Just to be clear, the Christmas herein discussed is not the Christian festival that falls at the end of advent and celebrates the birth of Jesus, but the secular bank holiday of the same name, taking place on the same day. This latter Christmas, is concerned chiefly with the gathering of clans, feasting, and the exchange of gifts. It tends to be followed by a period of austerity, bloating and regret.
Before we consider how to recapture the small pleasures of Christmas, let us consider the small pains, which make the whole experience so exasperating and stressful. At the top of this list are Christmas cards. It’s unfathomable that technology hasn’t seen off this throwback to the Victorian era of the penny post. Surely no one enjoys the chore of writing out “Must make YYYY the year we finally meet up!” and their signature 50 times? Labour-saving shortcuts like printed address labels just serve to underline the sorry truth that the job has been approached as an administrative chore, in the same joyless bracket as changing your energy provider.
