Ah, retirement Christmas’s. Well here we are again – nearly. Christmas Eve of my eighth Christmas since I retired. I never was a huge fan of Christmas when I was working, it seemed more like a time of obligation than pleasure. It doesn’t feel that way these days. The only obligations we have are the ones we want to keep. Including, in our own small modest way, being charitable to those less fortunate than us.
Before Covid we used to have something called ‘attic club’ for the younger generation where we all went up to the attic (where the old hi-fi system still resides) and I revisited my favourite tracks from my LP collection. Shaking hands have made it difficult to hit the track. But the younger people who come have got or had Covid so they’re not coming again this year. We could just do it for the family but that doesn’t feel quite the same. So one less pleasurable obligation.
But there’s an obligation, or at least an expectation, that does remain. That I will, like MR James (look him up if you don’t know him), provide a ghost story on Christmas Eve. In my case, in bought, DVD form rather actually written. I did actually write eleven ghost stories on my blog under the title That Which Lies Beneath, some while ago but I haven’t revisited them for a long time so I can’t say whether I still think they’re any good. They’re still available so you could check them out.
Incidentally, I see the Times newspaper has 12 best ghost stories. Ever. I don’t suppose any of mine will be among them but I might even buy The Times (not my usual read) to just check*. You never know… Incidentally you might try the story, Welcome on Board, Sir. I won a prize with it.
Anyway, as I say, the onus is on me to provide something ghostly for this evening. The year before last I tried something different, offering to our guests (our daughter and son-in-law) an old BBC TV programme (Whistle and I’ll come to you) which was a story written by the above author and ‘programmised’ by the BBC and now available on Youtube. It didn’t seem quite as scary as it did when it first appeared all those years ago in a non-digital age.
I now feel obliged to return to the previous winning formula. That is a scary film that’s not too scary for the ladies. My personal favourite being The Ghost Train starring, of all people, Author Askey. It’s old, in black and white and isn’t too scary well not at all actually. Oh and it has trains and an old station as a context. Perfect.
Captain Clegg two years ago was promising but failed to meet even basic requirements of scariness and was just so bad it was laughable. A bit of a laugh is OK but too much just destroys the mood. I’m pretty sure MR James didn’t aim for the comedy element in his stories. One of which incidentally is on BBC TV tonight in the form of The Mezzotint. Definitely a classic.
So obviously I have not always been successful in my choices. Last year was quite successful with The Haunting. This year I’ve hedged my bets and have bought three DVDs Buying the actual DVD is part of the tradition by the way, keeping it analogue. One of which is a remake of the latter entitled The Legend of Hell House. Terrible reviews but that doesn’t exclude it from my list. If not I have also bought this year, as a package deal, both The Village of the Damned and Children of the Damned. Both have much better reviews but that doesn’t necessarily make for the right choice.
It’s causing me some stress trying to decide which one to show. I’m limited to just one choice but at least I’m not competing for air time with White Christmas, this year, Mrs Summerhouse and I have already watched this but still I am up against the traditional Christmas Eve meal, Cannelloni bizarrely. I’m not quite sure how this became a Christmas tradition but it most certainly is.
Back to the films. I could chicken out and give them the choice but that’s a bit of a cop out and I’m pretty sure Montagu (the ‘M’ in MR James) didn’t offer his audience of Cambridge under-graduates a choice of stories. I’ll let you know what happens. In the meantime, in the picture above, you can see most of my recent selections. Some great and some not so great movies in there.
Retirement Christmas summary
I haven’t chosen three but then I couldn’t because I have so many favourites but I’ve given you plenty to go at to make your choice and try looking in The Times if you can bear it. More there.
*It wasn’t there and I have to say I was surprised at how few of Susan Hill’s (author of Woman in Black) choices (4 out of 11) I was familiar with. Plenty to go at next year.