by Allison Smith – 

“34 Days Until Christmas,” the sign at the bottom of the stairs announced to me this morning. 34 days until Christmas – over a month! – and yet all around me I see signs that the holiday spirit has arrived early.

My house is already decorated. Normally I wait for a couple more weeks, but we leave for Mexico on December 2 and I’d rather come home without this task still on my holiday to-do list. But even though my house is all “Christmassed-up” only out of necessity, I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming season, and I’m not the only one! On a late night walk with my dog, the glow of Christmas lights from many different houses makes a flashlight unnecessary. Stores of course are busy, as they usually are at this time of year, but the shoppers just seem friendlier, a little more willing to let the person behind them go first or chat happily with other customers while they patiently await their turn in line. It’s hard to put my finger on what it is, exactly, but there just seems to be a little something different in the air a little earlier this year.

In the depths of Covid as we all faced a holiday season without family and friends by our side, there was a knock on my door one night. On the other side was my sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. They’d hopped on the ferry from Vancouver just to pop by our and my mom’s house, with a special message for us in a time of sadness and uncertainty. Have you seen the movie Love Actually? Much like that iconic scene, my sister and her family played a quiet carol while they held up pieces of Bristol board on which they’d written their wishes for a better Christmas the following year. I stood there with tears in my eyes, fighting the urge to hug them all, but with a bit of holiday magic restored in my heart.

Perhaps the reason Christmas cheer seems to have come early is that we’ve had a period of isolation and are longing for the connection we had before Covid entered our lives. This year feels like the first Christmas in a while that will be … normal. The way it used to be. And that feels like the most magical thing of all. The most wonderful time of the year, indeed.

Photo by Janis Jean Photography. Clothing provided and styled by Barbara’s Boutique, Sidney.