Where To Go - By Country
Christmas is big in the USA, with Christmas trees in windows and lights across rooftops. Also in the UK and most European and other Catholic countries.

UK In the UK a large Christmas tree, a Norway Spruce, is donated by the Norwegian government, and placed in Trafalgar Square, London, England. 

Major events and activites for you: 
Advance planning: book restaurants. Order Santa Claus costume on line.
To do: (Some are free, some are free but turn up early or at non-busy times; some free but require booking seats, first come first served, others are time specific and rquire advance boking and payment.
Book Christmas shows pantomimes or ice shows.
Go ice skating on artificial rinks, or watch ice skaters to music.
Hearing Christmas carols under the tree. Seeing the lights in Regent Street and Oxford Street. The Harrods department store and Selfridges will have lights or decorations on the front and in the windows.

Outdoor seasonal tree with white lights. Expect to see large trees lit at night in Catholic countries such as Poland, in their capital, Warsaw.

Czech Republic
Our hotel served a 'special' higher price Christmas meal which featured the main dish of carp. Then we went to the free midnight mass.

Singapore
Singapore celebrates all religions and the major malls and streets have great lights and Christmas carols play in shopping malls and from lamp posts.

If you want to avoid Christmas and giving presents to children and the cost and time spent organizing gifts and Christmas dinner (for example, if you can't afford it, or are not Christian) you could opt for a non-Christian country, or a beach holiday.

Spain If you miss Christmas, or want to miss Christmas, you can go to countries which celebrate the Magi and birth of Jesus on January 5 or 6, notably Spain and other European countries. In Spain the big excitement is the national Christmas Lottery with a big prize, called El Gordo (meaning the giant). Families will make a grou bet and sit around the TV watching.

Italy
Popular places for Christmas include seeing Francis of Assissi, birthplace of St Francis. The appearance of the Pope on Christmas day at the Vatican also draws crowds. 

The Italian festive cake is Panettone, a huge domed cake which you can buy loose or in a decorative tin, in Italy and in Italian cafés in London, England. 

Venezuela
You also get Panettone in Venezuela.

Story
When I was a child it was not the done thing to celebrate other religions or to celebrate multiple cultures. My parents took me to an English hotel for Christmas, or to a beach holiday in Spain.

Hotels
Hotels have higher prices for Christmas meals and may be closed except to residents because the restaurants are fully booked.

UK. Christmas pudding with white sauce.

UK. Christmas pudding with ice cream - that's a first, new idea.

UK.Christmas pudding with yellow custard. You'll get this everywhere in the UK over Christmas, in restaurants and in pubs. Christmas tables in restaurants have Xmas crackers containing a joke or motto, a banger to pull, a paper hat and often a small plastic gift. Look for boxes of crackers in supermarkets. You may find it is banned to take crackers on planes becuase the crackers contain explisve or fire starting materials. 

Self Catering, Souvenirs And Gift What To Eat Or Buy - Fun and Food, Festivity, Souvenirs
Most supermarkets in the UK import foods from all over Europe and the world. In the UK supermarkets you can buy Christmas pudding and Christmas cake with a white iced top and messages and green trees and red Santas. Many biscuits and cakes and chocolates come in presentation boxes which are only available at Christmas time. The price of the contests and box will be dearer. But you can keep the boxes as biscuit tins, as a colletor's piece for your shelves, or for storing jewellery and knick knacks. Airport shops will have these, but also department stores and supermarkets.

France
The French Christmas cake is a log. The French word for Christmas is Noel. 

Germany
The Germans eat Stollen which is a long roll with a marzipan centre.

Christmas Dinner In Restaurants Restaurant prices go up around Christmas time and some restaurants will be fully booked both lunch and evening towards Christmas with office and social club Christmas parties, serving turkey, stuffing and roast potatoes, followed by Christmas pudding. (Usually other options including a vegetarian alternative).

Prices of restaurants drop in January, although last year in the UK some restaurants did not start their reductions until several days after New Year's eve.

New Year's eve you may also find high prices and fully booked bars and restaurants and shops and cafes closing early.

One club I belong to in the UK chose to have a DIY pot luck Christmas party and a meal out in January to celebrate the New Year. That cut the cost, as well as being an all-religion, all diet option.

Other English seasonal foods are mince pies. The cheapest are about £1 for six in a supermarket.

