Music box

The true sign the festive period has started seems to be when the Coca-Cola Christmas adverts appear on TV, billboards and the sides of delivery lorries around the world – sparking memories for me of cold, wet winter mornings queuing outside department stores in the UK buying last minute presents and jostling with other shoppers caught up in that purchasing frenzy.
 
Of course, here in wonderful Bahrain, the shopping will never be as cold and miserable as my native Cambridge but the fun of choosing presents remains the same. That reminds me – I must dash around and organise some more last-minute gifts.

One of the more important things about this time of year is, of course, the music – whether it is played in the lift, on your car radio, a local restaurant or being blasted out in a shopping mall. 

I will be getting the usual requests from friends of ‘can you make me a Christmas CD’, to which I normally reply ‘why didn’t you keep the one from last year?’

But it is the season of peace on earth and goodwill to all men (and women) so, of course, I’ll do it.

So with just two more GulfWeekly issues between now and that famous arrival of Santa, let me do a selection of seasonal f tunes to put on your stereo for Christmas morning:

Brenda Lee – Jingle Bell Rock
Dean Martin – Let It Snow
Mel Smith & Kim Wilde – Rockin Around The Xmas Tree
The Jackson 5 – Frosty The Snowman
The Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York
Elton John – Step Into Xmas
Kylie Minogue – Santa Baby

More top Christmas tunes next week for you to impress your friends on December 25 whilst deciding whether to have one more bowl of pudding – but, in the mean time, if you are out and about at the office party remember this: when I go to a restaurant I always ask the manager to give me a table near the waiter.