The Enid Blyton Society

Tony Summerfield wrote:

Rob Houghton wrote:

pete9012S wrote:Would the publishers of the book be able to tell us the short story's origin if we asked them?

Or at least, where they'd got it from, even if it wasn't the original source.

The short answer is, no! I said in an email that I had no idea where this had been taken from when I checked the acknowledgements page, and the result of this was that it got removed from the page, but it is still in the book. The person who edited the book no longer works for Hodders.

Being avid readers of Enid Blyton, I'm sure none of us like 'unfinished mysteries' lol!

I started reading 'Christmas Tales' last night - ''One Christmas Eve' - about Father Christmas accidentally going down a factory chimney! I'm sure I must have read the story before somewhere - not sure if it is the same story with the same title that has appeared in several books over the years? I presume it is - but haven't checked my various story collections. Its a bit of a strange tale...children letting Santa in their window when he's being chased by a policeman who thinks he's a burglar, because he's lost his hat and coat. They allow him to hide in their cupboard until the policeman has done a search of their house! I must admit, as I read it I was thinking 'these kids are WAY too trusting!'

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Just for fun, I thought I'd have a go at rewriting the first verse from a modern perspective. If anyone wants to do the same for the other verses, feel free:

On Amazon and similar sites are many 'must-have' things,
Ipads, ipods, game consoles; a robot dog that sings,
And lots and lots of Hatchimals - and Haribos to chew,
And Lego bricks and Gucci bags, and 'adult' Blytons too!

Rob Houghton wrote:There's mistletoe and holly, made of plastic, everywhere,
And Poundland decorations swinging in the air,
Everything's exciting - all those adverts on TV
And our house is piled with Christmas lights, as garish as can be!

From Aldi we bought puddings, and economy mince-pies,
And all the sweets and chocolates - well, I can't believe my eyes!
Sometimes when mum's not looking, and nobody's about
I get my advent calendar and take the chocolates out.

Absolutely marvellous Anita and Rob! I can't leave a poem unfinished, so here's my attempt at the last three verses:

No need to watch for postmen as I can look online
To track the parcel's progress and exact delivery time
Mum says if it doesn't come no need for dismay
Amazon do shipping almost up to Christmas Day

We've put the decorations up, the house is all aglow
A six foot Santa in the yard and windows with fake snow
In the corner is our colour changing fibre optic tree
I can control it with an app I got off google play for free

I forget what it's really all about, it doesn't cross my mind
The baby in the manger has now long been left behind
I'm sure he must be very happy the world's forgot his birth
And use his day instead for commercial monetary worth.

Brilliant, all of you.

Great stuff, IceMaiden!

A great finish to the poem, IceMaiden! What a jaundiced view we all have of a modern Christmas, lol!

I should put in a kinder word for colour-changing fibre optic Christmas trees... my parents have one, just a small one (no more than 2 ft high), and it doesn't have a Google app to control it. It's really very pretty and has become Mum and Dad's substitute for the traditional full-sized decorated tree, now that they don't have us kids at home to do all the setting up and decorating. I don't blame them for taking the easier option!

We had a fibre optic tree once, my mum decided she liked the look of it in the shop and thought it would make a nice change. It wasn't a success, we all very quickly got fed up of watching it change over and over, it was no fun to put up as you couldn't decorate it in any way and our then 9 month old puppy managed to pull it over in such a way the heavy base landed on him, permanently damaging his back leg for life. Come January it was relocated to the charity shop and a traditional tree was reinstated the following year .

We had a fibre optic tree, but never used it as our main tree. We always had it in the window in the hall, so we weren't driven crazy by the constantly changing colours! Even now, I prefer lights to be on a 'still' setting, not flashing and jumping around!

So sorry to hear about your puppy, IceMaiden. Regarding my parents' fibre optic tree, I hasten to add they don't have it switched on constantly! I agree, it's not as much fun as decorating a real tree, but less work for my parents now that they don't have kids at home. We all still find it pretty to look at, but it's only a small one and the colour changes aren't so fast that it's bewildering. I can imagine a larger sized one would be a bit OTT.