1. Getting an advent calendar as an adult and being thrilled at the prospect of chocolate before breakfast, even though technically you could eat it every day if you wanted to.
2. Reading news stories about people being outraged at really crap winter wonderland rip offs.
3. Going to a Christmas market and pretending you live in a quaint Bavarian town, instead of say, Birmingham.
4. Eating £4 sausage baps outside at a Christmas market that are so hot they burn your mouth a bit.
5. Transforming a rubbish bottle of red wine by mulling it.
6. A really bracing winter walk that makes your face kind of hurt.
7. Walking into a cosy pub with steamed up windows and a real fire after you’ve completed said walk.
8. Going completely wild and ordering a mulled wine in a pub because YOU CAN.
9. Going to work in the morning when it’s frosty but sunny so everything looks a little bit shiny.
10. Seeing all the Christmas adverts on TV for the first time before you get jaded and cynical after the twentieth repeat.
11. All of the BBC Christmas idents.
12. Chocolate Oranges being on offer in your local mini supermarket from about the middle of November.
13. Buying yourself a Chocolate Orange and eating it one go because you can.
14. Doing a bit of really far in advance Christmas shopping and feeling extremely smug.
15. Seeing sort of crap Christmas lights in your hometown.
16. The reassuring heftiness of the Radio Times Christmas edition.
17. Highlighting films in the Radio Times that you already have on DVD/on Netflix because there’s something a bit more ~special~ about watching them on the BBC.
18. Re-watching Christmas episodes of The Vicar of Dibley/ Only Fools and Horses/ Father Ted etc. and laughing even though you already know all the jokes off by heart.
19. Getting the first pick of Quality Street’s.
20. Having a leisurely amount of time to read the Quality Street menu.
21. The first Christmas card of the year.
22. Getting a Christmas card with a really intense family newsletter in it and doing a dramatic reading of it.
23. Sitting in your lounge at 10pm watching TV and hearing the letter box and being slightly thrilled that someone would hand deliver your card.
24. Eating pigs in blankets and wondering why you don’t eat them all year round.
25. Eating brandy butter with everything for at least a week after Christmas.
26. Eating brandy butter with a spoon, straight from the fridge.
27. Insisting on wearing Christmas cracker hats for the entire day.
28. Christmas cracker jokes that are actually funny.
29. When it’s actually chilly on Christmas Day so you can wear the new scarf and gloves you got without being uncomfortably hot.
30. Getting a really thoughtful homemade present.
31. When you spend time with your relatives and manage to keep politics out of the conversation.
32. Being offered a mince pie literally every time you sit down, and being unable to refuse because it would be “be rude not to”.
33. Actually feeling like it’s ok to “just drop in” on your friends because you’ve got presents.
34. Eating fancy mince pies from the slightly upmarket supermarket range.
35. Getting lucky and not having to work on Christmas Eve.
36. Chain eating chocolate Lindors.
37. Animals wearing festive antlers.
38. Actually getting gift vouchers for Christmas because you won’t spend them on bills or drinks at the pub but on something nice for yourself.
39. Having a nap on the sofa in the middle of the day “because it’s Christmas”.
40. Getting carol singers and insisting they sing a few more verses so you get your money's worth.
41. The strange period between Christmas and New Year when, if you’ve got the time off, you don’t have to do anything or be anywhere.
42. Going to the Boxing Day sales and getting a bargain or not going to the Boxing Day sales and feeling extremely smug about your decision.