What makes Christmas 'Christmas' to me?

I am loving the 'Christmas' photographs that are being circulated on Facebook at the moment.  The ones I love most, are the old traditional sort, steeped in memories of a simpler time.  When decorations were done as a family by the fire, in woollen jumpers whilst snow fluttered past the - not so environmentally friendly (ie. drafty) - windows.

 

Image : http://www.myangelcardreadings.com/christmastraditional

 

I don't know if anyone actually ever did or experienced that in real life, but it is a concept that many even to this day, love.  As much as we would like to say we are going to take our lives back to those traditional times, I think it is now impossible not to get caught up in the convenience of today.  For example, purchasing gifts via the Internet rather than braving the masses at the till points; filling the children's stocking with sweets and Playdoh rather than apples and oranges.

 

But as an adult we all have our own memories of our childhood Christmases.  If we are lucky, they are happy ones.  And they are the true traditional Christmas to the memory keeper.  I did not appreciate these until I became a Mother myself, and the spirit of Christmas - through my childs eye - became important. 

 

I took stock of what I loved and cherished as part of my childhood Christmases.  Over the last few years, particularly as 'child' became 'children', I have tried to ensure that we keep some of our longstanding own family traditions within Christmas.  The build up; the day; after.  I have also started to create some of our own.  You never know, as my boys grow and have their own families - if we should be so blessed - they might just do the same thing and I will see my grandchildren enjoy some of the same things I did as a little girl.

 

So what does make 'Christmas' to me?

 

Actual Shopping - Yes, although I have purchased some items online, I like at least one allocated 'shopping day' in December, when you queue to park, freeze as you walk, sweat as you browse and sigh as you queue.  Within this is a feeling of nostalgia that makes it all worth while.  After a wicked Hot Chocolate, in a cafe in which there are no spare seats and the windows are streaming with condensation, you struggle back to your car with your numerous heavy shopping bags vowing next year - you are doing it all on line.

 

Decorating the Tree with a Christmas Movie - This has always been what we have done with our children.  It makes me feel Christmas like and when the children get bored of helping (usually after the first few minutes) they generally sit and watch it nicely.

 

Wrapping Day - I think I mentioned this in a Christmas post last year, but my mum and I have a long standing tradition - starting back when I was a teenager and able to afford to purchase my own small gifts for people - of having a wrapping afternoon.  We lay everything out, admire our choice of paper, tags and adornments, hit play on a cheesy Christmas CD and devour a Terry's Chocolate Orange.  About half way through we vow that next year we are buying half the amount of stuff.

 

Garden Centre Lunch - Nowhere makes more of an effort than a Garden Centre at Christmas time and for about the last 12 years, my mum and I, have made a tradition of having a 'child - free' (my children not hers obviously) browse and lunch.  Usually the new 'annual tree ornament' purchase is made here.

 

Christmas Eve Baking - Even when I worked full time I would always book Christmas Eve off in order to do some baking and get as much cooking as possible done for Christmas.  We always cook our Turkey and Bacon on Christmas Eve.  Mum makes home made sausage rolls.  I make home made shortbread.

 

Christmas Eve Afternoon Movie - When I was a child it was The Santa Claus with Dudley Moore.  We would watch it in the afternoon when Christmas seemed to near, yet so far.  Now our choice of film seems to be The Polar Express - works for me.

 

The Christmas Morning Wait - When my brother and I were children we were made to wait on the stairs before we were allowed to go into the living room where the tree was to see if Father Christmas had been.  It wasn't a malicious thing by my parents, they ensured the presents looked great and in position while the anticipation and excitement of getting in that room reached a crescendo and we were always giddy by the time they opened the door with a wry smile.

 

The Hat Game - After the traditional Christmas dinner we always had our crackers, donned the hats and played The Hat Game (you write a name on a hat and the person wearing it has to guess who they are by asking questions).  We do not do this at the moment because the children are so young and not interested, but I will re-introduce it as they get older.

 

Snowballs - The drink that is, not the cold icy stuff from the sky.  Even as a child I was allowed a sip of that sweet yellow liquid and I still love it now.  My bottle has been purchased and is ready to enjoy.

 

No TV Until After 8pm - This was a great rule when I was a child and a great rule now.  I can not stand the tripe that is palmed off as Christmas Day TV viewing and as the TV is generally on every other day of the year in our house, it isn't on 25 December.

 

Boxing Day Dinner - I think I enjoy our traditional Boxing Day dinner to Christmas Days.  We have a big old chunk of bacon, mash and pickles.  This is also the day that toys and games get full attention.

