The Christmas Edition

Wishing all my blog readers a peaceful, restful, Merry Christmas!  Thank you for your continued support, it means the world to me.

Alt Text: A selfie pose of a white-skinned, middle-aged man & woman in front of a Christmas Tree, & a cabinet with a record player & other hi-fi equipment.  Shelves stacked with books, boxes & cd’s are on the walls behind them.  They’re in a lounge.  They’re dressed in Christmas colours, e.g. red & orange.  The woman has a jumper with small flowers on it & a short red velvet jacket.  They’re happy.

I think Christmas time has come around quicker this year because Stephane & I were ill for all of November – Stephane had flu, & I had (or maybe I still have it?) a kidney stone.  The last month passed without us knowing much about it.  Suddenly it’s December.  Anyway, I thought it was time for happier content as my last blog was of a sombre nature.

Before I forget, apologies to my subscribers as you’ve been spammed a couple of times today.  I’m creating some new pages & content for next year; e.g. Explainers – a place where I give some background information about my impairments, etc.  Turning my lived experiences e.g. my annual mammogram, into case studies.  Adding a resources & links page for further reading – incidentally, any of my cancer buddies blogging out there, especially about disability & Breast Cancer, please do let me know if you’d like your blog listed.

Ok, to Christmas.  I know that Christmas & New Year aren’t always easy times for people.  They aren’t easy times for me either.  Yet I wanted to write about the things that make me smile about Christmas & New Year, because I’ve had such a rough 2024 healthwise.  

December & January are busy times for me – it’s my nephew’s birthday, my sister’s birthday & most of my closest friends’, including my best friend’s birthdays, & it’s my birthday too!  So there’s always a party to be had.  In the last few years I haven’t always been able to get to celebrations, or have my own ones (I had a 50th Birthday Zoom party during the pandemic) but however we’ve all celebrated, it’s always been a lot of fun. 

My sister’s birthday is very near to Christmas, so sometimes we’ve spent Christmas at hers & we’ve stayed over for a few days which has been really nice.  It was magical when my nephew & nieces were really small, just like the lovely Christmas holidays that my sister & I spent in our home-town when we were kids.

Back then, the house was full of relatives.  My Dad bought a full-size snooker table.  It could barely fit in the front room along with the assorted tables & chairs, all at random heights & shipped in for the family lunch.  It was the classic British Christmas – all the kids sitting at a small table together, but there was always one adult who had to sit on a small stool at the bigger dinner table!  We weren’t allowed to watch telly at Christmas, we played games instead.  We also had a piano in our front room & one of my Nan’s could play ‘by ear.’  It was extraordinary, she couldn’t read music at all.  We’d sing the first few bars & she’d picked up the melody & chords from there.  We used to sing all the old cockney songs (as most of my family were from East London) with a bit of Chas n’ Dave thrown in (non-UK readers, you’re going to get a surprise when you google this duo, lol!)

Moving on a few years, I used to always go back home for Christmas but sadly, as each relative passed, then Christmas wasn’t the same anymore & I went back less & less.  One day, I hit upon the idea of spending Christmas on my own in a hot country.  I’d heard that there was this particular hotel which had good access on Tenerife, so one year I decided to go.  On the plane, I began to get nervous & wonder if I’d done the right thing.  At the hotel reception, I recognised a friend of a friend, & it turned out that there was a whole bunch of people that were just hanging out together.  They invited me to join them & I had so much fun.  I have to be honest – there’s nothing like sunbathing around the pool in 25 degrees after Christmas dinner & then going clubbing into the wee small hours of Boxing Day.  After that first trip, I went to Tenerife for many years for Christmas, New Year & my birthday, with the friends that I’d made there.  On one of my birthdays, I went on a helicopter ride over Mount Tiede (the volcano) which was breathtaking.  

I’ve also spent Christmasses & New Year in the snow with Stephane’s family – most of his family live in & around Paris.  His family home was in a small village called Bonnelles & the first Christmas Eve that we stayed there, we opened our presents at midnight – this is the tradition across Europe.  As I went to bed in the wee small hours, I could hear church bells ringing in the distance, for the end of Midnight Mass.  The snow was gently falling.  It made me cry.  

I also loved going to choose the ‘Bouche de Noel’ – the Yuletide Log – from the local bakery.  They were so beautifully made.

New Year’s is also a bit different in France.  Families gather on New Year’s Day for a meal.  It isn’t like the 3-day hangover that Britons usually do after their big New Year’s Eve celebrations!

These days, Christmas is an easy affair with Stephane & I.  I don’t put the decorations up too early as I can’t be bothered to clean up around them!  We’ve stopped doing presents for most of the wider family & friends, opting to see people & spend time with them instead.  It makes Christmas financially viable & as you get older, you don’t need a whole lot of stuff.  I try to be environmentally-friendly by making my own Christmas cards & I painted two wooden Advent Calendar Houses, one for me & one for my sister & the kids.  However, even though we have a white reusable tree, I give in most years & get a real one.  I think it’s more the act of us going to choose it together from Portobello Market a day or so before Christmas Eve, then bringing it home to decorate with pretty coloured lights & ornaments that we only used once a year.

