Walking home in the dark is a fantastic experience at Christmas time. The reason being, you get to see people’s Christmas lights in all their illuminating-the-gloom glory. I actually finish my job at 2pm but I just wait around in the lobby until darkness falls so I can see all those lovely lights. To be honest, I should probably tell the secretary that’s why I’m sitting there silently for so long, because I’ve heard rumours she’s getting creeped out and may resign.
I see so many homes adorned with twinkling lights as I make my way home. It’s such a joyous sight, that it really puts a spring in my step and I usually arrive home on a wave of festive cheer. But tonight a warm glow coming from within one home caught my eye and I just couldn’t resist stopping to take a peek. So I pressed my face against the glass and gazed inside. The parents and children seemed so happy wearing their woolly sweaters and laughing by the fireplace, they even had the pets involved by putting tinsel on the dogs and little reindeer antlers on the cat. In fact, so charming was the scene that it was a real shame when the glass gave way and I fell into their sitting room bringing a lot of their decorations down with me. Unfortunately the festive cheer must have deserted this particular family because the father chased me out of the house with a poker while the children shouted obscenities through the empty window pane.
I actually went back later with a peace offering gift of a Christmas Pudding covered in Brandy butter, I even set the pudding alight for the full experience, but they wouldn’t open the door so I pushed it through the letterbox for fear of wasting it.
Have you noticed how lovely the lights of fire engines look in the dark? Makes me feel all Christmasy again.
