The festive season.

 The festive season.

Depending on your faith, religious point of view or simply your inclination and interest, Christmas normally means everything to you or simply an excuse to embrace commercialism, the whole concept of Christmas and all of its ritualistic trappings. For, if truth be told, we do the same thing every year at the end of the calendar year, looking forward to Christmas with enormous anticipation because the kids love it, the family can't get enough of it and those supermarkets are just consumed with its festive delights. 

For those who don't follow the historical references and the frantic paraphernalia that surrounds Christmas, the next couple of weeks could be very disconcerting and unnerving. Some of us began to dread the bombardment of Christmas related TV advertising campaigns because we all knew what to expect. It was the traditional reminder of the great family feast on Christmas Day, the endless merriment and mirth while mum and dad scurried around the home tidying up the carnage their kids had left behind them on Christmas Eve. 

It all felt so hurried and urgent, chaotic and disorganised at times. You'd prepared for the big day and yet however much you thought you'd done everything to plan for this time of the year, it was never enough. The great planning operation had been both thorough and meticulous but for what? It was, after all, a couple of days of riotous revelry, eating and drinking almost incessantly, being jolly and jovial to the whole world because Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day and we all needed something light hearted, fun and frivolous to make us feel good. 

But then you realised - as if we hadn't become patently aware of what this festival is all about- that this entire emotional engagement in the last dying embers of December may not be all that it's cracked up to be. In the days and weeks leading up to Christmas Day, most of us rush around our local supermarkets stocking up on vast quantities of turkeys, hundreds of bags of potatoes, brussel sprouts, massive tins of chocolates, biscuits in wondrous flavours and varieties, mince pies, party hats, the essential trees and everything we thought we'd forgotten. 

This time of the year, of course. is a time for nostalgia, looking back wistfully and fondly on Christmases from long ago and moving reminiscence. Some of us simply can't help but cast our minds back to our childhood and schooldays, the first and formative years of our lives. Although you were proudly Jewish, your school wasn't Jewish and therefore you had to obey the letter of the law and simply conform to the stereotypes. 

Ironically, school assemblies crossed all religious spectrums but the sight of that ancient, yellowing parchment sheet with hymns written across it, jogs some amusing memories. You can still remember standing respectfully and dutifully at the said document on the wall and gazing up at Good King Wenceslas and I Saw Three Ships Go Sailing By on Christmas Day in the Morning. You felt a mixture of wonderment, confusion and stunned amazement. You knew you were Jewish and there was something called the Jewish room but the options were always open. But, at the time, this was a major revelation. 

Then, weeks before the tinsel and glitter event of the year, your teachers would give you chapter and verse on the importance of Christmas, the essence of this memorable family gathering and what we were supposed to be doing. So here were our taxing assignments. All academic lessons would be ceased forthwith and every day would stick to the consistent and classical patterns we would all grow accustomed to. Just get cracking on those decorations and don't stop until we tell you to. 

Now in our school, most of the daily lessons would be conducted in very functional huts outside in the playground. We were now expected to carry out what must have seemed the most military of operations. At roughly this time, several teachers would bark out informative details on that subject. Right, you know what to do class so here's the itinerary so look bright and lively. 

Before we knew it,  six -year- olds, with little knowledge of what exactly was going around them, would be presented with copious pots of glue, colourful crepe paper, safe scissors and staple guns and yet more equipment that would hasten along the process. Then we would go across to our table, giggling mischievously and questioning the necessity for this ridiculous activity. 

Now the fun would promptly begin. Most of us would start cutting up the aforesaid crepe paper, elegantly designing orange lanterns with curls, then silver baubles and bell shaped creations that would all fit nicely into place on the ornate Christmas tree. Within seconds, all of the kids were standing on the table, tying ourselves into ever-increasing knots, desperately trying to hang up these festive adornments, bending and twisting our bodies in all manner of awkward angles. 

Finally, much to the relief of us, the lanterns would be firmly attached to the ceiling and walls so painstakingly that none of us knew the size of our achievements. We just seemed to celebrate the completion of the jobs required of us and downed tools. Then we would proceed to the main hall where a forest of yet more tinsel, glitter, fairies and multi coloured strips of paper would be spread out across the wide expanse of PE pommel horses, climbing frames and an old piano once used by Mrs Mills. 

Lest we forget, there would be the exciting end of term Christmas party. This would be the yearly treat to all these hard working, conscientious pupils still wrestling with the alphabet and the multiplication table. All of the kids were encouraged en masse to bring in our toys and games and that really was something to be looked forward to. You can still recall lugging into our classrooms, groaning packets of crisps, biscuits, sweets and cakes with potentially damaging consequences to our young waistlines. 

So folks it's almost Christmas time. You've no need to panic yet because the supermarkets and shops are bound to be open until roughly midnight and that may be no exaggeration. Retail department stores and shopping malls will reach bursting point at some stage and people wearing red Santa huts and cosy pullovers with reindeers and sleds will be bobbing in and out of Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Selfridges and those vast emporiums containing presents for our respective families. 

And of course we'll all be subjected to that marvellously therapeutic and rousing sound of festive choirs singing Christmas carols accompanied by those powerful trombones and trumpets. Once again, Regent and Oxford Street will be a blaze of colour, incorporating all of those quaint traditions such as the glittering lights flashing triumphantly across the West End of London.The kids will nag mum and dad silly to get into Hamley's toy shop as soon as possible and Santa Claus will be poised to tumble down chimneys yet again. Ah yes, we can all sense Christmas in our bones. But this year the first day of Chanukah coincides with the first day of Christmas Day so doughnuts by the ready everybody. We're all set.