Let’s get Christmas in order!
Is this the year we finally put Christmas back in its box (pardon the pun) stop turning it into some unworkable, unreachable fantasy and actually enjoy it? Our Scandinavian brothers and sisters are far less influenced by the commercialised Christmas virus we caught many years ago from America and haven’t managed to shake off. Christmas to them is part Christian but part Pagan which gives them a deep reverence for nature and the earth thus using this time of the year to embrace the winter solstice and celebrate looking forward to the longer lighter days to come.
So how can we enjoy this time of the year and not get stressed. Removing unaffordable extravagances must be top of the list, a price limit on family gifting or say “I’m not doing gifts this year hope you understand” And people do, they might even be relieved that you were the one brave enough to say it.
Look around at all the things that are free or cost very little to enjoy. There are low-cost train tickets being offered everywhere carrying you into our major cities even London where the lights and sights are truly spectacular and totally free to look at. Don’t pay stupid prices for food and drink when you get here, do what we used to do back in the day pack a picnic then you can sit in St James’s Park right next to the fancy pants Ritz tucking in like lots of people who live here do every day and if the weather isn’t great there are so many sheltered places with a view where you can sit. There are open top buses you can hop on, bikes you can pick up all over the place, roads I know can be daunting but Hyde Park for instance covers 250 Hectors so what better way to be safe have a laugh and get your cycling legs back and no payment is ever needed to walk or ride around any of Royal Parks. Loo breaks, well who says you can’t pop into Harrods look around and use their facilities? Having free or next to nothing experiences is a little like cooking, with forethought we can get so many more meals out of a food shop but when in a rush and we don’t plan it all goes wrong. So, plot, plan do you research the internet is packed full of great ideas. And don’t forget what’s outside your front door, even if you’re not religious there’s nothing like a carol concert at Christmas to make you feel warm, churches all over the land have them and £2 in the collection is enough some even serve a nice warm drink. Keep an eye out for local fairs at schools and churches, you can only imagine how many I’ve opened. But once I’ve performed the niceties, thanked everyone for all their hard work, I head straight to the cake stall, all will be delicious half the price of supermarkets and if you really want to be naughty you can take them home and pass them off as your own!
You’re not being tight you’re being prudent and its now essential.