It’s not too late to book up a late break away somewhere if you can’t stand the thought of yet another Christmas in this country spent paying duty visits to relatives and pretending to be cheerful.

Just one of the problems with Xmas

The great thing about going away is: (a) not having to put up the decorations and (b) not having to buy in unnecessarily vast amounts of food. The downsides are missing: (a) the Christmas edition of Doctor Who, (b) the Queen’s speech and (c) the rest of the family. The latter being a blessing in many cases.

If you really want to indulge the kids without having to put in too much effort, yet have fun yourself, then how about Christmas in Disneyland Paris? Father Christmas leads a huge parade down the main street on Christmas morning itself. You can travel on Christmas Eve and have Christmas Day and Boxing Day there.

Or how about really getting away from everything and going to somewhere like Egypt? A few years ago some friends of mine did, and they’ve been back nearly every year since.

Hmmm - looks nice

They wanted a complete break from the tradition of Christmas and where better than in a Moslem country? So for Christmas Day lunch they had a Big Mac and Chips in Luxor. The city is great at Christmas and Egypt is a mainly Moslem country but is ten per cent Christian, although being Coptic Christians they celebrate on a different day So the hotel my friends stayed in had a Christmas tree and a few lights on the outside, but that was it. What you have to remember is that there are no bars and discos in Egypt - the only night life is mosquitoes.

You can get alcohol in the hotels, but it’s expensive. As a result, the people who go to Egypt are generally pleasant folk of a certain age, so it won’t appeal to everyone.

The weather there is around 21-25 degrees at this time of year (their winter also) and generally sunny. In all the years they’ve been going to Egypt, it has only rained once, for about an hour. The locals went out in the streets just to be in the rain! It caused a lot of excitement, singing and dancing.
There’s no turkey and trimmings on the menu, but my friends say that sunbathing by the pool on Christmas Day is better than staring out of the window at the rain and gloom.

But if you do want to get away, you’d better move fast. As Dandy Nichols in the 1970’s comedy show ‘Till death us do part’ once said when discussing the fact that there had been no room at the inn for Joseph and Mary: “Well, it’s not surprising, everywhere’s busy at Christmas.”

No room at the inn!