Chapter 6: Christmas approaches...

In Switzerland, Christmas lights go up pretty much as soon as one can officially say summer is over. By mid-October, seeing as most places don’t show any sign of Halloween, you will have lights already up. That. Is. Depressing. You still have the occasional warm day, the need for coats is still not there, and by five in the afternoon there’s still some light, but places such as supermarkets already sell chocolate Santa Clauses and reindeer plastered napkins and plates. Gah.

Then, as the days progress, towards the middle of November you see them turning up more and more. Shops begin to have streamers in their windows, and the glow of the lights begins to be more comforting as night approaches you already at six, whereas in summer it’s more like at nine. But still, in the middle of November, the thought of Christmas break is pretty far away. Something like 5 weeks separate you from it, and you don’t even want to think of all the homework that will need to be done up to that point…Christmas trees begin to turn up on ever street corner, but no one stops to look at them in admiration. People simply wonder why they’re there already. The streets all have lights, criss-crossing from one house across to the next... yes it's pretty, but...

But THEN comes December, and suddenly cities and towns and houses and gardens and trees and bushes and fences and lamp-posts explode with glitter and silver and gold and lights, lights, lights, lights, and even more LIGHTS. That’s when I love them most. When there’s so many lights it could seem day when around you it’s so dark – when at the train station all the trees you didn’t even know existed are covered in lights, and soooo many Christmas trees. One on ever corner, sitting on window sills, in doorways and next to statues; big ones, small ones, medium ones – all covered in lights. It makes you happy, even if you hated these lights just a few days before.

There’s this man who lives alone in a house with a garden overlooking the tramlines where I live, and on the first weekend of the advent, as night falls his house seems to light on fire. There is not a single part of the house or the grass in the garden not covered by some tacky ornament or other – all covered in lights of course! As tacky as they are, if this guy stops decorating his house in the years to come, I will knock on his door and order him to do so.

http://www.livingathome.de/essen_geniessen/specials/weihnachten/weihnachtsmaerkte/info2.html
BASEL's "middle-bridge"

Sales women and men wear Christmas hats, you see parades of Santa Clauses on motorbikes or on horse carriages, Christmas presents to be bought, and… Nice. Warm. Food. In a matter of weeks, you go from hating the lights to wanting them to stay forever. It’s Christmas spirit alright.

-MARTINA