So Christmas has ended as soon as it had arrived, and while most of us worry about measuring our new waistlines, we are all left to contemplate the festive celebrations for another year.
Did I get the right size turkey? Was there enough tinsel on the tree? Did I watch enough repeats on TV? Ok, you may not be asking yourself these sorts of questions right now, but you might have been asking them before the 25th came around. The point I’m trying to make is that most things, if not everything, seems to fall into place ready for the big day, so much so that there are no questions that need answering. You may not share my opinion, but there is no doubt that more often than not Christmas brings a certain collectiveness amongst families and neighbourhoods alike.
When I was younger, I sometimes used to view Christmas as some sort of judgement day, where Santa Claus decided whether you had been good enough throughout the year to deserve a shedload of presents. It wasn’t a frightening sort of judgement day of course, more one that used to tease you, making you think that you had to be on your best behaviour. Either way, unless you had robbed Woolworths of all their pick and mix, you ended up getting what you wanted after all.
A lot of people have also said that Christmas has become too commercial, whereas all it has done is move synonymously with the society of today. The modern day has become commercialised as a whole, and so with Christmas being the biggest celebration of the year, it was bound to get pounced on by companies to exploit over the years. Even though commercialism can sometimes be seen as our worst enemy, pressuring us to buy everything Cheryl Cole has her face on, I think it thrives at Christmas time. Maybe we realise afterwards that some of the stuff we’ve bought is useless junk, but businesses mainly do a good job in surrounding us with bargains, enchanting us into their stores. Anyway, it’s not really Christmas anymore until you’ve seen the Coca Cola advert, is it?
I feel Christmas is the only acceptable time where you can wear silly paper hats at the dinner table, tell ridiculously rubbish jokes and throw calorie count charts outside the window without a second thought. All of these I feel contribute to what they call the “magic of Christmas” and even though it may all feel superficial at the time, what other part of the year can you realistically get away with doing these things? I mean, I dressed up as a reindeer at work, and even though I looked silly beyond belief, if it hadn’t had been Christmas, I wouldn’t have done it. So for these and many other reasons Christmas must be seen as different and unique to every other time of the year.
As the snow slowly melts away, and the focus is taken away from Christmas and onto the January sales, I sometimes wonder if the snowman still standing proudly outside my house is outstaying his welcome at all. Maybe the longer he stays up, the longer it will feel like Christmas, and with he already being a week old he’s got to be closing in on a Guinness World Record for longest standing snowman in Britain. Having said that, I don’t think I’ll be calling up the police anytime soon if he gets stolen by the time morning comes.
Snowman or no snowman, it’s been the second consecutive Christmas where there has been snow around, and for me a little sprinkling of the white fluffy stuff makes Christmas seem a little more real. As everyone revels in the presents they received, the best present for me was seeing all my family happy and well, with the added bonus that they loved my presents. However, no matter how much I promise myself, I don’t think my shambolic wrapping skills will ever improve.
So, as my collective thoughts and memories of Christmas 2010 draw to a close, I really do hope all of you have had the Christmas you all so richly deserved. Even though all our sights are now set on New Year’s parties next weekend I hope that Christmassy feeling hasn’t left you just yet! Enjoy the rest of Boxing Day and whatever holiday you may have left, and I’m going to end on something I’ve learnt over the years by leaving you with a quote from Calvin Coolidge; “Christmas is not a time nor a season, it is a state of mind”.
I do agree that although it's very commercial these days, all the tacky stuff in the shops does add to the magic sometimes :)
ReplyDeleteRandom thing you might find interesting - my friend said she once spent Christmas in Japan, and they have taken the Western commercial side of it and turned into something completely different. Apparently instead of being a family holiday it is like our Valentine's Day, and they all go out for romantic meals in restaurants on Christmas Day! Very strange.