It's... You know. CHRISTMAAAASSS!

And actually I'm quite happy to call it that. I'm equally happy to call it Midwinter, Winterval, Yule, Saturnalia or whatever you like. 'Christmas' will do. Just like 'Thursday', or 'January' will do, as they are what most people around me tend to say, despite them not actually believing in either the Norse (Thor, Freya-Friday, Wodin-Wednesday) or the Roman (Janus-January, etc) pantheons of imaginary friends. Years turn, seasons change, marking points is generally a nice thing. What could be bad about choosing a day or two and dedicating those days to tasty food, exchanging presents, random shagging and active merriment? Generally I like to keep or at least mark (in order round the year) Burns Night, Mothers' Day, St George's Day, Easter, Mayday, Fathers' Day. Summer Solstice, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Year. I like spotting the relevant decorations when I'm on my rounds, but most households only mark a couple of the festivals I celebrate. Some households, of course, acknowledge other festivals that I don't know enough about to participate in, such as Eid and Diwali and Hannukah. I'm quite glad that the local card-and-tat emporia have decided to start selling culture-specific cards-and-tat for each of these even though said cards-and-tat have an air of having been produced by the clueless and aimed at the clueless, ignoring the concept that most of the people who mark these festivals have been doing so for a long time without the aid of 'Happy Whatever' cards with a picture of a kitten wearing a relevant hat. Festivals are good. The more reasons to give people presents, eat nice food and snog random strangers, the better.