It's the most wonderful time of the year...

It's 30 degrees and going up and I am sitting in my air-conditioned car wondering why there is a rotating Santa Claus on the Ayios Nikolaos roundabout, why Orphanides has started humming its Christmas jingle songs. And so it is Christmas, but far from a white one. It's worrying really. Apparently Cyprus is going to turn into a desert of sand dunes and camels. That will pose a problem for propping up Christmas trees. It's funny if you think about it. We have the same climate as Australia at the moment. All we need is to get the Santas on the jet skis!

Christmas in Cyprus and I guess everywhere else brings out the compulsive buyer in everyone. I see people coming out of Jumbo with a trolley stacked to the brim with toys. In LIDL the other day I heard there was a commotion between customers about some cheap food mixers. One customer wanted to  buy four and there was a fight because someone came and snatched one from the trolley. Only in Cyprus, is all I can say.  

Furniture shops also have a field day.It is time to change the living room. How else will we greet our guests for Christmas? The hypermarkets will start advertising their supposed rock bottom prices, two for one and all that. The Mayors will open the lights on the Avenues eventhough we are still in shorts, T-Shirts and sandals. It just doesn't feel like Christmas. My winter clothes stand in my wardrobe waiting patiently to be worn. I want to wear a scarf and a woolly hat! To be fair, I suppose we've got it good. The Brits and Russians are shivering in their pants and we are preparing to go to the beach but I can't help believing that Chritnmas equates to winter. It's actually quite cliche really but that's how I see it. England got lots of snow last year. The closest to snow we'll get in Cyprus is the pretend one used to sprinkle the Christmas tree in Four Seasons.

The actual day for me is a bit of an anti-climax. You greet and kiss everyone, give them their pressies and then eat like it's the end of the world, have a bit of Christmas cake, watch Home Alone and snooze on the couch and that's Christmas over. It's never like that in the films. There's a lot to blame Christmas films for actually. They've built an image of snow covered wooden huts and a roaring log fire with Santa and his sledge which is rarely close to reality. Christmas is in fact for children. By the time you reach 13 Santa is officially dead. One thing for sure, is that Christmas brings out the goody two shoes in everyone. Just for a day there is no blasphemy or bad word said about anyone. People's thoughts go to the children less fortunate but it's all so fake because once Boxing Day gets into full swing, all the goodness is forgotten and everyone gets into their old habits again.

On the news the other day I saw the giant Polish statue of Jesus which boasts to be the biggest in the world, appropriately finished for Christmas. If Jesus was alive he would be furious because it represents everything that he was against, pomp and arrogance. People have forgotten that Christmas is meant to celebrate the birth of Christ who let's remember was born in a modest manger with animals. There's no pomp and circumstance in that, just humility. This is only got through to the five year olds who perform their nativity plays every year. It's all about buying and showing off.  Everything has turned into materialism of extreme proportions.

It's the most wonderful time of the year it says in that song played in Home Alone 2, showing wintery New York and young Kevin booking himself into the Plaza. If only you could feel it...