My Christmas Party Will Not be a Pity Party (Virtual Advent)

I’ve been taking part in Kelly and Marg’s Book Bloggers’ Virtual Advent Tour since 2007, the year when I started blogging, and I certainly didn’t want to break the tradition now. Usually my contribution is a review of a holidays-themed book, but I hope nobody minds if this time I take a more personal route. I’m a big fan of Christmas, for reasons perhaps best expressed by this song, but this year the holidays are going to be a lot different from what I’m used to. Because both my partner and I have started new jobs recently and will be working until right before Christmas, we won’t get to go home.

I know, I know: it could be a lot worse. I could be all alone in a foreign country, for starters, which fortunately isn’t the case. I could be apart from my family for negative reasons instead of positive ones. Or I could (*knocks on wood*) be able to go home because I didn’t have a job, and I’d feel miserable and terrified about the future all through the holiday season (much like I did last year). All in all, I know I’m very fortunate. Still, I’m going to give myself permission to mope just a little bit: after all, this is going to be my first Christmas ever away from home.

I hope I don’t sound heartless if I say that as much as I’d love to see my family, there are a bunch of other little things that I’m going to miss almost as much. I can always watch them open presents over Skype, but I will really miss the time spent hanging out with the cats and dogs, the Christmas food I grew up with, the ornaments I’ve accumulated over the years. Some I bought during trips; others were homemade gifts from friends; others still I can’t remember where I got, but I know I’ve had them for years. There’s something incredibly comforting about opening the Christmas box in early December every year and seeing the same old familiar things again, and that comfort and familiarity are a huge part of what Christmas is all about for me. And there’s also spending Christmas at my family’s house: my parents actually moved away from my childhood home a few years ago, but because the furniture and the general layout are about the same at their new place, it still feels like home to me. However, the place where I’m currently living is still too new to have that homey feeling I value so much at this time of the year.

But! The point of this post is not to mope at great length, but to share the strategies I’ve come up with to make this Christmas as nice as it can possibly be. Behold my master plan:

• There will be travelling!

Just because we can’t go home it doesn’t mean we can’t go somewhere. We’ve managed to get a holiday cottage for a few days in what sounds like a very pretty village, and that’s where our merrymaking will take place. A white Christmas is probably too much to ask for, but a girl can dream. (Of course, in my dreams there are none of the transportation nightmares that unfailingly follow a snowfall.)

• There will be a Christmas tree!

My ornaments may not be comfortingly familiar this year, but you have to start somewhere, right? We got ourselves a tiny tree that is at least a step up from Charlie Brown’s. Here’s what it looks like:

It doesn’t actually look very small in the picture, but just to give you an idea, it’s standing on the desk and it’s barely any taller than my laptop. But I love it and that’s what matters. A few details:




Plus my stocking and gingerbread man:


And here’s my bookshelf looking all festive:

• There will be food!

I’m not sure to which extent I’ll be able to recreate the Christmas menu I’m used to, since there are some ingredients I might not be able to find here, but I’m going to do my very best. And of course, we’ll have traditional treats like late-night hot chocolate and cookies aplenty :D But I’m willing to try new things this year, so if you wanted to leave me some of your favourite Christmas recipes, I’d be very thankful.

• There will be music!

I love the fact that so many of my favourite bands have released Christmas albums or EPs. Between The Boy Least Likely To, Emmy the Great, Allo Darlin’, and of course Sufjan Stevens, we’re absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to seasonal music. Here’s a song that captures the kind of Christmas we’re aiming for this year:

• There will be reading!

You know, every year I stubbornly try to find the perfect Christmas book, even though I already know what it is: Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising. So this year I’m just going to cave and re-read it. In addition to that, I’m planning to treat myself to what I hope will be comforting children’s classics all through December: Moominland Midwinter, some Joan Aiken, and Lucy M. Boston’s Green Knowe series. What do you think I should add to this list?

• Finally, there will be movies!

We have about a gazillion movie marathons planned for the long December evenings: a Back to the Future trilogy evening, which we’ve been meaning to have for ages, watching Moonrise Kingdom at long last, and perhaps throwing in some classic Christmas favourites like Scrooged or The Muppets Christmas Carol. Again, if you have any suggestions for perfect Christmas or wintery movies that will keep homesickness at bay, I’m all ears.

Huge thanks to Marg and Kelly for hosting the Book Bloggers’ Advent Tour again. The other participants today are Book Nut and The True Book Addict, so make sure you visit them too. And here are my posts from previous years:

2011: The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden
2010: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (co-review with Chris)
2009: A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
2008: A Portuguese Christmas Recipe
2007: A Christmas Miscellany