And nowhere to go – thank goodness – we are staying at home
this Christmas, which I always love. The family are coming and having a new
granddaughter to spoil is going to be wonderful. I have always loved Christmas but it is so
much more magical with young children around. In our family we have like most, our own
little traditions that we enjoy every year which make the festivities extra
special.
I think my favourite is ‘Christmas tree presents’. We have our main presents when we get up in
the morning and then have ‘tree presents’ after lunch. My mum started this tradition when we were
little because in those days we only had a couple of presents – normally one
from Father Christmas and a few from family.
The anticipation for the big day was just as exciting as it is now but
having opened our presents very quickly, my mum always felt a bit flat – all that
planning and preparation for just a few minutes of fun.
So she started ‘tree presents’; just a small, normally silly gift, worth only
a few shillings then and even now only a couple of pounds (although some
naughty members of the family spend more).
The sillier the gift the better for added fun. Everyone buys a ‘tree
present’ for everyone in the family and they are all piled onto the
dining table after lunch. This year we
will be eight so that means there will be a minimum of 64 presents just from us
but as all the family buy tree presents I make that about 290 'tree presents’ to be opened!! Little did my Mum know back then what a
tradition ‘tree presents’ would become in our family and how it would grow into
such an important part of our Christmas Day?
Merry Christmas everyone and a very happy, healthy and
prosperous New Year.
