The months since summer holidays seem to have crawled by. Now, suddenly, it's only a couple of weeks until Christmas. God only knows how that happened. The snow has arrived, finally. No more falling on my arse for the next few months. Touch wood. It's not especially cold just yet, kind of at that annoying stage between different categories of clothing. It's a bit colder than autumn, but not cold enough for proper winter clothes. I don't have a lot of things in my wardrobe that suit this time of the year. Dressing for the cold is pretty straight forward. It's all about layers. You actually keep warmer having 3 layers of medium thickness than you do having one layer of really thick clothing. Something to do with the air warming up in between the layers. The real good thing about a proper cold winter is that the air is generally very low in humidity. So you never feel damp. I remember last year when we flew from Luleå to Stockholm. It was -20 deg C in Luleå. When we arrived in Stockholm it was -9 deg and I was absolutely frozen. Due to the fact that it was windy and there was so much moisture in the air. So humidity plays the major part in feeling warm or cool. Sounds obvious enough. The biggest problem I have when the temperature falls below -15 deg is to remember to drink enough water. I get terribly dehydrated the colder it gets. Kind of weird trying to explain that to people sometimes. But that's the way it is.
This will be my fourth Swedish Christmas, and I just love them. Growing up on the other side of the planet, Christmas was a very different experience. It was typically a fairly low keyed affair. Kind of special, but not nearly to the extent it is in Sweden. And I believe that had mostly to do with the season. In the southern hemisphere, Christmas is in the middle of summer. Obviously. And summer is holiday time. When I was in school, we would finish school around the end of November, beginning of December, and we would be on holiday until some time in February. Businesses generally closed down for 3 to 4 weeks during the same period. Somewhere, in the middle of all the fun and festivities, was Christmas. But, rather than being the high point, it was just part of it. Most families, and we were one of them, went away on holiday during the summer break. we would usually go camping. Not a particularly pleasant experience for the most part, looking back. But that's what we did. These days families tend to fly overseas for their summer holidays. Swapping packed camping parks for packed tourist resorts. Christmas Day was a bit of a rushed affair, fitting in around other things. Either we would already be at our camping spot, or we would be leaving the next morning. No real getting together of extended families, or spending time with loved ones just enjoying the company. Our last Christmas in NZ was spent in our backyard, with a barbeque, salads, and wine. Sounds perfect, but I now realise exactly what I had been missing out on.
It's taken me 40+ years, but I've finally discovered what it's like to really celebrate Christmas. An evening just sitting around talking and laughing with loved ones sounds fairly ordinary, but how often do we actually do that ? Not very often, in our case. A chance to reflect and to simply feel good about where you are in life. And maybe that was alway one of the points of the exercise.
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