Even for a ‘Christmas person’ like me it is hard to get much of a grip on the festive spirit this year. Though I have been writing and sending out cards ‘willy nilly’ for the best part of a month now (all around the globe to!) so far this year I have only actually received two cards - one from a friend I met for a coffee and the other an advent calendar style card from the people at The Postcode Lottery (I’m yet to win more than £10 in about a decade!).
I do understand though how hard it is to focus on Christmas this year and also that for many people it all must either seem ‘impossible’ because they have lost someone or have lost their job or ‘pointless’ because there is no way anyone is really going to be able to enjoy the festive season properly this year with all of the restrictions and Covid 19 worries.
I myself am concerned now at how the infection rate in Hastings is shooting up and fear for the future but Christmas is I feel something to sustain me rather than a burden or a worry. When the going gets tough and the world looks to be a pretty bleak place that is when you need to be able to ‘return to childhood’ and ‘escape’ into the magic of Christmas!
With ‘constants’ like my beloved Debenhams struggling this year and no huge Christmas Tree outside Gordon Busbridge in London Rd (for the first time I can ever remember) so I need the comfort of cards, card writing, present giving and of course a trip to Kings Road to see the Christmas lights. Twinkle, twinkle little star enters my head as I say that and I can almost smell the scent of Jaffa Oranges - a taste sensation that I believe to be EXACTLY the same as when I was a small boy in the 1970’s and watching my Grandad rolling his orange on the living room table in the hope that he might then be able to peel it more easily! Now I can see the sight of the Toffee Tray with its small metal hammer and If I try really hard recall the smell of nan’s ‘special gravy’ - made from the juices and fat from the Turkey!
No, SOD COVID 19 - no matter what it does to us this year it can never take away warm memories of Christmas past! See, I’m beginning to sound like my old friend, Charles Dickens now! (lol)
Now, talking of Charles Dickens, if you read this blog every year you will know that I visited the Rochester Dickensian Festival last year and had a great time. I took a fair bit of film footage while there and now I have edited the best bits of it into a 13 minute film! Sadly, it is no longer possible to upload videos here and I had to remove all of my content from Youtube because of their ridiculous change in policy from Jan 1st regarding child protection laws BUT I have now managed to upload my footage to Facebook! I believe my film is ‘public’ so anyone should be able to see it. If you want to have a look at my film just search Facebook for ‘Rochester Dickensian Festival 2019’ and it should come up - it did when I just tried it.
Whatever we do this year we MUST preserve the jollity in Christmas! O.K. so a ‘snog under the mistletoe’ is out for now but that will just make it all the sweeter when you ‘catch up’ with that person once this is all over! (lol) If you have to ‘chuck’ a few more sherries down your throat this Christmas to bring back your smile and have the odd cold shower to ‘take the edge off your desires’ but lets all say SCREW YOU Covid 19 and laugh in the face of adversity! xx
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