Christmas is a time for public service announcements

Last Tuesday my Year 9 English class was lucky enough to head off to St Pats to move the contents of a library out in preparation for renovation (exciting times). Outside the library all the little kids were preparing for the nativity scene (with carols!). I managed to annoy all the teachers by pushing a trolley around piled with books, which distracted all the children during 'Holy Night'. Good times.

Anyway, we all gave up on the books and sat down to watch the kids, and one classmate said that they think Christmas should be a time to warn everyone about the dangers of unsafe sex. After we all told her we had no idea what she was talking about, she explained that the whole story about Mary is basically about covering up an unwanted pregnancy, and that you should always plan your births or people might just go on about it for 2000 years.

This idea evolved into the whole message of stranger danger; Santa Claus is the creepy, old, paedophile figure. Somewhat ironically, the kids then started singing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', which seemed only to emphasise the message. The lyrics are incredibly creepy when put in the context of an child molester:

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out
who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

Anyway, I suppose that's just what we do when we're bored.

In other news, all the Christmas decorations are up. How wonderful. Here are some photos:

Click to see it bigger!

Click to see it bigger!

More will come when I get back on my normal computer/take some more.

Also, I'm really annoyed with sunburn now. It's quite painful. The five hours swimming was totally worth it, though. Someone had an underwater camera, so I might have photos from that in a bit. I know you're all super excited to see those.

In memory of the wondrous art of pre-emptive gluing,
Nick.