Christmas Post

With Christmas around the corner, I must admit to mixed feelings at this time of year.

As a freelance cameraman I always had a lot of work around this time and covered Christmas from Santa’s grotto in Lapland to Jericho. In the Middle East there were wonderful images of a traditional Christmas alongside the equally familiar images of stones being thrown in a domestic battleground.

It strikes me that Christmas is the most local and the most global of holidays. Few of us are immune to the Hollywood version of Christmas, but my memories blend the charming with the rough edges of hard news.

Perhaps it is this combination that makes most broadcasters look for a whole range of Christmas stories around this time. In every city across the world there will be pockets of cultures celebrating in their own way. It could be Brazilians in Paris, Brits in Uganda, or Mexicans (and just about every other nationality) in Bethlehem.

This is also the time of year that the quirky stories come out. One that was uploaded onto Beamups by respected ABC reporter Mike Lee, shows that despite the recession, consumerism is going strong in the UK with the advent of ‘manger chic’ – designer clothes being bought for school nativity plays.

I hope you will keep uploading seasonal stories, local images from across the globe that will resonate everywhere at this time of year.

I wish you all a wonderful new year with many of your items being bought and sold through Beamups.

Boaz Eshtai

Beamups co-Founder