Not a big fan of this “holiday”. Not a militant anti-valentinesist either. Just a mildly horrific experience from being in a class with only boys from age 6-8, or rather in particular a new kid who hadn’t yet realised that the pink and frilly stuff wasn’t my thing. Said kid soon learned. Now all the pink hearts everywhere just bring on a cringe attack at my abrupt and brutal 8 year-old self. Give me Sci-Fi and Lego and cuddly toys and let me read my book in peace.
… if only in my dreams. And it feels like a dream at the moment. A week left?! That’s INSANE! Going from virtually no coursework to having three tests and a practical write up due next week has brought on some serious CHRISTMAS LOVE. The lights are beautiful, the Christmas market quaint and the general decorations and cheer just lovely. Commercialism blah, anti-religion blah. I just can’t wait to curl up on a sofa and watch ALL the Harry Potters in one go. And eat. All the time.
Christmas Checklist:
KNITS – Christmas jumpers are just fabulous. (I had to invest in one for myself this year.) Anything knitted, in fact: scarves, gloves, hats, socks, dressing gowns, ponchos. I love turning into a walking duvet, flopping about the place, all fluffy and warm.
FOOD – Stuffing your face and not having to think about the consequences = heaven. The abundance of chocolate makes me very happy. (My advent calendar is the highlight of my day – you are never too old for a chocolate advent calendar!) Turkey sandwiches on the days between Christmas and the New Year have been a favourite, along with “gravad lax”. Due to my family’s multiple nationalities our Christmas food is a bit of a mish-mash of cultures.
Christmas Eve: 1st – gravad lax on toast with mustard sauce (Swedish). 2nd – an assortment of pickled herring, sour cream and potatoes with knäckebröd of course (Swedish). 3rd – christmas ham with red cabbage, carrot casserole, potato casserole. (Finnish)
Christmas Day (mostly English): main – turkey, stuffing, beans, potatoes, sweet corn, lingon berry jam (heh, Sweden strikes again!), gravy etc. dessert – CHRISTMAS PUDDING. With ice-cream. Mmmmmmm. Best thing of all is that the rest of my family hate it. So I basically end up eating my own weight in Christmas pudding.
MUSIC – Nothing beats Christmas Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and dear old Bing. Not a huge fan of “modern xmas classics” (in fact if I hear anyone playing Wham! I might just have to destroy the device in question). Carols! There is something strangely calming about carols for me – in the music that is. I think it’s the sound of choirs in churches, that strange mixture of clear voices reverberating and forming a body of sound that is slightly haunting, yet warm. For years we only had two Christmas CD’s, one with jazz and one with carols. So that’s what I’ve grown up liking. My favourite is the Sunday Times 20 Christmas Classics from 1980 (or something along those lines). I refuse to decorate the tree without this CD playing; the smell of the tree and this CD make Xmas official.
LIGHTS – It may just be a bit of a Swedish thing, but for me candles indoors and lights outside on the trees are beyond necessary for Christmas. The latter were the only reason I could see the keyhole of my door when I came home after school. With only eight hours of light any amount of extra cheer was greatly appreciated.
FILM – I love curling up in front of the TV and a fire, under a blanket, with my food, watching the snow fall outside and staring at that magical box for hours on end. We watch a lot of musicals: White Christmas, The Court Jester, and any other films with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope (and that lot) in them. And I mustn’t forget It’s Such a Wonderful Life. And Love Actually. Ha puns.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Halloween – I mean what’s the point? Costumes and drunkenness? As a student that doesn’t require a festive holiday. Free sweets and costumes as a kid? It wasn’t a big thing where I lived, so no to that too. I don’t mind the spookiness and the ghoulishness – in fact I think it’s quite cool. But Halloween just inevitably turns into a lot of face paint all over your clothes and slutty cats EVERYWHERE (if I was a cat I would be genuinely insulted).
I think the best part of Halloween is walking past the graveyards, with their flowers, lanterns, candles and visitors. Is it weird to think that graveyards can be beautiful? I find it oddly mind-boggling that although our existence has no significant lasting impact on the universe we can still be part of other peoples lives once we’re gone. We take it for granted, it sounds obvious, but isn’t it really quite extraordinary that something so essentially unimportant can still be…. well important, even though it no longer actually exists? We talk about history as FACT, yet really it’s all just on hearsay. It could all be an elaborate Matrix-like scenario for all I know. Isn’t existence just really peculiar?
… And now back to studying… Actually I just wanted to say that there may be some “exciting” updates coming up concerning that promise I made to everyone about my documenting my interrailing experience, so keep an eye out! I can guarantee footage of me making a fool of myself on mainland Europe, yipee!
Also, John Lewis’ freaked me out this week: Christmas decorations NEXT TO the spooky Halloween bats, pumpkins and cobwebs. I couldn’t deal with it; it was just way too confusing. The only thing that reminds me of both Christmas and Halloween is probably Harry Potter. And this is a fantastic song. In fact the whole soundtrack – for all of the films – is fantastic. John Williams + Alexandre Desplat = genius.
Thinly Spread 