Luxury Christmas For Less
The Stonehenge Enigma: Who is it?
Do you want a little Louis Delaunay to go with your Christmas pudding? You might not like Etienne Dumont, unless you have a more refined palate.
Or, I believe there’s still some Jules Mignon. . .
These names are so elegant that they sound more expensive than the actual product: Own-brand champagnes from Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco.
Sophie Morgan and Sabrina Grant enjoyed themselves, Luxury Christmas For LessC4, bursting the bubble of supermarkets. It turns out that Louis, Etienne, and Jules are all invented names. They were chosen for their ability to add a shine to low-priced bottles of fizz.

Sabrina Grant and Sophie Morgan had fun burstin’ the bubbles of supermarkets on Luxury Christmas For Less
These aristocratic Gallic labels have a psychology. They conjure the image of a family chateau, where peasants in berets wander through grapevines playing accordions — instead of a large, anonymous co-operative turning out fizz at 14 quid a bottle.
You could also make a fun alternative to charades by inventing names for alcohol. Blackbeard Lachlan MacDougall is Laird of the Islands’ forty-year-old blended Malt Whisky. Cashel Cormac, and Cillian O’ Conchobhair’s Galway Mist are also good options if whiskey has an ‘e.
What a better throat-blistering cider it would taste to have Old Tom Jolly’s Mendip Scrumpy in it. Non-alcoholic cordials might also be attractive if they are branded Aunt Lavinia’s Summer Sunshine.
Sabrina & Sophie may have been too greedy to enjoy the expensive pop, as some of their suggestions for trimming corners during Christmas are charmingly absurd.
Instead of buying cheap, bland cheese, for instance, we’d do better to lash out on something costly and pungent, and really mature — at least a year old. So, this way, it is possible to eat less and also spend less.
Experience teaches us that you do not get fat. You develop indigestion which leads to a stinky fridge for several weeks.
A second, but equally absurd suggestion is to rent instead of purchasing a tree. You’ll pay about £45 for a six-footer and after the holidays you return it.
If you arrive at the farm without a stick or a bag filled with pine needles, I doubt you will get your deposit back. Is it possible to glue all of them back on?
Sophie and Sabrina both recommended that we buy recycled wrapping paper. Here’s mine. Don’t rip your presents open in a Christmas morning frenzy — unpeel each piece of Sellotape and fold the paper up to reuse next year.
My wife always threatens me with divorcing her by noon. What did you think?
Rob Bell, along with a group of archaeologists, discovered prehistoric celebrations. The Stonehenge Enigma: Who is it? (C5). You don’t need wrapping paper, but it is helpful if you have a pigeon and bow and arrow.
Near Stonehenge are vast underground tunnels that were long ago filled, yet still retain their round shape. They can be found at Durrington Walls just a few miles away. This was believed to be the location of a Neolithic City, where at least 4,000 builders built the enormous monument.
No one knows what the holes mean or why they were excavated with red deer antler pickaxes.
One pit was found to contain charred pork bones and stones arrowheads. According to the theory, the workers staged a ritual hunt and chased the porkers before slaughtering them in front a large crowd.
One professor said that “This was a party city” and not “where they were going about their daily lives.” This is what you should be thinking about when you are suckling in to blanket-clad pigs.