When we’re at home, we have a half-French & half-English Christmas.  If we’re at my sister’s for Christmas, she adopts some of that too to make Stephane feel loved.  At home in London, we have an evening meal that consists of party food & delicacies, then we stay up until midnight.  When the clock strikes, we open one present each.  Christmas Day and Boxing Days are quite regular for us.  We used to order all this fancy food from Marks & Spencer, & I’d go & collect it on Christmas Eve.  But then everyone else had the same idea, & now the idea of choosing & then collecting my food in a big shopping centre packed with frantic Christmas shoppers makes me shake, lol.  Now we have some basic stuff delivered from the supermarket, & a Christmas fruit & veg box from our local grocers on Portobello Road Market, & Stephane creates our meals.  He is a BRILLIANT cook.  I might make the desserts & cornucopias (German tradition – sweets & treats from a paper cone which is brightly decorated, hanging from the tree) depending on how tired I am.  The cornucopias are always popular with family & friends.  We do watch the telly – mostly films & ‘Christmas Specials’ but we also listen to a lot of music.  We have some great Christmas albums – two are Dolly Parton, one is Phil Spector, another is Motown records, one is James Brown – you get the theme anyway.  I always try & get in a walk in the common nearby after, but Stephane isn’t so keen on this, so I have to drag him out, lol.

If I was at home on Boxing Day, I used to have a party for family, friends & neighbours. Unfortunately a large shopping centre has been built nearby & no one can reach us now because the whole area is gridlocked.  So Boxing Day is really a repeat of Christmas Day – food, drink, telly & record-playing.  

This might make you laugh – Stephane & I still dress up in our fine clothes – sometimes we’ve even bought new outfits for the occasion!  It doesn’t matter to me that we’re on our own.  I dress up because Mum used to buy my sister & I new outfits for Christmas & our birthdays.  That’s how I like to remember my Mum.

Then it’s Twixtmas – that period after Boxing Day but before New Year’s Eve that most people spend in a haze or forget that it happens.  I guess I go & visit friends & family during that time.  I’ll often see a show – last year I took Stephane to see Cinderella at The Lyric, Hammersmith – he’d never been to a Panto (Pantomime) before, despite living in England since he was five!  I always got taken to a Panto when I was a kid, so I insisted that he come with me.  He loved it!  This year we’re seeing my brother in his Panto production – I’m so proud of him.  It’s out of London, in Suffolk, so we’re taking the train there & back.  (The production is ‘Pinnochio’ at the Red Rose Chain, Ipswich, Suffolk).

I’m not really fussed about going out on New Year’s Eve but Stephane & I still do if we get a chance.  A couple of years ago our favourite club night, Whirly-Gig, had a New Year’s Eve celebration in a club just a short walk away from our home.  It was glorious to be able to walk to the venue & back, dressed in our psychedelic clubbing clothes & our outlandish head-dresses, with our faces painted in vibrant colours & glitter.

The real reason that I don’t want a big New Year’s Eve is because my birthday is on 2nd January.  I’m a total ‘Birthday Diva’, lol!  I always set out to enjoy every moment of my birthday because I’ve lived far longer than the three days that the medics gave me when I was born.  Sometimes I’ve had parties, especially if it’s a significant birthday number, & I’ve often shared the party with other friends whose birthdays are close by.  Sometimes I’ve been out to see exhibitions & then to lunch.  Sometimes I’ve had evening drinks.  But in recent years, I’ve started going back to doing what I did on my birthday as a kid – going to see shows.  On recent birthdays I’ve seen ‘Cabaret,’ & Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ & ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ but this birthday, I’m going to the Royal Opera House for the first time ever to see a show.  I’m beside myself with excitement.  I’m going to see a production of Hansel & Gretel.

I also like to go to a gig or two if I can on the run up to Christmas week.  Stephane & I have discovered ‘Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics’ where he plays with an orchestra.  We’re going again for the third time in a couple of weeks.  This time we’re going with more friends & my sister is coming along too.  The o2 arena, London, is a magnificent place to host this night because the sound is so good.  I always like to go onto the accessible platform at the back because I can look down & see everyone dancing & waving glo-sticks & lights.  The scene spreads out before me like the dark, night sky.  It’s breathtaking.  

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine surprised me by taking me to see a special musical evening at the Roundhouse, Camden, London.  It was ‘Mark Lanegan 60: A Celebration.’  The line up was incredible – Chrissie Hynde, Dave Gahan, Josh Homme to name a few.  It was such a beautiful night.

And that’s what we want our holiday seasons to be; beautiful, magical, funny, enjoyable & restful.

Have a good one everyone!

Alt Text: A selfie post of a white-skinned, middle-aged white woman wearing a navy blue roll-neck jumper with silver glitter, silver jewellery, a badge with a robin on it & pink brown round glasses.  She is sitting in front of a green fern Christmas Tree, lit up in coloured lights with baubles & other bright decorations.  There are presents wrapped in Christmas paper, in festive bags, by the tree.  There is a cabinet with a record player & other hi-fi equipment.  She is smiling.