The Christmas season is upon us, and kick starting it means taking over one of our favourite boozers, charging the glasses and getting some of our best Aubin mates together for Christmas lunch.

We absolutely love Christmas. Other than the 22 hours of darkness the winter solstice inflicts upon us as she flexes her muscles, there’s literally nothing not to love about the traditions, the decorations, the board games and the all round gluttony. And that’s just Christmas Day with the family. 

But there’s another Christmas event that we love just as much. And that’s the Christmas lunch-which-turns-into-an-alldayer with your mates, ideally in an extremely handsome old boozer (in our case, Elephant Hackney, run by long-time Friend of Aubin, Stevie Thomas) . This is the real, start of UK plc’s productivity busting three-week shutdown that is the festive period unless you work in a.) a church, b.) hospitality or c.) A&E.

There’s always plenty of chat around the Christmas lunch table about what you’ve been up to, judiciously edited highlights of the year, and a lot of discussion about why you don’t do this more often. Most traditions are followed, albeit the turkey is washed down with a few pints rather than a dry sherry which would be controversial for Granny to witness around the Christmas lunch table on the actual Big Day.

But otherwise, treat this like a dress rehearsal for Christmas proper with all its traditions: crackers with proper old dad jokes in; a Christmas tree that’s lit up like the Shard and probably shouldn’t be near any naked flames; Secret Santa with decks of cards and magic tricks that don’t quite work. A singalong of questionable quality. At least one Noddy Holder impression. And remember the golden rule - however sharp your outfit, you’re never too cool for a paper hat.