The road to Christmas is paved with good intentions

A very disturbing thought crept through my mind over recent weeks based on the notion that this year, I should contemplate enjoying Christmas, rather than embarking on my usual seasonal whine about the season of jollity, over-indulgence, shots of religion and trying to be nice to each other without really meaning it.

An unblemished record in failing to post a Christmas card for the past 25 years could come to an end as I will try to draw up a list of eight to ten people that could broadly come under the embracing as general friends. Even if I’m only 50% successful with this endeavour, at least it will mean four or five cards more than I’ve sent out over recent decades, and that will be progress.

A second key target during the first week of December will be the securing of the Christmas tree and its erection in the sitting room, without any moans, groans or temper tantrums.

Over the years, this moody piece of spruce has tended to create household carnage with buckets of soil leaving their mark on floors through the house before inevitably the tree topples over amid shrieks of terror from all the assembled masses.

This time around the tree will be purchased at least three days in advance of its unveiling date; I will smile my way through all the spillages and then, when the lights inevitably don’t work, every bulb and electrical connection will be checked with all the stoic patience of Job.

I’m also not going to moan about the rising cost of the tree from the local jobber in the heart of Tuam town and vow not to mortify any of my offspring with 10 minutes of haggling in an effort to get a fiver off the purchase price.

So that’ll be the great start to Christmas out of the way – at least five cards posted in good time with the tree in place and lit up without a cross word having crossed my lips. Already this is beginning to work out well.

My next key goal towards a happy Christmas is the unfulfilled ambition of recent decades to survive the season of goodwill without enduring as much as one hangover. True there will be the temptation of the office party, the local pub ‘do’, the Christmas Eve binge and the ringing-in of the New Year, but all of those occasions will be treated with an iron discipline based on the Puritan gospel of people like Oliver Cromwell and Martin Luther.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.