Now that the children have broken up from school, they can still get bored quite easily. Combining shopping and visiting Father Christmas has been a solution, going back decades, to keep them occupied. At Christmas and Hogmanay, Princes Street in Edinburgh is turned into a mini entertainment arena.
Up at the Haymarket end is the German market with gluhwein strongly in evidence at about £3 a mugfull. This year it celebrates it’s tenth year so there are some extra special offers. The stallholders make their way from Frankfurt for the month long stay. Apart from German food and beer you will find crafts such as turned woods, candles and toys. It gets busy as the day wears into evening so, for the remaining few days, why not visit it in mid morning. Given the weather at the moment the gluhwein is especially welcoming!
For those who prefer it there is the Traditional Highland Village Christmas Market Christmas just up from the German market. Unlike the German market, this one lasts until January 4th so there is food throughout Hogmanay.

This is the time of year when forecasters gaze into the tealeaves and predict what might happen in the coming year. Some may even get it right but by the time we can prove it one way or the other, it will become time for the next bunch of forecasts.

Mintel, a research company that forecasts across many different industries, says that there will be seven trends in our behaviour during 2010 as we begin to fell more confident than we did this year.

Firstly they think we will be more resilient in that we will be able to recover