The twelve signs of Christmas
1) First appearance of Christmas decorations in the shops
This year it was 25 September. Three months on the dot before the big day.
2) The first Christmas beetle
There haven’t been many about this year. Perhaps it’s because the weather is unseasonably cold, so they don’t know it’s time to hatch out and go blundering about. The one I have seen was huge...and, sadly, deceased. One blunder too many it would seem.
3) The rising tide of Christmas lights
Slowly and intricately the houses in this neighbourhood have been outlining themselves in lights - twinkly, flashing, colourful lights. Reindeers, waving Santa’s, starbursts - it’s as if each one is trying to go one better than the family next door. I don’t mind at all, I love Christmas lights.
4) The increasing number of corporate/official decorations. Including some seafood-themed ones...
The City of Sydney tends towards severe political correctness, and for a number of years didn’t do anything very much apart from the big tree in Martin Place. But gradually some shiny things crept in, some inoffensively appropriate banners in the streets - and these really very odd decorations all around Darling Harbour. There are giant Santas climbing everywhere, not all of which are humanoid.
5) The ritual annual detangling of the Christmas lights
Took.Me.An.Hour.To.Sort.This.Out.
6) Decorating our little tree. Sometimes it’s bigger, sometimes it’s smaller. But it always is...
Last year we had a monstrous tree. This year it’s a quarter of the size. So much so that when I went to put the lights up I had to put the excess couple of feet winding around the window frame behind it. Poor little tree is practically bending over backwards with the weight of all of those flashing bulbs, added to the handful of other decorations and the tinsel. But even though it’s listing, it’s still beautiful.
(And it’s a radiata pine, so it smells gorgeous!)
7) The annual trauma of the Christmas cards
Why does this not get better with practice? Why do I always believe I have plenty of time right up until the moment I realise I don’t? I love sending cards (though writing anything sensible and interesting in them is another question altogether) and I adore receiving them. Every year, every single year I resolve to send them out by a particular date, and every year, every single year, I don’t.
8) Work Christmas parties - Agency, Division, Branch and Section...
Starting quite well, but by the end everyone is suffering from an almighty hangover - not just from too much alcohol, but from Just Too Much of Everything. Too many biscuits and dip, stuffed olives, crisps, slices of Christmas cake, mixed sweets, the whole thing.
(Yesterday’s Section morning tea. The one that lasted about two hours.)
9) Reindeer cars. No, seriously...
I really don’t know what else I can say about these.
10) The proliferation of Santa’s little helpers
One morning I caught the bus to work with this jolly gentleman, along with a mother and her c 2 year old daughter - who shrieked ‘Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa...’ approximately once every 20 seconds for the duration of the whole half hour trip. Non-stop.
11) Carols at the Town Hall
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the big concert at the Town Hall: our choir + guests (about 200 all up), a children’s choir, the Royal Australia Navy orchestra, a harpist, soprano, and the biggest organ in the Southern Hemisphere - and an audience of 2,000 packed into the beautifully ornate main hall. Talk about a wall of sound, my ears ring for hours afterwards.
I always get teary with the first carol, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, particularly in the final verse (‘And He leads his children on, to the place where he is gone’) because it reminds me of Dad, and it takes me back to my childhood and going to church with the family on Christmas morning and hearing him sing so loudly and true. I cope much better with all of the other carols, it’s just that one carol that does me in every time.
12) And probably the surest sign of all?
The fact that every year I end up staying up way too late on Christmas Eve trying to finish up way too many things. I have no idea how I manage this - it’s not as if Santa visits our house anymore, and we don’t give big presents that need to be wrapped; I’m not even hosting a massive family lunch (though there is a smaller version, but that’s a tale for another day). But somehow I start the day with a list as long as my arm, everything takes at least three times as long as I expect, so here I am, at nearly 11pm, making potato salad for tomorrow.
And who was it that decided at the last minute to add ‘make a Christmas cake...and ice it!’ to the list?
Yes, that would be me.
And a bonus one for LJ Magpie’s Christmas avatar - the cheeky bird with the Santa hat. As soon as I see that, then I know it’s definitely Christmas time. :)
So Merry Christmas to everyone. Be safe, stay happy.
