It seems that wherever I turn at the moment, I'm seeing articles on Christmas cards, Christmas projects, Christmas advice. And Christmas films on TV. ??????
Now I'm used to having to zone this out, because Christmas tat is sold all year round in Singapore. You can find that festive green-and-red in any gift shop. You can go for a warm, breezy walk along the East Coast with the waves lapping along the beach, the roller-bladers and cyclists buzzing around you, and hear the metallic fun-fair music from the amusements. And some of that music will be Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman. You can go out for a restaurant meal and be pretty certain to hear Santa Baby or Mistletoe and Wine while you're eating. All year round.
Christmas in the tropics is already incongruous to me, simply because the heat and humidity just don't go with how I was brought up to know Christmas. Tinsel and air-con, turkey and sun-burn, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas in shorts and sandals - dream on Bing! I'm used to gift shopping on dark, dingy days, in coat and boots, soaked in that damp misty chilliness that makes me want to light all the candles and curl up with a bowl of hot soup. And the annual will-it-or-won't-it-snow?
Not here. Sometime around mid-November before most people are bothering about it, I put the air-con on, the Messiah in the CD player, and compose my annual newsletter and write my cards. I put on my spaghetti-strap top to walk to the Post Office with my gifts so that they arrive in the UK in time. By early December I'm back in the pool - finished with Christmas - done everything, got tired of it - almost forgotten about it. Life goes on as usual. Then suddenly DH is off work and we have a day of church, eating, exchanging gifts and lengthy phone calls home. Then it's back to normal again. Bizarre, huh?
I'll admit that I had this lovely little plan of making Christmas cards all this year so that I had a head start, rather than being surprised at how long it actually takes to hand-paint 72 little churches at the last minute again. But it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it won't, or maybe all this Yule-tide exposure is the catalyst I need to get myself moving.
Just let me get the mid-summer birthday cascade out of the way first though, OK?
1 comment:
Every year I say I will start my christmas cards early. Then what do I do? I wait til late october and then a week before the big day I am still making! I cant imagine what its like to have christmas all year round. Must be pretty odd at first!
Best get cracking on those birthday cards! lol
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