Christmas Eve means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It’s a time for family, and love, and friendship. For excited children and well-prepared parents.
For some, though, like you, it’s a cursed time. A time for longing to leave work early, for missing your family who live too far away to see, for jealously flipping off your co-workers who gloat that their partners are waiting up for them after their shifts are done with food and festive films.
You sigh, staring blankly into the monitor of your desktop, trying to drown out the hum of happy co-workers as you tap at the keyboard at no more than a leisurely pace. You have no one to rush home to. There’s nothing waiting on the table for you, cooked and warm. You have your cheap, fake Christmas tree, decked in tinsel and rainbow coloured baubles, and star-shaped LED string-lights on the inside of your window. The only thing keeping your fingers typing is the bottle of unopened champagne in your fridge. You have no reason to celebrate, other than surviving your first year away from home, and it hardly feels like a celebration when you feel so lonely, knowing you’re going to miss your mother’s Christmas dinner. Still, champagne is champagne.
