Early Christmas

It's still November but we are in the midst of the Christmas season whether we like it or not. I know exactly when the season of Christmas starts and how long it lasts -from Christmas Day until Epiphany - (hence the 12 days of Christmas -but that's a whole other story) however the secular world tries to make Christmas start in early November. Most shops move out the Halloween pumpkins and replace them with Brussels Sprouts, Crackers and lots of fake snow on November 1st. I've never been a fan of making Christmas come too early - perhaps a symptom of my Dad's birthday being mid-December so we never ever put the tree up in our house until after he'd had his many happy returns of the day- but after husb became an uncle 3 years ago things changed. Santa (I've always called him Father Christmas but know I must move with the times) arrives in husb's home town in an RAF Sea King Helicopter every year on the weekend after his nephew's birthday. He then whizzes through the town on a lifeboat and takes part in a parade with marching bands, carnival queens, cheerleaders, baton twirlers and police horses where he waves from the cab of a "big rig" lorry (I've no idea why). The excitement and volume level from the children in the town is just amazing and makes the whole experince magical. I remember the Christmas Carnival of my childhood - I was always scared by the man in the marching band who was dressed as a gorilla and always lead the parade and that traumatised me. Also my Dad was in the Round Table who organised it and my over riding memory is of the year he and one his mates dressed as Margaret and Dennis Thatcher to collect money along the route (when Dennis was in a wheelchair - I have no idea when that was). As a result I really can't remember being as excited as the children were about seeing Santa today (though I'm sure I probably was). It was really good fun even though it was freezing and on the coast in Scotland where if the rain is horizontal that is a good day. So now Santa has landed Christmas can begin. The tinsel can come out, the tree can go up, the presents can be wrapped, the booze can be bought and, best of all, the apple tv can start to play "Greatest Christmas Hits" on repeat until Jan 6th.