Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas spirit

This year, for as long as I can remember, I have experienced the least Christmas spirit. I'm walking through the streets and it doesn't strike me as if Christmas were just around the corner. I haven't heard a traditional song or the clear sound of a trombone. I haven't smelled mulled wine or the twigs of a freshly hewn spruce. I haven't seen snow. Each day, I pass my time like I would any other day.

The town is full of grandiose but ultimately pathetic decorations like blinking Santa Clauses and diode arrays to make you go blind. Inevitably, they surround advertisements and shop displays. As I don't go shopping much, I'm not much touched by how Christmas is misrepresented. And last weekend on Oxford Street, it could have been any weekend – there was absolutely nothing seasonal about it.

Living where I do doesn't help. Shepherd's Bush is full of diversity but devoid of values that are dear to me, devoid of things I associate with home, with warmth, with happiness. There are no trees, no lights and no carols. The Green has been taken over by a fun fair. Apparently, going on rides and shooting numbers for prizes is what the British like to do in winter, but it doesn't do the trick for me. Further down on Uxbridge Road, the Arabic stores do business as usual.

Maybe the lack of snow exacerbates things. In the northern hemisphere, Christmas is in winter, and I associate the sparkle of fresh white snow with the peaceful days at the end of the year. In Grenoble and Salt Lake, even if there was no snow on the street in front of your house, there were always the mountains, less than an hour away and clearly visible from town, their rich coat of snow reflecting the sunset in bright orange.

There will probably be no snow on the ground when I go to Germany this Friday. The airport will be full of blinking Santas and diode lights, and so will be the big malls. But at home, in the small town I grew up in and certainly in my parents' house, Christmas how I know it will rule. To me, Christmas means peace. Christmas means slowing down and kicking back. Christmas means Bach's Oratorio, cookies baked by mom, and a real tree with real candles. When these candles are lit for the first time, the Christmas spirit will finally hit me.

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