It has happened. It was snowing hard in Bedford Falls. Mary Bailey had rallied round the good townsfolk and they came up with the required funds to make up the unfortunate deficit at the Savings and Loans. George Bailey looked at his small ginger hair daughter and thanked Clarence, his guardian angel to the sound of a bell tinkling on the tree.
I cried. I always cry.
The spirit and meaning of Christmas has at last arrived for me late in the evening before Christmas Eve. It takes something special to break through the stupifying and numbing influences on the mind and body that are an inevitable consequence of modern working life and of a commercial hijacking of the true meaning of the celebration of Christmas. Supermarket aisles stocked from October with selection boxes, tins of biscuits, Bombay mix, Twiglets, chocolate reindeer, santa's and snowmen. Canned music from every angle.
The unseasonably warm mid to late December weather caused me to seek out a throw-away-all-in-one barbecue for a balmy weekend afternoon. I could not get one but no problem at all to get 3 for the price of 2 festively packaged cheesy nibbles. I have not been coasting through the build up to the celebratory feast. I have been trying sincerely to instill myself with the spirit of Christmas.
There has been a lot to do around the house to prepare for the return of the full compliment of the family. Painting, decorating, tidying, ruthless de-junking, in and out of the garage and to the local tip.
I learnt again, and very fast, the art of wallpapering.
I am of that generation who were only educated in one dimension. A simple task therefore took on the role of a fantastical escapade with accompanying tools of spirit level, laser measurer, secret coded pencil marks, frequent re-calculation of widths and drops, fiddly surgical precision trimming using toy scissors, gallons of border adhesive, alternate bouts of euphoria and self doubt, some seamless and cosmetic patching, a few pints of strong tea, use of the best car boot sale table top, bad language, brow mopping, quality control by squinting.
Having completed the short length of wall in something over 5 hours I then dreamt that night that the wallpaper all fell off. The dream was in fact based on a true event some years earlier. I had basked in the glory of my wife's admiration and amazement for the complete wallpapering of our bedroom. I felt it too was a job well done. The paper was easy to hang following its submersion in a water filled rectangular plastic container to activate the pre-pasted side. The four walls of the bedroom had a thin veneer of polystyrene to reduce heat loss through the old solid brick walls. The paper bonded well. The finished effect was pleasing. Unfortunately, the paper I had purchased was not in fact the pre-pasted type. It was only clinging on to the insulated lining by a wet friction effect. Over the hours of darkness the physics faltered and the morning light revealed not the night before's blue decorative hue but the stark white of the warm layer. The demoralising effect of this sharp fall from grace in the eyes of a loving spouse took many years to overcome.
There are other triggers to activate the meaning of Christmas. I witnessed the lighting of the first candle on the Advent Crown at church. The tree for the living room was carefully selected on the basis of a good strong Nordic profile. Boxes and bags of decorations and trimmings were brought down from the loft. Two bags of logs were purchased together with some very nice, pre-washed and sorted smokeless fuel and a bag of kindling. The fridge and freezer cleared and cleaned. The children, well young adults, are now all present and renewing their family ties and bonds that have been stretched by distance and life pressures. It is great to hear them talking, laughing and sharing their individual experiences for which we are all better off.
We are just about prepared.
Above all we are thankful for the position we are in at a time of much austerity and recession on our doorstep. It is a time for family, friendship and taking stock of what we have of true value and worth in our lives.
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