Last year in December I was on one of the Cape Verde Islands for advising a hotel group over there. With about 30 degrees, white beaches and a clear blue sea, it was good to go on Boa Vista. What a name for a tropical island! Also there on Boa Vista it was Christmas in December. A strange idea, surrounded by colourful and shimmering Christmas trees and inflatable Santa’s, while around me any suggestion of Christmas is missing, while I had to protect myself with sun block 50.

Everything sounds different

What is Christmas? Christmas means that it is cold outside and that there is snow. The cold makes you desire for the warm comfort of home. The snow makes the world around you smaller. A thick layer of snow makes that everything sounds different and gives us another look on things. Lampposts covered with snow are giving another light effect and the music around you fits with the total atmosphere. “I’m dreaming of a …..”

In that case we smuggle just a third or fourth Christmas day, so that the dinner fits to everyone’s busy agenda.

Festive ritual

With Christmas, we also have a Christmas tree. Taken away somewhere from a forest, it suddenly stands with his trunk on a wooden cross or an other kind of structure in your living room. But before he spreads its branches at your home, at first we have the buying protocol of the tree. What will it be this year? A fir or a serious Nordman? A small or a big one? A wide or a narrow one? Once at home the decorating of the tree begins. Most of the time the Christmas decorations are stored in a safe place. Boxes with a compartmentalization have a variety of balls. Not to forget the Christmas assignments witch the children had made at school. As a true curator of a museum of ancient arts you take these treasures in your hand and let them gently land on one of the branches of the tree. Tip: lights go before the balls and garlands, otherwise it becomes a mess. And so we decorate our house in Christmas spheres.

Smuggling Christmas days

We are not aloud to miss anyone at the Christmas dinner table. In that case we smuggle just a third or fourth Christmas day, so that the dinner fits to everyone’s busy agenda. At the table we share everything with extra attention and an eye for good quality. Great food, nice wines. Who is making what dish? Or are we going to have dinner in a restaurant? In the meanwhile it is snowing outside and it’s cold.

Driving home

But there is a big chance that there will be no white Christmas this year. The temperature is around zero degrees. The sun shows itself regularly. So we have to make our own white Christmas and build an atmosphere of warmth and togetherness ourselves. Are we able to give attention with and for one another while there is no winter wonderland around us? So, when you are in a traffic jam on your way home, you will look an fellow driver in the eye with an understanding and gentle smile, because both of you are “driving home for Christmas …”

On behalve of the Mind Your Guest team we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

With warm regards,
Robert Bosma

This post is also available in: Nederlands