Every year around this time I think about Christmas’s past. Not the Christmas where my two boys fell out over a sprout, or the one where Santa was nearly thwarted because he fell asleep, and forgot to put the stockings on the end of the beds. I think about my childhood Christmases.
I come from a large family and we would always get together over Christmas. We would eat my Nan’s amazing food, she did a lovely buffet spread of an evening. The children would play cards for pennies while the adults played drinking games. Our houses would be decorated with so much tinsel you couldn’t see the ceiling. We would make mince pies from scratch, cut out hundreds of snowflakes from white paper, there would be glitter, fairy lights, and a stocking which was in fact your dad’s old sock.
Christmas dinner was always an affair. Dad would carve the turkey (which was often a chicken in our house, no one actually liked turkey, and all the food would be laid out on the table. There was always far too much food.
The best part for me as a kid was the ceremonial lighting of the Christmas pudding. Watching the wonderful blue glow of the flames as the brandy burnt away. I would always have a tiny slice of the pudding, not because I liked it, but because even as a kid I couldn’t get enough brandy butter.
With my own children I have often tried to recreate the magic of my past Christmases, but to no avail. I’m not saying I have failed in bringing my traditions through to our family, but that they just don’t fit any more.
Not everyone in our house eats sprouts, only one of us eats Christmas pudding, tinsel is nowhere to be seen (it’s so out of fashion, and even my tree is colour coordinated. We still play board games, and just like all generations before us, we play Monopoly and inevitably fall out over it. We eat too much, fall asleep in front of the television Christmas afternoon when the Queen is giving her speech.
I won’t go on a rant about commercialism or greed. I am hopeful that now “Retro” and “Vintage” is fashionable that the days of being satisfied with a Rupert annual, a satsuma and a chocolate bar could make a come back.
However you spend Christmas, remember it is mainly a time to reflect on all the good things in life.It’s for spending precious time with your family. It’s not about presents, it’s about presence.