Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
20th December 2025
Christmas Contemplation
It always feels like ‘ground rush’ at this time of year. That’s the technical term for the feeling you get as you near the ground very quickly when doing a parachute jump – I remember it well, when I did mine. It is a real thing and something you don’t forget.
The term is also used for a date that seems to be fast-approaching too – like Christmas Day. Isn’t it funny how a lot of people see it as a ‘destination’, as though nothing is going to happen after it. God Willing, of course it will. There will be all those lists of New Year’s Resolutions to be made for a start!
Christmas anxieties include financial worries, family issues, travelling logistics and apparently FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. I, on the other hand, suffer form FOBI – Fear Of Being Included, (or Invited). I love the quiet Christmases I work hard for and a week off work. I’m not anti social, just pro solitude. But if your Christmas time promises to be ‘full-on’, there are a few recommendations to keep you sane. Obviously they include walking and spending time outdoors. Nature is a great sedative and I find walking a great way of keeping things in perspective, thinking up new ideas and even solutions. It’s like a moving meditation. I meditate every day anyway and love – and highly recommend – Transcendental Mediation, after some instruction with the wonderful Helen Evans, who runs the National Transcendental Meditation Centre in Cardiff.
You can see more at www.uk.tm.org and make an appointment for an informal chat to learn more. It would be the best Christmas present you could give yourself or someone you care about.
Lots of people say to me that they would like to meditate but don’t know how or can’t find the time (they are the ones that would benefit the most from TM), or have several other reasons not to but I, and lots of other people including celebrities like Hugh Jackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, and Paul McCartney, have discovered the benefits.
Meditating for just twice a day means my day just goes ‘better’, more smoothly. I feel more motivated to do things ‘naturally’, without berating myself and procrastinating and I definitely feel calmer and more tolerant of difficult situations and people. Ironically, it is only when I stop for a few days – why is it that when something works well, we stop doing it – that I am reminded of these (and more) benefits.
Having a similar conversation with a friend recently, they told me that there is a good app for meditation, called Headspace. It might be a good place to start, and better than not meditating at all, but personally, I would encourage you to exclude your phone from this one discipline altogether. As my friend pointed out – ‘when you are meditating, one minute feels like thirty but when scrolling on your phone, thirty minutes feel like one minute’. I think that’s the whole point, to slow your mind and it’s inane chatter.
It’s definitely not something that you can ‘make’ people do, I think you have to come to it in your own time, but I do encourage you to at least ‘look into it’ and maybe have a ‘Christmas conversation’ about it.
Boxing Day
The term ‘Boxing Day’ goes back to 1743 apparently, when it was defined as ‘the day after Christmas Day’, with the explanation that ‘traditionally on this day trades people, employees, and farmworkers would receive presents or gratuities from their customers or employers in the guise of ‘a Christmas box’. I couldn’t help but wonder why it was the day after Christmas Day and not for Christmas Day itself, especially as the boxes traditionally contained food and spirits which could have been utilised on Christmas Day but it turns out that ‘servants of the wealthy’ (trades people) were allowed the following day off to visit their own families after serving their masters on Christmas Day. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and often left-over food.
Although there are also records claiming that the tradition of Boxing Day began in churches in the Middle Ages, where parishioners would collect money for the poor. It was thought this was done to honour St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, whose feast day fell on 26th December.
Known as Gwyl san Steffan (St Stephens Day), records show that Boxing Day was traditionally celebrated in a way unique to Wales. This consisted of ‘holly-beating’ or ‘holming’, where young men and boys would beat the unprotected arms and legs of young females with holly branches until they bled. In some areas it was the custom for the last person to get out of bed in the morning to be beaten with sprigs of holly. Thankfully, these customs died out before the end of the 19th century – can you imagine the reaction to that, today.
In some countries Boxing Day is known as a ‘second Christmas Day’ and treated as a second day of festive celebrations. I suppose it’s the same here if you have extended family to visit.
For years, Boxing Day was synonymous with sales with some great bargains to be had – for the very things you had paid full price for as Christmas presents. But more recently I think Boxing Day has become more popular for charity and ‘self-development’ events like ice-cold sea swims and family fun runs. Good luck if you are planning to do anything like that.
Sunny and Short
And, if like me you are finding the winter a bit tedious already, and are glad to welcome the ‘shortest day’ tomorrow (21st), then I’ll leave you with this little ‘ray of sunshine’ – with little more than a week of the year left, the Met Office are confident enough to claim that this year has officially been the UK’s sunniest on record.
Thanks to an ‘exceptional’ spring, the Met Office has recorded 1,622 hours of sunshine this year, which puts the previous record of 1,587 sunny hours set over twenty years ago in 2003, in the shade. I know my menopausal memory isn’t the best, but the ‘hot summer of ‘25’ seems much more than just a few months ago.
Whatever the weather, I hope you have a Merry Everything and Happy Always. I’ll see you on the other side.
Merry Christmas gorgeous .
Wishing you and Yogi a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful and rewarding 2026.