Sinead O’Connor

The Other Side of Christmas

I've been Christmas af for as long as I can remember. I loved everything about it. Obviously as a child, the thrill of knowing you have new toys and gifts waiting for you is your main point of focus but as I got older, and my presents became more scarce, I started to fall in love with the feeling of Christmas and not the expense of it. I truly adored the tradition. Every year, without fail, the last minute stress of getting those forgotten gifts, the Christmas Eve "you can open just one", the never being ready to leave for my Nanny's house on time, my Nanny being a level ninety-nine on the stress scale but forever refusing help. The one day a year that everyone just shuts up. The one day that the scattered pieces of family fit together.