A few years back, before the patter of tiny feet scuttling across my living room floor became a daily joy (and I’m not talking about reindeer here), Christmas in Israel meant heading over to Jerusalem or Bethlehem, accompanied by a never-ending flow of alcohol…us Brits eh? Not like we ever need a reason…
One particular Christmas stands out in my mind, and that was back in ’94. In an effort to get festive, my mate Peter and I had decided to set off for Bethlehem. Well, that was what we’d told our Israeli girlfriends…the truth was we had heard of a Christmas Eve party in Jerusalem, so had decided to party Christmas Eve in style. Rather than mingle with the masses at Midnight Mass.
We caught a minibus over to Jerusalem and after getting diverted by a car ablaze in the middle of Jerusalem (nothing sinister, just an engine blowout), finally ended up at one of the tourist pubs where the “party” kicked off. The beers flowed, the party moved on to the Underground Bar, and the singing and dancing on tables began with a passion.
Something I’d never seen until I came to Israel was the standing on tables in bars and pubs. It never seemed to take much to get Israelis up and singing and perched on their bar tables, but on this Christmas night I was up there with the best of them! Christmas classics were belting out and the few tourists that were in the pub were singing our drunken hearts out, lurching from table to table and getting the Israelis in the bar to sing along with us. There’s something quite amazing about seeing a bar full of people singing along to Band Aid’s “Feed the World”…
As the night continued, I remember Peter and I strutting our stuff to some Israeli tunes as we danced with Israeli soldier girls and other dark-haired beauties. I recall promises of phone numbers and return visits to Jerusalem, but my memory cells had been obliterated by beer and we had to get back to Tel Aviv that night…and as the taxi driver put his foot down and I spotted the speedometer hitting 160km/h I decided that closing my eyes was the better option (I still don’t remember waking up after this taxi ride home, but I guess I must have stumbled home somehow!).
Anyway, this post was just an excuse to feel a little festive, and to play one of the biggest and best Christmas tunes out there and to recall a festive Christmas Eve many moons ago (as I change another nappy…)…it might be 25 years old but it still sends a chill down my spine whenever I hear it!