Seasonal Spirit

I'm desperately trying to get into the seasonal spirit and, so far, failing miserably. I'm not sure what the problem is, (apart from being a curmudgeonly old bastard, of course), but so far it just doesn't feel like Christmas yet. Obviously, part of the problem is that, in common with most people, I'm expecting, as an adult, to be able to feel the same enthusiasm for the season as I did as a child. Which is impossible. Quite apart from the changes in perspective and opinions adulthood brings, the crucial difference is that, as an adult, Christmas itself becomes your responsibility in terms of preparations, buying presents, putting up decorations and the like. As a child, you only had to enjoy Christmas, without thinking about the behind-the-scenes bits. Indeed, I've spent the best part of the last week, (when not at work), rushing around focusing on buying presents for relatives, rather than actually being able to enjoy the season. It probably doesn't help that I've been feeling under the weather for the past few days, which, combined with the time it took me to wrap my great nieces' presents, meant that I didn't have the energy to put up even my tatty Christmas tree over the weekend.

Having said all that, one thing that has brought a seasonal smile to my face over the past week or so has been the appearance of external Christmas lights on the houses of Crapchester. Don't worry, I'm not going soft. Whilst many of these light displays are very tasteful, a lot more are simply garish and vulgar, and consequently highly entertaining for all the wrong reasons. I particularly like those installations where the householder seems to have nailed every vaguely Xmas-related light fixture onto the front of their house, with no sense of balance or composition, in an apparent attempt to out do their neighbours. Flashing Santas sit side-by-side with animated steam locomotives, illuminated reindeer and neon bells. I'm trying to record some of them on film, but my attempts today were frustrated by poor weather conditions and picture quality (the result of the necessity of shooting them after dark). Undeterred, I'll give it another shot over the next few days. The main question I'm left asking, though, is how do these people afford the electricity bill? With energy prices still rising, I'm amazed that there are still so many of these displays this year. Maybe they're bypassing their meters, or plugging the decorations into the nearest streetlight...