Tales from the Campsite - Christmas Edition
People watching and tips on how to almost skip Christmas completely!
This is our fourth Christmas on a campsite, we’ve been coming back to this site since we were locked down during the pandemic, we made friends here and found it the perfect place to enjoy Christmas whilst not letting it swamp us or sweeping us up in a frenzy of shopping and eating.
Where are we? We’re at Camping Serro da Bica in Portugal and the main activities here are people watching, hiking, fishing and cycling. It’s 10k away from restaurants and supermarkets so the main distraction is the endless countryside. Our time here allows us to fully decompress, relax and for me, do some focussed work projects, this year it’s next years Christmas cards and a 2025 calendar, in the world of stationery you have to be 12-18 months ahead, I’m already feeling behind, the countryside is extremely distracting
Here, you are definitely in nature, if you fancy some outdoor sketching you can join me here. But if you’re anything like me, you’re just here for the people watching right?
Last year we had a bumper Christmas for this, there was the ‘Cat Couple’ who travelled in their Motorhome with their cat, this isn’t as unusual as you’d think, we’ve met many van cats on our travels, the difference here was they’d ‘walk’ it every afternoon on an extendable lead whilst squealing excitedly at it, they also liked to shower 5 times a day…any movement of any kind, be it a walk, a cycle ride or a trip to the bins seemed to instigate the need for a shower, Mr. Cat even confessed to a fellow camper that his toenails had started go orange from all the iron in the water.
They were absolutely fascinating to watch, my screen time for this time last year was almost zero.
We thought we wouldn’t top them for people watching until ‘The Fall Guy’ came along, he nearly reversed his car over a drop onto the pitch below, I can’t actually remember his real name as we just called him Lee Majors for the rest of his stay
There was ‘Fall Guy 2’, he fell into a ditch whilst trying to cycle with his dog, he was helped by ‘Nurse Marley’ (she had amazing dreadlocks), we had visits from Gandalf and Father Christmas who arrived on Christmas Day with his pet Maltese dog and culminated with a visit from ‘The Hitman’, a lone traveller that would disappear for a night here and there, he also moved his pitch because people were being too friendly, he didn't like them walking past him and saying ‘hello’
This year, I’ll admit, there are slim pickings, this campsite is so popular at this time of year now that everyone pre-booked, we now know most of the campers by name, we’re all here for Christmas (so no comings and goings), everyone seems pretty normal by our standards and the only ongoing mystery is who keeps blocking cubicle 3 of the gents toilets?
There is a pitch in front of us that’s for more transient people who just want to stay 1-3 nights so I’m hoping I’ll at least have one good campsite tale for the next edition.
As for Christmas itself we had a large barbeque provided by Menno and Miranda, the campsite owners and attended by nearly a full house of us campers. Boxing day was very quiet on the campsite, a few campers went out for lunch or shopping, I sunbathed and started reading a book I got for Christmas, the Art of the Limited Palette by Hazel Soan, very enjoyable so far and we finished the chocolates and cold meats, I retired to the library* after lunch to finish writing this and there may have been a pillow inspection afterwards.
And that’s Christmas done for us, we heard a few carols in the supermarkets, we had a pre-Christmas campsite party, we brought along a few gifts with Christmas wrapping paper from home but we left the cooking and the decorations to everyone else.
*The Library, referred to above, is the fixed bed at the back of the motorhome, after dinner Mr.Dean will often retire to the library to watch a film or research on YouTube how to fix something that’s broken on the vehicle and on Boxing day, I spent the entire afternoon in the library, it sounds so much better than I was in bed nursing a hangover…
What I’ve been working on?
For the second year I’ve forgotten to bring Christmas cards with me, what sort of card designer am I to forget to bring these with me! As we always give Menno and Miranda a card, I’ve had to hand paint one for them this year, I did the same last year so I guess this is a new tradition I’ve started!
I used to try and design for Christmas around Easter time or in the summer, but that’s already too late (wholesale customers often pick their Christmas stock in January, so I’ve found it much easier to design for Christmas in the moment when everyone is in a Christmas mood and it’s ready for January and my stockists who like to see what I have at the beginning of the year can. Here’s a sneak peek, me know what you think in the comments
So now we’re in that lovely no mans land period of time where it’s like we have a permission slip to do what we want, it can be difficult for us to know what day of the week it is sometimes, never mind the time of year, but it’s comforting to know that collectively we’re embracing the lounge wear again and watching Agatha Christie with a box of Maltesers.
But … if you’re being a bit more productive than me and are in need of Thank You cards, specifically dog themed ones (and there’s one cat design) then look no further than here (free UK postage and buy 4 get one free)
We on the other hand will be heading out for a walk soon, and maybe I’ll go sketching later, oh hang on look, is that a new arrival at the campsite… ?
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Jo! You are so, so talented. I love your dogs! And I'm with @Caroline Donahue. I really want to read her murder mystery set in your camp.
Or perhaps he’s flushing away the evidence! I’ll let you know first if a body turns up 🤣