Telly time...

Here we go again, December first and the run down to Christmas. It hasn’t been particularly cold, there’s hardly been a frost and leaves still cling to the late autumn trees. Christmas is on its way, but with the warmth of the weather you’d hardly know it.

I have mixed feelings about Christmas, I really enjoy the lead up with the scurry of present buying, the decision making process concerning food and beverages, and of course the hanging of the decorations, but when the day actually arrives it’s often those things that lead to such a feeling of anticlimax.

We always buy each other too many presents which means we spend ages ripping off whole forests of paper and then making the gifts into small mountains of nuts, alcohol, socks, pants, books and whatever else Santa has brought in his sack. These mountains get moved into bags and then sit in the hall languishing for days. Eventually, months later, they make their way upstairs and just before Christmas are deposited in drawers and cupboards ready for the process to begin all over again.

Food and drink play a big part in our celebrations and the meals seem to take weeks to plan. In reality Christmas dinner is just another roast, no different from a Sunday lunch, but it seems to take on a life of its own with an ego of gargantuan proportions. By the time it’s on the table I often feel that it would be so much better to buy a ready meal or even order in a pizza. Of course it isn’t helped by the fact that all the early morning bubbles, pre-lunch sherry, and cheeky beers whilst cooking, have gathered together to confuse time so that everything hangs in the balance until the very last minute before it needs to be served.

The decorations are fine once they are up, I even quite enjoy hanging them and of course it’s my job to sort out the lights. But by the time Christmas Day is over and Boxing Day arrives I am ready to rip them down and shove them back in their boxes in the cellar. Of course this isn’t allowed, so on Twelfth Night we have the panic of hours of decoration removal before the stoke of midnight to avoid the bad luck that enters the house should a single tinsel star be left hanging.

It may sound from all of this that I don’t like Christmas, but nothing is further from the truth. I actually quite enjoy it, I just wish that it could be a little simpler and not such a fuss of panic buying, last minute present wrapping, and mountains of washing up. Thinking about it I would actually like to sit down and watch some telly one Christmas afternoon.

Forget the presents and dinner. I think that’s what I’ll aim for this year, some telly time.