Boxing Day is so called because it was the day of the ancient practice of giving boxes of money at the midwinter holiday season to all those who had given good service throughout the year.
This of course no longer happens thanks to the arguments and the wranglings between the Government and Unions.
Nowadays Boxing Day is more associated with sport - particularly football and horse racing, but not boxing. It's also the day when everyone seems to go out walking after being stuck inside on Christmas Day.
There's something therapeutic about walking out on Boxing Day.
And now to a question. A friend asked me a few days ago "what do you and Bob Dylan have in common?"
"Well that's easy. Neither of us can sing," I replied.
But that's not what he meant. He was referring to the fact that myself and the Bobster both apparently love watching Coronation Street.
In a recent interview, Dylan said he liked to relax by binge watching Coronation Street. Apparently it brought him closer to his roots. The problem is Dylan has always been less than truthful about where he was raised and where he came from and I'm not sure he has many roots in Salford where Corrie is filmed. I, on the other hand, am up to 87,000 words in my autobiography explaining exactly where I come from - a product of an egg and a Stork apparently, but certainly not Salford.
I still claim the thing about singing is correct though. I definitely know that's true for me and you will have to make up your own mind about Dylan and whether he can sing or not.
David Bowie (who certainly could sing) wrote a song in which he described Dylan's voice as sounding like sand and glue.
On Christmas Eve I felt like watching a Movie, but not a Christmas one and so found "The Duke" a light and frothy British drama about the theft of a Goya painting. It starred Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent and was one of those quirky British films based on a true story. "Phantom of the Open" which I watched a few days ago for the second time is another one.
The court scene was very amusing particularly where the Broadbent character said that he had just finished reading Heart of Darkness and so felt like paying a visit to Sunderland. I hope my blog reader who comes from Sunderland appreciates that one. I needn't have to say that the Broadbent character came from Newcastle and there is just a tad of rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle.
As I searched through the hundreds of channels that we now have, I couldn't help but note that the only programmes available were films and old sit coms. Absolutely nothing new or original.
Which took me back to thinking about childhood Christmas Day television. We always got up to celebrities visiting children's wards in hospitals in one part of the country or another. This always seemed to be followed by a live Christmas service from a cathedral or church. Usually these were pre-recorded a number of months earlier.
So I thought I would take a comparison between BBC's Christmas Day programmes from 1960 and compare them with the programme for this year. And I came to the conclusion that they weren't that different as you may see from what is below.
In 1960 things didn't kick off until 9.29 am presumably to give everyone a chance to open presents first. The programme was:
9.29am Headline News
9.30am On Christmas Day in the Morning
Christmas songs and carols in Welsh and English, with Osian Ellis,
Iona Jones, Rowland Jones, Shelley Singers
Meredith Edwards telling a story by Gwyn Thomas
10.00am The Perry Como Music Hall
starring Perry Como in his traditional Christmas programme featuring
Ginny Tiu, Kokomo Jnr. and a party of young guests
10.45am Christmas Morning Service
from Sandon Road Methodist Church, Birmingham
Joyful and Triumphant
The Service conducted by the Minister, the Rev. Lionel Brayton
Preacher, the Rev. W. Russell Shearer Chairman of the Birmingham
District at the Methodist Church
11.45am Max Jaffa
invites you to a Christmas party
with The Trios
Max Jaffa (violin)
Reginald Kilbey (cello)
Jack Byfield (piano) and Beryl Grey
Ted and Ursula Darling
Peter Rhodes (boy soprano)
The Linden Singers
12.05pm The Adventures of Hiram Holliday : Vanishing House
A film comedy series starring Wally Cox
While his friend Joel is busy eating eclairs in Paris, Hiram
tries to interest a gendarme in the antics of a Punch and Judy show
12.30pm Sing We Now of Christmas!
Carols for Christmas Day sung by the Orpington Junior Singers
Conductor, Sheila Mossman
1.00pm The Queen
Her Majesty 's recorded Christmas Message to the Commonwealth
1.09pm The George Mitchell Glee Club
sing a parade of popular Christmas songs from medieval to modern
times featuring John Boulter, Mary Brown, Tony Mercer, Maryetta Midgley, John O'Neill
1.44pm Wells Fargo
The exciting adventures of the Western Stagecoach Service starring
Dale Robertson in Dead Man's Street
Paradise is not the place to expect trouble, but Jim finds it there,
and stops to help his old friend the Marshal get the town back to a state
which better suits its name
2.09pm Walt Disney
The story of a man who has become a legend
Told by David Jacobs who introduces Walt Disney
at his Hollywood studios and artists from his pictures with scenes from:
"Steamboat Willie"
"Hawaiian Holiday"
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
"Fantasia"
"Dumbo"
"Lady and the Tramp"
"Sleeping Beauty"
"The Living Desert"
"Robin Hood"
"Davy Crockett"
"One Hundred and One Dalmatians"
"Jungle Cat"
"The Parent Trap"
"Pollyanna"
"Greyfriars Bobby"
"Swiss Family Robinson"
3.25pm Appeal
on behalf of the British Wireless for the Blind Fund
3.30pm Billy Smart's Circus
4.30pm What's My Line?
from Hammersmith Hospital, London
Chairman, Eamonn Andrews
Panel: Isobel Barnett, Barbara Kelly, Cyril Fletcher,
Lord Boothby and a mystery guest celebrity
5.00pm Tonight with Belafonte
A new filmed programme of music and song starring the great entertainer Harry Belafonte
5.50pm The News
Weather
6.00pm Christmas Night with the Stars
introduced by David Nixon
featuring The Black and White Minstrels, Sid James, Nina and Frederick,
Harry Worth, Kenneth McKellar, David Nixon and Robert Harren, Stanley Baxter
and Betty Marsden, Joan Regan, Jimmy Edwards
7.15pm Film : The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
starring Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll
8.50pm The Sunday Night Play : Tuppence in the Gods
starring Fay Compton
10.20pm Christmas at Dean's Yard
Ludovic Kennedy visits the Dean of Westminster at his historic house with its
private access to the Abbey
10.40pm Late Night News
10.45pm Celebrity Recital
Fou Ts'ong plays
Presented by Arthur Langford
11.05pm Weather and Closedown
Lots of celebrities from the day with their own show, including Perry Como with his special Christmas jumper. Max Jaffa who certainly had his appeal (that's a joke by the way). And there they were The Black and White Minstrels which I wrote about very recently. You can note that it all wrapped up at 11.05 pm with the closedown which presumably meant it was time for us all to go to bed.
This year's Christmas Day programme on BBC1 went as follows.
6 am Breakfast
7 am The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Repeat)
9.30 am Superworm (Repeat)
10 am Live : Christmas Morning Service from Blackburn Cathedral
11 am Songs of Praise
11.35 am Abominable (2019)
1 pm Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
2.30 pm BBC Weekend News
2.45 pm The Smeds and the Smoos
3 pm The King's Christmas Broadcast
3.10 pm Aladdin (2019)
5.10 pm Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special
6.25 pm Michael McIntyre's Christmas Wheel
7.25 pm Ghosts Christmas Special
7.55 pm Call the Midwife Christmas Special
9.25 pm EastEnders
10.25 pm Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special
10.55 pm BBC News, Weather