The thoughts of thousands of folk now are less on traditional Christmases than on golden beaches, blue seas and blue skies - the Caribbean, Florida and other places far from our own climate. But problems can come from lolling on beaches - apart from the results of excessive exposure to the rays of the sun. And there is one that does not so quickly come to mind.
One day a friend remarked to a well-known lobster fisherman at Coliemore Harbour in south County Dublin, that the nearby beach at Killiney was packed with sun-bathers. It was an August Bank Holiday. Mickey Spencer, the fisherman concerned, said that around the time of the First World War, a strong south-east gale struck the beach and washed all the sand off it. Below was hard marl, he said, and so there were numerous trinkets and other personal items that had been lost by sunbathers in the sand. Time had carried them deeper.
With this in mind, our friend made a rake from five-inch nails and told a young chap he knew that he could try raking on the beach to see what could be found. The lad came back within an hour; he had, in a shoebox, an assortment of keys, bangles, necklaces, a few penknives, some coins, fountain pens - this was before plastic biros - and even some watches. His day was made.
"I'll go to a more popular part of the beach tomorrow night," he said. After that he had a lot more in the box. Saint Anthony himself, writes our friend "could not have found more trinkets, crucifixes, metal combs and even a shoehorn. Buttons, too."
So, proudly, the lad went home to his mother to show his haul, expecting to be praised for his initiative. But Ma promptly ordered him to go up to the Garda station and hand the lot in. She must have known, our correspondent writes, that the New Oxford Dictionary of English defines a beachcomber as a "vagrant."
What would the haul be like on the beaches of the more affluent holiday resorts some of you are making for at Christmas and the New Year? Forget it. The local lads will have the rights: finders keepers. Y