Here it is, Merry Christmas
Dec. 18th, 2005 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningI have just finished writing my Christmas cards. This is a chore which I hate, though I don’t know why. As my wife just said, “Why do you find it hellish? They’re your friends…”
Which is true – though some of them are family (and I didn’t chose them!) and others are people who used to be friends but I haven’t seen in a couple of years – or more…
But I hate writing Christmas cards. Maybe it is the stocktake of friends that it requires you to make – who have you seen, who have you spoken to, who is just a name that you have lost track of… Who have moved and not bothered to tell you?
Whilst writing my cards, I was listening to Christmas music to try and get in the mood: I listened to Tommy Smith’s Christmas Concert (recorded in Edinburgh and Glasgow; I was at one of the gigs) and Caber Music’s Yuletide Log. Great music, for Christmas sounds – real jazz. But the music was better than the idea of Christmas, ad certainly better than the chore of sending Christmas cards.
It is not as if I have that many to send, somewhere between twenty and thirty (actually, since I stuck stamps on them, I know precisely how many I had to send – twenty three; and can I just say a prayer to the guy who finally realised a few years ago that stamps could be self-adhesive – what took you so long?).
It is not just Christmas cards; it is also presents. I don’t like buying presents (please don’t tell me you do…). I tend to buy present that I want to receive: this always strikes me as a really good idea. Unfortunately, most of what I like to receive are books and CDs. This doesn’t go down so well with aunts and nephews – or rather, with the nephews, I have no idea what CDs they may actually like. My wife helps out here – she being a primary teacher and all – she is up on whatever it is my godson and his sister may actually want… So some presents I can outsource (and my wife loves buying presents; she starts in March and finishes buying Christmas presents round about August; they are wrapped by October). But may I can’t.
My wife made life easy this year by demanding a painting; fortunately, I liked it too. Similarly, she bought me a print from a show that we had both admired.
But mother.. brother. Well, brother is easy, too: he has similar tastes to me, so that CDs and books that I would like normally do fine.
So why on earth do I find the whole thing such a pain?
Which is true – though some of them are family (and I didn’t chose them!) and others are people who used to be friends but I haven’t seen in a couple of years – or more…
But I hate writing Christmas cards. Maybe it is the stocktake of friends that it requires you to make – who have you seen, who have you spoken to, who is just a name that you have lost track of… Who have moved and not bothered to tell you?
Whilst writing my cards, I was listening to Christmas music to try and get in the mood: I listened to Tommy Smith’s Christmas Concert (recorded in Edinburgh and Glasgow; I was at one of the gigs) and Caber Music’s Yuletide Log. Great music, for Christmas sounds – real jazz. But the music was better than the idea of Christmas, ad certainly better than the chore of sending Christmas cards.
It is not as if I have that many to send, somewhere between twenty and thirty (actually, since I stuck stamps on them, I know precisely how many I had to send – twenty three; and can I just say a prayer to the guy who finally realised a few years ago that stamps could be self-adhesive – what took you so long?).
It is not just Christmas cards; it is also presents. I don’t like buying presents (please don’t tell me you do…). I tend to buy present that I want to receive: this always strikes me as a really good idea. Unfortunately, most of what I like to receive are books and CDs. This doesn’t go down so well with aunts and nephews – or rather, with the nephews, I have no idea what CDs they may actually like. My wife helps out here – she being a primary teacher and all – she is up on whatever it is my godson and his sister may actually want… So some presents I can outsource (and my wife loves buying presents; she starts in March and finishes buying Christmas presents round about August; they are wrapped by October). But may I can’t.
My wife made life easy this year by demanding a painting; fortunately, I liked it too. Similarly, she bought me a print from a show that we had both admired.
But mother.. brother. Well, brother is easy, too: he has similar tastes to me, so that CDs and books that I would like normally do fine.
So why on earth do I find the whole thing such a pain?