Christmas comes but once this year

One of the rather magical benefits of going away in late November and early December is that when you come back home, Christmas seems to have started in earnest. We've been back from our week in Dubai for seven days now, and all week I have felt the pressure of Christmas. Streetlights, busy shops, and a diary that just doesn't have enough empty days in it before the 25th. The Jo Malone Advent calendar has yielded yet more goodies - individual bottles of cologne, scented candles, moisturisers and the like. Richards gin advent calendar has yielded, yes, gin, lots of varieties, but gin.
As a freelancer you don't get invited to many Christmas parties. No office party, unless you give yourself a glass of wine and a bag of salted cashews, but on Friday evening, I went over to a drinks party hosted by the editor of The Stage at his new house in Bermondsey. It was relaxed, low-key, and absolutely delightful. Richard, having arrived back from Birmingham late in the evening, joined me around 10 PM, and when we eventually got home after midnight, it did feel that Christmas had started.
Our Christmas preparations were packed into one day. Yesterday was buy the tree day, decorate the tree day, put the Christmas wreath on the door day, and find the small mini snow globe and put it onto the sideboard day. Today, Christmas festivities at work, mean that Richard left for Birmingham early this morning as he has to be a sports personality of the year for the rest of the day and he'll be busy in Birmingham until late on Friday. Luckily, I managed to find a lunch companion for a Sunday afternoon, so we'll be wandering round the gift shops of East Dulwich after fortifying boys’ lunch.
The other Christmas task ticked off the list today, is present wrapping. All done and dusted now and mercifully, it took less time than one load in the washing machine, having last Christmas discovered the joy of present bags. No difficult corners, just sliding the gift into a nice glossy present bag, sealing the bag, and adding the label before putting it into the requisite carrier bag ready for dropping off over the Christmas period.
It's a good thing it was an easily and quickly accomplished task because this last week before Christmas will be busy. Normally my last day of work is sometimes late November or very early December and the freelancing joy of a slow buildup to the festive season is often mine for the taking. Not this year as this week I will be filming every day up until Friday. That's meant that the last week has been line learning, and Christmas won't really begin for me until next Sunday when we drive down for a few days with my delightful in-laws in Devon.
We will be there for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then returning home on Boxing Day, before heading to Birmingham for the New Year. The fact that our Christmas will be compressed into two days of celebrations with the family is what my preference. Some of the best Christmases I've experienced were Christmases where I was working and the only days free of performances were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Way back in the 1970s, it was only the day. On Boxing Day morning, one had to head into a car, or wait by the nearest motorway slip road to be picked up for a lift in a carefully prearranged timetable (no mobile phones to check) to make sure that you were on stage in full slap. Entering into the kingdom of nursery rhyme land by 2:30 PM to entertain an overfed, over restless, and is often slightly under concentrating Boxing Day afternoon audience, added a certain piquancy to the celebration of the festivities.
Now the idea of working over the Christmas period fills me with horror. I take my hat off to all the brilliant people who are doing Christmas shows all over the country. It's a time of year when more Equity members are working and that's to be celebrated. To everyone who has a short Christmas because of their performance commitments, I hope you have a very happy time. I hope you're not fighting laryngitis or a cold. I hope you manage to wake up and see some of the day, and I hope you manage to spend some of that richly deserved Christmas overtime on your fee on something for yourself.
Here's to a successful, prosperous, but above all busy and fulfilling, 2019 for all of us.


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