I think we could say, without fear of being mistaken, that 2020 has been a long, gloomy year. But just as December approached, we witnessed what I consider a Christmas miracle: the find of the Pfizer Covid jab. And guys, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been dancing around the house ever since then.
Although Christmas will be strange this year, with the jab coming soon and the promise of an eventual return to normal life, they also look a bit sweeter. Still, the only social contact for those of us living in the UK will be our Christmas bubble.
Things are so different now that most of our usual festive traditions and habits seem to need a bit of a review, to say the least. We won’t be attending the annual corporative Christmas party, going out for festive drinks with our friends, nor hosting a twenty people Christmas dinner. We’ll be toning it down and, with that in mind, a question arises.
Should we dress up for Christmas this year?
In the middle of the whirlwind 2020 has been, this is for sure the last of our concerns.
However, as we approach the seasonal period and try to maintain as much normalcy as possible, it seems OK to ask ourselves to what extent is dressing up acceptable, adequate, or even relevant.
The answer seems to vary from person to person. Many people will be spending these holidays alone with their significant other, many with their closest relatives, and—sadly enough—many will spend them by themselves.
In our case, for instance, we were planning to go home (back in Spain) but with the existing quarantine protocols, it looks rather crazy to us booking a two week holiday just to spend it quarantined at our family’s place—and then repeating the whole process when back in the UK. Instead, we will stay, form a Christmas bubble with another household to celebrate, and then spend the whole thing speaking with our family via Skype. So, not the December we were expecting. (Or as The Rembrandts would put it: It hasn’t been our day, our week, our month, or even your year… No matter what, Friends philosophy always works over here, lately.)
Every year, I will dress up to the nines for our Christmas Eve flamboyant dinner party but, without an opportunity to travel or host fifteen people in our miraculously roomy London apartment, the idea started feeling vacuous.
Would my family/friends look weird at me during our festive Zoom meetups? Would my Christmas support bubble be judging me? Should I give up and wear the ugliest Christmas jumper and pyjama bottoms all holiday long? Would anyone care at all?
I think it’s fair to say that, for most of us, these questions have come to our minds lately. And the reply was nowhere to be seen.
I’ve been thinking quite enough about self-love during the pandemic and how the small things and routines seem to affect our well-being. Even the smallest choices, such as the clothes we wear, have been playing a huge role in our mental health. And this is when all I have learned during the last nine months come into play.
Because the truth is the only person who cares is YOU. People are far too concern about real issues (no need to comment on how evident these are because we all know someone who has been put on furlough, lost their jobs, or even lost a vulnerable relative during this nightmare) to spend a minute of their time judging your personal choices about something as superfluous as clothing. So my advice is simply this: go with your gut.
Dress up for yourself, to have some sense of normality this year, to feel good. Or don’t dress at all and drink all the prosecco in your ugliest Christmas jumper and pyjama trousers. Dress up (or not) to claim the festive season for yourself. Just because you do deserve it.
You may have no control over the economic consequences, the permanent changes this pandemic will leave on all of us, or how quickly things go back to normal. And yes, if you are a control freak (hello bdudy, it’s two of us now!) it must have been bugging you for a while. What you can control though is the way you react. Try to take it easy by taking small decisions: choose the things that make you feel good. Love to wear a sparkling gold dress? Go for it. Love some jeans? That’s good too. You do you. Own your life and don’t let anyone or anything to convince you otherwise. Don’t even listen to me, for the matter. Always go with your gut.
Because you know? At the end of the day, we all had the strangest year and anything making it better should be welcome.
What about you, though? Are you dressing to kill these Christmas or toning it down?
Coat | Zara (last season, great festive alternative at L.K. Bennett)
Bag | Metamorphose temps de fille (vintage, similar model at La Redoute)
Scarf and gloves | Accessorize (last season, they have another scarf model on sale now. Nice gloves alternative available at Dune.)
rogueandrouge.org 