If you want to send someone a Xmas gift which helps birds and the environment and lasts for a whole year, then RSPB membership is the perfect gift. The RSPB is the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment.
Buy membership online by 14 December and the RSPB say that they will be able to send the welcome pack in time for Christmas.
RSPB adult membership gives free entry to over 100 RSPB nature reserves around the UK, the acclaimed BIRDS magazine, four times a year and a choice of a great free gift. Membership comes with a welcome pack explaining how to make the most of RSPB membership, including getting the most from RSPB affiliations, such as RSPB Energy and RSPB Leisure.
Children are not forgotten and family membership incorporating children or junior membership, includes a host of benefits plus loads of goodies, that are especialy chosen to suit their age.
Look no further if you want Christmas gift ideas for the garden-lovers in your life. The Royal Horticultural Society has a wide selection of books, plants, gardening tools and tickets to their shows but something really special is the RHS Gift Membership. It will give someone a whole year of garden visits and inspiration.
The lucky recipient of an RHS Gift Membership gets unlimited access to the RHS gardens with a family guest, The Garden monthly magazine, which is worth £51 a year, as well as the opportunity to explore more than 140 RHS Recommended Gardens across the UK. The gift even includes a selection of gardening goodies to unwrap so you can choose to give yourself a Christmas treat or the RHS will send it on your behalf with a personal message and really make someone's Christmas.
After Christmas, the RHS show season gets of to an early start with the charming Cardiff show. This show has a real spring festival feel, full of inspirational displays. It runs 16–18 April 2010, in Bute Park with the magnificent backdrop of Cardiff Castle. And remember, RHS members get to enjoy Members’ Days and buy discounted tickets for RHS shows.
Countrywide Farmers are offering a unique range of Christmas gifts for horses and their owners, encouraging the rural community to beat the Christmas rush and buy Christmas gifts from the comfort of their own homes. They have gifts for equestrian and pet lovers alike, plus a range of books, toys, calendars, diaries, kitchenware and much more, that have all been chosen to have a special appeal for anyone living and working in the country.
So if you love horses and country life take a look at the Countrywide Farmers's site and really enjoy Christmas shopping.
The Australian warns that tourists heading to Bali for Christmas will find its a dry Christmas. According to Stephen Fitzpatrick, their Jakarta correspondent, booze and gourmet staples are now almost completely unavailable on the Indonesian island, following a crackdown by customs on imported food and drink.
But hey, its not strictly true, locally produced drinks, like arak and brem (rice wine), and Bali beers (Bali Hai and Bintang) are readily available. Bintang, according to TheBackpacker.net gives you a 100% guaranteed headache!
Besides, consuming the local produce is right in line with the eco-travel movement, so you can spend Christmas in Bali, support the local economy with a little over-indulgence and claim that you are participating in responsible travel.
Were moving into the Christmas Party season and the Performing Right Society (PRS) report that they expect Karaoke bars across the UK to be the office party destination of choice, as recession-weary workers search for cheaper parties.
The organisation, which collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and composers, has reported a 10% increase in revenue collected from Karaoke bars across the UK in the past five years.
Robbie William's Angels, is the most popular Karaoke song in the UK, followed by Valerie from the Zutons & Amy Winehouse, ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline taking the other top spots. Popularity results are based on the most performed Karaoke songs in licensed venues by the Performing Right Society. The PRS collates this data in order to make accurate royalty payments to its 60,000 composer, songwriter and music publisher members, whenever music is publicly performed or broadcast; their survey covered bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants and live music venues.
Last Christmas from Wham is at number one, Do They Know It's Christmas? (original 1984 Band Aid recording) is at two and the great Fairytale of New York from The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, comes in third place. Get the full list and interesting background, in the Beeb article that is linked above. All the favourites are their, including the perennial favourites from Wizzard, Slade, and Bing Crosby, but not in the order that most people would expect.
The Christmas holiday is celebrated all around the world and lights form a major part of most Christmas decorations. Here are two masterclass examples from opposite ends of the globe, of synchronised light and music displays.
First up is a display at Perth, Western Australia that was posted on YouTube by TonyaI.
And next is "Symphony In Lights" at Denver, Colorado, presented by Carson Williams and Parker 3D, which they also posted on YouTube.
Both are great examples of a new, computer controlled, art form.
I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, so I thought that a seasonal end of week video would be a good idea. There are many Christmas songs, some have a message, some make you think, this song from Slade just makes you want to party.
Merry Xmas everyone and thanks to Maribel for taking the trouble to post the video. Have fun.
The annual "Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light" at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry runs through January 6, 2007. It features more than 50 trees, each decorated by volunteers from Chicago's ethnic communities to reflect holiday traditions from around the globe, and has been dazzling families for 66 years.
Traditionally, this is the week that the major New York City department stores unveil their decorated holiday windows and such is their appeal that they draw an estimated 6,000 window gazers per hour at the season's peak. Read a nice review from Jennifer 8. Lee, in the New York Times Blog.
It seems early to be thinking about Christmas but some opportunities are so fantastic, you have to grab them as soon as they are presented to you. Deep within a forest, at the summit of a volcano, exists an extraordinary world, a world of possibilities, a world called Varekai.
In the Romany language, the word 'Varekai' means 'wherever' and is the title of Cirque Du Soleil's new production at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK, paying tribute to the nomadic soul, to the spirit, the art of the circus tradition, and to the infinite passion of those whose quest takes them along the path that leads to Varekai.
The story of Varekai begins with a solitary young man falling from the sky, parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures, the scene is set for an extraordinary adventure on an inspired incantation to life rediscovered. And the Cirque Du Soleil performers are technically brilliant, I really cannot think of a more magical way of enjoying the Christmas season. The production opens 10 January, 2008 and runs to 3 February, 2008. Buy your tickets for Cirque Du Soleil from Ticketmaster now and then enjoy the summer!
’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; “Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!” As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack. His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle, But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”
