Jul…

Christmas, Noël, Navidad…  It is celebrated pretty much everywhere on the globe, and I am not a Christmas specialist. But Danes, to my knowledge, are among the peoples that welcome this time of year with the most enthusiasm. I’ll get back to them in a bit.

When I started this post, I was planning to do a short parallel between Noël au Québec, and Jul i Danmark. (I soooo don’t work like that! “Short” my a**. I officially suck at “short”!!) But, of course, I got lost in my thoughts as usual, and I found out I have a lot more to say about Christmas than I first thought. So I’ll split this into two, to my sure I don’t get complaints such as “your post was so long, my eyes dried before the end”… or bleeded, or both… So first, what I know best: Home!!

Here in Québec, Christmas is a 3 days deal. Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the 26th which has no special name except if you are stupid enough to go to “Boxing day”. Oh, just before I go on with my Christmas analysis, let me tell you a word or two about “Boxing day”…

“Boxing day”, for those of you lucky enough not to know what I am talking about, is a mega sale happening on the 26th of December. Or should I say that WAS happening on the 26th. Because yeah, with the internet market and the super stores fighting for customers, “Boxing DAY” has slowly become “Boxing WEEK”. So here’s a good reason to stay home on the 26^th, and wrap yourself in a blanket and watch the other fools rushing to line up at 6 O’clock in the morning to be the first “boxing fool” to lay hand on the completely unnecessary technological gadget seen on TV, just because it is half priced. (I am no mathematics genius, but if I buy a 200$ watch I wouldn’t have bought otherwise, just because it is sold 20$, I still lose 20$, right?!?) Anyway…

So, family Christmas lasts 3 days. I say “family Christmas” because the rest of December is all about “work Xmas” parties… Do I even want to go there? Hmmm… Tradition has it that every employer has to organise a party for their employees. And “organise” is the appropriate word here, since you often have to pay to attend it. People will say;

• Yeah, but 25$, that’s a deal for a 4 courses meal, 2 glasses of wine a show and some dancing late though the night.

Hmmmm, remember my thoughts about Boxing day? To me, 25$ I wouldn’t have spent otherwise, given away to go have supper with people I see on a daily basis (even more than my boyfriend or my family), see colleagues going down shame-boulevard after drinking too much and puking under the table (true fact… not fun fact per say… but all true), watching barely discreet adultery going on (Heyyy we’re drunk, and we weren’t allowed to bring our “loved ones”… Let’s have fun!!)… That is no “deal” to me. Feels more like 25 more dollars going down the drain.

So you probably guessed I will not go to my company’s Xmas party in a few weeks…