That elusive Christmassy feeling

| Posted by Lou | The time is 9.50pm here in London UK |

I'm trying really, really hard to be Christmassy.

I psyched myself up from a long way out, planned my "12 Days of Christmas" feature... and... it's just not working.

I started with an advent calendar - though made the mistake of buying it to be a prop for my Beatles birthday party, so getting a thoroughly unthematic Thomas the Tank Engine one.

It has made me feel nostalgic for back when I was little and we would get a glittery nativity picture that had cute little depictions of Christmas and the story of Jeebus' birth behind every window.

Previously I'd just remembered the excitement of when advent calendars evolved to have chocolate behind each door, but alas not even that is getting my enthused with many of the chocolates remaining unopened and uneaten.




I have of course also tried the obvious route towards Christmas excitement by buying and wrapping gifts. I've gone for quantity over value or quality, and they have sort of worked a little bit.

At the very least they make my barely-decorated £3 tree look a lot more festive than it otherwise would!




And in broadening my Christmas horizons, I have done a weekender to German Christmas markets.


Unfortunately of course the Christmas markets occur at Christmas time, which is peak wintertime, which means that the cold and snow makes the temptation to go inside and drink German beer and eat German stodge far too great to resist.

However I did do a markets round and picked up a couple of gifts, and got myself this little traditional decoration to try and bling up my tree.

There have also been drunken Christmas parties and the boozy Christmas lunch... but I think the problem is that I'm missing the one key element to that Christmassy feeling: a week off work to look forward to. When one is unemployed, holidays just don't have the same irresistible appeal.

But there are things on their way to help: it looks like being a White Christmas (it will be white with a thick layer of snow and ice on the ground, but may also be actually snowing); I have charades and egg-nog planned; and tomorrow I'm going to go out and try and get me the world's most hideous Christmas jumper.

Watch this space.