What am I talking about, you ask? Why, the last month of the year of
course! Yes, December 2015 officially begins today and brings with it so many
different things – love and laughter, music and
mirth, peers and parties, reunions and revelry, weddings and wardrobes afresh.
In short, December heralds all that is festive and fun. But for me, the twelfth
month of the year bears with it the three seasonal S’ – the
seasonal sights, sounds and smells, each of which I cherish and look forward to
as they are unique to the month and the season.
When it
comes to the sights, the first thing that comes to my mind is the joyous
spectacle of family and friends who come home for the festive season each year.
Now given the time and expenses involved in travelling to and fro, they neither
arrive together nor annually. Instead, they manage to take it in turns every alternate
year, thus ensuring that I don’t take
any visit for granted and that I make the most of the time I get with each
person coming in from various parts of the globe. Then there’s the
sight of all our visitors (no matter who they were or where they’d come
from) sitting in line with all of us and helping with the production of all the
festive sweets. And who could forget the sights and signs of Christmas? For the
record, this is my most favourite time of the year. It starts with one person
selling paper stars and lanterns on the side of the road and then, from there,
snowballs into every store setting up elaborate window displays and selling
varied, gorgeous décor. Somehow I always seem to
fall prey to these commercialised gimmicks every year, without fail. As a
matter of fact, it got to a point where I had bought so many decorations for
our Christmas tree one year that we ran out of space on the tree to accommodate
the adornments and so I had to go out and buy a bigger tree! But I’m not
complaining. It just means there’s more
beautiful stuff to look at! Or at least that’s the
logic I try to use on my folks to pacify their overspent nerves…
When
the logic doesn’t seem to work, I try the
soothing sounds of the season, starting with the tried and tested Christmas
carols – just one is enough to put anyone and
everyone in a good mood. The only time this doesn’t seem
to work however is when I start playing them a tad too early and put everyone
else off them by the time the 25th rolls around. That’s when
the other sounds come to my rescue – the
sounds of laughter, sing-song sessions and conversations late into the night,
what with all the visiting relatives. Accompany this with the sound of drinks
being topped up, the clinking of glasses, the recurrent scrape of cutlery
against crockery as decadent food is sampled and the shuffle of shoes on the
floor as people dance the night away and you’ve got
yourself what I call the seasonal symphony. Don’t,
however, step outside until it’s quite
late because this entire sonata will be juxtaposed by the cacophony of traffic,
blaring horns and the sounds of some loud, obnoxious individuals.
And
last but not the least, there are the smells and oh what heavenly smells they
be! The first one that triggers a truckload of memories for me is the smell of
fresh paint. Yeah, you read that right – fresh
paint. Even though the smell brings on a sore throat for me every single time,
I still associate it with smiley, happy thoughts – of
when we first moved into our home; every renovation that followed to better the
house wherein my bed would end up in the dining room, we’d be
eating our meals off small chairs amidst all the chaos and have to navigate our
way through piles of rubble, dust, dirt and displaced furniture (it was all
very exciting and adventurous); my sister’s
wedding, this very festive season and more… Then there are all the
mouthwatering, delicious aromas of all the festive treats prepared – from
sweets to savouries and everything in between! People seem to smell better too – it’s
almost as if they save their best perfumes for this season and splash out
without abandon!
Of
course, there’s a lot more to add to these
lists but whether a sight, a sound or a smell, they all go hand in glove to add
to the specialness of the season!
