So here we are: mid-November and Kevin the Carrot* has made his grand entrance (with, I have to admit, a very cute hedgehog). The latest lockdown has meant that the Christmas hype has started VERY early. Which has got me started - very early.
If you love Christmas, look away now. No, seriously, you have been warned.
I loathe Christmas and all the Christmas hype on telly is starting to push me over the edge (really, M&S? Gin with gold bits? What if they get stuck in your throat? And what nutritional value could they possibly have? I'm pretty sure you can't taste them!)
Urgh. Christmas.
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the religious ceremony. In fact, I love midnight mass, having had the privilege of first attending in Nazareth as a Rotary exchange student many years ago. My church attendance has flagged over the years, but the spiritual part of Christmas (or mid-Winter) is not on my loathing list. Nor is the `goodwill to mankind', which really should be part of our everyday living.
What is on my Loathe List is the excess that surrounds this holiday. I have lived in four countries and can honestly say that the UK tops the other three, by a mile, in wanton, excessive capitalism when it comes to Christmas. We all know the story - hours spent trying to find parking at the local supermarket as people shop and shop and shop and shop and shop ad nauseum. This despite the shops only closing for a day (so that we can get out and shop and shop and shop and shop for New Year). On every other day, we are happy to have a meat/meat substitute, a starch and a veg. At Christmas we feel obliged to have two or three of everything. And dessert. And snacks and sides. And so much gets thrown away. I get it, I do: its that mid-Winter thing of celebrating that we've made it through the dark days of December (although I have to point out that there are at least two more months of dark days to come...) but really, so much?
Aside from the food waste, there is also the tat-fest that is Christmas. We are obliged to buy each other all sorts of rubbish that most people don't really want. Every year, thousands of people spend money they don't have on `making Christmas special' and then spend the whole of the next year struggling to pay off their debts. Why? Last year, money guru, Martin Lewis urged people not to buy unnecessary gifts and definitely not to buy gifts that they can't afford. This year, more than ever, with all the uncertainty that surrounds our economy, surely it makes even more sense.
Don't get me wrong - I like presents, but I like them to mean something. When my husband's Grandma was alive, she would make us a Christmas cake each year. I loved that. The idea that she had thought of us. Made something just for us. For me, it exemplified the bonds that should be celebrated at Christmas.
My pragmatic friend, Margaret always gives us marmalade, jams and chutneys at Christmas. I love what has become a tradition. Again, she has put a bit of herself into a gift, making it something no supermarket can sell. (To be fair, she is also the queen of the garden glove and bamboo sock - but they are equally well-considered, useful gifts).
Last year, when my daughters began to ask what I wanted for Christmas (poor things, they should know better by now) I told them that I only wanted something that they had made. And they were brilliant! Daughter One made fudge and infused olive oil with garlic. Daughter Two made soap (not for the faint-hearted) and hand-painted a mug. Daughter Three (not even 11 at the time) turned the caps of my favourite bottled ale into earrings. It was wonderful!
This year, I think I will repeat myself and see what happens. I think of it as a challenge.
As for me: well, I have sloe gin and crab apple gin brewing. I have made pickle and jam and I am a bit artsy on the side... None of which my daughters want for their actual gifts. So I will compromise and get them something they otherwise would not have. I will try to make it practical and it will be wrapped in recyclable brown paper with reusable ribbon.
While Joan Collins has this week put up her Christmas Tree, mine will go up in early December (and come down on Boxing Day) And here we will go again: the husband (a big fan of Christmas) and I will have the usual meltdown over excess versus generosity. This will result in him doing all the Christmas shopping and cooking (poor thing, you'd think he'd have learned by now) and I will `happy face' it all through December 25th (even though everyone knows I am lying).
I suppose you could call it a Christmas tradition...
* Kevin the Carrot is the hero of the Aldi Christmas adverts
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