It’s beginning to look a lot like something…

It’s odd how until the 16th of December I wasn’t feeling very Christmassy. Only now have I realized that I associate the holidays with cold, damp weather that cuts through even the thickest of coats and goes straight to your bones.

Here the days are always the same length with a constant 15-25 degrees (Celsius), so I feel like it has been spring/fall for the last four months that I have been here. My brain hasn’t seen any of the triggers it’s used to. No ostentatiously giant Santa Clauses or unnecessary elf hats on clerks’ heads, and most importantly, I haven’t worn any thick, woolen sweaters with elaborate patterns of reindeers and snowmen, which I’ve grotesquely associated with Christmas, not realizing that in other places on Earth it doesn’t represent the holidays.

Last Saturday, I was shopping with Erato for avocados and tortilla chips, for we were preparing to watch Love Actually as I have done annually for the last four years now. (Snuggle up with a girl and watch to movie, and yes, actually watch the movie.) Just when we got to the cashier, Erato’s phone rang. After she hung up, she turned to me and said we needed 130 strawberries, plus white and dark chocolate. I wasn’t quite sure where she was going with this, but followed her instructions. Apparently, she had forgotten an order of special desserts, and she had to deliver 130-150 strawberries that were dipped in chocolate in less than three hours. So we quickly bought all the ingredients, and set to washing, drying, dipping, and glazing 140 strawberries.

It was a torturous task, but as Michael Bublé’s Christmas album played in the background and I was using melted chocolate to make something special for other people, the holiday spirit just filled my heart and suddenly I felt Christmas coming upon us.

I felt happy, tranquil, and filled with love for others. Suddenly I felt like I was wearing those thick sweaters, and smelling cinnamon and mulled wine in the air…

And I know, all this has been fed to me by decades of brilliant marketing, and I have problems with this consumer driven holiday madness, or as Tim Minchin put it “… the westernization of a dead Palestinian press-ganged into selling PlayStations and beer. But I still really like it […] for I’ll be seeing my dad, my brother and sister, my gran and my mum, they'll be drinking white wine in the sun.”

The only thing I miss is my family. I don’t know if it’s just simply that I haven’t seen them for almost four months or if it’s the constant talk about families, but I miss them with all my heart, and can’t wait to receive the package of printed photographs of all of them, which was the only thing I had asked for as a Christmas present.

A.D.