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Yesterday was December 1st and several things happened. I had to put on shoes for the first time since last spring … sandals are finally put away for the winter. I also had to turn the heat on while I had my morning coffee – again for the first time – because the thermostat showed that it was only 15º in my bedroom. Then I put Azar’s santa hat on (if you don’t see it on his avatar pic try refreshing the page). And I went out to the post office and mailed a whole pile of Christmas cards! It’s been at least a couple of years since I sent out REAL Christmas cards. But I remembered that I’d bought some pretty ones at M&S in Gibraltar last year when Susan and I were on our road trip and never got around to sending them. Wasn’t feeling all that festive last year – my third surgery had been at the end of November and I was feeling a bit worse for wear. I didn’t spring back from that one as well as I had from the two previous ops. But this year is different…
I’ve decided that I really want to have a wonderful Christmas. I guess there’s always that thing in the back of my mind that this might be my last one (so hey, hold on to those Christmas cards folks, in case they become collector’s items!), which I guess was also a possibility last year. The difference this year is that I just really want to celebrate my favourite holiday. Which has naught to do with anything religious. I have just always loved this time of year – the pretty lights and the sharing and giving part of Christmas. And that at least once a year we stop and remember to love each other. Some will say that we should do this year round, which of course would be lovely. But we all know how easy it is to get caught up in our day-to-day stuff, so we forget to celebrate the birth of compassion, and the fact that we are all capable of loving and caring if we stop and pay attention.
So, I started celebrating Christmas yesterday and don’t plan on stopping until my birthday on January 7th. And who knows, I may not even stop then. This is going to be my best Christmas ever! Care to join me?
casa azahar 
So THAT was why the question… 🙂
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Great post, Az! I am still pretty indifferent about Christmas these days, but who knows? Maybe this year will be different. I set out to have a good Christmas last year and it wound up being the same old stuff because my family has gotten into a groove they tend to not want to deviate from…
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Having worked retail for many years, I am kind of take-it-or-leave-it over Christmas. As well, when you don’t have kids of your own and aren’t married, what is the point?
Mom and I go over to my sister’s place for the day which is nice. We have dinner and… well, that is that. Christmas over and done with….
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I’ve grown to love Christmas even more as I’ve got older. Although its still extremely weird seeing the decorations up in all the shops and yet its hot and sunny outside. I can’t get my head around doing my Christmas shopping wearing flip-flops!
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Christmas as it involves other people holds no significant good memories for me. What comes back to me this time every year is light. Not the cornball light of public tree trimmings but the angle of the light at the winter solstice, and the weird calm it seems to induce. Layered recollections of being “let off the hook” from school, which is horrible to most people with half a soul I think, and of taking a book behind the decorated household tree to read in the illumination from the string lights. (They were awful clunky old ones with layered tinting that wore off over the years.) That kind of feeling, I can get behind. I guess it falls under the “stop and pay attention” rubric.
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I have no happy childhood Christmas memories. It was after I left home that I decided to make Christmas my own “happy tradition” and perhaps that is why it’s become so important to me. The past few Christmases haven’t been so great, in part because Nog is such a grinch and doesn’t care about Christmas at all … as you say, WC, it’s kind of hard to get into things when the people around you don’t show any enthusiasm. It was actually easier to have special Christmases when I lived alone. But as I say – this year is going to be different! No more grinching allowed at casa az. And so even if I have to do it all by myself, I am going to make things special. Heck, I already am! 🙂
Hey, I love all the cornball light of public tree trimmings, sled! Though they do it a bit differently here. These photos were taken a few years ago. Must go out and take more this year. Part of the reason I’d hoped to get down to Málaga this Christmas season was to see the lights – I’ve heard they really light up the town big time.
I’d also find it weird to see Christmas lights up in summer, woo. Though of course all the snow-themed decorations look a bit out of place here too.
Read my post again, you old humbug! 😉
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I don’t like excessmas.
I like the days off work and the ability to stroll around in jammies or jogging pants and a tshirt, read books I never get round to, watch DVDs and indulge in food I like.
I don’t like making Xmas and I’m not happy with a lot of people around me expecting me to do or eat specified things at specified occasions. Last year I really tried to skip excessmas altogether, but failed. This year I’ll have at least one hatchling around, but I have solemnly declared there will be no excessmas. A few dishes will be served, because I like them.
Then again, if the whole galore is what matters, they have other places to be.
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Neither do I. Which is why I’ve always tried to make it a celebration that I can personally enjoy. I choose the bits I like about Christmas and don’t bother with “what’s expected”. Some years I’ve been able to afford gifts and have taken great delight in finding something for friends that I knew they’d especially like. Other years it wasn’t possible to buy gifts, but I was still able to make a nice meal and invite people over. Other times I was invited. And occasionally I was on my own with the cats and got a lot of long distance phone calls as presents. Probably in my whole life I’ve only had a handful of Christmases that made me feel “this is it! this is what Christmas is all about!” … and now I would like to have another one. 🙂
For me it’s all about giving and sharing stuff. So I’ve got to work out what I am able to give and then how I will be able to share it.
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Eeek. You’ve got snow!
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Yep, until January 4th. Funny to see some of the “flakes” get caught in the orange blossom. And the direction of the snow falling follows your mouse. 🙂
If you want it to snow on your blog just go to Dashboard –> Extras –> Snow Falling On My Blog.
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For me, Christmas has always been a very odd holiday. Our family were members of the Baha’i World Faith, and in that religion you are “supposed” to be celebrating the Intercalary Days before the Spring Equinox as the “big holiday” that involves gift giving, etc. But we always had a Christmas tree and read the gospel according to Luke on Christmas Eve, sang carols, blah blah. It was a good time, but rather confusing since we weren’t really Christians and it always felt hypocritical to celebrate something that wasn’t part of our actual religion.
Now I am none of the above, and for me the whole deal is all about the Circle of the Year and celebrating the end of the waning of the sun and the beginning of the return of the light. I really started tuning into that when I lived in Alaska and the Solstice was a real event. I mean, in Fairbanks at Winter Solstice we were getting about 3 1/2 hours of sun a day, and the idea that it was going to start lasting longer was a Big Deal.
I don’t buy into the excessmas, never have. But I love the decorations and the lights and of course I love getting presents. But they don’t have to be big and expensive to make me happy. Last year one of my favorite presents was the hornet’s nest paper my sister gave me. That one didn’t cost a penny, and I have been getting pleasure out of it all year.
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The funny thing is that I sort-of do have a Christmas tradition, in spite of my Witness background. We always went to England that time of year to visit relatives. I’ve gone once or twice on my own since the family trips stopped. No idea what I’m doing this year, though. I’m in a shared house which will be deserted as the other lads go home. I could stay here alone. I could visit my parents on the other side of town. Or I might pop across to Bedford and see my granddad’s new flat. I’ve not visited since he moved to his new special accommodation (no more stairs).
TRiG.
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Thank you for the card – your’s was the first we received this year 🙂
I love bits of Christmas, and concentrate on those – putting up the tree, going to the panto, hearing some good Christmassy music. Rog hates it – like you, too associated with bad memories. We always buy a new bauble for the tree each year – this years says “Ho bloody ho!”
The crowds at the shops are just mental – apparently there was no car parking space left in Belfast yesterday – cars were being parked on the hard shoulder of the dual carriageway!
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