I may be 41 years of age, but I continue to be spoiled each and every Christmas by my terrific mom. This year was no different. She outdid herself yet again, bless her generous soul.
Undoubtedly, my favourite present this year was a Race Transporter Set made by Italian miniature carmakers, Brumm. This particular one is an exact replica of the Ferraris driven by Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi at the 1981 Monaco Grand Prix, replete with figurines of the two legendary drivers, as well as the Fiat eight-wheeler transporter truck (as shown above from the Brumm site). Just beautiful.
My mother knows what a fervent Ferrari supporter I am (a demented tifoso since 1977 to be exact), so she couldn't resist buying it for me, she said.
A snobbery for quality is a family trait, so the fact that this set is a collector's item with only 500 having been made (mine being #107 of 500, by the way) and the only one of its kind being sold in South Africa no doubt swayed her quite immensely.
But what was the deciding factor that made her decide to buy it on the spot? It was a snob issue, but wasn't about being a limited edition or the only one being sold in this country. According to her, what sold this set for her was the fact that it was 100% Made in Italy.
100% Made in Italy.
Not only 'Made' in Italy', but 100% so. For those of us sick to death of the sub-standard, utterly poor craftsmanship of 'Made in China' that pervades the world of consumer goods today, and where a car has some parts made in China, others made in Vietnam and others still made in Mexico, one despairs at how everything for the middle class has become so shoddy and so devoid of quality.
I still remember a time when 'Made in Italy' or 'Made in France' was more than enough, but that is no longer the case.
After all, was it really all 'made in Italy' or 'made in France', or only parts thereof? Or, worse still, just the design concept thought up in Italy or France, with the actual manufacture made in some poxy developing country, with the attention not being to details like craftsmanship or quality, but to the cold, hard bottom line?
That is why today ONLY '100% Made in Italy' will ensure that a middle-class lady who knows and appreciates quality will pay that extra so she can buy her overgrown baby of a son a limited edition Ferrari set.
That is what 'Made in Italy' used to represent and should represent.
Once again, I hanker for a time gone by when quality and attention to detail and things that lasted (and that weren't only meant for the super rich) actually meant something. This Christmas my mother and I were able to enjoy that feeling once again, if only through a miniature replica of the 1981 Ferrari F1 team.
Do you get my point?
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?
- 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
- 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...
- 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
- Christmas Lights: white, multi-coloured, many, few - I love them all. What creates the mood better than all those twinkling lights?
- 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?
- 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)
- 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
- A Time to be Kitsch: See 1, 3 and 4 above - and hurrah for that.
- A Time to Enjoy being Spoilt and Spoiling Others: Any why not?
- A Time to be a Child Again: Well, stuff it, at least it is for me...
