It’s that time of the year again. Exam period! Yeah, that too, but I’m mostly referring to the festive season.

As a disclaimer, it’s not my favourite time of the year for several reasons that ranges from personal to apocalyptical ones. Anyhow, I was texting with a friend about the fact that I have to go to town to buy presents to bring to Italy (cookies mostly) and how our perception of this day ahead couldn’t me more different: for them, a delightful day; for me, a day in hell. And straight away my brain thought: here, another idea for a (rant) post over Xmas. And what best titles if not ones inspired by an (overused) Christmas story about the human nature and redemption? So, here I present you with the first post in a series of three, probably the most light-hearted.

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This is about the time when Christmas was still an enjoyable time for me and a few memories that stayed with me after all these years.

My grandmother coming back from the wood with a freshly cut tree from the woods – no worries, that was legal in the mountains back in the 80s.

My mom taking out the box of decorations that every year grew with one or two new decorations for the three and a new statue for the Nativity scene.

Going to bed at 9pm with the idea to pretend to sleep until midnight to catch Santa leaving the presents under the tree. Always failed.

A very tiny and logical me trying to figure out how he managed to get in since we didn’t have a fireplace.

A few years later the same me trying to figure out how my parents managed to trick me every year, a small part of me hoping to find a hint to prove he existed after all.

Going to the midnight mass when I was a bit older – until one time the priest remembered the dead.

Happy to find La Befana filled my stocking with candies and not coal. Or sugar coal to which with all my teeth intact.

Being Santa for my little brother a few years later.

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Then things change when you grow up. But that’s a story for the Ghosts of Xmas Present and Future. For now, so long and thanks for all the mince pie!