Jo Evans – Senior Design Manager at Spreckley
Well, here we go again!! It’s Christmas, the time of year when you’re desperately trying to work out when exactly you’re going to do the last minute Christmas shopping. Not to mention sending out all your cards… don’t forget the long lost Aunt, in goodness-knows-where-land – the one you met once when you were about two years old. Oh, and the marathon supermarket shop for the food mountain that you’ll be consuming over the holiday.
Funny enough, I really love Christmas – especially the wonderfully tacky decor that is essential to the enjoyment of this festive time. The tinsel, the bright clashing hues, flashing fairy lights, dented baubles of many colours, plastic ornaments (ones you’ve had forever and just can’t bear to part with) that leave a trail of glitter, and random foliage plucked from the garden; in fact, give me all of the above in abundance and in no particular order whatsoever and I’m as happy as a Christmas elf. Feng Shui goes out of the window as you cunningly decide to erect the over-sized Christmas tree (it looked smaller in the shop didn’t it?) in the most awkward place in the house; knocking decorations off every time you go past.
But we aren’t happy only filling our homes with decorations, we’re covering the outsides as well. This has to be the only time of year that it’s ok to run up an enormous electricity bill by draping your house in nodding reindeers and light-up, grinning, inflatable Santas. I’m sure there’s a house like that in your road – and if you’re not sure which one it is, then it’s probably yours! It’s become quite competitive among neighbours however, who, for the rest of the year are quite sociable to each other, but suddenly become rivals in the art of fairy light hanging and fake snow embellishment.
People travel for miles just to see entire ‘light fantastic’ streets where all the road’s inhabitants try to outdo each other. It’s as if everyone unleashes their ostentatious demons for two weeks of the year. Being a graphic designer from the school of ‘less is more’ it’s certainly nice to have that particular freedom to throw tinsel to the wind and see where it lands! More is most definitely more!!
However, you get the occasional person who likes to keep it all very tasteful and civilised! They shall remain nameless (you know who you are). All I can say to them is… let loose your festive frippery!