Not everybody was enjoying December
Radio, shops and television had become completely festive.
Scott and Chris wanted to hear from the people who did not care.
Not people having a difficult Christmas for serious personal reasons.
Simply people who thought the whole event was overrated.
The programme created the Scrooge Scale.
How anti-Christmas were you?
One:
mildly bored by it.
Ten:
Christmas should probably be abolished.
One house had almost no festive evidence
A caller explained they did not decorate much.
The main Christmas object in the house was effectively an advent calendar for the dog.
No enormous tree.
No carefully themed lights.
No desire to spend weeks creating a festive atmosphere.
Scott struggled to imagine living somewhere in December without being able to tell immediately that Christmas was approaching.
The caller was perfectly happy with it.
Lewis wanted Christmas every four years
Then Lewis offered the most radical solution.
Christmas creates too much pressure.
Enjoy yourself.
Buy presents.
Attend parties.
Be cheerful.
Pretend everything is magical.
He therefore suggested treating it like the Olympics.
Hold it every four years.
People would have time to recover financially and emotionally.
When Christmas eventually returned, perhaps it would feel special again.
Scott loved the logic while also recognising it would destroy a large proportion of Radio 1’s December output.
Hospitality had created some genuine Scrooges
Another listener worked in bars and had spent years dealing with the less glamorous side of the season.
Arguments.
Over-drinking.
Cleaning up vomit.
People behaving badly because it was the office Christmas party.
After enough of those shifts, compulsory festive cheer had become difficult to enjoy.
The Scrooge Scale was proving more understandable by the minute.
Bamboleo approached its Christmas break
The penultimate Bamboleo Wednesday before Christmas arrived.
As usual, the Gipsy Kings had nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the programme.
That was the point.
Listeners danced anyway.
Sports commentary found new innuendo
The show also collected clips from MMA commentary involving a fighter whose surname produced phrases which sounded considerably ruder than intended.
Scott and Chris immediately missed Innuendo Bingo again.
The clips would once have had people spraying water across the studio.
In 2021 they simply had to enjoy the wording without the game.
Australian slang became a quiz
With the Ashes under way, Don’t Look It Up went Australian.
Pash meant a kiss or make-out session.
A pash rash was the irritated face which might follow.
Spit the dummy meant lose your temper.
A two-pot screamer was somebody who became drunk very easily.
Scott and Chris also heard Wiggles-related material and Australian pop culture.
The episode had begun with people who disliked Christmas.
It ended with Scott learning how Australians describe lightweight drinkers.
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