A scrumptious, pickled, funny, fabulous Christmas has been had here at home.

On the gift-giving front, Mr Drakeygirl excelled himself. Due to budget restraints, he was told only to get me a couple of small things. So he took me firmly at my word and got me a towel rail and toilet roll holder. He redeemed himself (just) with a copy of Paul Du Noyer's In The City and a Solomon Burke CD.

I catered for my parents and my mum-in-law and the kids on Christmas Day, while Mr DG had to work. (It was my first ever Christmas dinner. I am 40, by the way). The meal turned up trumps. I blame the sprouts.

In the evening, despite my deep and abiding love for her, I was forced to order my mum to leave my house when she started extolling the virtues of a certain evil boy band in front of my daughter (who hangs on her every word).

And so it came to pass - the favourite quote in our house over the Christmas period. I turned to my mother and said:

"No. Against my better judgement, I've allowed you to indoctrinate my child with religion. But I will not allow you to indoctrinate her with Westlife."

Anyone else want to share any Christmas quotes?

I was at a school nativity today.

My little friend was playing Buzz Lightyear (yes, I too was unaware that Woody, Jess, Buzz, Mr Potato Head et al were present at Jesus' birth, but apparently...) and he was ace, obviously.

Unfortunately, just as the Wise Men/Three Kings arrived, Joseph saw fit to throw baby Jesus across the stage. Twice. (To be honest, I think he was a bit put out by the frankincense and myrrh gifts. Joseph looked more of a Lightning McQueen or Lego kind of guy.)

Joseph's mother was mortified, but the rest of us enjoyed it enormously. It also reminded me of my god-daughter's nativity about 17 years ago. It was a church school, so it was quite a serious, straight nativity (no aliens, Toy Story or Star Wars characters). As Mary & Joseph arrived and asked if there was any room at the inn, the helpful innkeeper said: "Yes, there's loads of room. Come in!" and opened a pretend door.

End of navitity play in chaos when Mary cried and cried at the mistake and Angel Gabriel had a tantrum.

So, any stories about your little darlings' nativities, christmas plays or school concerts?

Enjoy. Its real page is here: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/christmas

Continues in comments.

In these times of crisis and despair, and especially at Christmas, we must take comfort in the words of the eponymous Spaceman (aka the angel Gabriel) in Chris de Burgh's 1976 hit A Spaceman Came Travelling, and his vitally important message for the world:

LA LA-LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA,
LA LA-LA LA LA LA LA,
LA LA-LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA,

LA LA LA.

Wishing all the Word Massive a very merry Christmas!

Love minibreakfast xxx

The GLW has asked me tp purchase a good game that will keep everybody amused on Christmas day.
Have the massive any suggestions of any old favourites or indeed new classics in the making,that i can buy.
We have seven big kids attending aged between 22 and 55!

It's approaching that time when I have to start dropping hints for my Christmas pressie as silence will guarantee disappointment.
And I notice that series 2 of The Killing is due for a dvd release in December.
Has anyone seen it already and, if so, is it up to the standard of series one?

Made me smile. Hope you like.

.be

Anybody else planning to go easy on the festive liquid lunch and try and stay awake for the Melbourne test match?
I can’t remember looking forward to a test match so much, with the series perfectly balanced at one each.
He’s under pressure, and will possibly be moving down the order, so I’m fully expecting a match winning innings from Paul Collingwood.

...my four- and two-year-old girls are tearing around my in-laws' house singing Jingle Bells at the top of their voices.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

"On the first day of Christmas, the Word Blog gave to me...
a lovely post from Dave Amitri".

I used to write a spoof Twelve Days of Christmas every year for the colleagues I was currently working with. Given that I'm now a full-time mum, you guys are the closest things I have to work colleagues ;-)

Anyone care to continue the song and write the next verse?

There's a Christmas album currently playing in the office and, to be frank, it's not terribly good (it's by Annie Lennox). In fact, it's dreadful. We're convinced The Massive can provide a much better soundtrack to another day in our dark room, so we've set up a collaborative playlist at Spotify. We'd be delighted if you could fill it with suitably festive trinkets. Usual rules apply: individual tracks only, no whole albums, and keep it Xmassy.

Here's the playlist. Go mental.

e.g Sufjan Stevens 'Age of Adz' - should I reach for the tippex?

Any unconfident requests on your list?

It can now be revealed that diminutive 'At the Zoo' hitmaker, Paul Simon, often hangs around the Word blog, reading the entertaining and thought-provoking posts. He enjoys the blog so much that he is releasing a re-recorded version of the S&G song 'Blessed' as a celebration of the Massive. We can now exclusively reveal the re-written lyrics:

Blessed are the geeks, for they shall inherit
Blessed is the spam whose junk flows
Blessed are the understudies, old buddies, posting in the nuddies
O Word! You have overtaken me!
(I've got no place to go
I've hung around the blog for the last night or so
Ah, but it doesn't matter, no.)

Blessed is the aspidistra and hatstand
Blessed is the man who is actually a woman
Blessed are the RT-baters, cover-image-haters, stay-up-too-laters
O Word! My FPO's forsaken me!
(The thread trickles down, like a discussion
That I have no intention to end)

Blessed are the slow loaders, Windows goaders
Blessed are the outcasts, podcast hepcats
Blessed are the uke pluckers, hard luckers, groovy fuckers
O Word! You are always there for me
(I have hung around in this perfumed garden
Much too long)

Happy Christmas, everyone.

So who's got the best Christmas/New Year/Holiday song ever? Bing Crosby? John Lennon? Fear? If you could guarntee one holiday song blasted across the world this season -- what'd it be?