The December meeting brought Fairfield (Dartford) Women’s an early feel of Christmas when Martin Harrison came to entertain us.

His Christmas Waits: a Musical Evening began when he explained that the original Waits were from Yorkshire, who travelled around entertaining during the festive season.

Martin then taught us to say Happy Christmas in many languages including Japanese, Polish and Welsh.

Did you know male reindeer lose their antlers in autumn, so that Rudolf should really be called Renate?

Other facts followed about Santa Klaus, a Turkish Bishop who became a saint, who first thought of crackers, sending Christmas cards and mince pies, which were really originally made of meat.

We then were encouraged to sing along with two carols, The First Noel and Good King Wenceslaus. Martin then told us about unfortunate notices in Oxford Street, some politically correct, others which did not make sense.

We then sang a very humorous song called Grandma Got Knocked Down By A Reindeer.

Martin ended with us singing songs from Abba, the Sound of Music and finally the song to finish with, White Christmas.

Who needs X Factor? We all agreed how much we had enjoyed Martin’s evening with us. He had certainly given us an early taste of Christmas.

Subscriptions are due in January for 2010 and we use the Meeting to discuss and plan for the coming year.