Prices of Christmas pudding (black domed pudding containing dried fruit, same as American plum pudding which is sold all year in the USA) are reduced in UK supermarkets after New Year.

Tips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. See my previous posts on Christmas and New Year. Please share links to your favourite posts.

More Nasty Noises At Night - What's The Cause? What's The Cure?

Problems
Noises wake you at night. Noises disturb you by day. What's causing that noise?

Answers
Car alarms - your car on your driveway. Nobody there.
Car alarms outside the hotel or motel window. You go to investigate - nobody there.
It's a cat, or a dog.
In London it's a fox.

Clonking
What's that?
It's the radiators.

Fire Alarms
Fire Alarms, without fire, in restaurants and hotels and blocks of flats.
New system is malfunctioning, too sensitive.
People falling asleep while smoking cigarettes.
Indoor fireworks setting off alarms.
Smoking on balconies or in bathrooms by people who think the smoke won't drift or run to answer the hotel phone forgetting their cigarette.

Drunks and wedding party best man having a laugh.
Indians lighting incense.
Hindus haven a naming ceremony which involves walking around the baby seven times with fire. Happened in my block of flats - in my flat.
Elderly people burning the toast in the toaster or under the grill.

Loud sex
Loud sex in hotels - from a room with single occupant.
The person who is alone has ordered a blue movie.

Loud Parties In Hotel Bedrooms
What to do if there is a late night party and loud laughter?
Do not knock on the door and complain. Mostly people would not realise sound carries and disturbs other and will apologise. However, once in a while they could be rude or worse. Call the management.

New Year
Worst times for noise? New Year's Eve in city centres.
New Year's Eve fireworks.
Cars revving up as people drive home.

Fortunately, after New Year's Eve, you have a chance to sleep in tomorrow morning.

See my previous posts on noise. Please share my posts.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

When Should I Take Down Christmas Decorations?

After Christmas the Christmas decorations were still in shops.

Problem
When should I / you take down Christmas decorations?
1 Midnight on December 25th? Singapore shops think Christmas ends at the end of Christmas Day.
2 On Boxing Day? (That's December 26th in the UK - St Stephen's in Catholic and European countries.) 3 On New Year's Eve (replacing decorations with mistletoe and silver and gold and Happy New Year banners, and Christmas cards put away and replaced with Happy New Year cards?
4 Evening of New Year's Day, January 1st - holidays over - it's back to work. Shops replace Happy Christmas with January Sales signs.
5 January 5th - 12th Day of Xmas.
6 January 6th? Sounds like a nice even number.

Let's Count
Jan 24 - Xmas Eve - must have decorations up.
Jan 25 1st day of Xmas. (Unless you start counting on Jan 24th, which is a half day holiday in many businesses.)
Jan 26 - second day. Jan 27 - third day. Jan 29 - fourth day. Jan 30 - third day.

(How many days in December? The old rhyme goes, 'Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31 days ....) So December has 31 days. Keep going.

December 31st (New Year's Eve) - fourth day.
Jan 1st - fifth day.
Jan 2nd - 6th day.
Jan 3rd - 7th day.
Jan 4th - 8th day.
Jan 5th - 9th day.
Jan 6th - 10th day.
Jan 7th - 11th day (but counting Xmas Eve as Day one it's 12th. So take things down on the morning or evening of the 7th, or midnight on the 6th. Hm. This year that's Friday night. End of the working week. Weekend clear to today up and pack away. Sounds good to me.

Answer
Jan 6th is the 12th Day of Christmas with the Feast of Epiphany. Jesus was circumcised on the 8th day after his birth, as is still done by Jews nowadays.

Do what you like. Tidy minded people take them down and pack them up as soon as possible, whilst still on holiday to save work later. But there are good reasons for all these ideas and dates. To get best use of your decorations, leave them up as long as possible.

Traditionally, you would leave the decorations up in the UK for the 12 days of Christmas, as in the song 'The 12 days of Xmas'.

Tips
Store Xmas decorations in tote bags from supermarkets which have Xmas themes in order to locate them easily next year.
Need to know more?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/august/real-twelve-days-of-christmas.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-festivals/12082544/What-is-Epiphany-Here-are-10-facts-about-the-history-and-meaning-of-Three-Kings-Day.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.
See my other posts and blogs. You can also follow me on Facebook and see profiles and posts on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube videos. Please follow, like and share.

