I must add that I've gone from being an early bird with my decorations to not having any up at all since we've been in the Middle East. There was a little flurry while we were in Syria because there are quite a lot of Christians there and I did make the effort one Christmas in Qatar but, generally, Christmas is very low-key here and I can't say it bothers me at all. That's probably down to not having family nearby to celebrate with and make the effort for. Christmas Day is just like a normal working day, so it's very hard to work up any Christmas spirit. We have a Christmas buffet lunch in a local hotel and a walk on the beach and that's Christmas done for us.
It's good, at our age, not to have the stress and fuss of all the preparations, but I'll bet I'll be dragging everything out again once we get to NZ.
