It’s only a couple of days until Christmas so here I am with my Christmas blog post once again. Most years I have a theme for it. Some of them have been: the sense of wonder and happiness that Christmas tree and mantelpiece lights – and all decorative lights – inspire in me, how warm and happy memories of holidays past can bring peace and comfort to the present, the traditions that mean Christmas to me and others, what makes Christmas cozy, and the way that seasonal songs stir our hearts and memories.

I often focus on the quiet, reflective times during the holiday season, but let’s not forget the times we join others to enjoy the season’s jolly sense of community.   

People often complain about how crowded public places are during the holiday season but sometimes it’s good to get out into the hustle and bustle of the festivities. I’m not talking about the stress of squeezing through throngs of shoppers in overcrowded shops and standing in line at the checkout until you’re ready to drop, leaving you exhausted and wanting to hide away until the new year. I’m thinking of how your spirits lift when you slip into the midst of a happy, lively buzz of humanity gathering to enjoy some aspect of the season.

When I was a small child, I loved going downtown in Toronto to see the amazing Christmas windows in the Eaton’s and Simpson’s stores. Their displays were so intricate and incredible that adults and children alike crowded around the windows to watch the mechanized elves, woodland animals and other characters preparing for Christmas. The models in the windows were cartoonish but almost real at the same time. It was impossible not to love them. For a small child, it was like seeing the characters in ‘Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer’ or ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ come to life.

I also loved watching the Santa Claus parade, which passed through downtown Toronto in mid-November. It was a spectacle on an even bigger scale than the activity in the store windows. I recently learned that the Toronto parade, which was first held on December 2, 1905, was the first one in the world. It’s also one of the largest Santa Claus parades in North America and one of the world’s oldest annual parades.

Going to the parade was such a wondrous occasion filled with the pageantry of the colourful floats and characters on them, the excitement of watching the performers and larger-than-life cartoon characters dancing and doing acrobatics as they walked, and the sounds of pipe bands, silver bands and steel bands filling the air. Before the last note from one band floated away on the frosty air, the strains of the next band’s music drifted toward me, quickly getting closer. When I was in my twenties the pipe band I belonged to played in several community Santa Claus parades in small Canadian towns each year. It was cold as we marched along the parade routes and sometimes I could barely feel my fingers as I played my bagpipes, but that was a small price to pay to be part of the festival atmosphere at these events. There was so much excitement and camaraderie and good will.  

There aren’t any Santa Claus parades where I now live in Northern Ireland (though Santa does arrive with pomp and ceremony at a shopping centre in Belfast’s city centre each November) but you can find lots of festive razzamatazz in towns around the province. A couple of weeks ago my husband and I went to Rushmere Shopping Centre, a few miles outside of Belfast, for an afternoon and I delighted in the sights and sounds of the season all packed inside the shopping mall.

Overhead the ceiling dripped with glittering warm white lights and shiny oversized ornaments, and gaily decorated Christmas trees stood like sentries at intervals along the main concourse. A brightly painted miniature train with an engine and four wooden carriages chugged around one end of the mall carrying pint-sized passengers and their parents, and musicians performed on a stage draped in holly and baubles at the other end of the concourse. On the wall above the stage clips of White Christmas, the quintessential Christmas movie, were playing. We stopped in a coffee shop for some hot chocolate and Christmas treats, and chatted with the couple at the next table who had their dogs with them. Most people were chatty and sociable, and cheeriness radiated from shoppers as they bustled from one shop to the next. By the end of the afternoon, as we left the shopping centre, I was wrapped in a wonderful sense of warm community and happy festiveness.

In early December I was at the Belfast Christmas market in the grounds of the City Hall, wending my way through the busy market, from one gaily decorated wooden hut to the next, browsing the diverse array of items for sale in the stalls and inhaling the scents of paella, pancakes and chocolate, smoked sausages, and cheesy everything in the food stalls. I visit the Christmas market every year, and this year as always I made sure to stop at some of my favourite stalls: the one selling amber jewellery, another filled with hand painted Christmas ornaments, and the Gluhwein stall where I enjoyed steaming hot apple cider. People swirled past me in every direction as I walked from stall to stall, laughing and talking, happily shopping and indulging their taste buds. I felt like I was in the middle of a holiday street party and I was in no hurry to leave.  

We’ve also spent some time at the small shopping mall in Enniskillen, the largest town near us, soaking up the sights and sounds of Christmas.

We’ve found that this is best done from the cafe inside the mall where we also soak up hot chocolate and Christmas cake as we watch passersby and listen to the holiday music streaming from the PA system. We enjoy seeing everyone’s festive sweaters as they pass by. One Saturday morning we were treated to a sighting of the Grinch as he descended the nearby escalator and passed the café, trading insults with shoppers as he marched along the concourse. Santa also regularly passes by the café on his way to his house and throne in the middle of the mall, stopping frequently to chat with wide-eyed children. While we sit and watch the holiday scene in front of us, we often spot people we know and they stop to chat with us. It’s a relaxing way to be in the thick of the festivities.

As Christmas Day nears, I’m sure I’ll take some time by the fire, under the multi-coloured lights of our Christmas tree and the blue lights twined with the holly on the mantlepiece, to relax and quietly appreciate the season, but I’ll also get out and join others enjoying the sense of goodwill and community the season brings.

I hope where ever you are that you will experience both the peacefulness and happy buzz of the holiday season this year. Merry Christmas!