Each year an American Financial group called PNC Wealth Management puts out the cost of buying each of the items in the 12 days of Christmas.

Apparently this year is a bad year to propose to a milkmaid. The cost of gold has gone up, and wages too.

You can go to the home page and listen to the company spokesperson, but if you're interested in the nitty gritty, just go to the press release at http://www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com/pressRelease.htm

The cheapest item is the Partridge, at $15, which is the same as 2006, however the cost of a Pear Tree has gone up to almost $150.

Definitely a first class version of the items. It's gone up to $78,100 US dollars to buy all the traditional items.

According to Wikipedia, the 12 day of Christmas are the twelve days starting from the evening of Christmas Day (December 25) through to the morning of Epiphany (January 6).

So now you know when to take down your Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

Today is Christmas Eve, and it's a good time to check out the Christmas Lights in Sydney.

A useful page is the public transport holiday information page at http://www.131500.com.au/outandabout/events/specificeventsdetails_new.as..., which says which timetables are in use. On Christmas Eve, it will be the normal timetable, while on Christmas Day and Boxing Day it will be the Saturday timetable.

So if you want to go into the city, there will still be trains and ferries running late.

Courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald was news about Sydney Christmas festivities, at www.sydneychristmas.com.au (which redirects to a City Of Sydney council web page), listing Christmas events, including an excellent walking map that you can print out, highlighting the best Christmas decorations.

That's the vision I have for this website - an easy-to-use source of Christmas information, but including the whole of Australia. Maybe by next year.....

cheers

This year Google have partnered with Norad to let you track Santa's progress on Christmas Eve in 3D!

The special Christmas site at http://noradsanta.org has games for kids every day between now and Christmas. It has been revamped with a new fresh look, and lots more functionality.

When you visit the site, it prompts you to download the Google Earth program, so that you will be able to monitor progress on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile you can play with Google Earth now, even viewing the sky.
Have fun.

Christmas Party invitations are now rolling in thick and fast, and we're starting to realise how little time we have left before Christmas.

This weekend will be the beginning of December, when it's politically correct to start putting up decorations.

For the decorations on the house and front garden, that means that this weekend is the last chance to finish painting, and that all hedges need to be trimmed, so that lights can be strung up.

Once those lights are up, there's no way I'm going to trim the hedges and risk cutting the lights. So even though Les is planning to get his shopping done this weekend, I'm planning a serious garden and home day.

My living Christmas Tree in the front garden has to be trimmed into a nice shape so I can string up the lights. I still haven't worked out how to get my star at the top of the tree.

cheers

The David Jones shop windows in Elizabeth and Market St Sydney, already have their Christmas display up!

There is also advertising in the city for the Christmas parade on November 25, culminating in the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Martin Place.

That would be a busy, but magical day to be in the city.

Here is the best picture that I've taken so far:

Yesterday I went to my first Christmas Warehouse.

We were actually out looking at sliding doors (we're renovating), and saw the open Christmas Warehouse on Pittwater Rd at Brookvale. I warned Les that it could be dangerous, but he bravely accompanied me.

It was a lovely big shop. A separate room out back with most of the outdoor Christmas lights, with the more traditional decorations in the front room.

I couldn't resist and bought a semi-inflatable 5 foot Santa, that looks like he's climbing up the side of the house. Which is exactly where I'll put him, when my decorations go up. He's very cool.

The absolute best thing in the shop was the chubby Santa with a surfboard, that the local surf club had already bought. Absolutely Australian, with a chalkboard on the surfboard, but a little out of my budget, given the renovations.

I was checking out the reindeer as well. I definitely want some in the front garden - my old inflatable ones are all broken now. And I couldn't work out whether to get electronic moving ones, fairy light ones, rope ones, or solid ones. I'm leaning towards solid ones, as sometimes it can look tacky when you only have half a Christmas display.

So I'm on the countdown for putting up decorations. I'm forcing myself to wait until December 1, but it's hard, when you see all the shop windows with their decorations.

I also have a catalogue for a different Christmas Warehouse next to my bed.

So I'll keep planning.

Merry Christmas.