Baileys on the Sofa…. or why I really like Christmas

It’s just about the end of the Christmas/New Yearfest again, and I’m sitting by the tree I stubbornly refuse to throw out until twelfth night, surrounded by the leftover chocolates and drink we haven’t been able to manage to cram down our throats in the last couple of weeks despite courageous attempts, and I’m strangely calm and at peace.

Because unlike so many people who seem to be stir crazy or sick of the sight of baubles and Chocolate Oranges, I am still enjoying Christmas.

At this point I have to concede that I am very lucky in so many respects: I have family and friends to celebrate with; I don’t work in an industry that forced the season on you at unseasonable times –I have never had to record a quintessentially English Christmas pop song in the heat of a New York July, nor, like a dear friend who works in retail, have I had to spend June planning the festive advertising campaign and October onwards listening to an unrelenting tinselled chain of said pop songs force fed through the PA system at work.

Anyone familiar with the work of Tim Minchin will recognise the reference in this blog’s title to one of his songs, ‘White Wine in the Sun’, which is a favourite of mine, and the sentiments expressed in it: objecting to the use of a religion I don’t believe in anyway as an excuse to sell stuff, yet enjoying the chance to spend time with those you care about, sum up my attitude to the festive season.

My parents made Christmas magical for us as children – my father in particular was himself a big kid at Christmas, decking the halls with boughs of holly, hiding presents around the house and making his own recipe rum sauce to grace the pudding – which ensured my aunt fell into a tipsy doze in front of the Queen’s Speech. I have recreated this atmosphere (with a little less alcohol!) for my children and even now they are grown, Christmas for us is a time of – yes, tricks and japes and larks of all kinds, but also family traditions. Making Christmas biscuits for the children to decorate then hanging them on the tree; playing and singing Christmas songs, whether on CDs, piano or just singing in the kitchen; making mountains of mince pies; ….

Once trick is to limit the season: in our house Christmas is not mentioned until December and the house is not decorated until a week or so before the day. The other trick is to enjoy the ritual of what has to be done – the gift wrapping, buying and preparing the food etc – and to reward yourself with treats which are linked in your mind to the season.

For me this means Christmas is the one time of year I drink Baileys – usually slouching on the sofa watching a Christmassy DVD (again there are certain ‘must watch’ films and programmes), the only time I can sit in the armchair at 11am drinking coffee and reading a novel feeling totally guilt-free about the pile of washing that needs to be done. Tomorrow it is back to work and real life, but essentially for me Christmas is a few weeks in which goodwill and peace to all men takes over, we can enjoy the company of family and friends and forget the little worries – or indeed bigger problems - that grind us down in our everyday life.

And to return to White Wine in the Sun (I guess Baileys on the sofa is the English version) my blue eyed baby daughter has just celebrated her twenty-first birthday and I am very grateful that when Christmas comes around she still makes her way back home to find her brothers, her nan, her dad and me waiting for her. Yes, I really like Christmas…. It’s sentimental I know….