Christmas decorations

I know it is November. I know that soon we will get the whole "bah humbug" and all that. But I LOVE Christmas! Regular as clockwork every year people get annoyed at how early the decorations are and how the real meaning of Christmas is gone, but you know what? I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

To me it is not about anything other than age-old children´s feeling of excitement, where you don´t really know what you are looking forward to, but you know it is great. Nothing is complicated, everything has a response. Sometimes Christmas is sunny and we play outside or go for a walk or flying kites in the mountains. Sometimes it rains and we huddle at the fire playing boardgames or reading books. Sometimes there is snow and we stand outside gazing upwards in disbelief and amazement aware that magic does exist.

In my family Christmas is simple. We stack all the presents under the tree:- my mam says it is quantity not quality, so the more presents, the more laughing we get out of it. Santy comes along and leaves some silly things in a pillowcase at the end of our beds. Me and my sister get drunk the night before, sometimes my parents accidentally meet up on Christmas eve and make me and my sister cry. Me and my sister then wake up at about 5am but we are not allowed get up til 6 and not allowed wake anyone til 7. We always get up anyway and perch on the twins´s beds "accidentally" waking them before 7. At 7 we burst into my mam´s room and drag her out and open presents of silly ball and maze games, and chocolate lollipops and flashing badges. Invariably someone steps on my mandarin. This year I want flashing teeth -hehehe.

At 9 my mam´s husband finally gets up, but these last few years he is much more into Christmas. He doesn´t even try to get us to wait til after dinner anymore, probably cos he can´t stand the look of withering scorn on my mam´s face after his suggestion. We make porridge, eggs and soldiers and toasted cheese, and we sit around the tree, with the twins shaking all the presents and all of pretending that they´ve just broken something. They jump up and down as they hand them out one by one. Invariably me and my sister refuse to open anything until the other has opened what we got her(in other words, until she has opened the present I bought her I will open nothing).

We play with the wrapping, we laugh at how my mam gets about 200 books, and still every year her husband steals one and wraps it up for himself even though she thought she was getting it. We eat cheese and crackers and chocolates and more mandarins. Dinner is simple and the crackers are always awful. Every year my mam pretends to leave out the brussel sprouts and every year my sister threatens to walk out unless sprouts arrive. The new game is "who´s turn is it to wreck Christmas". This comes from the days when my mam used to go mad if we complained about anything, and whoever it was was instantly branded as the Christmas wrecker. The poor twins - we make them repeat what they say 20 times, and as they repeat it we turn to each other and go "blahblahblahblah" and then "sorry? what did you say?" Luckily they have the same sense of humour as us and go "I just said(cue blahblahs)...h-oooh-ho-ho-ho!" We also have a game where we have to get words like "shit" and "vomit" into the dinner conversation without my mam noticing. I always win cos she doesn´t really listen to what I say, although since my sister started training as a vetinary nurse, she gets away with a lot more lately.

Which reminds me of the time we went for a meal at our favourite restaurant in Dublin, and there was a couple at the table beside us with two kids. One child was a little angel of about 3 years old, and her parents were completely ignoring her. So she came of course over to our table and stared at us. I didn´t really like that, but we didn´t blame the girl. It was obvious her parents were weekend parents who didn´t have a clue. They fed the baby boy they had and when he got sick on the floor they didn´t even clean it up. Me and my sister were determined to wreck their meal but not upset the children. We littered out conversation with curses to amuse the little girl, and when the couple´s food arrived we launched into an in depth animated discussion about performing vasectomies on dogs. And similar stories. The couple didn´t eat much. Me and my sister are not squeamish and enjoyed our meal thoroughly.

But anyway, back to my early Christmas rant. I can understand people disliking Christmas. But I think they usually have outside reasons. Like my dad, who never got to spend Christmas with us since his divorce. Christmas is best with children. Like the thousands of people who can´t be with the person they want to be with most, or who are alone. It is hard, and I am not taking away from that. I hope that things will improve for these people. Having no money can be a pressure, especially with kids, but we never had much money and still enjoyed Christmas, and I think some parents worry more than they should about this.

But the people who go on about the original message of Christmas and all that, well, to me it is simple. The original message of Christmas is to me to rejoice. It doesn´t matter if you are Christian or not(I am most definitely not). If you have a good time and try to be nice to people, even if it is just once a year, surely that´s a good thing?! If you don´t like shopping shop early or not at all. Or mail order. Or make stuff. If you don´t do Christmas, that´s okay, just don´t spoil it for others. If you don´t like the commercial side, don´t be commercial! Enjoy being wrapped in your cosy woolly jumper and drinking spiced tea and make your own cheer. If you don´t feel religious don´t be! If you want to go away and hide, do so!

This year my mam and crew are going to Blackpool to spend Christmas with her husband´s elderly mother. I am going home for the first week in December, and we will be celebrating our Christmas then. I look forward to cold wilds howling outside, leaning against the radiators with my book in hand, drinking a glass of wine, playing games and watching rubbishy telly, admiring the lopsided tree and funny old decorations, and being cocooned with my family inside our own homemade Christmas bauble.