The Best Bit Of Christmas
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There is a great deal of debate over the best bit of Christmas, and it’s a very personal thing. For some it’s the weather: the crisp wind, frosty mornings, the odd sprinkling of snow. For others it’s the food: coming in to warm soup, the fact every hot meal tastes better in the cold and then, eventually, the long-awaited Christmas dinner, the food highlight of the year. Many find it’s the atmosphere: Christmas trees on every corner, the anticipation of seeing the days tick by as December 25th grows closer; the feeling of walking through brightly lit shops then out into the bitter cold, Christmas lights ablaze and bags of shopping in hand. These are, of course, noteworthy highlights of the run up to Christmas, but, for me, none quite reach the undeniably magnificent feeling – the feeling of absolute release – that comes on December 1st, when I can finally listen to ‘Fairytale of New York’.
‘Fairytale of New York’ is generally accepted to be one of the best Christmas songs ever. But for me it’s more than that. It’s a mindset. A way of life. The absolute pinnacle of my Christmas experience. (Although it is closely followed by The Muppet Christmas Carol, inarguably the most superb Christmas film ever, for which I also wait all year round to come into season.) There really is so much to be loved about that song; it’s perfect. A song with a story, a beautiful marriage of soul and sass which embodies Christmas and stirs emotion. It is a song often praised, and rightly so.
2016 has been a long, almost unbearable year. The death of David Bowie, Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the horrifying reality for many in Aleppo, to name only a few. To borrow an old cliché, Christmas is traditionally a time for coming together, and it would be nice if 2016 could go out on an up note, a wiping away of the year’s struggles and strife so that we can go into 2017 at least vaguely optimistic, ready to tackle whatever it brings at our best. It is worth remembering all those who won’t be able to enjoy Christmas, who dread it, and think what we could do to help them. Let’s hope we can all enjoy this December, do good things, listen to good Christmas music and eat good Christmas food, all whilst being unbearably pleased with ourselves about how fabulously Christmassy we are. God knows we’ve earned it.