Musings upon the season, whilst looking out at the snow

It snowed a little, yesterday and overnight. Today, the DSM is at work, so I am solitary for the interregnum (I know that isn't the right word, but I like it and can't think of the correct one for the sense that I want to convey, so tough.) I decided to allow myself to have time on my hands, to do what I wanted to do, to give myself leave to still be on holiday, well as much as is possible.

So I spent some time this morning looking out of the window and just pondering. I started by considering the way in which a totally spurious argument has been encouraged to rage this year about "Christmas". Now, don't get me started on the term "pc". It was never, in my experience, something that was used much in earnest even at the beginning, but certainly now when it rears its head, I know to beware, fake, alarmist non-story alert ahead. I'm not going to waste too much time on it - the "Christmas" thing is merely the jumping off place for my thoughts. I will only comment that if we all observed principles of common sense, courtesy and goodwill things would be better, and using a little intelligence wouldn't hurt, either.

As I was raised in a country where church and state were and are still linked, it is hardly surprising that the trappings of a "traditional, christian Christmas" should seep pretty much indelibly into my consciousness. So wishing someone a merry Christmas doesn't seem strange to me, even though the concept of Christ's Mass has no place in my life. But I am certain it is the case that, as usually happened, the early church bolted on a festival of its own to a pre-existing one, maybe what we now call pagan, maybe not. One reason why the Germanic christmas trees that Victoria revelled in caught on so much - we had been bringing in green branches to decorate our homes centuries before, and although the religious hardliners of the 16th and 17th centuries tried to stamp such frivolity out, I imagine they were not entirely successful.

But this is not where my musings really took me, I was actually more concerned with more immediate and personal stuff. Christmas is often a hugely stressful and disappointing time, and I wanted to try to think my way through some reasons for that. OK, in part, false expectations, and trying to recreate the simpler times of childhood. So, where after that - what could be done to work around that? The two strands of thinking suddenly began to merge a bit. The twelve days of Christmas - how did we get from there to !!Christmas Day!!, the one day of the year when we should all be merry and bright, and having a wonderful time?

So, I began to construct my own - sorry to say it, but it works for me - midwinter festival. Which is after all what it is. We go in to the dark, and acknowledge it, but come through to celebrate the returning of the light. At a time of year when our mental and physical resources are stressed and low. So what do we need? We need everything! We need rest and recuperation, we need fun and frivolity, we need periods of spiritual contemplation and renewal, we need to fast and to over-indulge - that's what. And we sure as hell can't do that all on one day.

So, I propose a festival from Christmas Eve through to January 2nd. By Christmas eve night, all should be prepared, and this should be a quiet time with a good but simple meal, church services for those that wish, whatever people choose. Christmas Day, well let's have a major feasting, with traditional foods of our choice (I'm very partial to a well-hung nut roast meself) the exchange of gifts, pretty much as it is now. After that, well, I don't yet know - but my main point is that when we say we are going to enjoy Christmas, we don't mean just the one day, we mean the whole period. During this time, we do the duty bits, we carouse, we cry over sentimental poems, songs, reading, films, we socialise, we spend time alone by choice doing something non-essential, we take walks, we snooze by the fire. Then, we arrive at New year's Eve where we will recklessly mix spiritual needs with corporeal, by which I mean we will bid farewell to the trials of the year gone by and express hopes for that to come - plus having a jolly good knees up. The next day, we recover and then plunge into the year ahead refreshed, renewed and expunged of all hangover. During the festival, we will have had something of everything, in all senses, so we won't have to bemoan it's passing in a flash and we had a rotten time.

There, a bit more tinkering and that could work, couldn't it...I knew I should rule the world. Now I'm off to work on the NYE homily. Couldn't you just smack me?