Monday, December 11, 2006

I'm dreaming of a...

...green/brown/grey/white Christmas?

Today, I had to wear the heaviest coat I brought with me to London. I’ve been told I look like a number of people over the past couple of months: Superman/Clark Kent; “the anything mix”; Ray from X-Factor; Fabregas from the Arsenal football club; the “guy from Canada who says ‘awesome’ like some Californian surfer guy”; and many more. Sometimes people even think that when I speak I’m Irish, but I think that’s just because they’re ignorant. However, the one thing I am NOT is a someone who gets cold easily. A person being cold on account of the outside temperature can only mean one of two things: i) you’re in the Arctic or the Antarctic or ii) it’s winter. Well, winter has finally arrived.

I was actually going to hold out addressing this topic, but upon further consideration, I have decided that today, a day that is one day past my self-imposed Sunday Post Deadline; I will give into fate and talk about what’s in the air. No, it’s not just pollution. “That” is this week’s English culture topic of the week:

CHRISTMAS

This past weekend marked the official kickoff to Christmas events in London. Christmas tree vendors began vending, the stores are now fully decorated, and because it is now just more than two weeks until the big day, people are becoming frantic. Finally, people are getting into the mix. Over this week and the next two weeks to come, thousands of British households will go into debt in order to finance their Christmas spending, just so they can, as the say, keep up with the Jones. This year’s hottest item? BOSE iPod docking station. Cool looking, but not overly practical.

Like every year though, it’s nice to see people get into the spirit of Christmas, buying for friends and family, setting up light displays in their yards, putting up ornaments and trees inside the house, hosting their very own “Office X-mas Factor”, rejoicing for peace on earth and mercy mild, singing Christmas carols in front of the fire… Unfortunately, I don’t have many friends, I don’t have a yard, setting up a tree would literally reduce my bedroom into a space slightly larger than a pudding can, and singing around a fire may become somewhat of a safety issue, considering my bedroom would already be mostly taken up by a Christmas tree.

Just like in Canada, retailers began advertising just after the end of Halloween (even though Halloween isn’t much of a big deal over here) and since the early goings of November there have been Christmas lights springing up all over the city in order to get into the festive spirit. I’ve actually been writing December in the month part of the date for the past 11 days, but the fact that it was actually December never really hit me until today.

Today, for some reason, it became December. The kind of winter I’m used to consists mostly of subzero temperatures and snow, a mix of sun and cloud and throw in the odd Chinook. Today in London, we had cloud cover, drizzle and 15mph winds. Why did it click today? I believe it’s because I’ll be home for a visit in one week. Seems like kind of a cop out, I know, but that’s fine. For as long as I can remember, the most important thing was to be with family for the big day. This year, I will continue the “tradition” of being with family for the holidays, but this year, I’ll be in hot and sunny, sin city of LAS VEGAS! I WAS dreaming of a white, Christmas, but I think I’ll spend this one in the desert…

Apparently Coca-Cola is credited with the image of Santa Claus that we have all come to know, cherish and recognize. To this day, many children depend on that same image to get them that bike, wagon or brand new Nintendo Wii.

So we understand why kids love it, but why to adults love Christmas so much? You go it. OPEN BAR! Although it’s apparently the norm and if as an employer you don’t do open bar you might as well all but kiss your staff goodbye (but not the good kind of mistletoe kiss you might expect - On the subject of mistletoe, I saw my very first real life mistletoe today. I know I was by myself, but still, it didn’t really make me want to kiss anyone – but I WOULD like to drink on someone else’s tab!)

They often say that eating too much isn’t healthy, but recent studies now suggest that a standard portion of Christmas dinner can actually be more detrimental to your health than originally though. In a normal meal consisting of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and mixed greens, you are also looking at ingesting something in the mix of arsenic, lead, aluminum, cadmium, organo-chlorine pesticides. These heavy metals can lead to serious side effects like migraines, allergies and high blood pressure and can even amount to serious illness like autism, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. In effect, eating a plate full of turkey will not only make you drowsy, it will make you dead. Plus, you’ll be fat.

When all’s finally said and done, no one really wants to be fat…except maybe Santa – whatever he might actually look like.

2 comments:

  1. Love the blog Kai!
    Throw in some pictures of Vegas when you go. You will still be Kai Not In Canada...Oui?

    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  2. KAAAARRRRLLLLLLL

    I am so glad that i got to learn about how to make money easily while reading your travel blog

    are you staying in london till you come home?

    wd

    ReplyDelete