Too much of a good thing

SO you’re probably back to work today and doubtless a colleague or two will pose the perennial Irish question: so how did you get over the Christmas?

Notice the phrasing. Not ‘did you enjoy Christmas’ or ‘how was your Christmas’, but ‘how did you get over’: as if Christmas itself is an endurance test and now that the fake drunken bonhomie and disappointed present-giving is over, we can finally admit it.

For a festival which is uniform in so many ways, people have an astounding array of opinions about which bit they like. Some like the build-up, but not the day. Or vice versa. Or that quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Some will have loved ringing in 2013. Others will have ignored it.