Val McDermid: Our Village Christmas Lights
Val McDermid: Our Village Christmas Lights
In our Northumberland seaside village, a bunch of dedicated volunteers
design, build and erect the Christmas lights. Our population of four hundred revels in more than forty individual lights. Some are animated. (The guy who designs them – his day job is programming tank missile systems, so our lights work pretty well.) Some are location-specific. The Post Office has a festive pillar box on the gable end. The village hairdresser has a giant Santa whose beard is chopped off by animated scissors. The ex-servicemen’s club features Andy Capp.
My wife is a light-builder. She says it’s like cross-stitch with electricity. My almost-teenage son helps erect the lights. Climbing up the inside of the church steeple is one of the highlights of his year. (Me, I bake shortbread for the erectors to keep them going through the cold.) Our house has hosted a light since I moved in ten years ago, but I knew I had finally been accepted when they shyly unveiled a new light for the front of our house. It was one of Santa’s elves, a scroll in one hand and in the other, an animated quill. Few things have given me more of a Christmas glow than that.
To find out more about Val’s new Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novel click here.
To continue the Christmassy theme, you might also like
Val’s ebook exclusive short story duo. Find out more.
