"Fat to Fittie"

The festive season doesn’t bring joy for everyone, it can be a real tester for mental health especially for people who live on their own. As far as the elderly’s concerned, this can be quite sad, but that’s only if they really miss company on Christmas day, I know for a fact there are some who actually enjoy the misery of spending the day by themself, watching telly, with the warmed up remnants of a Christmas dinner that was dropped off a day before. God help if you feel the urge to pop round to check on them, “I was just going to have a nap, you should have called first”, is the usual response. The chances are you’ll also disturb a programme they’ve been watching, which is usually on ITV 2 and can be anything from an episode of Coronation Street first broadcast 15 years ago, Heartbeat or a re-run of Midsummer murders, that they’ve already watched at least twice. If you do hang around long enough for the programme to end, there’s a good chance you’ll be offered a port and lemon or a Bailey’s, but it’s best to take the hint that there’s something else coming on TV they want to watch and you need to sod off.

Personally this year, I’m actually one of those people and genuinely want to spend the big day on my own, I did have a couple of invites but declined, I’m quite looking forward to lounging on the sofa, eating pork pie, watching crap on the telly and scratching my balls, not necessarily in that order, but if I scratch first, then I’ll wash my hands before eating the pie. In the past I’ve done all the stress and thoroughly enjoyed every minute, it’s not that I’ve gone all anti Xmas, I just fancied a year of not doing anything that involved pleasing others and want to chill on my own, you never know what the next years gonna bring and I might not get chance to do it again, who knows, maybe there might be someone who wants to scratch for me. Despite having many Christmas traditions, I try every year to do it a bit different, this is usually a good idea, so you’re not massively disappointed when things don’t go as expected, there’s nothing worse when it goes tits up and you have no plan B.

I do get though that for some, it’s a very lonely time and not something to make light of, if you feel that you know someone who may benefit from company or an invite, make the call. Of course many people who live on their own get themselves a pet for company, this can seem like a good idea, but think about it before committing. Yes they can give pleasure and something to do in looking after them, but consider the possibility that should you have a fatal heart attack over the festive period, no ones coming round for a few days. You could lay undiscovered for ages, during which time your soon to be hungry cat is going to start munching on your face, just something to bear in mind, Merry Christmas.