It’s That Time of Year Again!

That wonderful, fabulous, magical time of year.

The time for snowflakes and ornaments and happy little elves. For wreaths tacked to front doors and light-bedecked pine trees. For claymation movies about reindeer, snowmen, and jolly old Saint Nick. The time for good food and careful searching for just the right gift. Time to be spent with good friends and family—those who are precious and beloved and dear to one’s heart.

England has some issues with holidays.

They barely acknowledge Halloween over here (as evidenced by the complete lack of decorations, pumpkin carving, costumes, or…anything else really). And England doesn’t do Thanksgiving at all. Since these two holidays (along with my birthday, orange crunchy leaves, and the ability to wear one of my two million scarf accessories), make fall so absolutely marvelous to my eyes, it makes me sad when they suddenly don’t exist. It makes the season feel a little empty and…foreign.

But England! Lovely, lovely England. England knows about Christmas.

I walked by Starbucks today, and there are snowflake shaped window stickies in the front window. And there are metallic red Christmas garlands across the top of their mug display. Tesco’s (my local grocery store) has had Christmas displays out Since October: the top shelves are lined with stocking stuffers and Christmas crackers. Large Santa and Rudolph plushies sit smiling in cardboard display cases at the end of aisles. There are turkeys (!!!) in the freezer section, and Christmas puddings in the sweets aisle. I found body wash (for him!) in a novelty container shaped like the Stig.

There is a pedestrian tunnel that runs beneath the street from the South Kennsington tube station to a place just down the street from the Pepperdine house that I walk through to get to and from school every day. The tunnel exists to allow easy access to the three museums located just down the street from the school, and there are three exits: the one at the end that is closest to my school, and two that the lead to street level near the Victoria & Albert museum, about halfway down the tunnel. Late in October, on my way home from a late evening class, I noticed that the trees outside one of these exit had been decorated with Christmas lights, thousands of them, enough to light the exit and the street outside, and it’s so pretty it makes me smile every single time I walk past. (This being grumpy England, I get strange looks from the people passing me in the other direction, who can’t fathom why some girl walking alone is grinning in an inappropriately goofy manner at a bunch of lights.)

Each major square and many of the major streets are decorated in some way for Christmas: Leicester square, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden…all beautifully decorated with tons of lights and/or trees and/or garlands, etc. My goal before I leave London id to visit them all! Even the pubs are decorated. And I don’t just mean a few strings of lights; these people go all out. There are trees and ceiling hangings, windows completely blocked by lights, multiple garlands and tons of ornaments.

It is glorious!

Unfortunately the creeping approach of Christmas means it is that time of year again.

The time for stress and worry, for studying and memorizing and rewording of rule statements, for hushed conversations in the library, for frantic printing of outlines, for rainbow colored textbooks and supplements and commercial outlines and the coinciding overuse of highlighters and a sudden lack of tabbies, and for frantic phone calls home. (Be prepared, Mom, I’m topping up my mobile!)

Finals. Fast approaching, looming dark and ominous on the horizon. They are one week away, and I have a study schedule planned for each and every day between here and there that must be strictly adhered to.

Last year, finals blotted out Christmas entirely. I remember being somewhat surprised when a proctor for my final exam came in last December in a Christmas sweater. There it was, a week from Christmas day, and I had essentially forgotten all about it.

This year, the wonder that is London is preventing that. Certainly the nearness of finals mars the joy and warmth the season normally brings to my heart, but this year, the Christmas spirit is not to be defeated!

I just have to keep reminding myself: Be calm. Keep working. Christmas light tour in two weeks…