30 Nov Merry Christmas!

This will be my last blog before Christmas and therefore my last blog of the year. It seems very early to be saying that but everything seems early this year.

Christmas lights seemed to go up earlier, shops got their Christmas stuff out earlier and radio stations started playing those Christmas classics earlier too.

It may just be my perception (I can’t provide you with statistical evidence) but I am sure people were desperate to start the festive season as soon as possible this year. Maybe as an antidote to all the doom and gloom in the world or in order to budget over a longer period of time.

Some people love Christmas and some are not so keen. I have always been in the first camp. I get excited at the first sight of Christmas in the shops. I sneak up the odd string of lights as soon as October hits in the guise of fighting off the dark evenings. I start mince pie testing as soon as my waistline can handle.

But I am aware that for some, Christmas is tough. The first Christmas without a loved one. Christmas alone or with nowhere to go. Christmas on a very tight budget or worse. Christmas putting on a brave face in a marriage that isn’t working. Christmas with difficult family members. The list goes on.

I’ll be honest, this year I’m not feeling it like I usually do. I haven’t joined the early rush to put my tree up, keep turning the Christmas songs off in the car and haven’t started shopping. I am still testing the mince pies though!

I’m not sure if I am rebelling against the early arrival, am worrying about money or just missing my daughter still at Uni and not due home for weeks or my Mum, the second Christmas without her. I’m not sure if it is the doom and gloom on the news or watching the Smart meter whizz round every time we put the heating on.

I’m just not feeling it. Yet.

And that’s OK.

We don’t have to feel Christmassy because the shops, the media or anyone else tells us to. We are allowed to get there in our own sweet time, dealing with whatever demons we are fighting before we get there, Or not at all, if that is what we need to do.

It’s been a funny old year: the remnants of Covid, war, money worries, the death of our Queen and many personal reasons may just all be colliding right now. This might make you party like a 20 year old or curl up under a blankie and say “Stuff it” and not be talking about the turkey.

However you feel this Christmas, you do you.

And know that I’m sending love.