A few months ago I wrote a piece in which I remarked upon the great health of the voluntary associations of various kinds. When left to themselves, the people of Walthamstow and its environs have sufficient trust and confidence in each other to band together to do things. I described some of the myriad local ways in which they find expression of their shared human values and needs. We have, as a community, long been accustomed to nurturing each other and our dreams to whatever bosoms we have at hand.

This wholesome activity leads to such cultural flowerings as the Forest Philharmonia, whose next public expression of the creative urge will be the putting on Verdi's Requiem in St Alban's in February, the footwearying E17 Art Trail and the snappy accomplishments of groups like the Walthamstow and District Photographic Society. This latter group are playing host to a 'Slode Show' of images of Arctic Scandinavia at 8.00pm this evening by Ms E Bennet at the Greenleaf Baptist Chuch at 4 Greenleaf Road.

Others who can get on well enough to have a smashing time include the Walthamstow YMCA Aikido, the Walthamstow Cricket, Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, (not to be confused with the Walthamstow Cricket Club or the Walthamstow Horizontals, whose brilliant strategy for keeping a clean sheet this year was to confusingly tell people who went to their website they would hold all their fixtures at 1.30am.) The cricketers are presumably taking a break from such gamesmanship due to the onset of winter and have left the pursuit of trophies to sportsmen of other ilks.

Sport and the arts are of course ultimately useless activities. They do nothing more than help us know how to live good lives, which is exactly why they are so important in a modern society which seeks only utility and gainful economic purpose from most aspects of our daily lives.

It is very important that as human beings we sometimes stop, as we really ought to do at festivals such as Christmas, either as individuals or as groups, to give expression to the more intangible and shared creative aspects of our humanity and consider what kinds of people we are.

What with the need to make a bit of money and simultaneously spread what cheer there is as widely as possible in these troubled times, the fake commercial appearance rather than the human spirit of Christmas Wonder came early locally. Our humanity was also celebrated in a slightly modified manner from how I remember it from my childhood.

The Christmas Lights in our local mall have, for instance, been on since the 8th November, this Year of our Lord, 2008. They were opened in traditional vein [Lots of artists on stage leading up to the big switch-on] to coincide with "Money-Back Month". This little-known traditional event, hosted by luminaries Geoff Schumann and Richard Blackwood was accompanied by that well-known combo of yuletide good cheer, "Abba Illusion". The sparkling line-up on stage included something called 'The Estate Of Arts' as well as acrobats, Mr & Mrs Bubbles show, festive 'drumming workshops' and the "African Christmas Carnival" presented by Kiskirine Events.

In the case of the local pantomime, (The Elves and the Shoemaker) it is also quite difficult to divorce the social context of our creative sensibilities from the realities of our less than fully trusting relations with our fellow men and the hard commercial world in which we find ourselves.

This year's panto apparently is a modern parable which sees the hardworking shoemaker almost forced out of business by callous thieves who steal from his shop. Apparently, according to the pre-publicity, he is saved by elves, some kind of fairy-land Police and Community Support Officers, who will not be the more politically incorrect dwarves cavorting naked in the night as envisaged by the Brothers Grimm.

"Large colourful costumes, catchy songs to sing-a-long to and plenty of audience participation" will pack 'em in, while the two elves, (who just happen to be on hand, along with 'a host of friends' also, no doubt, directed to the scene of the crime by CCTV cameras,) help catch the thieves, save the day and help the shoemaker revive his small business.

Thus, I imagine, is New Labour's strategy (this is a Council-backed production) to be imparted to the babes and innocents. Thus is blame laid for the Shoemaker's ills on the chavs in our midst (no, the slump has nothing to do with the Gnomes of Zurich, or the cobbler's out of date designs, antedeluvian production methods and frankly slovenly marketing strategy) and thus is he guided with benign wisdom and fairy dust out of the recession, by mythical saving hands.