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’Tis the Night Before Christmas… unless you’re not reading this festive double issue of Classic Car Buyer on a day other than our official on sale date. In which case you’re probably reading this through a fug of mince pies, turkey, brandy and too many of those little sugary things in the shape of orange and lemon slices. Best not try our classic trivia quiz for a while! Christmas may be a time when many classic cars and their owners retreat indoors (although there are many hardy folks who will be braving the chill) but it’s also a part of the year that always has a strangely ‘classic’ vibe to it. We all like to wallow in a bit of Christmas nostalgia and it’s a time for ageold traditions, whether these are watching re-runs of Wallace and Gromit and listening to Lily Allen’s Christmas single (again!) or welling up at the end of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ and trying to sing ‘O, Come All Ye Faithful’ in the right key. It’s a remarkable fact that a lot of the traditional Christmas songs are incredibly ancient and have remained unchanged in tune, harmony and words since the Middle Ages – or even before. ‘O come, O come Emmanuel’ has been sung across the country every year in the same form for well over 1000 years. Traditions such as sprigs of holly and ivy have their beginnings even further back, all the way into prehistory. All of which puts any longevity in the classic car scene into perspective. We think that the MGB is doing well to still have such a loyal following after 50 years, but will it still be around in a century or a millennium? Will people in 3013 regard Paul McCartney’s ‘Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime’ as a haunting traditional tune?