This year it was 25 September. Three months on the dot before the big day.
2) The first Christmas beetle
There haven’t been many about this year. Perhaps it’s because the weather is unseasonably cold, so they don’t know it’s time to hatch out and go blundering about. The one I have seen was huge...and, sadly, deceased. One blunder too many it would seem.
3) The rising tide of Christmas lights
Slowly and intricately the houses in this neighbourhood have been outlining themselves in lights - twinkly, flashing, colourful lights. Reindeers, waving Santa’s, starbursts - it’s as if each one is trying to go one better than the family next door. I don’t mind at all, I love Christmas lights.
4) The increasing number of corporate/official decorations. Including some seafood-themed ones...
The City of Sydney tends towards severe political correctness, and for a number of years didn’t do anything very much apart from the big tree in Martin Place. But gradually some shiny things crept in, some inoffensively appropriate banners in the streets - and these really very odd decorations all around Darling Harbour. There are giant Santas climbing everywhere, not all of which are humanoid.
5) The ritual annual detangling of the Christmas lights
Took.Me.An.Hour.To.Sort.This.Out.
6) Decorating our little tree. Sometimes it’s bigger, sometimes it’s smaller. But it always is...
Last year we had a monstrous tree. This year it’s a quarter of the size. So much so that when I went to put the lights up I had to put the excess couple of feet winding around the window frame behind it. Poor little tree is practically bending over backwards with the weight of all of those flashing bulbs, added to the handful of other decorations and the tinsel. But even though it’s listing, it’s still beautiful.
(And it’s a radiata pine, so it smells gorgeous!)
7) The annual trauma of the Christmas cards
Why does this not get better with practice? Why do I always believe I have plenty of time right up until the moment I realise I don’t? I love sending cards (though writing anything sensible and interesting in them is another question altogether) and I adore receiving them. Every year, every single year I resolve to send them out by a particular date, and every year, every single year, I don’t.
8) Work Christmas parties - Agency, Division, Branch and Section...
Starting quite well, but by the end everyone is suffering from an almighty hangover - not just from too much alcohol, but from Just Too Much of Everything. Too many biscuits and dip, stuffed olives, crisps, slices of Christmas cake, mixed sweets, the whole thing.
(Yesterday’s Section morning tea. The one that lasted about two hours.)
9) Reindeer cars. No, seriously...
I really don’t know what else I can say about these.
10) The proliferation of Santa’s little helpers
One morning I caught the bus to work with this jolly gentleman, along with a mother and her c 2 year old daughter - who shrieked ‘Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa, Santa...’ approximately once every 20 seconds for the duration of the whole half hour trip. Non-stop.
11) Carols at the Town Hall
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the big concert at the Town Hall: our choir + guests (about 200 all up), a children’s choir, the Royal Australia Navy orchestra, a harpist, soprano, and the biggest organ in the Southern Hemisphere - and an audience of 2,000 packed into the beautifully ornate main hall. Talk about a wall of sound, my ears ring for hours afterwards.
I always get teary with the first carol, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, particularly in the final verse (‘And He leads his children on, to the place where he is gone’) because it reminds me of Dad, and it takes me back to my childhood and going to church with the family on Christmas morning and hearing him sing so loudly and true. I cope much better with all of the other carols, it’s just that one carol that does me in every time.
12) And probably the surest sign of all?
The fact that every year I end up staying up way too late on Christmas Eve trying to finish up way too many things. I have no idea how I manage this - it’s not as if Santa visits our house anymore, and we don’t give big presents that need to be wrapped; I’m not even hosting a massive family lunch (though there is a smaller version, but that’s a tale for another day). But somehow I start the day with a list as long as my arm, everything takes at least three times as long as I expect, so here I am, at nearly 11pm, making potato salad for tomorrow.
And who was it that decided at the last minute to add ‘make a Christmas cake...and ice it!’ to the list?
Yes, that would be me.
And a bonus one for LJ Magpie’s Christmas avatar - the cheeky bird with the Santa hat. As soon as I see that, then I know it’s definitely Christmas time. :)
So Merry Christmas to everyone. Be safe, stay happy.