Sorry, folks, but it IS going to be Christmas soon!

Next month, in fact. Sorry to rub it in.

I expect we Matt and Mrs Matt and the couple who are close friends of ours will visit the German Market and eat German foods and drink mulled wine and German beers. And there doubtless also be will be a trip to the nearest Wetherspoon pub for a meal and a pint of real ale for about £7.00 or so!

Then for Christmas we will probably have our traditional multi-faith Christmas dinner (atheist, Christian, pagan, Sikh) with fine wine, champagne, Indian tea (you have NOT drunk tea until you have drunk that, seriously!) lager (Carling, of course!) and Gran Stead's non-alcoholic ginger wine and lemonade and some real ale, too. Oh. And Coca Cola, both lite and full fat, too. There will also Sherry and Port for the mince pies and a good deal of other festive food will be eaten. Including Stilton, oh, YES! Stilton! And carbonated Vodka, from Sweden.

See? Non-Mormons do not have to drink alcohol. But Mormons do have to NOT drink alcohol.

Now, as a Mormon did I have a good Christmas? Now... that's an interesitng question. Sometimes, we did. But sometimes, I don't know, it somehow seemed that the LDS church brought misery and discord into our Christmases when there was no need for it.

I can recall Christmases before my parents became Mormons. My parents would drink Advocaat and some wine (Sherry, mainly, as wine was not that common in Birmingham in the 1950s/1960s!) my father would have a beer or two, but never three, and it was good.

So did I have good Christmases as a Mormon? Yes. But in all honesty, I have had better before and since.

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That's Christmas