Thursday,
December 27, 2007
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Thursday,
December 27, 2007 |
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Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery |
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Due
South Flower deliveries make this an enjoyable Christmas (Editor’s Note: This was emailed from Scotland on Dec. 21.) Well folks - just four days to go before the big one! I hope you’ve all got all of your Christmas shopping done and there’ll be no last-minute panic buying necessary when you realise you’ve left Great Aunt Mathilda off the present list! My wife and I decided to try and get all of our shopping done last weekend and to try to do it locally. We actually managed, finding plenty of great gift ideas in the small local shops in our home town of Kelso. Last year we travelled up to Edinburgh, staying overnight in a hotel and doing all our shopping in Scotland’s historic capital. That was great fun, but this year we opted to stay at home, although originally more from circumstances than choice. With Ally now having taken over the flower shop with her business partner, they are entering the busiest time of a florist’s year and there’s not much down time to go swanning off to the big city. This week alone they will produce 500 hollywreaths for doors and cemeteries. Not sure if you have followed that tradition in the USA? Here people hang wreaths of holly and evergreen foliage, usually decorated with cinnamon sticks and red berries on their front doors. More simple and plain holly wreaths are also often left on the graves of loved ones in our cemeteries. There will also be a huge number of bouquets and floral arrangements produced by the staff in their small shop while myself and the other husbands/partners/boyfriends will get roped into acting as emergency unpaid relief delivery drivers! In fact, over the last couple of weekends I have been called in to do a few deliveries as the new van was not ready yet. However, I have to say there has been something nice about knocking on someone’s door and seeing the look on their face when they see a massive bouquet of beautiful flowers. That’s especially true when it is someone a bit more elderly, who perhaps lives on their own. And I am looking forward to it this weekend, because there will be a real Christmasy feel to the whole thing. I don’t know what it’s like in the United States, but over here Christmas is very commercialised with retailers and manufacturers assaulting you with their adverts from as early as the end of November. It is easy to lose sight of the Christmas message and what it’s really all about. Of course, it’s partly about celebrating with your family, tucking in to a big meal and giving each other gifts. But there’s also the message of extending good wishes and happiness to your fellow man. Being able to do something for a complete stranger always seems to carry an extra special significance at Christmas time. Everyone loves to feel that warmth like the kind depicted in Frank Capra’s Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart. So it might just be that a few flower deliveries will make this one of the most enjoyable Christmases for a while. |
        
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