Its nearly Christmas, and that means the club is even more heavily involved in charities and a general sense of bonhomie.

Which is how it should be.

Celtic stars bring festive cheer to kids at Glasgow’s new

Royal Hospital for Children.

Even of a couple of the players look like kids themselves, its important to remember that for the kids in hospital, this is a major event.

Captain Scott Brown said;

“We know this can be such a difficult time of year for the kids and we’re so pleased to pay them a Christmas visit. 

Simple, and to the point.

Kirsten Sinclair, Director of Fundraising at Yorkhill Children’s Charity, said; 

 “We are incredibly grateful to Celtic FC Foundation for their generous support.”  

A few weeks back we noted that players were ignoring supporters as they got off the bus. Hopefully , this is the start of a renewed campaing of interaction with fans, especially kids, to bring them closer to each other.

Although Brown himself might not be too keen.

Last night the captain was at a Q and A session for season book holders, which happily coincided with the release of his new book, and it got a little awkward for him;

Questions ranged from his toughest opponent to the best player he’s played alongside at Celtic – Scott’s answer was Shunsuke Nakamura – to his famous ‘Broony’ celebration. And there was even one young supporter who provoked laughter from the audience when he asked, ‘See against Fenerbahce, could you not have tried harder?’  

The clubs new security chief is dealing with it.

Fair play to Broony, he’s giving a chunk of the profits to charity, and if you want to see him he’ll be in the club shop before the Hamilton game.

The Celtic captain will be signing copies of Scott Brown – My Celtic Story from 1pm until 2pm on Saturday, December 5 and supporters are advised to arrive early to collect a free ticket from the Superstore to guarantee entry to the book signing.

A limited number of tickets will be available for collection on Saturday morning from the Superstore which opens at 9am, so pop in to secure your ticket and a place at Saturday’s book-signing session.

Demand is expected to be high for this book-signing session so please arrive as early as possible to pick up a free ticket from the Superstore.

The Superstore will be busy ahead of the match so while we’ll make every effort to ensure as many fans as possible can attend the book signing session, this can only be guaranteed with a ticket collected from the Superstore on the day.

Speaking of charity…

CELTIC FC Foundation’s Christmas Appeal bucket collection takes place tomorrow (Saturday) before the match against Hamilton – and we’re calling on supporters to follow the Celtic Way to help us give back this festive season.

Just over 100 volunteers have offered their support and will be around the ground as the stadium opens at 1:30pm and will be collecting right up until kick-off (3pm).

As our only annual bucket collection, this event plays a crucial part in ensuring that we are able to help those in desperate need this Christmas, and if you’re unable to attend Saturday’s match, you can still donate HERE

For most of us, Christmas is a time of joy. It’s different for those facing poverty and hardship.

Through this year’s Christmas Appeal, Celtic FC Foundation want to help around 200 local families provide a happy Christmas for their children and 10 charities who care for those experiencing homeless or other disadvantage.

But we can’t do this without you.

Tonight, in Aldershot, Celtic face Chelsea in the Premier League Cup, and centre half Fiacre Kelleher is looking forward to the game.

Ah, good, we have a centre half who is looking to break through….

“You just want to play against top opposition because they are the ones that will show you the little things you need to improve on, Things that will make you that bit better.

“I’ve already learned that you have to be a bit cuter when you come up against attacking players at this level and you need to try to get your body in between the man and the ball. It’s all these little things that add up and give you a better picture.

“The pathway to the first-team is becoming more accessible with the likes of KT (Kieran Tierney) and Joe Thomson, who’s made his debut for the first-team too, so we know it’s there for us and games like this are the ones where you want to show you can make that step-up.

“John Collins and the gaffer have been there at the last few UEFA Youth League games as well so it’s great if they can see we can do it at that level, and it gives us even more of an incentive to get involved at first-team level.

“We’ve been playing well week in, week out and we’re a lot more consistent this year, which is really good.” 

This next bit, where he talks about his working relationship with fellow centre half Jamie McCart, is also interesting, as it shows how the youngsters are encouraged to bond, and grow together, which has been the plan all along;

“It’s brilliant like that because you start to build relationships and you start to learn what certain players do,” he said. “Team-bonding is great too and we get more confidence from that.

