Only two days to go until the start of Advent…are you excited about Christmas yet? Well, actually…less so than small people.
That’s the trouble. Sooner or later you get a tricky Christmas, then you start to realise that this time of year can actually be quite hard work. And that’s before the exhausting pre-Christmas schedule laid on by many schools, after school activities, and so on.
Aiming to try and have more of a slow build, I thought we’d try something new. So we went to Light Night a.k.a. turning on the lights for the Christmas tree on the Mound, and the others in central Edinburgh. And you know what? I got some of my anticipation back.
Meeting up all together at the end of a sport activity. Telling the coach where we were heading to. Getting on a bus, seeing lots of other families on board and thinking…maybe they’re going to Light Night too!
Making the slow climb up Dundas Street by bus, passing lit shop windows, giant snowflakes in the art shop window. We are prepped with hats, scarves, gloves and (the current favourite) ear warmers (great for channelling your inner DJ).
The bus diverts onto George Street, allowing for a big ooh and ah over the lights that snake their way up the pillars of The Dome, a former bank turned bar and restaurant. We turn into St Andrews Square, and catch our first sight of the big wheel, the lights, the people already bustling around the Christmas market.
The bus diverts some more along Waverley Bridge, allowing us to get a full sweep view of the fun fair, and note (importantly) where they’ve put the helter skelter. (We missed that last year. Better not do so again.)
And then, up Market Street, where we pile out and find our best viewing point for the action.
It is at this point that grown-up anticipation pales a bit. One of us is carrying the entire family’s bags. The other is holding a small but increasingly heavy person on his shoulders.
We realise we are on the wrong side of the road for seeing some of the procession, as our view is blocked regularly by buses still coming up the Mound.
It would be a metaphor for something, were the bag carrying person not increasingly convinced that, in the cold, her fingers have both left her gloves and yet are still there And Are Very Sore With The Cold. Despite Thick Gloves.
Finally, the tree goes on. But then we get fireworks. Not expected. The crowd coos appreciatively. The person turning somersaults on a trapeze on the end of a crane is given a chance to remain the same way up for a while.
And as we make our way home, gradually, we see all the places where the lights are now on. I look at the big tree on the Mound – white lights only, very simple and yet speaking to a place inside me where Christmas used to be anticipated. Savoured.
We see some more of the lights on our way back to a bus stop. Fingers thankfully agree to be reunited with hands once on the bus.
And later, I go to the Christmas box, and get out the first of the decorations. In readiness. In anticipation.