It may be a cliche, but it’s true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.

Burchill’s remark plays on a familiar seasonal paradox: anticipation often outshines the event. The “build-up” evokes rituals of preparation—decorations, shopping, parties, media nostalgia, and the promise of reunion—during which desire and imagination can remain intact. Christmas Day, by contrast, is finite and burdened with expectations of perfect happiness, generosity, and family harmony; it can therefore feel anticlimactic or stressful once it arrives. By admitting it is a “cliché” yet insisting it is “true,” the line also comments on how widely shared this experience is, suggesting that modern Christmas culture thrives on prolonged suspense and consumer-driven countdowns more than on the day’s lived reality.