Bah Humbug - Part 16

Hope you're still enjoying this series.

Day 16 - Time and anticlimax

A weird thing happens. I think it starts at puberty but it could develop later on in life. I'm not talking about facial hair here.



So when you're little, Christmas day feels like it goes on for a week. But somewhere in your lifetime something happens and Christmas day ends up feeling like 5 minutes long. Yet, in reality, the day is only 24 hours long. It's really weird. Am I the only one that's noticed this?

I suppose the old adage, "Time flies when you're having fun" applies here, but trust me, I don't always have fun at Christmas and it still feels like five minutes. Maybe it's the prechristmas build up. The weeks upon weeks upon weeks of "Buy this before we sell out" and "Get your Christmas stuff here" and "ZOMGOMG AM SO EXCITEDZ0RZ @ XMIZ!" that add to the whole "Is it bed time yet? What do you mean it's only 10am!" thing. Maybe it's the opposite, I don't know.

I do know that Christmas always feels like a "Is that it?!" kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? Maybe you don't. Maybe you do. Either way, I'll give a comparison. You know them big scary rides at theme parks? The ones where the queue snakes round the park? The ones where you can expect to queue up for an hour before you even get to see the turnstile? By the time you've got to the last safety gate you're like "ZOMG!" and you're so excited you feel like if you pee you might piss out a kidney. Then you get on the ride and just as you're opening your mouth to go "Yaayyy" it's over and you're like "Was that it?" It can be such a come down.

I suppose it might be because in some places I've worked I've had the whole work right up to the last minute of Christmas eve then come in again first thing Boxing day. I've even worked in places where coming in on a Christmas day went on a rotational basis. But working at the Universities and in the Civil service where you get a nice free 2 week holiday didn't make the feeling of Christmas anticlimax go away. Those two weeks just felt like a week.

Even one year, 2003 I think, I managed to manipulate my annual leave to allow me a whole month off work because of the way bank holidays fell that year. Even then, it only felt like I'd had five minutes out. I suppose relativity has something to do with it and no doubt the whole "fun" thing too.

But yeah....time at Christmas...where does it go?