And So This is Christmas...

Ahh it's the Eve of Christmas Eve; the lights are sparkling, the presents glistening, and the fridge door isn't closing because there's more than £100 worth of food spilling out of it...

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE food at Christmas. In fact, I think it's my favourite part. In our house, we eat food from the moment we get up to the very end of they day, when allow ourselves to rest in a well-earned food coma until Boxing Day.

Yesterday, we did our Christmas food shop, thinking we would get ahead of the game and go to Sainsbury's by 8:30 am, but of course, everyone else clearly the same idea.

The supermarket was choc-full with crazed, trolley wielding Christmas nuts (I mean the people, not the actual nuts, that would be strange). I was being bashed left-right-and-center by baskets full of bellinis, minced pies and golden wrapping paper tubes.

My head couldn't take it.

I had to take a moment and stand in the freezer isle to cool down, which is where I started to question the necessity of all this Christmas mayhem.

I'm sure I wouldn't be the first person to consider that Christmas is rather excessive. Exciting, yes, but as I near my twenty-first year, I fear I am losing the fun of Christmas by replacing it with the realisation that we are all a little too over the top.

I love Christmas festivities, but I don't love when Christmas becomes a chore. People pouring in and out of shops, stressed out of their mind trying to find the right present for their auntie's next-door-neighbour's girlfriend's dog.

Christmas is greedy, and maybe it always has been, but I'm certainly reaching the age where over-consumption is what shines through the windows during late night shopping. Thousands cram themselves into busy streets, to come home and moan about how much more there is to do.

Why do we let the calendar put so much stress on us, year after year? It's like that scene near the beginning of Elf. Where Santa tells the elves that they've done a great job on the toys for this Christmas, so it's time to start preparing for next Christmas. I feel like that's what everyone needs to do. Revolve their entire year around getting ready for the following Christmas.

Even then, I guarantee you would still get people rushing around near Christmas Eve, trying to get the biggest and best present there ever was. And if that was the case, that means that Christmas is the sole purpose of our existence and I personally don't think that's quite right.

So no, I don't think this rush of consumerism in the holidays is ever going to change, therefore it us up to us as individuals to take a step back from all the turkey-glazing-madness... and breathe.

On Christmas Eve every year, my mum, my sisters and I read The Night Before Christmas. It brings us together, in a state of calm, before the chaos unfolds the next day.

In that moment, we are quiet, we are still, and I have the time to appreciate spending the end of the year with the people I love. Everything is put to rest for one more night and that is when I feel the true magic of Christmas.

For those of you who have been stressing about the inevitable Christmas deadline, or know someone who's feeling the heat of the oven as they prepare your delicious Christmas meal; take a step back. Observe everything as it is, and appreciate Christmas for its simplicity.

Christmas day can be a mad rush, over in a flash, and after all that build up its the simple moments that need recognition.

Instead of blurring the day into one big ball of shiny wrapping paper, try and focus on what it all means to you. The reason may be different for each of you, but this year, take notice of the little moments that make Christmas special.

Breathe once more this Christmas Eve, before the kids are up and screaming, and there are toys everywhere and your uncle is late so the food's going cold and the dog's eaten the pudding now there's loads of washing up and soon it'll be next year and we'll have to do it all over again...

... Merry Christmas.

(My dog never actually ate the pudding. She did eat my advent calendar once though.)