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Christmastime

A winter village scene
  • Posted at 5:06pm
  • 19 December 2007
  • by SarahDempster-RT

Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire: a tiny village in the throes of festive activity. BBC Radio 4's Christmastime (Sunday 16 December, 2:45pm) popped its head round the door and asked if there was anything it could do to help out. There was. It wasn't much, in the grand scheme of things, but Bethlehem told Christmastime that it wouldn't mind being given the chance to promote its post office.

With no pub (there was one, once, but it "closed before the Second World War") and the only school having rung in the new millennium by turning purple, going "gnnnn…ack!" and collapsing to the cobbles, Bethlehem's post office was all the village had. As a result, it was keen to tell us all about its position in the local community (fairly exalted, unsurprisingly) and the fact that people come from all over the world to get their envelopes franked with its Special Christmas Rubber Stamp™.

Christmastime was only too happy to oblige. A small, round, convivial chap (were those sleigh-bells we heard jangling past the village hall?), the documentary turned its microphone over to Mike Williams, Bethlehem's postmaster general. Mike was undoubtedly the star of Bethlehem. He didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour (the countryside being a Serious Business, of course, what with all the EU soil proposals and the constant threat of John Craven turning up and dropping reports everywhere), but what he lacked in comic pizzazz he made up for in unabashed pride.

Driving through the Carmarthenshire countryside, Mike told us why he likes driving through the Carmarthenshire countryside. "It is heaven on earth here, isn't it?" he said as his car bumped along what one imagines was a really great road. But above all, Mike likes opening his post office every morning. "The first customer comes in and the interaction starts," he said, sounding vaguely relieved (which made us worry slightly about leaving Mike on his own).

Inside, a man told us that he'd driven from Oxfordshire to get his Christmas mail imprinted with the Special Christmas Rubber Stamp™ (which apparently features "a flying angel playing a harp" and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the word "Bethlehem"). "When everyone gets their cards, they'll think I've been in Israel!" he guffawed, neglecting to add a wildly inappropriate joke about letter bombs.

Christmastime was only 15 minutes long, but by the end we felt we knew Bethlehem inside out. "There we go," said Mike, rolling down the shutters. "That was another interesting day in Bethlehem. Every day's an interesting day in Bethlehem. Well, Merry Christmas," he said, before turning round to reveal the telephone number for Carmarthenshire Tourist Association printed on the back of his Barbour Polarquilt waistcoat. (Possibly.)

Merry Christmas, Mike. And, before we roll down our shutters and prepare to inflict unwarranted cruelty on the mince pie that's been cowering on our desk since lunchtime, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas, too.

Christmastime is on Sundays at 2:45pm on BBC Radio 4.

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