All dressed up

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.