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Anyone for Christmas spirit?

19th December 2012 by Helena 2 Comments  

As I write, Bea and Leonardo are on the balcony, playing cards and singing along to Christmas songs. Every day I am told exactly how many days remain until the big event. Every few minutes they check under the tree to see if there are any more presents. They talk of little else than Christmas shopping and lunch. In short, Christmas has taken over our lives.
I am trying desperately to remember and relate to that childhood excitement, the anticipation and the mystery surrounding Christmas. Both Rupes and I agree that Christmas was definitely a less glitzy affair in our day. In fairness it is hard to get too excited about a Christmas stocking containing a satsuma and a Brazil nut. But I do still remember the sheer joy of going to sleep believing that as I slept a kind, fat man dressed in red and white would leap down my chimney and put a stocking at the end of my bed, even if there wasn’t anything very exciting in it. Nowadays of course anyone dressed in red and white is more likely to symbolise the a Clarins sales girl. I also remember watching A Christmas Carol every year and being transported into that cold, cruel, Dickensian world. And there was always a special film on Christmas Day, I remember one year it was Love Story and I was told to leave the lunch table because two hours after it finished I was still weeping hysterically. I also remember as a seven-year old (I was much more right-on in those days) telling the whole lunch gathering that “you shouldn’t eat meat”. “Don’t worry,” boomed my grandfather from the other end of the table. “It’s a bird.” There was a short silence, followed by: “You shouldn’t eat birds either.” Cue another sending off.
I wonder at what age the magic goes out of Christmas? Or maybe for some people it never does? You certainly get a bit of it back when you have children. I often think about what a strange Christmas my aunt and uncle in Italy must have, with no children around, not even a pet to buy presents for. Do they even bother with a Christmas tree? Knowing them, they have some exquisite Bonsai with a single thread of antique glitter. Of course for us there is no option but the all-singing, all-dancing, all flashing multi-coloured tree. In fact this year we have two trees, because I refuse to be bullied into letting my pink tree sit in the store cupboard. Which I think proves that there is still plenty of Christmas spirit left in me…
Merry Christmas every one!

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2013


Filed Under: blog --> Tagged With: anyone, christmas, spirit

2 thoughts on Anyone for Christmas spirit?

  • Caroline says:
    19th December 2012 at 10:42 pm

    My two girls love a Christmas Carol and all things Christmassy, but it still doesn’t get them out of bed any earlier on the big day… Which is present enough for me!

  • Nina says:
    22nd December 2012 at 10:09 am

    Christmas spirit? Noooo. For me and my famlily it is too warm and sunny for the right Christmas spirit, as we live in Finland, but that is what we came to Abu Dhabi for. No need to bake, cook, clean, decorate the house, iron, buy presents to people you have no idea what they really like. Not to mention doing all this after full time work when you are already tired when the evening comes.

    This year we chose to relax instead. And have Christmas Eve dinner with friends in Jumeirah Beach hotel. The only thing I have to for Christmas, is to choose should I put my grey silver dress or dark blue dress when the Christmas Eve comes. Happy holidays to your family!

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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