Tuesday 9 December 2008

Two weeks to go!

I cannot believe how quickly Christmas has crept up on us. It feels like only yesterday I was sitting watching the sunsets in Ibiza drinking sangria, feeling like I could never ever possibly feel cold again. And here we are in December!

But the cold got me thinking, thank goodness we have Christmas in the middle of winter. As the nights draw in we actually have something bright and festive to look forward to. It would be so strange to move to Australia and to just have Christmas in the middle of summer, and the summer holidays. I'm sure all you residents of the southern hemisphere will be objecting to this, but I just can't imagine Christmas being any other time than winter.

If anyone from down-under is reading this I would love to hear what your Christmas is really like. Does Santa dress up in a big warm coat even though it is hot? Do your Christmas cards have robins and snowmen on, or do you have special Auzzie beach themed ones? And do you still sing the Christmas carols that talk about the bleak mid-winter?

In fact, I would love to hear what everyone's Christmas' are like.

Mine is a traditional family affair. I will be leaving London a week on Friday for two whole weeks back in Derbyshire and I'm so excited to be getting home.

Christmas Eve is always a family meal of Salmon, and then down to the village pub for me and off to Church for my parents. I love catching up with the people I grew up with, and Xmas eve is the one time of year EVERYONE is back in the village local. I usually have one too many tipples and make a festive twit of myself, but this year I will be driving so none of that!

Christmas day we have champagne in the morning, open the gifts and then get on with doing the dinner. We always have Turkey with the trimmings, including my mum's amazing brussel sprouts with pancetta ham and horse chestnuts. Yum. Then in the afternoon we watch the Queen's speech, the parents will have a snooze and then we sit up till late drinking Baileys in front of the fire and playing Scrabble.

Boxing day is my traditional day to go out on the town with all my friends and get smashed, anything to fill the void left behind from the build-up to Christmas day!!

Out of all three days of the festive period though, Christmas Eve is my favorite. You can almost feel magic in the air, everyone is excited and expectant and I love thinking about all the children in bed too excited to sleep listening out for sleigh bells. I can't wait to have a Christmas with children of my own one day.

So, tell me about your days!

5 comments:

Gorilla Bananas said...

I try and sleep through it.

Anonymous said...

I am not a massive fan of Christmas. I guess that sounds a bit mouldy but I think it makes a lot of people miserable or emphasises their loneliness or bereavement or whatever.

But I have four children, three of whom are young (aged 6-11) so I am not allowed to be miserable and I have to play ball! And I do get into it and have fun.

We stay at home for christmas (children like to be at home I have found and travelling is a pain) and do all the traditional things - eating a lot, opening presents, drinking a lot (me not them!). It is just relaxing. We try to get out for a walk and talk to lots of people on the phone but other than that we just indulge and stay inside.

We traditionally go to a party on Christmas Eve during the day so that is nice and means the children are so exhausted that they do sleep.

I'm lucky in that mine always sleep through till 8 or 9am the next morning - none of that dawn waking here!!

I am off to Australia on 3 Feb. I could have gone earlier but I wasn't sure about spending Christmas in summer either.

Anonymous said...

Christmas will be odd for me this year...spending it in Spain won't be the usual, but at least my family will be there!

Mac said...

I wish I could sleep through it, there should be a pill for that.I think that's just my state of mind this year though

You make it sound quite fun and I hope it's a good one.

justme said...

This will be my first ever xmas day spent entirely on my own. I have mixed feelings about it. I HOPE that it will be better than the last couple have been. I intend to be self indulgent and eat and drink lots! I shall probably end up on the internet......
Yours sounds lovely, and I hope you have a wonderful time!