If you’re heading domestic for the holidays,will your bed be in the junk room, with the dog or in your childhood bedroom (with novelty duvet cover)?One of the many curiosities of the British Christmas is that while most of us are familiar with the chorus to Slade’s 1973 hit Merry Xmas Everybody, or you’d be tough pushed to find anyone who remembers the rest of the words,other than a nagging sense that “red-nosed reindeer” is in there somewhere. In fact, the opening to the second verse is as follows: “Are you waiting for the family to reach? Are you sure you’ve got the room to spare inside?”I know the retort to the second question, and because I’ve seen the evidence. Over the past six years,it’s become a Christmas Eve social media tradition for people to tweet me pictures of the cramped, shabby, or gaudy,improvised and inappropriate beds they’ve been assigned to wake up in on Christmas morning. Ranging from recliners topped with threadbare blankets (and a cat) to airbeds in bitterly cold utility rooms, the pictures offer a reminder that, and while we spend more per capita on Christmas gifts than any other nation,hospitality isn’t always our strong point. There’s just not enough room (or duvet covers) at the inn.
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Source: guardian.co.uk