I love Christmas and I’m not ashamed. The supermarket where I work has been playing Christmas music since 1st December and I’m still singing along to “Jingle Bell Rock”, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. We are encouraged to wear Christmas jumpers: I started the year with nine and have ended up with fourteen – although my manager has fifteen, so he’s still beating me!

There’s just us four and my mother this year, but it won’t be a quiet Christmas because there’s so much to pack in. My girls, grown up though they are, still get stockings from Father Christmas and come into our room to sit on the bed and open the contents. It used to be that they would wake up at 6am and so, perforce, would we, but now they are older, it is we who wake them up. There’s a special Christmas breakfast, then church, then lunch, the King, family presents, Christmas tea and then board games in the evening. It’s not a relaxing day at all but it is wonderful.

Your Christmas will probably look very different. You may be part of a huge family get-together with a dozen sat around the table. You may be alone. Possibly you will be alone for the first time. I invited a friend who is alone this year to join us, but she had made other arrangements. Another friend, who sadly lost her husband to cancer earlier this year, flew out to New York yesterday – she is having a complete change.

I’m aware, too, that not everyone shares my love of Christmas. For some of you, this is not “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” For some of you, these dark days are a time of deep depression. Some of you will just be hunkering down and waiting for all the madness to end. 

And it is madness. At work, it was crowded, with the unending question from customers, “Where is…?” to which the answer is often “Just behind you Madam/Sir.” We ran out of puff pastry entirely last night, and, if you want a turkey, you had best be in before 8am – we open at 6am in the lead up to the big day. People are shopping as if we will be closed for a fortnight instead of for just one day. And, if all these people are catering for parties and big family dinners, then why are all their guests shopping too?

We have a party for all the neighbours on Christmas Eve and, as soon as I’ve finished writing this blog, I’m going to be starting the preparations for it – not least, tidying up so the house looks respectable for guests!

But whether you are celebrating the joy of this season, or saying “Bah, Humbug,” and waiting for it to end, I wish you as happy a time as is possible in your circumstances. 

Merry Christmas everyone. 

Mary

A Moodscope member