The Beautiful Art of Anticipation at Christmas

Finding joy in the waiting, preparing and looking forward to Christmas

The Lovely Feeling of Something to Come

There’s a particular kind of excitement that arrives at this time of year. It begins quietly, long before the Christmas decorations come down from the attic or the first batch of mince pies goes into the oven. Perhaps it’s hearing a familiar Christmas song unexpectedly, seeing the first twinkling lights in a neighbour’s window, or coming across a recipe you’ve made every December for as long as you can remember. Or simply noticing that Christmas is beginning to appear in conversations around the kitchen table.

What are we doing this year? Will we make that cake again? When are we putting up the tree? Little questions, ordinary enough, but filled with the pleasure of something still to come.

I think anticipation is one of the most underrated pleasures in life. We spend so much time looking forward to occasions, holidays and celebrations, yet we’re often encouraged to hurry through the days leading up to them. To get organised, finish the shopping and tick everything off the list, as though the preparation is simply something to get through before the real enjoyment can begin.

But lately, I’ve been thinking that perhaps the waiting is part of the magic. And nowhere does that feel quite as true as Christmas.

When Christmas Was Still a Long Way Away

Do you remember how long the weeks before Christmas seemed when you were a child? December felt enormous, with the days stretching endlessly between opening the first door of the Advent calendar and finally reaching Christmas Eve. Every little sign that Christmas was approaching seemed important: the decorations appearing in shop windows, the familiar songs on the radio, the smell of baking, the excitement of school finishing for the holidays and, of course, the almost unbearable anticipation of Christmas morning.

I remember that feeling far more clearly than I remember many of the presents themselves. The excitement wasn’t contained in one day. It lived in all the days leading up to it.

Then, when we become parents, we often find ourselves experiencing that anticipation from the other side. We’re the ones organising the surprises, remembering the traditions, making the lists and quietly arranging the little things that help Christmas feel special. For years, so much of my own enjoyment came from watching the children’s excitement grow through the Advent calendars, Christmas films, conversations about Santa and familiar traditions that seemed to become more precious with every passing year.

There was something wonderful about being part of that. But, of course, children grow, and Christmas changes with them.

When the Magic Changes Shape

I think one of the interesting things about family traditions is that we sometimes expect them to remain exactly as they were. We remember a particular Christmas when the children were small, when everyone was excited about the same things and the whole house seemed to buzz with anticipation. It’s tempting to want to recreate it, with the same activities, decorations and traditions performed in exactly the same way.

But family life doesn’t stand still. Our children develop their own interests, their own plans and their own ideas about what makes Christmas special. The things that once caused enormous excitement might barely raise an eyebrow now, and occasionally a tradition we lovingly planned becomes something everyone is perfectly happy to skip!

I think learning to accept that is part of the beauty of watching a family grow. Christmas doesn’t lose its magic simply because it looks different. Sometimes the magic is in an unexpected conversation over dinner, a teenager suggesting a Christmas film you haven’t watched together in years, someone asking whether you’re making their favourite festive treat, or discovering that a small tradition you thought everyone had forgotten still matters to them after all.

I love those moments because they remind me that traditions aren’t meant to preserve our families in one particular moment in time. They’re meant to grow alongside us. And perhaps anticipation changes too, becoming less about counting down the sleeps and more about looking forward to being together.

The Pleasure of Preparing

There’s a lovely kind of satisfaction in preparing for something we’re looking forward to. I don’t mean the frantic, last-minute sort of preparation, when we’re searching for missing wrapping paper or wondering how we’ve managed to leave everything until the final week. I mean the quieter kind: taking out a favourite Christmas recipe, writing a few cards, making a list of the meals we’d love to enjoy over the holidays, thinking about where the tree might go this year or bringing down a box of decorations and finding something familiar tucked away inside.

These little jobs can be enjoyable in their own right. Not because every moment of Christmas preparation is magical — goodness knows it isn’t! There are queues, expenses, forgotten ingredients, tangled lights and plenty of ordinary household work mixed in with the lovely bits. But sometimes, when we have a little space to enjoy them, the preparations become part of the celebration.

