Despite living and working in the heart of the Düsseldorf Christmas Markets, I am severely lacking in Christmas spirit. There are only so many overpriced wooden decorations you can look at and cups of glühwein you can drink and fried potato cakes with apple sauce you can eat and snow you can slide on and kids you can watch ice-skate and sweet, chocolatey, almond smells you can take in. Christmas is so tied to family traditions and childhood memories. I am missing the homemade cloth advent calendar and the box of christmas books and films and singing Christmas carols in the choir, I miss Christmas baking with Mum and decorating the tree to the Ratpack with my brothers and going to London just because and sitting inside with a mug of freshly made mulled wine and trying to wish the winter rain into balls of snow.
It just goes to show that Christmas has to be more than the snow, the twinkly lights, the warm, sweet drinks and the prospect of presents. It's about good company, personal traditions and a belief in the season that goes beyond aesthetics.
I can't help but feel homesick. GET ME BACK TO BRACKNELL
(I never in my LIFE thought I'd say that)
I felt EXACTLY the same in Iceland, I totally know what you mean. You miss all the things that you always thought hindered your own Christmas from being "really traditional". But in the end, all we have and want is our own traditions.
ReplyDeleteARE YOU HOME NOW? :)