Sunday, December 12, 2021

Christmas spirit, anyone?

How is the Christmas spirit in your house right now?

Long time blog reader Jenetta left this comment on a recent post:

...I got THE boxes down from the loft, wore a silly hat for our church table top sale today and now I want to put it all back up in the loft and skip the decorating and all the fuss this year and fast forward to Christmas Day, have family together, eat too much and move on....And I usually love the decorating bit.

I share her feelings. Hepworth Towers is awash with apathy, although I have dug up and potted the tree to bring in from the garden next weekend. And Dave's home-made wooden tree and the lighted bottles are in the kitchen, but that is only because I had to find some stuff in the attic to take to the Meeting House yesterday, and I thought - oh, I might as well.



Christmas has certainly become less sparkly for me as I get older. All I want is to be with family and to have a tree. 

Also, it's harder to get into the Christmas spirit when I'm not buying presents. I left the girls' presents in Colorado, and my local teenage grandchildren want money, of course. The rest of the family want donations to charity, and Dave doesn't do Christmas - as well you know. So I just have one present left to buy and wrap. 

Then there is Covid. Things relaxed a little after we had our boosters, but now Omicron has arrived, Dave is on high alert, so our Christmas is not looking very different from last Christmas.*

What is different is that since last December we have had one more year of lies, corruption and mayhem and I am spending too much time checking the news online to see if the Tories have given him his marching orders yet. As the Observer said this morning: 


Enough!

I have had my SAD light on for an hour first thing every morning, and I'm getting out under the sky when possible. I don't have the winter blues. Maybe I should bring in the tree a week early. Maybe I should try harder to think of things to blog about, because having been writing this for half an hour I'm already feeling more cheerful. 

Thank you for being there, dear friends. 

Let me know how you are.


*Zoe has invited me for Christmas Day and I have told Dave that I am determined to go, even if  he makes me self-isolate for ten days when I get back to Hepworth Towers.









6 comments:

marmee said...

Glad glad you choosing to go ! Your house looks very christmassy with all your sparkly stuff! I was also slow on the christmas front but this morning I made a start. Its like this whole balancing act, be careful, but grasp the blessings as they present themselves. We are just fatigued arent we?

Chris Smith said...

I’m with you on skipping the faff of Christmas this year. We moved into our new abode two weeks ago and have more or less unpacked and are relishing the village location and the extra space. We went out and bought a tree today and a quick online shop took care of food for Christmas Day, but yes, I feel a strange sort of lethargy and apathy towards it. I’m far more excited about the potential toppling of that despicable man ...

Sue Hepworth said...

Hello Marmee, I like your comment “be careful, but grasp the blessings as they present themselves.” and yes, perhaps we are just fatigued.

Hi Chris, wishing you happiness in your new home. I’m glad you made it!
Yes to the “toppling of that despicable man.” I hope we don’t get someone even worse.

Lina said...

Yes, I feel the same about Christmas as I get older, wanting less faff and just a quiet day. We're also on high alert and our Christmas will be similar to last year's... Thank you for cheering me up and sharing my feeling.....

Unknown said...

Hi Sue, the empty bottles filled with fairy lights and the wooden Christmas tree look great.
I feel quite lucky in that I don't celebrate Christmas fully, (Eid is my equivalent!) so I feel I don't have the related stress that can come with it, or expectations but I choose all the best bits. This year I bought an advent calendar and Christmassy candle which are the only visual Christmas item on display. On Christmas day, I will probably cook all my favourite food and go for a drive to Trafalgar Sq and have a look at the Christmas tree. And that will be my Christmas done! I really just use the quiet, slower time for lots of R&R.

Shafia x

Sue Hepworth said...

Hi Lina
Thanks for joining in the conversation. I'm glad if the blog cheered you up.
Hi Shafia,
It's nice to hear from you. And interesting to hear about your particular take on Christmas. And I'm mega impressed that you're intending driving to Trafalgar Square!