I probably ask this every year but when does Christmas start for you?
Judging by UK TV ads it begins the day after Bonfire Night here. November 6th. I know this is simply the start of their marketing campaigns but there are so many excessive ads displaying the perfect Christmas that its hard to tell when it actually starts anymore.
There are Christmas markets around in November. Big ones in town squares and little ones in libraries and such. Still, it feels too early to truly be called Christmas.
However, we got our first Christmas 'card' the other day. Its always the first one every year. A printed list of all the Christmas masses in our village made in the form of a card and dropped in the letter box. Having said that I think Xmas card writing is one the wane in these environmentally-conscious times. I limit cards to my immediate family these days and I always leave it too late.
As always some pioneering spirits of luminosity have decorated the outside of their homes already and the first big displays of Santas, Reindeers and Snowmen have appeared on some lawns, much to the delight of sleepy drivers going to work in the dark. Yet these early switch-ons are just that. Early.
A more immediate test of when Christmas starts is when you can comfortably say Seasons Greetings in an email [or indeed a letter!]. I tried it this week but it felt far too early so I won't be signing off like that again until December I don't think.
December maybe it. December could be the key to Christmas meaning Christmas. Having grown up in an RC household and gone to RC schools in the Sixties and early Seventies Advent was always really important and if not the first of December then the first of Advent was the beginning of the festive season proper, both culturally and ecclesiastically.
I don't go to Church anymore yet Advent still holds some meaning for me but it's not the moment I'm after. Maybe its simpler than that.
Forgetting all the November shopping, the Black Fridays, the TV ads after Bonfire Night, the pictures of roasted turkey dinners on every magazine cover, no-one can argue that if there is a single moment, a single event that is the thing that ushers Christmas in, it is putting up the tree!
There can be no more a festive ritual than decorating its branches in the spot we lovingly give over to it in the home. Like an evergreen lift-off to a new world this is surely where Christmas begins.
When does Christmas start for you readers?
Another set of previously published photos of my Century 21 toys Spectrum Patrol Car.
Not that it really matters, but there's an occasional minor debate as to whether it should be called a Patrol Car or a Saloon Car. I've always called it a Patrol Car, as does the C21 box description and the Captain Scarlet specification sheet. Dinky called it a Patrol Car, while Corgi went for Saloon. Vivid went for the easy option and simply called it a Spectrum Car!
Steve Canyon was a US Air Force pilot. It started out as a newspaper comic strip created by Milton Caniff, which ran from 1947 to 1988.
During 1958-59 there was a TV series starring Dean Fredericks, which was made with the cooperation of the USAF. So lots, and I mean lots, of the latest front-line USAF aircraft. The episode I found on You Tube is Episode 1, Operation Towline.
A plan to tow three Convair F-102 Delta Dagger fighters behind a Boeing KB-50 tanker (an improved version of the WW2 B-29) on long range interceptor missions, engines off. Plus Falcon and Mace missiles.
There are problems, and one pilot is lost, but the final test is successful. The series was made in black and white, but this episode is colorized. This is very odd in places, and they seem to have problems with red - even the US flag has grey and white stripes.
Still a great show, and well worth watching.
In 1958 Aurora released a Steve Canyon figure kit in 1/8th scale, in full flight gear. The kit was also released simply as a United States Air Force Pilot (1958-61).
Steve Canyon TV 1958 colorized s01e01 "Operation Towline" - YouTube
Paul Adams from New Zealand
A few photos I took a while back showing the 16/12 'New Adam, New Eve' Eagle which features the four additional boosters.
Although the Eagle in the episode, piloted by Alan Carter isn't able to take off due to the alien being, Magus using his apparent God-like powers preventing it, I wanted to see the booster-equipped Eagle in an Earth-like diorama.
This sale description intrigued me - a knockoff Professionals rifle CV5. Why would Chad Valley release a knockoff or a bootleg?
Here's the box from another site.
