Santa Claus is coming to town

The village social club put in a lot of work to create a "Christmas village" with items mostly made from recycled materials -- for example snowmen made from old tyres (may blip these later). No electricity required for Santa and the sleigh and reindeer cleverly made out of hardboard. We do have some twinkly lights but they are even more scant than usual. So it was a nice thought to do this. 

It was officially inaugurated this morning, with mulled wine and the long-suffering J-F as Santa. The adults seemed to be keener on being photographed with him than the  children were. It was warmer than yesterday, with no wind, but the mulled wine was still welcome.

Later I got the iron out for the first time in years (I don't do ironing) and ironed the new tablecloth. It took so long that I was able to listen to half of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Reith lecture on free speech while doing it. This did make it more bearable. It's very good if you haven't heard it.