'Tis the Season

With Christmas a mere week away, been thinking on some of my favourite things about this time of year (mostly excluding the obvious spiritual ones).

Quality Street chocolates - the dark-chocolate wrapped orange creams. Vegetarian Turkey - so time-consuming to make that it only gets done once a year, but worth the effort. Summer heat and cold foods on Christmas day. Fresh-baked fruit-mince pies, hot out the oven. Meltingly yum fruitcake (YES, such a thing is possible!). Phonecalls from near and far, SMS's from cellphones all over the world, emails from folk you haven't heard from since last year. Cards and surpise packages by Actual Real-Life Mail. Corny Aussie Christmas songs on tape, courtesy the rellies. Wish-lists. Time off work. An early-morning Christmas service, packed out for the Season. Neighbours and strangers smiling and waving, saying hi and wishing you a good one. Christmas lights - the town decked out in the best lights countrywide - my little sparkly lights filling the front window. One bright star suspended twinkling over the horizon, reminding me of another star 2000 years ago.

Some of my not-so-favourite things, though, are:

The howling gale-force South Easter that is attracted to public holidays. Crowded malls, filled with visitors from upcountry who fill up the aisles talking to folk they last ran into a year ago. Bad drivers from upcountry who assume they're on holiday so can hog the roads and ignore traffic rules. Dramatic price increases in Christmas foods and Christmas gifts since last year. Thoughts of those who won't have a good one - the homeless, the lonely, the old, the recently-divorced, the widowed, the shunned, those fallen from societies' grace.

I pray that this year I can make one good memory for someone. That I can make Christmas a bit different for just one person - whether it's the security guard at the gate or a close family member. Something that will make them smile as the Season comes by again.