The Christmas pause

 

Tis the time this eternal Scout needs to pause the blog as we have lots of things to do at home as well as helping others make their Christmas so I'm wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2025.

Christmas activities

 

Around Christmas, many Scout and GirlGuiding groups devote time to seasonal arts and crafts such as making Christmas cards and decorations that having been drawn can be coloured in or take part in community events such as singing Carols.

Christmas post

In Scouts as in Girl Guiding there is a tradion of district posting to help people get their christmas card to their reciepents that goes back a long time and here Hawick Girl Guides in the Scottish Borders are running such a service.

Miles cheaper for local cards compared with Royal Mail!
 

He came!

He came, we saw Mr Claus with powerful sound system on his float yesterday with elves and many cubs,scouts and others all following as he entertained us  and indeed one cub was so exited he really got into being a reindeer just like his lovely raindeer costume which several of us just adored for simple unbashed cuteness of it.

Collections were going to our local Scouts, part of the Potteries North district here in North Staffordshire and while I'd never say what mine was let's say it was "substancial".

Christmas is coming II

 

It's that man again!

This time we are in the UK, Burley, to be precise where the local Scouts and Guides co-operate a lot running a joint float to raise funds and add christmas cheer to all in the area which does go to show what can be done when both scouting organizations come together within traditional structures.

Christmas is coming!

 

Many scout groups around the World have Christmas floats that make their appearence in the area at this time of year often connected with raising funds for the local group.

Here's a highly decorated one from Williamsburg, Virginia, United States of America that mixes the nativity story with icons of modern Christmas such as reindeer

Winter is here

 

Pix credits: Jeremy Thomas

We're practically in winter as my legs and nose informed me on Friday as I was out but there are things you could do even on the coldest of days such as build a bird box to help our bird puplation by providing shelter or gather up twigs, leaves and other objects to make a collage out of or maybe wrap out and see how many species are active in your local wood.

The past over The Pond

 Very much a vintage post looking more like late 50's, 60's at the array of uniform for that TransAtlantic species, the Girl Scout starting with the Brownie who isn't so far removed from UK Brownies of the era but soon moving more towards a womans's style where our Girl Guides looked nearer to a school type uniform in blue.

At least people of colour were features in this which was good going back then when segregation ruled vast swathes of the United States.

Girlguiding and the Transgirl

 

Yesterday Girlguiding UK made an important announcement regarding what has become a thorny issue as it effects children and young people in many contexts from school to things such as scouts and girlguides, that of gender idenity as it applies to single sex settings which for reasons of decency may be needed as much as much of society is more mixed.

I try to aviod much of the often heated discourse around that on here although the unilateral action of the Scouting Association to make Scouts co-ed agains B-P's teachings and with no consideration to its impact on GirlGuiding is one that still burns to this day.

The position in Scouting on the outset was one of Scouts for Boys, Girlguides for Girls which generally worked well for 99% of children and often there was co-operation at the local level when it came sharing reeources or planning joint events.

Anyway while I do believe that and am personally sympathetic to anyone not least children who may feel their sex and their gender do not align and experience issues with that, the issues we have are not really around that so much as the person while they are said to be transitioning.

Few children in the UK undertake what is described as "gender affirming surgery" mainly because the issues involved long term require a level of informed consent they, themselves at 16 or under cannot give (at least in Law).

Thus in our world of Scouting a child who is Transgender comes with all the physical build of the sex that was recorded on their birth certificate and this does have implications for changing facilities, toilets and showers at camp as a Transgirl would look and resemble a boy when changing and so on.

In Girlguiding specifically there is a clear emphasis on it being a movement of and for just girls so given nearly all Transgirls would not of physically transitioned and the Cass Review caselaw they would be seen as Boys having them could mean legal challenges by Girls parents one of which was due before the decision.

The only way under the Law presently to avoid it would be to ditch that whole "For and By Girls" ethos - and some of us think having single sex spaces has value even if for many schools isn't like that.

Personally I feel some accomodation of long term social transformation would be possible with due care and planning where it was clear a sense of gender dysphoria existed AND this part of long term plan for that child as "she" transitions fully.

It is unfortunate in some respects and this change brought about through legal advice will not be applied retrospectively which is as fair as it gets. One hopes and more "give and take approach to accomodating the minority of children within the context of being in a Girls space.

Back in time, American style

 

Ah, the 1970's eh? The period some of us remember so well from the things we did and the groups we belong to but while quite a few us remember the uniforms of the local Brownies and Girl Guides - perhaps you had a sister or female cousin who was one most of us never knew the American version, part of what there is Girl Scouts.

This is the american Brownies dress that can be worn with a narrow belt but note just the top right pocket and the button detail on top - no zips or anything like that.