It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas......

It's that time of year again.  

Christmas markets, presents, parties, turkey, turkey curry, turkey sandwiches, turkey surprise...... (insert throwing up face 😊) and despite the stress, every year, we throw ourselves into it.  

The shopping. The drinking. The food. The pressure.  

That need to have the perfect tree, the perfect presents and the perfect Christmas is so overwhelming. We try so hard to keep up with the Jones’s and then as fast as it began, it's over. Another year begins and we are back where we started. Tired, broke and trying to pull our lives back together so that we can push through another year and do it all over again.  

The thing is, where does it end?  

I am so tired this year. So physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Christmas should be this amazing and incredible time but in reality, it is this time of huge stress and pressure.  

If you don’t know what I mean, treat yourself to the movie Bad Mom’s Christmas. It’s a combination of hilarious and sobering when you watch mums putting themselves through hell when all they really want is a simple Christmas that brings them and their families closer.  

I can relate.  

After 25 years of trying to create the perfect Christmas and the last three years of the most hellish Christmases possible - (that is a story for another day), I think I finally get it.  

It's not about the presents, the lights or the giant turkey that you are eating for a month afterwards!  

It's not about parties or posh dresses or drinking prosecco till it's literally pouring out of your ears.

It's about family.  

It’s about those moments that you cherish more than anything. It’s about those memories that don’t actually involve presents.  

For me, Christmas starts on Christmas Eve. I have the whole family across in a kind of open house type thing. There are nibbles on the table and everyone just floats over, stays until they are ready to go and then I throw everything into the bin.  

(Shocker.....I am one of those who does the paper plate and plastic knife and fork thing. Life is too short!!!!)

Those chats, debates and my brother occasionally drinking gravy are some of my favourite Christmas highlights.  

My middle sister and my brother are like a boy/girl version of Laurel and Hardy and other than a full-blown debate, I will happily sit back and watch them take the mick out of each other. 

Its golden!  

My littlest sister is a quiet creature, holding her tongue until something is said that she wants to step in on. At that point she has the wit of a comedian and will take you out with more accuracy than a cruise missile!  

My dad dips in and out, occasionally nodding off to sleep which is adorable, but for the most part, his contribution is considered, intelligent and thought provoking. I love debating with him for this very reason.  

My mum is sweet, warm and emotional. She thinks and responds from her heart, and I believe this is one of her most wonderful qualities.  

Me, well, I just have a big mouth and lots of opinions, (if you hadn’t already figured that out).  

For those of you who know me, I can be a little bit of a handful during a debate but it's something I absolutely love to be involved with!  

Christmas Eve is chat and family time and then it turns into something really special.

My babies - (25 and 16 😉), are my life. They humour me and honour me in such an amazing way.  

On Christmas Eve we put Reindeer Dust out.

We write a poem to make it magical so the reindeers know where to land, and then we put out a baileys and a mince pie for Santa with a carrot for Rudolph.

Santa is a huge fan of Baileys! 

We still do this even now. It's been a huge part of Christmas for me and I have so much love for my two children who continue to humour me in spite of the fact that they are pretty much adults.  

(For those of you wondering, reindeer dust is glitter and oats. You write the spell yourself) 

Santa leaves a card on Christmas morning for the kids with Rudolph's hoof print on. The presents are under the tree and the magic in the air is palpable.  

We read the Christmas story once my 16 yr old gets out of bed, (Reece family tradition), and then we open presents.  

As a kid, we always read the Christmas Story before presents were opened. We sang carols and we remembered what Christmas was really about. We didn’t have a huge amount but somehow, that really didn’t matter in amongst those moments.  

My dad would cook breakfast on a Miracle Maid which seemed so cool when we were young. Bacon, sausages, mushrooms, toast, eggs etc.  

I couldn’t tell you about the presents I got as a child, but I think I could reel off those Christmas moments that at the time I resented because they slowed down present time, but that now are some of my most precious memories.  

Thank you for that mum and dad. You nailed it!  

The thing is, and now I am getting to the point of this. Not everyone has those kinds of memories. We didn’t have a lot as kids but what we did have was a family.  

Love, respect, trust, warmth, generosity and somewhere we could always call home.

Not everyone is that lucky.  

I find Christmas to be a difficult time because I want to spoil the people I love, but we are surrounded by people who have nothing. I came home from work the other day to find a tent under the subway next to my house.

As a single mum, I don’t have a lot, but I have some really amazing moments with my kids, and I treasure them so much. We make the most of the little that we have but to see someone living outside in a tent just a few hundred metres from my home was heartbreaking.  

It got me to thinking.

I have spent the last couple of months putting myself into debt for presents, and to try and make Christmas the best it can be. The reality is though, we already have so much more than 700 million of the world's population.  

I don’t want to preach or make anyone feel guilty, but we are so unbelievably fortunate. But for an accident at birth, our situation could be so different.  

In the West we have been trained from birth to put value in material goods and actually, they are worthless. They mean nothing. What is important lies in family, friends, time, the people who you love and the ties that you have to them.  

I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t know where to start but I know that for me, it's time to let the material stuff go. That’s what causes the immense unhappiness that we witness every single day amongst some of the richest nations in the world.  

The need for more becomes all-consuming when you don’t understand the true value of the things that are available for free every single day.  

I am so lucky to have a family that I love. I am so lucky to have memories that I will hold close to my heart till the day I die, and I am so lucky to have children who value more than the ‘stuff’ that they have.  

My life is rich beyond compare, despite what some may define as rich. I wouldn’t change my life for anything.  

Merry Christmas to you all.

I hope that Christmas brings you everything that you want and that you enjoy the time that you get to spend with the people that you love.

Until next time..............