Christmas: Whatever.

[sheling]

So I figured I'll give it up. The decorations and tree were a disaster, though the flashy lights around the room look awesome. But they'll look awesome any time during the Winter - I think we'll just leave those up. The food - well, I'm too sick to cook right now, so we've got a bunch of stuff up in my room (cold enough to use as a fridge anyway) that we're picking at quite happily. Christmas cards, once again, got written out - over the course of days - and then never handed out, though I'll make an effort to do that once I'm better and able to go out and about again.

The presents are about the only thing we'll keep, but that's more because we both have summer birthdays and it's nice to get a few new bits and bobs halfway through the calendar. However, Euan only really enjoyed the planet book and the foam bath letters - the rest of it he dismissed as tat, and not without justification. Unlike other kids, Euan is resistant to the "Want Everything" part of Christmas: if he didn't want it, he won't fake being pleased about it, and while that makes buying gifts for him tricky, it also goes a long way to saving a bunch of money otherwise spent on unwanted shite.

It seems that both my son and I are Crimbo-resistant. And I tried this year, I honestly did. The magic, such as it is, just can't be found in shiny, useless crap, dreadfully filling food and giving stuff to people we honestly don't like that much.

Best part of it all for us? Seeing Euan wish all the grumpy people a merry Christmas in Tesco yesterday - and watching their reactions as they composed themselves to react to a genuinely cute little boy who was honestly wishing them well. Typically I try to stop him accosting strangers in this manner, but I figured, f**k it, it's Christmas and if these people are in a supermarket on Xmas Eve, they're clearly buying into it already - let them deal with a small, well-wishing child.

Also wonderful is the array of games we have to entertain ourselves with while tucked up in bed. Euan is a mean hand at Dominoes, Uno and Old Maid. "Don't Wake Dad" is hilarious and Buckaroo has earned the right to be called a classic. Given his talents with the typical childhood games, I'm thinking of breaking out his penny box today and teaching him to gamble.

So, yeah, all in all, I just feel it's a wasteful thing. All that packaging, processing, eating (and the food that doesn't get eaten). All that time, effort and money devoted to a single day. We make such a fuss about living green for the rest of hte year, but Xmas seems somehow immune to those rules. Yet wrapping paper (to the best of my knowledge) can't be recycled because of the glossy coating, the plastic packaging always ends up in landfill in spite of our best intentions, and we could probably light our homes for three months on the electricity it takes to run all the fairy lights, ornaments and other assorted pieces of crap we bought because they made us giggle and get wheeled out year after year, even if they're not funny anymore.

I used to like Christmas. I also used to ride horses and date and try to forgive my family for being such immoral bastards. But I was severely allergic to the animals, dating made me miserable and it takes more than a single person making an effort to keep a family together. And when I think about it now, the cash we've just spent in making the attempt at Christmas could easily have covered a trip away to see some real snow, the Northern Lights and buying us a little peace and quiet, which is what I think we'll be doing next year - getting as far away from Christmas as we can and bringing it back to what, for me, should be the bottom line when you strip all the glitz, chintz and tat away - just enjoying being together.

Perhaps Euan will find a partner who does the season better than I and somehow manages to enjoy doing it without feeling guilty about the excess and waste. Perhaps they'll be able to make it magical for him and all that. But I can't fake it anymore - I just don't like it. So I'm giving it up.

[Minimalist]

LOL. Shel, you are just too funny sometimes!

Enjoy the day.

[sheling]

Actually, we've had a lovely day, in spite of still being under the weather. Eu chose a cheese party for breakfast, so we hunkered down with Edam, Roquefort, Stilton, Brie and the like on crackers in the morning. Then it was nibbles and dips for lunch, followed by mince pies and cream which, I didn't realise until Euan started getting really huggy and affectionate, contained Cointreau. Awesome.

Throughout the day we've been playing games, chatting, reading his planet book and it turns out he's a dab hand at MySims on the DS I bought myself as a gift. So much so that I'm seriously thinking of buying another one in the sales so that we can hook up and play together.

This afternoon we chilled and napped, called friends and watched some TV - the Victorian Farm at Christmas was a surprising runaway entertainment hit, especially as we started off watching The Incredibles which confused Euan - super powers are illogical, apparently.

Eu's now sleeping off the boozy cream - the rest of which he managed to sneak off with while I wasn't looking, meaning he imbibed a decent enough amount of the stuff to get him quite firmly tipsy. I'm oddly disappointed to announce that, at the age of 4, my son is not an entertaining drunk. Though he does get charmingly affectionate and quite chatty and giggly.

Anyway. Now I'm watching some catch-up stuff online (Felt obliged to watch The Queen - another thing I'm ditching next year) before settling into a lovely long bath with some Baileys that my neighbour gave me.

Not a traditional day, but far from the worst Xmas I've ever had.

Hope you all had a great one, too!

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