Anyone looking to
rekindle the awe, magic and merriness of an early childhood Christmas should visit
the Winter Wonderland I saw in a village pub the other day.
Until then, I would have suggested Claridge’s or Hamley’s as the perfect festive destination (depending
on your budget), but they've since been usurped. I now know you'd be better off
heading for Bedfordshire than for the bright lights of Regent Street. Look at
that beautiful woodland scene; just a few minutes at that table would lift the mood of the most mean-spirited Grinch.
What more could anyone want than a couple of chairs, a pamphlet holder and a hastily thumb-tacked
wipe-clean landscape? Who cares that the sign is about to come free from its Sellotape, ready to fall to the ground like that banner in Jurassic Park?
Stotfold’s Winter Wonderland has all the mod-cons; it's got two coasters. Two.
Speaking of
Claridge’s, I did a gig there once, playing keys for a Fifties rock n’ roll
band at an affluent couple’s wedding reception. The bride & groom had requested Shake Your Tail Feather as part of our setlist, which I kicked off with
the keyboard accidentally set to harpsichord. The resulting intro was less Ray Charles, more Charles I (which would work if he'd been king two hundred years earlier
when the instrument was invented).