You box up your gifts yet? Hurry up. Wow, here we are again, at the time of year when people expect us to forget their past and just remember their presents, in big boxes.

The year 2007's over but for the shouting, and next time you peep into this box it will be 2008.

Next Wednesday could probably be considered the most appropriate Wednesday in the year to read the box; it's Boxing Day.

But for that exact same reason, this little box of mine will be parked in the chill-out corner, because Boxing Day is a public holiday. Christmas Day, I usually just stay home and eat; or visit friends and family, and eat. I may go to church, but I come back home early and have more time at home to eat.

After I box off all the chicken, turkey, curry goat, oxtail, fruit cake, sorrel, wine, rum and so on, I box up some sleep and recuperate in preparation for Boxing Day.

Yeah man, that's the real going out day of the season, there's usually much to enjoy and, by then, man can go back to eating box food. Boxing Day is the traditional opening day for the National Pantomime.

Wonderful tradition

This year's its Nuff and Plenty. I have the highest respect for the pantomime. It's a wonderful tradition, and is the oldest theatrical convention in the Caribbean. It used to also be the ultimate forum for the establishment of a solid career in theatre.

Yeah man, except for a very few exceptions, all the genuine, professional home-grown Jamaican actors and actresses (di one dem dat really good) acknowledge the pantomime as an important part of their training and experience. So if you claim to be an actor and never did a panto you must either be one of the special-case exceptions or yuh get a bly and squeeze in through the side door!

The local theatre fraternity has adopted the pantomime Boxing Day tradition, so a couple of good plays also open on that day. Yeah, you can immerse in Oliver's guaranteed stream of laughter at River Bottom with Jambiz, or visit with Ed Wallace on the Funnier Side of the Street.

STINGingly dramatic

Box offices open for tickets all over, and although they're too small to put in box, tickets make good Christmas presents. There's also the definitive dance-all event known as STING that has unfolded every Boxing Day for the past how many years. Something dramatic and exciting always happens at STING. Maybe a little bit too dramatic and exciting for most of us, but always newsworthy. This year should be no exception; at the very least, somebody might diss somebody else, and somebody might get one or two good box!

So, where'll you be next Wednesday? Me, I'll be standing on my comedic soapbox at the end-of-year event that's fast becoming another Boxing Day entertainment tradition. It's been a howling laugh-fest three years in a row now, with some of the biggest names in comedy from the Caribbean and the rest of the world performing.

This year, the fourth annual staging year, has been rebranded and repackaged as the Christmas Comedy Cook-up and it promises to be a classic cultural hook-up! So, if you can, come to the Hilton Ballroom come join me and some of the top comedians from yard and abroad, as we sing and smile; live and love; and laugh out loud and hard!

Have a healthy holiday, step outside the box and

box-mi-back@hotmail.com