RAVE: 10 Reasons Why I Love Christmas

It's the day after Christmas, and I'm still reveling in how much I love this particular day of the year. Not withstanding my birthday (THE most important day of my year, it goes without saying), there is no other day of the year that I look more forward to than December 25th.



And this from a self-avowed agnostic (make that an atheist who would like to think 'there's something out there' but very much doubts it).

A child of God born to a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem and visited by three Kings from the Orient whilst a big star blazed in the low horizon? Makes perfect sense.

I wasn't buying the stories of the Old Testament (all horror, pillage, rape and countless people begat) nor those of the New Testament (one too many miracles) at already the tender age of 8. Scripture classes made for terrific listening, but it all seemed so unreal to me. Great drama, no doubt, but all frankly nonsense. Never bought it - and I still don't.

But Christmas has become about as secular as Valentine's Day, and I can understand how more orthodox Christians and true believers of what's scribbled in the Bible must hate this. Understand, but don't give a damn. After all, Christians had their time - for many centuries, the Inquisition included - now it's ours. And that includes reveling in the rollicking, consumerist kitschfest that Christmas is today.

Ten reasons why I love Christmas so much?

1. Christmas Presents: Much as I deplore the consumerism that engulfs society for the rest of the year, on this day I am an uber-consumerist-nihilist. I LOVE getting presents - and giving them too. I'll take them all, thank you very much
2. Christmas Morning: Is there any feeling better than waking up early on Christmas morning, knowing that presents await one under a tree? I feel very sorry for those who open their presents on Christmas Eve - what to do the next morning?! I think not...
3. The Christmas Tree: The one time one can decorate to one's gaudiest, kitschiest heart's content and still feel very, very proud of the outcome
4. Christmas Lights: white, multi-coloured, many, few - I love them all. What creates the mood better than all those twinkling lights?
5. Christmas Lunch: I mean the pecuniary delights of traditional Portuguese and Italian Christmas food - panettone, bacalhau, zabiglione - not the bland, horrendous fare of the Anglo-Saxons. Bless them with their overcooked turkeys and caramelised vegetables. If even Nigella Lawson or Jamie Oliver can't make English Christmas food look good, then who the hell can?
6. Christmas Music: The most sappy, annoying and nauseating music ever written and sung suddenly becomes so cheerful and apt and sets the mood for a season (caveat: except the muzak type that assails one in department stores and supermarkets - that stuff is annoying beyond belief)
7. A Time to be Corny: No other time of the year gives one as much carte blanche to immerse oneself in total cornydom as does Christmas
8. A Time to be Kitsch: See  1, 3 and 4 above - and hurrah for that.
9. A Time to Enjoy being Spoilt and Spoiling Others: Any why not?
10. A Time to be a Child Again: Well, stuff it, at least it is for me...