Jennifer Carroll is a 21 year old actor and writer. She first began writing for the Uxbridge Cosmos in 2007 when she had the opportunity to share her experiences as a Canadian ambassador for an international conference for women in Dubai. At the beginning of 2008, she moved to Ireland to pursue a career in theatre and film. Far From Home is her monthly account on living and working in Dublin.
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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... finally
I do adore that matchless feeling of the oncoming of Christmas - not even of Christmas itself, but of those few gloriously anticipatory weeks wherein festivity begins to bubble under everyone's smile. The days tick past at a glacial pace, and children live and die in the wait for Santa to arrive.
As December curbs off the end of the year, trees twinkle to life, houses brighten and sparkle through the long, cold nights, and that unmistakable drift of immaculate white wonder begins to fall. Snow. Pure, downy, cleansing snow. As it falls against freezing temperatures, it coats the world in peace and holiday anticipation.
And so you must understand that Christmas sneaks up on a girl when all she has is lashings and lashings of rain. Here in Dublin, as December encroaches on November, autumn rain turns into colder, wetter, winter rain. While snow normally nudges me into the holiday season, I found myself just a few days ago looking up at a calendar, startled at how far into the festive season we are. I felt disoriented, confused, robbed of that magical time running up until Christmas eve, when at 24 years of age, I still rush to bed knowing I'll wake up to a beautiful morning.
I knew the remedy. While Dublin lay drenched before me, I started out against the wet winds toward the one place I knew would transport me: Grafton Street. I tucked my jacket collar higher under my ears to protect against the rainy night and positioned myself at the bottom of this magical street. As I took my place my eyes darted from my drenched feet to the lights hanging above me. Enormous chandeliers suspended high up in the middle of the street, supported by sweeping drapes of twinkling lights.
The chandeliers, over a dozen of them, dot their way up the entire street, lifting your eyes away from the dreary brick and into the night sky where stars play in an enchanting background of inky black night. The drapes of light are dramatic curtains balancing these enchanting fixtures, and they twinkle with the mischief of a thousand darting fairies.
I stood in delight beneath the festive installation and around me I began to notice Christmas in every nook: shoppers bustling between raindrops, buskers strumming against the wind, their voices full of carols, small children dragging their dampened parents to shop windows to gawk in childish wonder at the display before them. The air crackled with holiday spirit. As people passed, I noticed an irresistible smile tug at their lips, and I instinctively returned the gesture. I felt it warming through me like a hot cup of tea… the delicious feeling that Christmas is on its way.
And as I headed home, my head dizzy with the festivity, I could have sworn that the rain looked more like beautiful fluffy snow, just for a second.
