By Neil Coupe
Is it really wrong to look forward to January?
The build-up to Christmas is an exciting part of the calendar.
The build-up seems longer and longer each year as we reach the crescendo on Christmas Day.
It takes a heart of stone not to enjoy children’s wide-eyed wonder and anticipation of the Big Day.
It is always a good thing to catch up with and be able to spend time with people close to us. Christmas is a period when we sometimes struggle to fill our time, rather than the opposite problem of fitting everything in during the rest of the year.
Our homes are festooned with decorations from times gone by. There is finally a use for last year’s green and red napkins. Our bellies are full, and for the more fortunate people in our society, the pile of possessions grows yet higher.
It is an enjoyable and important time, a time of nostalgia, a time of reflection, and how we wish it could be for everyone, a time of peace.
Yet the 12 days of Christmas feel so much longer. We are by no means the first, but our tree is usually up around three weeks before Christmas, which is our signal that the Season of Goodwill is upon us.
With the various events that we attend, it feels more like the month of Christmas.
Once the festivities are over, the decorations return to their box and revert to their natural domain, unseen and in the loft. The Christmas cards are recycled, and the magic moment arrives when we find a company prepared to take the Christmas Tree away.
So here we are in January – a new beginning.
Without the Christmas accoutrements, the house feels emptier, bigger, calmer, and better organised.
The days already feel longer.
Two weeks after the shortest day, it feels like we are on the downward slope to being able to wake up and open the curtains without needing to turn on the lights. There is no longer talk of people suffering from Season Adjustment Disorder. This is the time for positivity and hope.
That journey to work, for the first week at least, seems manageable as the schools haphazardly return and employees gradually revert to their daily routines.
It is a time to look forward.
June 2024 feels a lot closer to January 2024 than it does to December 2023.
This is the time to make proper plans, not just to vaguely ponder on what we might like to do ‘next year’- we are now in ‘this year’.
This is the time for good intentions – a nice obvious time to attempt to lose the weight that built up over the previous two weeks or so. There will be a stampede to the gym. Panting red-faced people will be seen jogging in their brand-new leisure wear, and appropriately pronated running shoes.
We shall all know people embarking on a plant-based diet, or even more challengingly, ‘Dry January’.
Whether people successfully follow up on their good intentions is a moot point. This is a time of new beginnings and a clean slate, where after a few days away from the every day commitments, we can ponder those little changes that can improve our lot.
Let’s hope that 2024 is a positive year for us all.
