By Ingrid Daschner
Christmas is a wonderful time of year – I love the gifts, the good food and good wine. I love the Christmas lights and the street decorations, plus the good food and good wine. I love the wintry ambience and the pause for reflection it provides. All of which just makes the good food and good wine taste even better!
I have the feeling, however, that we – the ‘we’ that loves Christmas and winter (and good food and good wine) – are a dying breed. The reason? Because Christmas doesn’t have a WiFi connection.
My neighbour’s daughter, for instance, has collected every gold medal going in Winter Sports on the Wii. But as soon as the first real snowflake fell, she threw a hissy fit and made her father promise that she wouldn’t have to put one foot out the door until the streets were no longer decked, gloriously, in white. To keep an eye on the situation, she installed a weather app with snow warnings on her mobile – she hasn’t looked out of the window since she was three.
Unfortunately, my neighbour's experience with his son, who at 12 is old enough to know better, wasn't a big improvement either. Once the severely pubescent youngster had determined that his chocolate Santa – traditionally presented to children on 6th December here in Germany – didn’t have a USB 3.0 port, it found itself arching gracefully through the air on its way to an appointment with the wall. And the music box, which has welcomed in every New Year with ‘Silent Night’ since Grandma’s era, has now been banished following vain efforts to save the tune as an MP3 and upload it onto YouTube.
Maybe their father’s attempts to rescue the situation will make headway though – he's got hold of programmable LED fairy lights for the Christmas tree, replaced the fairy with Super Mario, transferred the open fire and Christmas soundtrack to his iPad, and has got the kids iTunes vouchers as presents.
I do feel a little sorry for them, these kids who think Montepulciano is a laptop manufacturer and that mince pies are a new type of computer memory. But it’s a feeling that soon passes – over a glass of good wine and a festive feast...
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