When I was a boy you couldn't get down the street for the cheery Happy Christmas calls. And you'd cop it from the parents if a neighbour didn't hear a reply - a polite one that is.
Now that might be taking things a bit far but for most of my life it has been pretty much the same. It even picked up a bit 15 years ago when we moved to Norfolk where almost everyone still salutes the time of day when you pass. Until this year.
It could be me of course. I am older, maybe less enchanting, less appealing perhaps. But I don't think that's the reason. Others say much the same.
I do call Happy Christmas whenever I am parting from someone I know, however vaguely. Even check-out operators get the treatment. This year everyone looks slightly startled and mumbles a response. Even friends look almost puzzled. In the snow-braved mobile library today three recipients of my bonhomie struggled to respond. Two I count as friend/neighbours.
Is it that we are all miserable now? Could it be that the universal cry of difficult decisions, cut this, slice the other and worse to come is finally wearing us down?
In fact it has hardly felt like Christmas, despite the stunningly early beginning of retail activity this year. Most shops are selling Christmas but few are decked out for it. Where are the lights? The tinsel? I don't see many ads for grottoes and so far only one Santa Claus and he at a National Trust house. To give them credit Blickling Hall was the one place where it really felt like Christmas, apart from the annual Christmas tree exhibitions here and in Fakenham. But to be honest that's it. I ate in a restaurant this week and had to look for any decorations; some white lights and couple of hangings was it but they could have been the norm really.
I am hearing and reading moans about school nativities that don't include carols or hardly refer to the sacred story. I'm an atheist. For me it's the winter solstice but I acknowledge a lot of people get a strong feeling from their faith. I respect the Christian festival just as I respect Divali or Passover. And they should be clearly their own show, as it were. So even we atheists mark the festive season in a traditional way. I enjoy a good carol - it has its place. Which is now. Mix in a modern one or two but allow our Christian brothers and sisters this little space for their own thing please.
There is a chance this year of a white Christmas. Personally I fear it will rain on that parade around here; this is England after all. Thousands are doing their utmost to get 'home' for the event. The weather and our unfamiliarity with it is against them. But the TV pictures? There is nothing to show it is Christmas. Snowbound streets are littered with cars but no lights, no Christmas trees. We see empty streets of banked snow and empty shops - but where are the lights? The banners? The trees.
Is it really Christmas or did the coalition cancel that as well?
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