It is barely December, but you can bet that each and every remotely important city of the world has already adorned its streets and avenues with Christmas lights. You there in New York, or in London, or even in Paris, are you starting to feel the long and painful countdown to winter festivities, even if mince pies and turkey are not yet on the calendar and you still have to plough through that dreary beginning of December? Looking for an immediate uplift? Gorge yourself on the displayed opulence of the Parisian ‘vitrines de Noël’, along with all the other not-impressed-by-December people – and millions of kiddies.
Don’t get me wrong – winter festivities are just that: fun. I look forward as much as anyone to the warm meals and snowy evenings, wrapped gifts and roaring fires, and so on and so forth. But I have barely got over Halloween! November is not even over yet that the Champs Elysées are being all lit up – and get this, this year they are using solar lighting. Well I can understand, as I read that the Champs Elysées Christmas lights alone use as much energy as eight Parisian flats, each occupied by four people during a year… Shocker.
Be it on Oxford Street or the Boulevard Haussmann, the real festive attractions are the vitrines. A true ritual for all accomplished citizens. But whereas Selfridges, when I went to London at the end of October (yes, for Halloween, hence my décalage) was decorated in a minimalistic, arty-farty way (basically: just white. White everything. Some sort of statement?), the Grands Magasins – namely the two titans, the Printemps and the Galeries Lafayette – become full-on, heavily adorned, music-blaring gateways to festive heaven. Couture-clad puppets, winter wonderlands, animal kingdoms… None of the subtle stuff. This year, the vitrines are paying a tribute to megalomania, namely housing Karl Lagerfeld’s massive Chanel delirium, a multiplication of strictly tuxedoed mini-mes, a camellia in the buttonhole, and Vanessa Paradis at the inauguration. Yes, you read correctly, an INAUGURATION. For CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. Nevertheless, the world and its very well-dressed friend attended it massively, and the event was a front-pager.
All this makes us think about the everlasting role of traditions. An example: I am going to see Twilight tonight, and I do not particularly care for Twilight. I am meeting a friend at Starbucks after school, and I shall inevitably order the ‘seasonal’ version of my usual skinny latte, only to throw it away after a few sips because it is too sweet. But those are just the sort of things you do come winter. They just announce the advent calendars and foie gras overdoses to come. So even if I am tired and fed up of wading through the ever-crowded boulevard Haussman every time I visit my good friend H&M (hum), even if I am never going to buy anything displayed, even if I shall have to fight against runny-nosed, heavily scarved and completely hyped up children, you’ll be sure to see me, nose pressed against the fingerprint-stained glass, counting the mini Karls.