Old Year's Eve Celebration, Old Year's Successes, and Old Year's Resolutions

Just after the International New Year is the Chinese New Year, also called, outside China, the lunar New Year.

Fireworks in Finland.

Problem
New Year's Eve starts the year with a late night and an early morning, just the sleep problem I am trying to cure, in myself and my son.

Answer
Next year I shall hold an Old Year's Eve party. I shall ask everybody to assemble early, 7.30, so that they are tired of the company by three or four hours later. Instead of watching fireworks from midnight until 1 am, I shall record them and see them on New Year's Day on the player.

Any fireworks will be watched on TV from other countries from 10.30 to 11 (if it takes an hour for you or guests to drive home, or half an hour to drive home plus half an hour to wind down and fall into bed, or 11 to 11.30 or 11.30 to midnight. YouTube has videos of fireworks in: Sydney, Australia; Taipei; Singapore; Hong Kong; Dubai; Paris, France.

In Scotland the first person through the door brings luck. In our celebration, the person to leave earliest bring luck for setting a good example. (They might be going on to another party. Sh! Don't mention that idea. Don't even think about it.)

Everybody will be asked to bring a list of ten things they have achieved or enjoyed in the year, and ten photos of happy moments. (Weddings, unions, holidays, business launches and successes, awards.

I shall start a file now called Achievement in 2017. Otherwise by the end of the year you forget. You can add birthdays, wedding anniversary photos, religious ceremonies, participating in contests (whether or not you won), meeting winners and famous people, entertaining elderly relatives, days out. If you are not always active, days out, reading a favourite book. It might be an idea to add a picture for treat from each month (allowing for a couple of months where nothing happens). That gives you ten pictures.

This year Christmas and Hanukah combined. I went to a New Year's Eve party wearing a Christmas hat like a Christmas cake. My hat has proved enormously popular in the UK, and over Xmas in the Czech Republic.

At the New Year's Eve party 2016, yesterday, last night, we were discussing the fact that this year Hanukah and Xmas overlapped. Twelve days of Xmas, so I was entitled to wear a Xmas hat after December 25th and 26th (Boxing Day in the UK, St Stephen's in Catholic and Orthodox Christian countries). I reflected that I should have added a Happy Hanukah message on the back of my hat. I shall do that for next year, regardless of the dates.

I consider myself 'a citizen of the world' as Gandhi described himself. (He had lived in South Africa and India. I have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore.)

Story
I mentioned in another post that in America when I was living their two decades ago I and my husband and our son, aged about seven years old were in Lake Tahoe. Having no family or friends to see on holiday, we had a meal at the only place which was not closed or fully booked, McDonalds, and went to bed early as our son started yawning and we were all in the same bedroom, a double and single bed suite in a motel. It was the best New Year's Eve ever because we started the year bright and early.

In the UK this decade for two or three years in succession we spent New Year's Eve at the invitation of a Hindu friend at a Unitarian Church New Year's Eve party. The ample food was a mix of traditional English Xmas leftovers, such as mince pies Xmas cake, potatoes and vegetables kept hot in tureens, plus mixed rice and Indian samosas, and other unexpected goodies. The meal was a potluck dinner. The evening's entertainment was provided by every guest (I think even those who could not see or stand were able to say at least a line of their favourite proverb or a rhyming couplet). Everybody performed a poem, motivational speech or recital of (out of copyright) music.

The people were mostly elderly. We and our friends left after eleven with most other people and the building was cleared and locked up, as was usual to avoid disturbing the neighbours of the building. We drove uphill to see the fireworks at midnight by the nearby housing association, but their funding ran out and the last year we went the fireworks had stopped so we arrived home by midnight just in time to see the UK fireworks on TV.

Tip
You can see me performing with my owl puppet at one event on YouTube.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See more, by and about me, on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, all over the net. Four people, including the actress and another author share the name Angela Lansbury. So add the words author, poet, travel and look for my photo or the photo of my caricatures on the cover of one of my books. If you are interested in reading excerpts fro my books and possibly buying them, look on Amazon and Lulu.com
Please follow me and like and share my posts with your friends, family and colleagues. Wishing you a successful year.

Card for Jewish New Year in the autumn, following the lunar calendar.