You know the drill: the minute the first sighting of mince pies is in the supermarket, (these days, roughly around the same time the disposable BBQs are taken off the shelves) you know it's full speed ahead to Christmas Day. Manic present buying, food preparation, card writing, work drinks, nativity attendances, etc, etc until... BAM! It's December 25th and we are celebrating the very day we have been awaiting for the last however many weeks.
We know exactly what happens in the run up to this great day, but no one seems to talk much about the days after, which seem to whiz by in a blur of leftover turkey and overflowing recycling bins until the next event of over indulgence.. New Year's Eve. (I'm yawning just at the thought of staying up past midnight, let alone having to endure the never ending "New Year, New Me" status updates). It's a strange period of time, often one for reflection, and not always in a good way. Reflection on the extreme food and drink consumption and the upsetting moment when you mentally tot up the Christmas shopping receipts and realise you may actually have been able to afford that new extension had you not spent the cash on M&S party food/half the Argos Catalogue/26743 metres of wrapping paper.
Anyway, this is a round up of the ten things I like to think most people do after the 25th December...
1.Browse the sales online whilst hoping not to come across anything you bought as a gift, full price, 3 days previously. (And if you do, swear profusely at the screen and wonder why you've been punished so unfairly)
2.Go from loving seeing the house all festively decorated and enjoying the heavenly aroma of the cinnamon and fig diffuser that "just smells like Christmas!!" to violently throwing rogue baubles at loved ones when they are tripped up on and getting annoyed by the Christmas card avalanche whenever a door is shut and just desperately wanting the house "back to normal".
3.Be torn between feeling disgusted at yourself for eating ALL OF THE FOOD on Christmas day and also thinking "well if I just finish off the rest of the Roses/Quality Street/Matchmakers/Ferrero Rocher etc, etc then at least they're gone"!
4.Go for the only walk of the year and saying the words "well at least that's burnt off a bit of Christmas dinner!"
5.Be tempted by the heavily reduced Christmas crackers in the supermarket but decide that you can't possibly buy them because it's just too darn crazy to buy Christmas stuff a year in advance.
6.Ferret around on the medicine shelf for the packet of Rennie that was last used exactly one year previous and praising the good Lord that medicine doesn't go out of date for like, 10 years.
7.Start getting nervous about fitting into work clothes that don't feature an elasticated waist.
8.Receive a Christmas card from someone who used a second class stamp.
9.Watch another Christmas film because well, it's "technically still Christmas"
10.Open the tub of Quality Street only to gaze down at the heart breaking sight of a few lonely coffee creams.