Have you got Christmas all wrapped up?

Don't you just hate those smug people who insist on telling you how many days there are left until Christmas?
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Aasma Day - new headshot pix

“Only 22 more days left now!” they trill in a super annoying and irritating fashion. You just know these are the same self-satisfied individuals who buy, wrap and label all their presents weeks in advance.

It’s enough to make you want to strangle them with a piece of tinsel.

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Only now that we are into December am I willing to enter into conversation about anything festive and concede that Christmas is actually coming at a snowballing pace.

Mention the “C” word to me before the final month of the year has begun and you’re definitely off my Christmas card list… which is just as well as I probably won’t have time to write any.

Contrary to how it sounds, I do actually love Christmas and the caring sharing family time and seasonal fun associated with it.

I love seeing houses decorated with Christmas lights (as long as it’s not done too early), I enjoy watching Christmas films snuggled up on the sofa with my children and I adore the fact that, for a month, it becomes completely acceptable to gorge yourself on food, including big tins of chocolates and biscuits until you’re fit to burst.

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For a limited couple of weeks, Baileys even becomes a legitimate milk substitute without anyone raising their eyebrows and subtly slipping you the number for Alcoholics Anonymous.

But even though “Tis the season to be jolly”, there are certain festive factors that bring out the Grinch or Scrooge in all of us. Bah Humbug!

Some people’s pet peeves about Christmas are perplexing and even irrational.

One of my colleagues admitted one of the things he hates about Christmas is opening presents.

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“Opening presents?” I asked, thinking maybe I’d misheard. “Maybe he means wrapping presents,” I thought as this is definitely top of my list when it comes to things I hate about Christmas.

Opening presents is good. That sense of anticipation before you rip off the wrapping to reveal the surprise contained within. Watching other people – especially children– peel away the packaging to find exactly what they’d been desiring and witnessing the joy on their face.

It turns out this is exactly what he hates about opening Christmas presents.

He loathes the feeling of all eyes being on him when he’s unwrapping his gifts and feels the pressure mounting as people watch him for his reaction.

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His biggest problem he admits is, even if he completely loves a present, his external reaction never seems to match the joy he feels inside, making the gift buyer feel a wave of disappointment.

“I can’t help it,” He told me helplessly. “For some reason my expression doesn’t seem to show how happy I am and people think I don’t like what they’ve bought me, even if it’s exactly what I was after.”

If that’s the case, I’d hate to see his face when he gets something he truly detests.

I’m sure many of us will be practising our present loving faces in the run up to December 25.

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There are some things I definitely don’t like about Christmas. One being the pernicious way it seems to sneak up on us earlier and earlier each year trying to catch us unawares.

But as mentioned, number one on my Christmas hate list is definitely present wrapping.

There is a reason why God gave us the gift bag. If the Three Wise Men were truly intelligent, I’m sure they presented their Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh to Jesus in beautiful gift bags.

Wrapping up is an evil task with a minefield of problems. How much paper to cut? Lining up all the creases. What if you get a truly awkward shaped present? And where does the end of the blasted Sellotape always go?

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Apparently there are people who love wrapping up. These are the sort of people who ‘love 
ironing.’

Christmas is all about give and take and, as a result, Hubby and I have an unwritten arrangement. I buy all the presents for other people and he wraps them.

The downside to this is I can’t feasibly ask him to wrap his own gifts so on Christmas Day, he gets a pile of sloppily wrapped presents with lopsided bows.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrap.