Well, my favourite time of the year is a mere two months away (hey, just be glad I didn’t start at 6 months, when I began my mental countdown!); a season that captures my heart through the music, the movies, the decorations, the food, the general spirit (although not inside malls) and, whilst I am in the Northern Hemisphere…the SNOW! Christmas is a truly magical time for me and this year I am more than a little excited to be spending it in Finland; to be more specific: Lapland, which is in the arctic circle.
I literally cannot contain my Christmas excitement, so to channel some of my extreme enthusiasm, and hopefully make you feel enthusiastic about the season that’s hovering on the horizon, here are some images that embody the things I love about Christmas:
Decorating!
Decorating our Christmas tree has always been a highlight of Christmas for me. For as long as I can remember my Mum has bought fresh Christmas trees from a charity…which although generous, did mean that our trees looked rather pitiful compared to the perfection of Christmas Tree farm trees (the ultimate tree!). Nonetheless, about a week before Christmas, the tree would fill up the living room with its pine scent and my family would gather together to decorate the tree with ornaments handmade over years at kindergarten and primary school. We’d finish by throwing balls of cotton wool over the tree (to simulate snow) and Dad would add the star to the top. The tree must have looked frightful, with its cotton wool and peg-reindeer, but this is a treasured Christmas tradition of my family’s, and one that I sorely miss when I’m on the other side of the world. I still buy a tree every year and decorate it with Brendan (although I’m somewhat of a stickler when it comes to making the tree look perfectly balanced and coordinated…I guess some traditions just can’t survive my control freakery).
Christmas baking; photo by Tamarin Faller
Baking is possibly one of the most fun activities in the world; but when you can decorate the finished product with Christmas colours, or those little silver balls; the result is almost too good to eat. I said almost…!
SANTA! I know him!!!
Christmas movies are pretty much unbeatable, and there are so many good ones: Love Actually, Home Alone, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Christmas with the Kranks, The Santa Clause, Miracle on 34th Street…and…better than all of the others…Elf! I swear I watch this movie about 10 times a year (I’d watch it more if my husband didn’t confiscate it!) and it never gets old. It just captures the innocence and wonder of Christmas and the power of the Christmas ‘spirit’. Oh, and that song Zooey Deschanel sings in the shower…Baby, It’s Cold Outside…I just can’t play it enough (I’m listening to it right now)!
Christmas dinner; photo by Tamarin Faller
Turkey with cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, roast potatoes and vegetables, bread and butter, mulled wine…feeling so full you might never walk again, and knowing that this particular meal is reserved for this once-a-year special occasion…ahhh, it’s bliss!
Winter fun
A winter Christmas is still a fairly novel concept for me, as for most of my life Christmas has been a warm affair with beaches, barbeques and swimming. A white Christmas just makes sense of all of the carols, movies and cards, and feels purely magical. This photo was taken in Canada, where I experienced my first white Christmas, shared with all of our siblings and a friend, and enjoyed in a child-like way complete with snow fights and igloo construction. We built this snowman on Christmas day, and I hope this Christmas in Finland there will be more snow antics!
Snowman – by all of us!