Why I don't care much for Christmas this year.

Thought that title would grab your attention!

It's December. Apparently. It's not very cold outside, just pissing it down, and I'm currently stuck in McDonalds where they're not playing any Christmas songs at all. Slade, Wizzard, Band Aid, even Justin Bieber has been forsaken by the French McDonalds playlist, instead preferring to play the entire back catalogue of Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas.

But this doesn't bother me for four reasons. 1) I quite like both those artists. 2) Even if I didn't, I have Spotify on my Mac. 3) It could be worse - could be French music. 4) I don't want to listen to Christmas music.

That's right. You read that correctly. You do not need to get tested for dyslexia (and if you are dyslexic, sorry it was just a joke. Dog bless you...) Christmas music actually makes me feel depressed. Now before you start calling me Scrooge, let me explain myself. 

It's not that I don't like Christmas, but I think it's SERIOUSLY overhyped - like, even more than the X Factor!

The cheesy songs, the present-buying, the shops being open late (not in France though. Nothing's ever open comme d'habitude), the lights on the houses, the Christmas parties.... it's all worn off on me! It's all people pretending to be happy and have fun, but the reality is quite different. The lights are consuming a shit load of electricity, and with energy costs shooting up, this is BAD. My parents used to blame the high electricity bills on me and my brothers for playing on our PlayStation 2 all the time, totally ignoring the fact that our house was so heavily adorned with lights that it became a beacon that could be seen from space. 

But personally, all Christmas is symbolising for me is the end of this semester at Rennes, and the end of three happy months, with some fantastic people, many of whom will not be returning after Christmas, many of whom I will not be seeing again. I thought I would be excited about going back to the UK for Christmas, but I was there last weekend and was horribly bored by it. 

Have I outgrown my own country? I mean outgrowing children's things like Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, cartoons, religion...fair enough! But this is the country that has defined me. I've lived there for 21 years! But I know that during the two weeks in Wales, I will be reciting stories of life in France to indifferent ears over a pint in a little pub. I am happier here, with people from all over the world, seizing the day the way I want to.

Wales has not really been home for me since 2009 - it is merely a (rainy) holiday location. It is a second home that I go to for the intervals between each university term. And now I'm on an Erasmus placement, and am really enjoying this journey of self-discovery (oops, sorry! I should have warned you to have a bucket ready because that was really cheesy!) I'm not ready for it to end just yet. I don't want to say goodbye to my friends. I'm nowhere near fluent in French. Living in a foreign country scares me - and I love it!

Yes, OF COURSE I miss my family - and they are the only good thing about Christmas for me this year. I miss my parents and their unconditional support and awesomeness, and I want to see how my younger brothers are doing, tell them how proud I am of them (shit, I'm welling up in McDonalds - sorry about this!!! Okay - time to cheer us up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9f-6jygRJk, ah that's better!). I also am looking forward to seeing my welsh friends. But I know this is not directly to do with Christmas. It's just the people. I can catch up with them at other points of the year. I don't need Christmas for this. However, I am looking forward to my mum's Christmas dinner! But that's about it.

I don't need Christmas presents. Material goods don't matter to me anymore. Okay I know I just got a Mac, but that's because I needed a reliable computer! It's experiences that make you happy, I think, and Erasmus is giving me plenty of those. I don't need Christmas parties: I'm at university DUUUUH! There's a party every week, and it's a lot cheaper!

So Christmas does not really mean anything to me this year except an opportunity to see my family and friends, but it is also a death toll for what may have been the happiest time of my life. I know next semester will not be as good, as so many people will not have returned, and the novelty of Rennes will definitely have worn off. I've seen it before with Warwick. The first semester there was incredible, the second was much less so, and after two years I'm totally disillusioned with the place.

Sorry for the slightly depressing post. You may still think I'm a miserable Scrooge. But I will tell you this: I saw a video today that truly touched me, and made me think more of Christmas than any song about snowmen bringing the snow, and it was posted in September!

Maybe it is the beautiful piece of music that sounds slightly Christmasy, but I'm sure it's more to do with the message of the video. Even with the fall of the eurozone and the imminent double dip recession leaving us all broke, we can still make others happy. This is (get your bucket ready again) the real 'spirit of Christmas' for me, and it has inspired me.

This Christmas, don't think of yourself: just think of how you can make others' lives that little bit better. Me? I will start by not moaning about how I will miss Europe: it's out of my system now. I will be there for my family and friends this Christmas, give them my love. Scrooge has met his three ghosts, in the form of this video. 

So I'll say bye for now. Just do me a favour and enjoy this video that some genius created earlier this year. It says way more about happiness than books or any of that stuff about the economics of happiness ever could.

Merry Christmas! I hope you still enjoy it. 

Rant over

Ollie