Christmas Dating - a festive feast or recipe for indigestion

If we are to believe pretty much every Christmas movie ever made, there is a perfect Hallmark partner out there waiting in the wings for everyone this Christmas. It’s not a question of whether it happens to you, but when.
If you are old enough to read this, then you’re old enough to know better. Have you ever seen the following in a Hallmark Christmas movie? Delayed flights with irritable passengers, train strikes, pipes freezing, postal strikes, boilers bursting, turkey plagues, rolling blackouts, or indigestion? No. It’s the movies. It’s make believe.
But the thing is, lots of us believe in Christmas. There’s a dedicated Christmas movie channel and more of them all over TV. And they get watched, a lot. Perfect people drinking perfect drinks by a perfect fire with the perfect partner. It can happen. It’s magic. We want to believe it. And belief can be a magical thing. Believing in something is more than halfway there to making it happen.
Christmas is the best time to get dating. Singles get out more. There are events galore on the calendar to meet up. Those bothersome flight delays can become a positive - more and more report meaningful first encounters waiting for planes. Singles saddled with family gatherings tend to get out and look for people their own age to socialise with - an icebreaker at the very least and perhaps an instant common bond in the making. Not to mention festive music, fairy lights, holiday cheer and the fact nobody really wants to be alone for the long dark nights of the winter holidays.
True, there’s a sprinkling of social media savvy naysayers out there who say Christmas is 'too serious' a time to date, too cold, too pressurised, singles who prefer to keep their options open over the Festive period and look around seriously in the New Year but I say humbug to them - believe in the magic of the season and get a head start on 2023 by keeping your eyes, and heart, open to that one possible moment, that one encounter, that could change your life forever.
Why not enlist some professional matchmaking [https://www.berkeley-international.com/how-we-work] help too - Santa Claus can deliver gifts to every child in the world in a night but even he needs the help of the reindeer and his elves.
And if he/she does turn out to be just around the corner, best advice: buy him/her a playful gift, nothing too serious, try to keep in good spirits (however tired you may be), take things easy, and DO NOT use Christmas to introduce your date to your family - save that goodie bag of unwelcome treats squarely for 2023.