Christmas in November...

I’m slightly ashamed to admit, that this year we started Christmas preparations in November. Usually I refuse to have anything to do with premature christmasness and complain loudly about any sign of it. After all, how can you make Christmas feel special if you celebrate it for two months straight?! For me, 6^th December – Santa Claus day – was The Day – the day when it was O.K. to let my inner Christmas Obsession explode with full power. 

The problem is, that Goans seem to start decorating for Christmas as they put their Diwali lights on, which leaves me – the December Christmasser – with very limited choices.

Of course, Goa being almost as Christmas obsessed as I am, you can find all the basic ornaments in nearly every shop, but buying twelve eggs and a bag of baubles just doesn’t do it for me. I need a proper ambiance for it to count!

There is this magical place in Panjim – shop dedicated solely to Christmas, open only for two months. The problem is, towards November end, there doesn’t seem to be much left to buy!

That’s why this year, I decided to make and exception. We journeyed to the Winter Wonderland a good week ago, and what a trip that was! I swear, it’s like entering Santa’s workshop! The whole space is packed with beautifully decorated trees, wreaths, garlands… there are strings of lights, buckets of holy, bunches of mistletoe and piles and piles of decorations.
 And of course the music… I think that’s the worst part. I promised myself, I will get in, pick what I need, get out and pretend it never happened, but no matter how hard I tried the jingle bell, jingle bell… just stuck with me. Thank god December is finally here!