 

Now I am feeling super festive and really rather appreciative of the lovely Christmas memories I am lucky enough to hold.

 

What are your Christmas traditions - do they come from your childhood?  Do you strive to make lots of traditions for your own children?

 

I am linking up to the BritMums Christmas Blog Hop.

 

 

I have been Featured on Our Footprints on the World

As always I am super pleased when a fabulous fellow blogger asks for 'Guest Bloggers' and this year Kelly-Marie over at http://ourfootprintsontheworld.blogspot.com had the most brilliant idea of featuring a different blogger and their vision of Christmas for the whole month of December, making her blog the most Christmas filled one I have come across yet.

My guest post, about how me and mine celebrate Christmas has been featured today http://ourfootprintsontheworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-blogger-lynsey.html?showComment=1323975462633#c4320910700887349258 

Only 10 more days to go...

Christmas ... All Wrapped Up

A friend of mine made a very good point the other day.  She noted that she had purchased and mostly wrapped all her Christmas presents and placed her Christmas food shop to be delivered late on 23rd December, and was very happy about it. 


Another friend noted / asked wasn't she sad that she wasn't going to have the joy of doing it in the throng and throws of Christmas in December when it was more ambient?  This has always been the stand that I have taken, I love having the same Christmas music piped in every shop while you queue for 20 minutes to pay whilst sweating out in your winter coat, that is what I remember from my younger years, particularly as I started to earn my own money and was responsible for purchasing my own gifts for people. 


My friend noted that with working full time and fitting in all of her childrens activities it would not be a happy, ambient time and any spare time left in December would now be available for some quality family time, something that in previous years had lacked a little.  And I would have to agree that I do understand exactly where she is coming from.


I always worked full time, a necessity as a single mother as I was at the time, but until I started working in a position that meant I had four hour round trip commute to add into the mix I didn't realise how much I would appreciate Internet shopping and a very generous mother that received all the delivers for me!  Wrapping was done in snatched hours here and there when J1 had gone to sleep and I think the grocery shop was done at stupid o'clock one morning at a 24 hour Tesco's.  Nothing Christmas-y or ambient about that.


And even though I am now a stay at home mum, having children that you are trying to keep only aware of the spirit of Christmas (i.e. not buying presents sneakily while they are with you, they ALWAYS see something or wrap them while they are not in the house, rare) doesn't make it the easiest thing to do.  Also, even though I no longer have a full time job in the mix, last year between October and March it was a manic time. 


We had a wedding to plan in a short amount of time, my mum's 60th birthday, Christmas, J2's first birthday and whilst all of that was going on J1 had to have massive surgery on his hips in November, which put him in a double A frame leg cast for six weeks, which because of his size the set had to be wider than the door frame, thus meaning he was bedroom bound for the duration. 


I realised that I was going to have to sort Christmas in a practical manner rather than an indulgent one like I used to be able to do BC (Before Children) and again, because of all that was going on, including having a nine month old as well, the 'preparation' Christmas spirit was lost a little for me.  However, what was gained was quality family time, we sat in J1's bedroom and played Christmas music and watched our favourite old Christmas movies, we made Christmas decorations from kits and wrote letters to Santa.  We decorated J1's bedroom so it was his very own Christmas grotto, and we all loved to be in there in the evening as the lights twinkled away.


And that is what my friend had found in previous years, she was so busy trying to fit everything in to get that Christmas spirit that you can afford when you are a young, single person that she spread herself too thin and ended up not enjoying any of it, and she was trying to rescue that this year.


That inspired me to do the same because the plan this year was to leave it all until December this year, to drop back to old habits.  But then I remembered how lovely those Santa Grotto evenings with the children was, and with our tradition of buying a new 'holiday / seasonal' movie every year we have got a fair few to watch. 

So this year hubby and I struck a deal, we would do the bulk of the shopping as and when we saw things, and via the Internet as long as I had one afternoon in which to purchase 2 or 3 gifts, in the old traditional style.  And we were lucky this year, our annual weekend away took us to Cardiff, Wales and the Christmas decorations in the City were awesome and it was manic, even though it was November not December, so I still got the 'old' Christmas tingle.

And I still have the excitement of getting everything wrapped, which by tradition my mum and I do together all in one afternoon while listening to our old Christmas Cd's (and I believe my mum still has a few 'tapes' - retro) and eating a Terry's Chocolate Orange each (traditional, none of these new fandangled ones they bring out).

So I am very much looking forward to December, I have no panic buying to do, only wrapping, tree decorating, eating, watching movies and making old fashioned Christmas decorations with the boys.  I haven't even got Christmas Dinner to do this year as it's our turn at my parents. 

December cometh.