I must admit, I HATE having the decorations go up too early.
Every year my wife makes it earlier and earlier.
I was explicit last year when I told her that I wouldn’t be getting a tree until at the very earliest the second week of December this time.
she already thinks she is going to drag me out to get one this coming weekend and it’s not happening.
Her excuse is that we need to get one early in case they ‘run out’. Christ.
Why why why do people want to start so early??? Any little magic that remains is pretty much exhausted by the time Christmas Day arrives especially where the kids are concerned and the tree, no matter how hard you try, becomes a fairly insignificant, slightly drooping and dried out inconvenience in the corner of the room.
The magic is in the excitement of the day, the rich reds and greens, the presents beneath the tree and the fun the kids have.
As someone has already said, it’s all about the foreplay these days - all shopping and spending and then come Christmas Day, it’s all just a bit of a let down. Short bursts of magic will have a much greater impact on us emotionally than a drawn out and commercialised Christmas bore fest.
I remember I used to moan at my dad every year, can we get the tree now, can we get the tree now!!!?? He would always say no and make us wait so that when we got it, decorated it and sat back with the lights off and the Christmas lights on, you knew, right then, that Christmas had started.