Corby Christmas Special

As I'm sure you know, Christmas isn’t just for Christmas any more. Christmas is forever! A retail jamboree that stretches from Black Friday the previous year all the way through to the Summer Solstice sales and beyond. This is of course how it should be. If Christmas means anything at all in these post-pandemic days, it means the unfettered joy of crazy festive jumpers, tear-stained Whamageddon breakdowns, and this years much anticipated Netto Christmas advert. These things matter!

What matters most of all to Corby folk is the return of the huge bobbly Santa on Corporation Street, the town's very own Punxsutawney Groundhog, and the centrepiece of a glitter explosion, gaudy lighting, and all-round festive good cheer throughout the town. Of course it's Corby's pubs that raise their festive game more than most, which is perhaps slightly odd given that it's the one time of year when pubs generally don't need to raise their game, it being the blessed season of the once-a-year pubgoer.

Needless to say I hate Christmas, as indeed do all blokes if they're absolutely honest (the uncommon joy of packed pubs not withstanding). Nevertheless, in the spirit of goodwill and space-filling I'm going to call it right now! The Corby Pub Safari team have examined three full years of my own detailed blog submissions, and I can now reveal that this was Corby's Greatest Ever Christmas.... Ever!

I base this almost entirely on the fact Posh Paddys has changed hands recently, the new management bringing quality craft beer to Corby just when it needed it most. This means I've spent a hell of a lot more time in town than usual. Other plus points have been the fabulous decorations, an attractive Santa's Grotto, and what we've found to be incredibly cheap parking in the Victoria Place Car Park, particularly from 6pm (20p!). So I was thoroughly Christmassed up even before Corby hosted its first ever Christmas Market (below) with a real Tree, Santa in a Sleigh, a Choir, Corby Radio, and a stall selling something called Gin... 

But it wasn't all pints of Jute at Posh Paddys for Christmas, although it mostly was to be fair. As has become a firm Christmas tradition in this household, we needed to visit the Cardigan Arms in the village at least twice during December, thereby getting our faces known with the bar staff and thereby crafting the illusion that we're true locals once again ahead of the mighty New Year Day Bring A Bottle session...

As it turned out we really needn't have bothered, tickets for the big day were free and easy, though not in fact free at £2 a pop. All moneys raised going to the local Cransley Hospice charity, which is not much at all and a very fine idea indeed given the numbers on the day. Anyway, we don't need an excuse to drink in the Cardi', it's one of Corby's finest pubs, one of our favourites, and with a very fine pint of the universally popular Doom Bar ale on the bar. There's also a terrific mini-market on the last Saturday of the month, and there was a Brass Band playing at the front of the pub when we went which was all very Christmassy and further confirmation if it were needed of the 2023 'Best Christmas Ever' status..

We secured rare Northamptonshire Blue Cheese from the market, plus a traditional Nottinghamshire Pie and a jamboree bag of Corby Rolls from across the road at Hadden Butchers, all washed down with a couple of pints of foaming ale in a genuine glass... err... glass. Try that at your local supermarket and see where it gets you kids!

Now whenever I'm drinking in the Cardigan, it's always reassuring to see someone else drinking the Doom, even if it's in one of those horrible 'craft' glasses all the youngsters are raving about now. I've spotted a few over the years, this chap with his betting slip, another fella that buys two at a time, one elderly gentlemen that always pops a beermat on top of the glass in the Spanish Tapas style. In truth it's entirely possible it's the same chap I'm seeing each time, I suppose I should ask... Anyway, thanks to stalwarts like these the Doom is usually in fine fettle, because it's pubs like the Cardigan that are at the forefront of Corby's burgeoning beer scene, a mid-table Championship Beer Town with aspirations for the Premiership relegation zone, maybe more!

So that was Christmas in Corby, if you missed it don’t fret, there will surely be another one along soon enough.