Joy to the World..and a bit for you too.

What with domestic moves and shoulder surgery, my blog has had to take a little bit of a back seat for the last couple of months.  Even my new book has been slightly delayed in getting the first draft of the publishers. It might also be the time of year. I have long since understood the delights of hibernation for the bear.  Many is the day in late November or early December when I can imagine getting home, particularly to our new flat,  and not going out again until February.

This last week has probably been the busiest week work wise I've had since we moved house in late  October, and yet I can already feel myself winding down for the year-end. It's definitely been, to misuse football analogy, a year of two halves. It started as a semi regular member of the cast of "Hollyoaks", followed by two months on "Wolf Hall, moving into a month off to write my new book  and then lots of corporate events. It's ended doing what I do mostly. Being an independent freelancer on a job to job, day-to-day basis.

At this time of year being a independent worker can mean no Christmas parties. No office party, and no secret Santa. Popping into other people's office parties as a freelancer is something I've never found entertaining. You're turning out to show your face and say thank you for the work and hope the might employ you again in the coming year. You're wondering just how long you have to stay in order to be polite, or you overstay your welcome and get absolutely blasted at their expense. It's a difficult choice. It's also the time of year that if you are in regular employment, you are probably looking forward to some sort of Christmas bonus.  As CEO, chief financial officer, HR manager, and tea boy of your own business, which as an actor you are, it's up to you to decide if you get that bonus. It can be a difficult decision. If you're not lined up to rehearse a Christmas show, or do a pantomime, this can be one of the hardest times of the year financially. It can also be one of the loneliest. I recall one Christmas in the early 1990s. I wasn't working, and had my mother to stay with me in London. On December 23 we went to see a comedy at the National Theatre and afterwards had dinner in the Archduke wine bar. I remember gazing out of the window thinking of all the actors who had just completed their last performance before Christmas and were hurrying home to spend just a few days with families and loved ones before heading back to more work on Boxing Day. I felt excluded.

The last time I worked at Christmas, I met the man who's been my partner now for 18 years. No Christmas job in the future could ever bring me the same amount of joy, and so I have not worked at Christmas since. Memories of waiting by the A1 at Doncaster to be given a Boxing Day morning lift back to York for the matinee of Dick Whittington are happy ones, but not ones I want to repeat.

So if you are working this Christmas, and you're getting that bonus in your wage packet-be it for bank holiday overtime, or for all those three show Sundays, spend some of it on yourself as an actor. You might invest in new photos, or a new Showreel. You might decide to take some workshops at somewhere like the Actors Centre or with a fantastic group such as The Mono Box. or you might just buy yourself a brand-new suit for all those interviews. All of the above of course are also items that you could put on your Christmas present list. And that's also something you can do if you won't be receiving an overstuffed wage packet this Christmas.  Invest a little something in yourself,  even if it's just some time to take stock and work out exactly what you'd like to be doing next Christmas.

So many of us spend Christmas working hard to bring joy to so many people. Let's not forget to bring a little joy to ourselves.

Have a very Happy Christmas and a hugely successful 2015