Bairbre Power

I’m all consumed by the festive ‘C word’ in July and just so you know, mince pies taste just as good in the middle of a heatwave

Oh Santa, how can I wait for December now that I’ve jumped on the festive time machine and fast forwarded to Christmas five months early? Every summer, when everyone else is packing bikinis and sunblock and heading for picnics at the beach, my job as editor of the Indo’s Christmas magazine gives me an excuse to start exploring the upcoming festive season several months earlier than most.

It’s a labour of love. I enjoy looking at trends and checking out new products, so I’m a willing victim of Christmas-come-early because I enjoy all that goes with the holidays, and you’d be amazed how many Christmas enthusiasts there are out there who thrive on planning their Yuletide season months ahead.

In fact, there are far more enthusiasts than there are curmudgeonly souls who hate Christmas and admonish me for even bringing up the word around now each year.

It’s not that I want to introduce commercial pressures on people before the back-to-school uniforms and books have even been bought, but with a glossy magazine to plan for in November, I like to get organised and start smelling the cinnamon-infused potpourri, so to speak, in summer.

So how do you recreate Christmas when the sun is splitting the stones? Well, normally I get in the mood by playing a little Michael Bublé. I downloaded his music on my phone and when I plug it in to recharge it in the car, the Christmas music has a habit of coming on.

God bless him, the Canadian crooner has deliciously chocolatey tones but I can’t tell you how many people I’ve given a fright by playing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ from an open-top car in June.

But it’s now July and I’m well into my stride planning Mistletoe 2018. Last week it all shifted from catalogues, magazines and lists to turkey reality when I travelled to London to inspect what Aldi are planning for the holidays by checking out gifting and decoration ideas, fragrance stories, plus sampling festive treats including a chocolate igloo with a whole village inside.

Next morning, we stepped into a winter wonderland and the grandmother in me enjoyed checking out the gifting, especially the very cute miniature dressing table and stool in princess purple. Then I checked myself: times have changed and instead of playing house or playing dress-up, maybe I should be looking at less stereotypical toys?

They always say that parents go for the aesthetically pleasing wooden toys, whereas the kids actually prefer the brightly coloured plastic ones. Or then again, maybe grandparents are buying toys they wished they’d got as youngsters or had the money to buy for their kids.

Last year I followed her parents’ suggestion and bought my granddaughter a big trailer to go with her favourite car. Now that she is walking at speed, I suspect we can have lots more fun together, and when I saw a pop-up teepee in Rathmines last Sunday night, I decided to go back and buy it for her visit this weekend when, hopefully, the two of us can hibernate with a book or two and some homemade bubbles because it won’t be all dolls and tea-sets.

However, I just know she will probably rush past any of the toys I’ve lined up and want to get her hands on our Yorkshire Terrier.

Poor Romy. She is a gentle pooch, very considerate and loving. In fact, the way she rushes up to strangers on the street to say ‘hello’ almost suggests she gets no love at home, which is not the case, I can assure you. However, Yorkies get a little anxious when they see small feet and tiny outstretched hands reaching for them.

Romy’s predecessor, Penny Power, used to take off upstairs at speed whenever she saw kids coming and only came out from under the bed when they had left.

I watched with some trepidation recently as my granddaughter tried to get up close and personal with Romy and lavish kisses on her. I shouldn’t have been nervous. Once they got ‘the measure’ of each other, dog and grandchild happily began playing football together, with Romy good-humouredly fetching the small ball, waiting at a distance for my granddaughter to mimic Ronaldo and kick it and then bring it back to her again.

There was a nice sharing vibe going on and I do hope my two favourite smallies can knock out a happy relationship and neither get territorial because, otherwise, it’s going to be awkward. After the football game, I sat in the back garden on my new deck chair and tried to blank out my annoyance at how fast the weeds are growing by getting stuck into the Bill Clinton/ James Patterson novel, The President is Missing.

I heard their interview on

The Ryan Tubridy Show but so far, I haven’t managed to get stuck into it because of all this sunshine. I’m either squinting in the deck chair or trying to take walks to get me through these ridiculously hot nights.

In fact, the high temperatures put me off buying last minute tickets to go and see Michael Bublé at Croker last Saturday. I decided in the end that he probably wouldn’t sing my favourite Christmas songs so instead, I’m off to see Paul Simon tomorrow night.

Just like the Christmas time machine that brought me into the future in London last week, I’m looking forward to going back in time with Simon. I have crystal clear memories of a childhood in Rialto listening to Simon & Garfunkel. And then there was Simon’s Graceland album which provided a joyous soundtrack to emotional times doing up our first home. Sitting in our teepee this weekend, I think I’ll play some of my favourite music to my granddaughter and watch what happens. Osmosis clearly worked with her dad and if I say so myself, he has pretty good taste in music. As for Christmas 2018, I’m already hatching plans in my sunny deckchair. And this year, the Christmas cards WILL be posted... in November.