All that glitters.....

We're still in October. The Jack O' Lanterns are yet to be lit, the Bonfires are yet to be burnt, we've just had a glorious Indian summer of a week and the half-term holiday is barely over. So, of course, the shops are full of Christmas tinsel and tat. Yes, it's that time of year again. Selection boxes, sleigh bells, glitter, chesnuts roasting on an open fire, miseltoe and wine, the boys of the NYPD choir, snow falling all around us, (just like the ones we used to know), everybody having simply wonderful fun. Oh, I wish it could be Christmas every day (don't worry, at this rate it soon will be).
And yet, there is a refuge. A haven. A shelter from the storm of all this madness. The library. No subliminal pressure to buy loads of cheap rubbish that you'll never use; no pushing and shoving and fights over a parking place; no mince pies (your local council has a healthy eating policy), no sickly smell of sherry (ditto drinking); no middle-aged staff painfully trying to get into the party spirit by wearing reindeer antlers or dressing as elves (well, not all the time) and no piped music playing Slade 653 times a day. Just a rather dog eared collection of Christmas books sat inconspicuously in a corner like they have every year for the past three decades (I've always felt that "Fanny Craddock's Christmas Cooking" is one for the ages). Bliss.
So if you're one of those people for whom Christmas has somehow lost true meaning, check out your library. You'll find peace on earth and goodwill to all in abundance.
Roll on Easter. . . .