It’s Christmas!!

I love Christmas!!! I have always loved Christmas, the sparkle, the excitement, the magical time, the being with family etc. I know that Christmas means something different to everyone, here I want to share what it means to me. 

I grew up in a very religious family, we went to church every Sunday and Christmas was a particularly busy time. Growing up in a council estate on the outskirts of London, going to church every Sunday was not the done thing. I spent my time at the local primary school with the label “bible basher” and being taunted because of my upbringing. The best thing that happened to me was to go to a secondary church school (which took two buses to get to, my parents couldn’t drive). So, of course, for me the religious focus of Christmas was centre stage. We went to church on Christmas Day and the birth of Jesus was the reason we celebrated Christmas. It was very simple, we had a pillow case at the end of our bed which my mum filled on Christmas Eve. We had a satsuma, a few chocolates and nuts and one present which we opened in the morning before going to church. Then it was the Christmas lunch and we opened the presents under the tree after the Queen’s speech. We played games and it was a simple time. Probably watched a James Bond movie, my dad’s favourite.

Don’t get me wrong, there were arguments, tears, tantrums (there were five of us) and it wasn’t always

that idyllic memory that we tend to recall. But I don’t remember it starting so early, that every where you go the commercial side of Christmas surrounds us. The holiday ads started just after Christmas and on the whole Christmas started in December.

It seems to have gone mental. This idea that we have to have this perfect time that everything has to be just so. The perfect day, the perfect presents, the perfect lunch, everything has to be perfect. But perfection doesn’t really exist and is different for everyone. Social media is becoming this platform in which this idea of perfection is being perpetuated and is a particular form. The matching pyjamas, the elf on the shelf, the giant pile of presents under the tree, the perfect tree, I wonder what is going to be next. Mum’s having to raise their game each year to keep up. This brings so much stress and pressure that we don’t need and neither do our children. If you set the expectations of our children too high it puts pressure on you, but also on them for when they grow up. To make Christmas just like they remembered, it never stops.

The true meaning of Christmas gets lost in all of this. The reasons why we have a national holiday each year and the reason for it a long and distance memory for many. I know that not every one is religious and believe in Jesus, but that is the religious festival that we celebrate every year. Maybe if we gave each other a break then Christmas could be a joyous and simple affair. Saying all of this I am terrible. I buy too much food, I have many Christmas trees, I probably buy too many presents for my Children. I have many trees because I have only ever had fake trees, like I did growing up. We now share our family tree between the siblings. I had it last year so in my house I had every tree that I had grown up with over my whole life. As we have moved our houses have got bigger so needed bigger trees. Now all of them are put up and decorated, but on the whole I don’t buy any more each year.

Partly as it is so different from my own Christmas’s growing up which were simple. But I still follow many of our traditions, satsuma in the stocking, with chocolate and nuts. Only one present is opened in the morning and we wait till after the now King’s Speech before opening the rest. I have introduced a few of my own, the girls have shared a Harrods Teddy bear from when they were born up until a few years ago and I would buy them a Christmas outfit that would be on their bed when they woke up. Now look, please follow whatever form of Christmas that you works for you, I think my message is do it for you not what is expected of you.