In England, the shops, begin Christmas in October. They are full of decorations, Christmas cards, wrapping paper, gift ideas and lots more to entice us to spend. Then come November the TV turns on it’s Christmas advertising campaign again tempting us with all these ideas for Christmas gifts. Then in December you get the supermarkets full of shoppers buying their Christmas food and drink, why do they do that? Why do people drink and eat more at Christmas than they would any other time of the year?
Our famiy Christmas is spent together, my wife and children, no one else. Every year we have a real Christmas tree, we tend to buy it in December about a week or so before Christmas day, and we decorate it together as a family. We then hang the Christmas decorations around the room. The children have their chocolate advent calendars attached to their bedroom doors so when they wake each morning they open up a door and eat the chocalate, the biggest chocolate being saved for Christmas Eve of course.
On Christmas morning when we wake up, the children, who tend to be awake first, open a present that has been placed at the end of the bed, left by Santa of course, which may be a book or an annual. They say in their beds reading until they here the rest of the family awake then they excitedly show off their presents. Then as a family, on Christmas morning, we creep down the stairs that is when the childrens faces light up to see the presents under the Christmas tree, all courtesy of Father Christmas. We then proceed to open the presents before breakfast, with a cup of tea in one hand.
After we have cleared up the mess of Christmas paper that the kids and the cats have pinged everywhere, boxes checking that there are no cats inside, bits of string without cats attached, elastic bands and everything else that a Christmas present is made of then we sit down at the breakfast table. When breakfast is over we all sit down and give the Christmas presents a closer inspection with some jolly Christmas tunes playing in the background.
Later on in the morning it is time to get the Christmas dinner ready. For us that means roast chicken with stuffing, small sausages wrapped in bacon, roast potatos, new potatos, sweet potato, brussel sprouts and roast carrots all covered with gravy. As my children and I will say my wife makes a superb Christmas dinner which is why we love the family Christmas so much.
After this sumpteous dinner we sit around a log fire. The children then play Christmas treasure hunt and try to find the small presents that have been hidden on the Christmas tree. Then we all sit down together and enjoy watching a family movie together. As the afternoon draws to a close we gather around the dining table to enjoy a light tea of sandwiches with maybe some sausage rolls thrown in.
But this time it is getting late and the children are exhausted from the excitement of the day so we tend to retire at about 9 to 9.30pm. Once again a wonderful Christmas day was enjoyed by all.
Spread the joy of Christmas by sending a Christmas card to friends and family. Perhaps for your closest friends then you might want to think about a Christmas gift just to say I am thinking of you.
Tags: christmas, christmas card, christmas day, christmas dinner, christmas gifts, christmas presents, family, family christmas, gifts, presents
