CHRISTMAS HAPPENS IN...12 DAYS!

Days to christmas: 13

Behind Bens advent calendar door today: A Cracker!!!

Guess at what will be behind tomorrows: A candy cane?

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat and most of my friends are splitting with their partners and fretting about being alone on christmas. It's true, this year Santa has a lot of unexpectedly lonely boys and girls on his list.

In fact this year the number of friends who have become single since November 30th outnumber the ones who are still happily with their partners. And all of them are sad and depressed about what to do when the big day finally roles around. Because, for reasons as diverse as mental spouses and long lost loves all of them have been on the receiving end of a big fat christmas bust-up.

Admittedly, some are doing their level best to make things work. They're buying gifts, wooing old flames and declaring undying love to make sure they're back together with loved ones in time for the 25th. Others are joininbg dating agencies, hanging around local singles nights and generally making fools of themselves to make sure they are with somebody (anybody!) for the christmas period. Me, I'm not particularly bothered. After this weekend I won't be seeing my girlfriend until January at the latest but I'm secure enough in my relationship not to mind. But, what all this commotion has made me wonder is, why is christmas and new year such an apparently scary time to be alone. Well, I gave it some thought and finally I came upon a small snippet I'd written a good few years ago. I suppose this is as good a reason as any to explain why nobody wants to be alone at christmas or New Years:

New Years Eve scares a lot of people. In a lot of ways it scares me. It’s a scary place to be, the eve of a whole new year. It’s the lip of a void, containing nothing but an inky foreboding blackness out of which anything could emerge. For many people it’s not a brand new start at all, it’s simply the uglier, more indefinite continuation of all the bad things that have happened to them the year before. It’s a bottomless pit of a million more opportunities for something awful and utterly terrifying to plague their existence. And, to add insult to injury, the crowning achievement of the sick miscreant who invented the whole thing placed a series of parties smack bang in the middle of the whole sorry episode so friends and family alike could get together and see who exactly stood at the edge of this void alone. And then, when the new year finally does role around, you’re shoved mercilessly into it despite all protests and feeling nowhere near as drunk as you should be to find that once again you’re stood on the outskirts of a circle, sipping at an empty glass and watching couples and lovers and partners you don’t want to be around hugging and kissing and making plans. Happy New Year.

Well, it works for me :P

And by the way, the christmas paradox is a paradox because advent calendars become disposable on December 24th/25th. Who wants to make festive ice cubes on December 25th? Answers on a postcard! :P