So this is Christmas......

....and what have we done?

Well in my case to date still very little and as I rush headlong toward the appointed day the stress levels are rising. How on earth do people do all that has to be done for a family of say six and remain sane?

I have made a little headway, I have at last bought cards, though they remain as yet unwritten, I have managed to track down a few gifts and I have purchased wrapping paper and the other assorted paraphernalia for correct presentation of said gifts....though here in gemmak's-ville I think Tilly may well have destroyed most of it way before any recipient lays so much as an eye on a parcel!

Now Tilly, Tilly is the cause of another Christmas 'discussion', the 'do we or do we not have a tree' discussion. Madam of course would love one and so would I, though the idea of her and a tree in one room, even for a few seconds, fills me with dread. Hells bells, she only has to be given a twig to be rendered manic so heaven knows the results if presented with a whole tree. There is then the issue of the decorations to be considered, here in gemmak's-ville tree decorations have to be hand-blown colour co-ordinated and glass, plastic, machine churned out, glitter ridden, 'baubles' will not be tolerated, another minus, Tilly and glass?? I think not.

And so, for the first Christmas in my life it was decided by mutual consent that a tree would be forgone in the name of Tilly safety and our sanity. I was convinced it would not be a problem, after all we won't even be here on the 'big day', so the decision was made.

But this is Christmas and as time marched on I decided we just had to have something, we couldn't be completely un-decorated so I set about hunting for Tilly-proof alternative and given the very limited outlets here I knew I was riding for a fall. What did I come up with?....really, you don't want to know, for it seems that Christmas circa 2005 is reduced to gaudy, singing, dancing tat where decorations are concerned and the very best I could do was one of those damnable 'candle bridges' and a faux antique 'pot' santa clause!! To add insult to injury the holly and ivy decorating this delightful *cough* item are plastic and the 'candles', that have of course nothing in common with real flame, 'flicker'....well, if I'm being forced to 'do kitsch' I might as well go the whole route and hope that I can bear to look at it long enough to get me to Christmas day.

Really, this is not good and it is certainly not a beautiful blue spruce bedecked with delicate glass ornaments! I'm not sure if I will resist the temptation to hurl it at the wall and go buy a tree at the last minute!

My apologies if you have a passion for these things but I just don't seem to share it, Christmas needs a tree, not a plastic bloody candle!....anyone want a candle bridge...free to good home, postage paid, hell I'll deleiver it personally if I have to! :o)