“Since the start of the season, if we look at our progress, it has been huge and these games definitely help to show things that we can work on together.

“I’m building a good relationship with Jamie and we’ve been keeping a lot of clean sheets lately. We know both our games well and where we’ll be on the pitch.

“That’s just started since pre-season but we’re more settled and it has been crucial to our success in certain games.

“Things can only get better for us as a team. It’s really good to play against older boys and we take great pride in being the young team. We don’t use it as an excuse if things don’t go our way.

“We still want to go out and win and Tommy always says that, no matter what age you are, if you’ve got the talent then you deserve to be there.”

For those of us a little concerned about how the kids are doing, or how Ronny’s grand plan is coming along, maybe have a look at this game and see for yourself. Alternatively, you’ll have to follow it on the clubs official twitter.

The furor surrounding anthony stokes’s career changing tweets may have affected other Celts.

Scott Allan, who used to be a hun but he’s alright now, explains…

“I’ve not been on it since I came here, to be honest,” he said. “It’s probably a problem not worth having. I don’t need to go on Twitter and read negative stuff every day.

“I was a young boy in Dundee, sitting in the house with all my team-mates There was nothing else to do.

“Of course, it can be a good outlet sometimes but, for me, it’s something I don’t really need. Was it tough seeing the abuse I got when I left Hibs? Not really. It’s part and parcel of things. Obviously some of it is not nice but, if you want to be successful in football, then you are going to have to deal with a lot worse than that.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever go back on Twitter. Maybe, at some point in the future, I will.”

Bit harsh on Dundee, the city of Discovery.

On a Monday you can discover where all the young single mums are, as they queue at the post office for their benefits.

Actually, thats no longer true, as benefits now get paid directly into the bank, so you’re probably better off hanging by the cashpoint at the co-op.

It’s been a tough week for Dundonians..

Oh, speaking of twitter, a big thank you to Peterborough Celts who decided to unfollow my own account this week.

Well, if you want to name your CSC after Lawwell, thats up to you, and if you follow me again i’ll just speed up and hide around a corner.

Allan went on to talk about the clubs upcoming trip to Turkey, and he assures us he’s not worried about a any security issues. Presumably because Liam Neeson is handling it from now on.

‘I think for us it is just a football match,’ said Allan. ‘We don’t really look into that. We should be safe. It is a game for us and that is it, basically.

‘It’s European football and these are the games you want to go and play in. Obviously there are lots of circumstances going on just now, but we just need to apply ourselves and do our job over there.

‘We go to play football. When it comes, the boys will look forward to it. Fenerbahce is a big club. There will be a great atmosphere. It is our job to go over there and play and we will just get on with it. Hopefully we can get a result over there as well.’

Now that it’s becoming obvious that the Turkish ruling family is helping ISIS to stay in credit with their bank, Celtic being the first British club to visit the country since the a=start of this leg of the perpetual middle east war, then perhaps its probably not a bad idea for all the players to ring in sick next week. 

Though I have to admit i’m a little envious of the fans who are travelling. At least it won’t be the normal away trip, where the support congregate in the town square to boot a ball into the air and laugh at people who duck when you do, despite the ball being at the other side of the square.

As someone pointed out, an away trip is what you make it, though in this case, I’ll be happy if they just make it back.

Though you don’t have to be abroad to bum into problems.

I got a taxi home last night, and for some reason I didn’t want to engage in chit chat with the driver.

And i certainly wasn’t going to shake his hand.

Meanwhile, Mark Warburton, the current manager at new club Second Rangers, has hit out at stories he is about to leave, presumably as he doesn’t fancy losing his deposit on his rented accomodation to pay for any broken windows…

But this roadsign may contain a subliminal message about where he might be heading…

Or  it could be Fulham.

Can you guess which side are depicted in the roadsign ?

and afore ye go, spare a thought for Oscar Pistorious, who has now been convicted of murder, and will serve a minimum of fifteen years in prison.

Well, added to Seb Coe’s troubles, and  those of Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods, we hear that Nike are considering changing their slogan to “Don’t Do It. ”

Pistorious has no chance of getting out of prison, as the warden  has installed a cattle grid outside his room.