The Spectator

Christmas tips from Niall Ferguson and Annie Nightingale

For the Spectator’s Christmas survey, we asked for some favourite seasonal rituals – and what to avoid at Christmas.

Niall Ferguson

Every Christmas — or, to be precise, every Hogmanay — all the members of the jazz band I played in at university gather together with their families at our place in Wales. We eat and drink gargantuan amounts and play music with steadily deteriorating precision. It is a wonderful way to see in the new year.

Annie Nightingale

My favourite ritual is visiting people, and I have some rules. A bottle of bubbly to each. Be charming, be fun, but be brief. Quit while you’re still popular. Then you can book a cab home to watch Some Like It Hot and High Society. Now that’s what I call Christmas.

The worst thing is being stuck in the same room with other people’s Farage-fan relatives, especially if they are pissed.

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