Picture the scene – you’re Russell T Davies, famed showrunner of Doctor Who and famed atheist. You’re at a Q&A just after showing a preview of the Christmas 2009 episode – your penultimate piece of work on Doctor Who – when a little kid grabs the microphone, in front of lots of journalists, and asks:

“Did you meet the Doctor or did you make him up?”

Which is pretty much the same as asking whether Father Christmas exists. The moral quandry – do you tell all or nothing?

I’ve seen two accounts of what RTD said next – via SFX and Ian Wylie (spoilers!) – which are both slightly different. But were you there?

and in Who-related news: Doctor Who star goes back to old school to direct nativity play

Throbbing beats that can’t be ignored, and a lovely heart-felt lyric. Straight from 1981 (or thereabout…)

Of course, you may prefer the cynical but hopefully romantic lyrics that the Pet Shop Boys are more justly famed for:

is that it hardly ever delivers.

As you may have guessed, I am somewhat obsessed with snow. So after stark work warnings about the oncoming snow storm, and watching bits of snow fall almost horizontally throughout the evening, this is what I woke up to this morning – my snow landscape in West London:

Bah. and Humbug. Where’s my snow ?!

SendSocial promises to send anything to anyone, without needing an address. They suggest that you could use it to send gifts to Internet friends of yours, when all you know is their Twitter address.

How does SendSocial do this? By asking said Twitter person for their address, and then sending you a label to stick on your package. A courier then picks up said parcel, and delivers it to the mysterious Twitter person. And they charge £4 for a parcel weighing less than 2kg (which, to be fair, is slightly cheaper than what the Royal Mail charges).

It’s lucky that you can set up websites and company ideas for not much upfront cost, since it’s doomed to failure for the simple fact that if a person on Twitter didn’t want to reveal their address to a Twitter follower, they’re hardly like to entrust said address details to an anonymous company instead.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Try it out. Send a random Santa present to my Twitter address

Miss H recently did a Google search for a local pizzeria near where I live and she works. My picture pops up – because I once wrote a favourable review of it.

Better yet, if you then do the same search but concentrating on images, there’s a Google Ad inviting you to travel with 1200 lesbians. Sounds like my average dating night out to me.

I’ve only had one post-work Christmas drinks session so far, where I had one beer, one red wine and one white wine – and inexplicably, my head is slightly sore today.

Fortunately, I’ve only got three more post-work parties to go to. Unfortunately, they’re all related to work – it seems I have now entered the social group of people who don’t throw parties. Then again, as I know from past experience, there’s zero point in trying to throw a party in the dying weeks of December – everyone’s either too busy or too knackered to go to yet another blimmin’ party.

How many parties have you got to go to this December?

Yes, it’s that one time of year when I let my right hand do more than just push buttons all day, and actually make it WRITE things. Y’know, on pen and paper.

So if you want a Christmas card from these very fair hands, please feel free to send me your address and I shall dispatch one forthwith.

[Americans, your Christmas cards are already in America. ]

Various websites have poured scorn on a groom who updated his Facebook/Twitter accounts as soon as he got married.

The thing is … I think it’s a mildly neat idea. In my ridiculous fantasy head of how I get married (and bearing in mind the fact I’d have friends/family on three continents who would probably want to see it happen, purely as ‘Finally, he got off his arse’ witnesses as opposed to anything else), I’d have to broadcast the proceedings via webcams and the like anyway. So I might as well use Facebook / Twitter as well. Hell, I might as well have plasma screens that unveil themselves as the deed is done reflecting the changed status update, and let people #hashtag about how great the catering was.

Then again, having been to about ten incredibly luxurious weddings (to my head) over the years in castles, manor houses, country estates, remote Welsh chapels on hillsides, museums, an old college – and registry offices – I’m also of the opinion that:

• I don’t need no stinkin’ wedding photographers. They’re good, but very pricey for it. At least half the audience would be Chinese, after all, and therefore come with ridiculously large and expensive D-SLR cameras. I would, however, need a shepherd to herd everyone together for the required joint photo shoots.
• I may need a film cameraperson – but at least ten of my friends know how to shoot video. Or I could just wear a helmetcam.
• Flowers. Pah. Who needs them?
• Who needs a banquet? Pah. Give me a buffet!
• Who needs a disco? Pub quiz, that’s the way to go! Or maybe Rock Band, or Dance Dance Revolution…

Of course, I may not be the one who has a final say in these matters…

Time was, when the UK blogosphere was concentrated in the power of a few key individuals, thinkblank.com had a Secret Santa every year where you could give a random blogger a gift, and get a random gift back. The great thing with this approach was that you were almost encouraged to stalk said blogger for a while, to see what they’d like and want.

This year, the only example of a Web Secret Santa I’ve found so far has been Firebox’s Global Secret Santa, whereby you buy a gift (from a limited range) for someone via Firebox, and someone else buys you a gift (from the same limited range). Which almost seems a step backwards in the world of Secret Santas.

So …

Would there be any interest in a Web 2.0 Secret Santa for bloggers whereby people register, they’re given the details of someone else who’s registered, and told to buy an appropriate gift worth £10 or less for them? Optionally, if they buy it through an affiliate site like Amazon, the commission is then donated to a charity…

Are there any savvy database types who could knock up an appropriate database and website in 7 days?

Is this a really really stupid idea?