Christmas Sucks!

As December rolls on and the Xmas decorations start coming out of closet, the hunt is on for that ever elusive Christmas spirit. I've been trying for years to switch it on, sometime during the run up to xmas but it ain't easy...

As a child it never seemed difficult. Grandparents, aunties and uncles, and of course parents took good care of that. Parcels from England used to arrive during December, which we used to shake and smell, trying to figure out what was in them... I will never forget fighting with my sister about some present, in my grandma's old house in Piraeus, only to suddenly hear the deep, booming, voice of Santa himself, hiding behind the closet, apparently at the ready to resolve such problems! (It was our Dad)

Then you grow up, pass into the teens and twenties, when Xmas is just another occasion for a good piss up and some parties, and the xmas spirit slowly fades away... Another funny memory here, as a teen, staying up late on Xmas night, watching TV, only to be treated to the full Moulin Rouge show, complete with tall lithe British dancers, wearing next to nothing, all of us speechless, me gulping and wondering what everyone else is thinking...hilarious!!!

Time for a song...
Listen carefully to the lyrics...



I did however find that having kids brought some of it back, if anything because, you get the fresh look of their view on it. The las few years, what with the crisis and becoming a bit older and wiser, I have found another way too. Cooking, and especially baking, have added that little extra feeling and a lot of nice smells to the household. The kids love taking part in it, and the smell of ginger, cinnamon and something hot and sweet in the oven definintely add to that elusive Xmas spirit!

So regardless of the song, I don't really think Xmas sucks, however I am sure that making it another opportunity to persuade people to buy-buy-buy is not the way to go forward.

The other thing of course, is that our island is not a very christmasy place, is it? No snow, no pines, no Santas ringing bells on every corner, it isn't even cold! I mean come on, some of us are still in t-shirts!

Alex, my wonderful other half, has recently enrolled in this online photography course, set up along the lines of the "12 days of Xmas". The idea is to learn how to take good, festive photos. Everyday they are given an assignment, which teaches them certain aspects of "festive" photography. So everybody is sending in, all these photos of snow, (most of the participants are British) and all these lovely white landscapes, and what have we got? The closest thing to festive here is going to be St. Spiridon's litania on the 12th of December... Shame, she missed the dutch people and their Sinterclass celebration this morning, at the Marina...

Anyway at least it is getting cold now...

PS. This is the first entry of my new blog. I've been writing a couple of other ones on and off the last two years, but mostly in Greek. The idea is to combine some thought, social and political commentary and on occasion a distillation of the news and general goings-on in Greece and Corfu. And of course to do it in English allowing my non-greek friends an insight into life here.