CS-2016-txt-ART.indd 13
THE SIXPENCE
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Review copy only—not for distribution.
But that wasn’t the highlight of this particular
Christmas dessert.
As the custard-bathed pudding arrived, and a
dessert bowl was placed in front of each of us, not
one of us would touch our spoon and begin to eat.
We would wait. We would wait until our father
started eating, because at some point, at some
stage during dessert, we knew he would begin to
cough gently. Then the coughing would get louder,
deeper and more desperate. Finally he would
croak out, “A sixpence! I’ve swallowed a flamin’ sixpence!” and through roaring family laughter, we
would then devour our Christmas pudding, and
see which one of us got the actual prize.
That was Christmas Day for my family and me.
Goodness, how Christmas has changed since
I was five years old. It seems that these modern
Christmas days have virtually nothing to do with
creating an opportunity for a family to sit and
share a moment of gentle joy together. Today it
is more about what I bought you and where I
bought it. How much it cost, or how fashionable
or socially acceptable it is. And the shopping…
good Lord! The horror of Christmas shopping!
12/09/2016 1:02 PM