I love the way our home gradually changes as Christmas approaches. A decoration appears on the dresser, a familiar plate comes out of the cupboard, the mantel begins to take on its festive look and eventually the tree goes up, bringing with it all those memories that seem to live among the decorations. I don’t necessarily want to do everything in one afternoon. There’s something rather lovely about allowing Christmas to arrive gradually, enjoying each small change instead of rushing towards the finished result.

The Space Between Now and Christmas

We live in a world that isn’t particularly fond of waiting. We can order something today and expect it tomorrow, watch an entire television series in one weekend and find an answer to almost any question in seconds. While I appreciate those conveniences as much as anyone, I sometimes wonder whether we’ve become a little uncomfortable with the space between wanting something and having it.

Christmas offers an interesting contrast. No matter how early the decorations appear in the shops or how quickly the festive advertisements begin, Christmas Day still arrives on 25 December. We can’t bring it forward, and perhaps that’s a good thing, because anticipation gives us time to imagine, remember, plan and look forward. It allows excitement to build and gives us opportunities to enjoy the season in little pieces, rather than expecting one day to contain all the happiness.

A walk through a town with its Christmas lights switched on, an evening wrapping presents while a familiar film plays in the background, a favourite recipe made for the first time that year or the first Christmas card arriving through the letterbox — none of these things needs to be spectacular. But together, they become the atmosphere of Christmas, the part we sometimes forget to appreciate while we’re busy getting ready for the main event.

Leaving Room for Real Life

Of course, anticipation isn’t always uncomplicated. Christmas can bring mixed feelings. There may be people we’re missing, traditions that have changed, financial worries or circumstances that make the season more difficult than we’d hoped. And even in the happiest of households, December can be tiring. I don’t think we need to pretend otherwise, nor do I think we have to feel excited about every aspect of Christmas simply because the calendar tells us we should.

Some years we have the energy for elaborate preparations. Other years, the familiar little comforts are enough: a favourite meal, a few decorations, a quiet evening together or a phone call with someone we love. Anticipation doesn’t have to mean building enormous expectations. In fact, perhaps it works best when we leave a little room for life to happen, looking forward to the possibilities without demanding that everything unfolds exactly as imagined.

Because the Christmas we remember fondly isn’t always the one that went perfectly to plan. Sometimes it’s the one where something unexpected happened, everyone laughed and a new family story was born.

Enjoying the Days Before the Day

This year, I’ve been thinking about how easily we can find ourselves wishing time away. Waiting for the weekend, waiting for the holidays, waiting until everything is finished and we can finally relax. And then, when the occasion we’ve been waiting for arrives, we’re surprised by how quickly it passes.

Christmas is no different. We spend weeks preparing for it, and suddenly it’s Christmas Eve, then Christmas morning, and then the wrapping paper is cleared away, the dinner is finished and another Christmas becomes a collection of memories. I don’t find that sad, exactly, but it does remind me how much of life happens in the waiting: the conversations, the plans, the small moments of excitement and the ordinary days when something lovely is just around the corner.

Perhaps we don’t need to hurry through them quite so quickly. Perhaps there’s pleasure in allowing ourselves to look forward to something without constantly thinking about what still needs to be done. To notice the first signs of Christmas, enjoy a favourite tradition when it comes around, let the excitement build in its own time and remember that the weeks leading up to Christmas aren’t simply a countdown.

They’re part of Christmas too.

A Little Christmas Magic, Before Christmas

I think that’s what I love most about anticipation. It reminds us that happiness doesn’t always have to wait until we arrive somewhere. Sometimes it’s found in knowing that something lovely is coming, in making plans, remembering past celebrations, wondering what this year might bring and recognising that even when our families, homes and traditions change, there’s still room for excitement and wonder.

Perhaps a different kind of wonder from the one we knew as children. A little quieter, a little less certain, but no less meaningful.

So as Christmas approaches, I hope we can enjoy some of the waiting. Not every minute, and certainly not every job on the list, but the lovely little moments scattered throughout the weeks ahead: the familiar music, the first decorations, the favourite recipes, the conversations about what we’ll do this year and the anticipation of time spent together.

Because Christmas isn’t only the day we’re waiting for.

It’s also the beautiful, ordinary days that bring us there.

Chat soon,

Ciara x

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