Christmas

Righty tis not long past Christmas and as many of you may know I'm not overly fond of it. Dont get me wrong getting to see your family, friends etc is kinda nice...in moderation. But I hate the obvious obligation people feel to give presents every year. This year I managed to avoid buying any presents for anyone except my brother, but that was a most necessay purchase for him, helped ensure sanity while he was home.

There's also the overly fake pleasantries that we all endure when we meet someone we have't seen in years. Most of the time we can't remember their names and generally we don't actually care what their doing anymore since they've been out of our lives so long it has no impact on us. However these people still insist on taking our numbers and concocting wild plans for us to go and visit them wherever the hell they have decided to settle. I don't care.

I may come across as bitter here, but my distain for all things festive maybe comes from a traumatic experience as a child. Unlike many I never really experienced the true 'magic' of Christmas most people speak of. This was due to my wonderful and loving brother...

It all happened when I was around 4ish (can't remember the exact age), my brother who is a few years older took it upon himself to inform me of the non-existance of Santa. But he didn't stop here he then proceeded to lead me into my parents room and show me the Christmas presents I had wrote to Santa asking for but 2 weeks earlier.

Clearly I was confused and didn't want to believe him, as a four year old I insisted on there being some other explanation, of course Santa exists! So I asked my caring mother, who instead of lying to protect the magic, even just for one more year, decided to say yes your brother is right. Crushed? Maybe. But I looked at Christmas much clearer since then.