Happy Winterfest! Dealing positively with the inevitable disappointments of Christmas

*WARNING* This is one of the sappiest posts I have ever written. I make no apologies however, as it is genuinely how I feel. But if you don't appreciate talking about festive joy and love here are some comedy ideas of the day I was kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space and The Baby-Safe Ball.


 Since I was very little, Christmas has been the most EXCITING, beautiful, joyful and happy experience of my year. I used to sing Christmas carols from July- any time after my birthday was fair gain for Christmas anticipation. It seems to me, a time of year where the whole object is to make each other happy, spend time together, make everything beautiful with lots of decoration, make nice music, eat loads of nice things, and a time where we were closer to magic than any other time. It was the most exciting and wonderful time in the world.

Here is a case in point. This is a happy little me, dressed up for the School Christmas Fair- excited pre winning a prize for the costume and being in the paper with the other winners and Father Christmas! We all knew Father Christmas was really Bill the school caretaker in a big fake beard really, but it was great in all ways :)
I did not know what wonders were to come!

 

Aaaahhh those Halcyon days...

However. As you grow up Christmas day becomes more and more of a disappointment every year. Even with my "being in Christmas" trick of lying with my head under the Christmas tree, looking up through the lights and decoration, which I discovered as a teenager when i wanted to try to capture some magic. And yes I still do this.

It is just another day. Especially in my house, were due to a certain relative being there we cannot do what we want with it, and enjoy our family Christmas which means so much to me. In stead we sit around in silence, being told we're doing everything wrong. 

This makes me immensely sad, because I still love Christmas and all that goes with it. Everything I've written after this I have deleted and rewritten. I still don't know how to put it, other than our Christmas has been stolen, unappreciatively, for the sake of being "polite". So I'll move on.

As really Christmas is one single day, there is so much pressure to have an *AMAZING* day, which will rarely ever happen as an adult. So my way of dealing with this is to think of Christmas as a whole season. A period of approximately a month in which we can celebrate. Of course the presents and big meal and stuff will happen on the 25th, but the parties and celebrations and fun, singing, even other Christmassy meals, social gatherings etc can bring joy and love to people any time around this time of year, and make the Christmas experience longer and fuller.

This video is pretty much the summation of my Christmas feelings. Muppets Christmas Carol is one of my favourite films, and is wonderfully touching and inciteful, and this is a brilliant number. But it doesn't have to be just for a single day.

So basically I am encouraging you, if you have lost the joy of Christmas a little, to think of it as a season, a few weeks, in which to spread joy, to be generous, to spend time with friends and family, buy a Big Issue, make interesting cakes for work, partake in a charity event, make things around you beautiful. wish strangers a happy Christmas, smile at people as you pass them in the street, sing and be merry.

These things will brighten many more days than your own.

It is the summer of the soul in December. In all the places you find love it feels like Christmas.

xxx