A Place To Be
I wrote this before Christmas but with the usual chaos synonymous with the season I am posting now just in time before the Epiphany on 6 January phew...
I'm behind with everything. Christmas looms with its neverending food and drink fest, and I have about as much enthusiasm as a limp bit of lettuce.
I'm curious to know where my fear of Christmas comes from. Perhaps not a fear but a harrumph feeling, where you shrug your shoulders and surrender to the inevitable.
The inevitable is spending money on Christmas presents that no one needs and being overdrawn in current and credit card accounts while counting the cost of Christmas until about May.
This time of the year wears me out balancing, planning and trying to enjoy the Christmas lead-up.
I want a personal assistant, AKA a private chef, to whom I can delegate the cooking and planning, someone who wisely takes each of my steps slowly and efficiently so I don't have to.
I managed to get the Christmas decorations up a week earlier this year.
I wasn't enamoured with real Christmas trees going up earlier than is customary in our household; there's always the possibility that by Christmas Eve, they will droop and sag, just like the incumbent owner of the property.
Every year for the last decade, I have demanded that this be the final year of Christmas at home; why can't we go to a nice Hotel for three days and be waited on without running back from the pub to put the turkey in the oven?
Oh, Christmas, how I love thee, but from a distance, preferably from an old armchair with a rug thrown over me and a long glass of mulled wine.
I am behind on work, writing and stuff in between; Christmas presents are eagerly waiting to be wrapped with some lovely soliloquy written to the recipient if my head and heart can wake up from exhaustion.
Why does Christmas create this immense pressure, and why does it inevitably fall on the shoulders of the female folk all for one day?
Two, if you consider the European version of Christmas events?
Does any of it matter in the scheme of things?
Indeed, what's important is the family gathering, preferably with the people you love.
The significance of Christmas is more than lots of booze, food, games and watching the BBC's poor attempt to reconstruct a decent Christmas Day film.
Christmas is a time for reflection. Yes, I know this is also done on New Year's Eve.
Still, given the disastrous world we live in, let's spare a thought for those in Gaza and Ukraine who will be spending another Christmas with little or no food and water while we belittle the gifts that Auntie Marg bought us for Christmas the same pair of socks in different colours three years in a row.
Some kid somewhere would be grateful for a clean pair of socks.
Christmas is about being kind to one another; rather than being pressured to come up with Christmas present ideas, giving to those in need is our gift to humanity.
Christmas is about humility and gratitude for our lot, not self-importance or expensive gifts.
It is the joy of giving and receiving.
I am not trying to be moralistic or riotous, but wouldn't Christmas be better if we gave more and took less?
It's just a thought.
I wish you all a lovely Christmas with family and friends and a peaceful, optimistic New Year.
Best wishes.