Cathy is the cheery Christmas person. She loves her Roger Whittaker because that's what she always listened to when she was growing up and preparing for the Christmas season. So there's cake and cookies and the tackier the Christmas lights and decorations then the happier she is.

I've adjusted over the years. It's not really the Christmas I grew up with, which was more sedate as I got older. Sure, when I was a kid it was Christmas at my grandparents house and all the madness that went along with that much family trying to cram into a small house. But when I hit my teens, all of that seemed to change. I can't put my finger on exactly when or why, but it feels like it did.

I don't know if it's because of that or if I'm a naturally morbid person, but I tend to get enjoyment out of the darker aspects of the season. If I were to pick my three favourite Christmas songs they would be "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues, "St. Stephen's Day Murders" by the Chieftains and Elvis Costello, with "The Holly and the Ivy" by Pamela Morgan and Anita Best finishing third. Only the last one would be considered cheerful.

Two of my favourite Christmas comic comic books both involve bounty hunters fulfilling contracts to whack Santa Claus ("Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special" and an issue of "Hitman"). I really don't have a favourite Christmas movie. Cathy and I watch "Love, Actually" and we both like it, but that's about as close to a Christmas as I come. "It's A Wonderful Life" bores the hell out of me.

I mention all of this to put into context the following little video. I've said here many times I'm not a fan of poetry because 99 per cent of it is crap. However, I've always had a fondness for "Nicholas Was..." by Neil Gaiman. He wrote it years ago as a Christmas card to friends and they loved it so much it was published. And actually became a set of Christmas cards, of which I still own a couple. And now some bright folks have made a video of it, which I love.

It's also 100 words long. I've counted.

Merry Christmas all...

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

Last Five
1. Century city (live) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. The next life (live) - Tom Cochrane and Red Rider
3. Star song - Bowling for Soup
4. Moment of surrender - U2
5. Night windows (live) - The Weakerthans