Christmas

I adore Christmas and all it entails 🎄🤶🏻🎅🏻🧑‍🎄

I do still love Christmas even though it’s now very different from Christmas when I was a child. Growing up apart of a big family and even though my parents both worked money was very tight.
I remember the winters being freezing getting snowed in 1963 all we had was one coal fire in the living room. The windows were iced up on the inside the whole house was cold.
We didn’t get much a stocking with fruit a bar of chocolate and a penny. One toy and always a colouring in book with crayons. We had a lovely Christmas dinner and we all appreciated what we received from Father Christmas.

Christmas is the best. Just love everything about it🎄

I do (Tiley),. I keep as many traditions as is practical even though we are alone this year we are still looking forward to a lovely Christmas dinner wit all the trimmings. My husband has made the pudding and that is always delicious and I have made a traditional cake but no icing and marzipan in a nod towards healthy eating. . Have a lovely Christmas. x

I love it.

Me too Tiley I’ve been lucky and it’s always been a magical family occasion.

I love it, it has changed over the years but we are a large family and always have a lovely time . This year my son and DIL are doing Christmas day for 20 of us , my son does most of the cooking and we all help with what ever else needs doing , my five grandchildren will be there the eldest is 23 the youngest is 18 months and last but not least my mother who is 95 !

I do like Christmas but realise it can be hard for some. We are estranged from our eldest daughter, though have a close relationship with our three other daughters and their GCs, so is tough. But the special occasions always are.

I'm afraid I'm the opposite. I hate xmas and always have, even as a child.

Special occasions are tough in our family too so Christmas isn’t quite the same.

I used to love Christmas but sadly I don't feel (so far) that I've "the heart" for it, this year. I can only think about the state of the world and so many who are needing help. Also charities are struggling; I can't help as many as I'd like. Perhaps I'll feel more "Christmassy" when we take the decorations from the loft and bring in the Christmas tree.

I've wondered for years why I always feel sad in the run up to
Christmas and I still don't have the answer. But I'm not alone in this, I suspect.
My childhood Christmases were not particularly happy, maybe that's why. And I find all the commercialism hard to understand.
But I hate being a party pooper, so I hope it is a happy time for everyone and that next year the world can find some peace.

Have a great Christmas Tiley. 🥂

You sure have a houseful Surfing Sal. Merry Christmas everyone

I pretend to dislike it but I really don't. I just wish people wouldn't start it so early.

We are still in Advent and schools don't break up for another two weeks so it is this, 'Christmas starts in November and ends on Boxing Day' business that gets me!

Also people wrapping up all their presents before December- why?

I too used to love Christmas, but without my late DH, all the memories are tinged with sadness. I try to be upbeat but the tears are always near the surface.
It is lovely to be with family, but there are no children now. The GSs are grown up, and somehow the magic of Christmas has gone with their childhood.

I do so agree with you keepingquiet. In my opinion Christmas should not dominate the last two months of the year. This frenetic anticipation seems like wishing your life away.

Greenfinch

I do so agree with you keepingquiet. In my opinion Christmas should not dominate the last two months of the year. This frenetic anticipation seems like wishing your life away.

I agree, and is just a money making racket, nothing to do with religion. Also all the family and friend bon homie on the telly makes it look as if nobody is homeless, bereaved, or completely alone at this time of year. Must be horrible for those who are just trying to keep their heads down until it is all over.

Babs03

Greenfinch

I do so agree with you keepingquiet. In my opinion Christmas should not dominate the last two months of the year. This frenetic anticipation seems like wishing your life away.

I agree, and is just a money making racket, nothing to do with religion. Also all the family and friend bon homie on the telly makes it look as if nobody is homeless, bereaved, or completely alone at this time of year. Must be horrible for those who are just trying to keep their heads down until it is all over.

Yup.

Romola

I too used to love Christmas, but without my late DH, all the memories are tinged with sadness. I try to be upbeat but the tears are always near the surface.
It is lovely to be with family, but there are no children now. The GSs are grown up, and somehow the magic of Christmas has gone with their childhood.

When we grow up we begin to realise that this is what Christmas is about: how do we get through the dark winter days without our loved ones being here?

Someone I know recently broke up with a long term girlfriend. The first thing he did? Went out and bought the biggest Christmas tree he could find and decorated it with lights and tinsel.

Christmas, whether you are Christian or not, is simply an act of defiance against the pain and the loss we undergo in our lives.

So despite another close bereavement this year we shall celebrate just the same, as my loved one did after losing a little child.

I think this dark aspect to Christmas is often overlooked in the buying and gorging that goes on- but when you have been there you know that we have to celebrate the light returning.

The hope in the infant and yes, the sheer joy on a child's face, even if that joy was long ago. No one can take away those precious Christmas memories.

I wish you peace at least Romola, this Christmas.

A 10th December from years ago is forever etched on my brain, since that was when my mother phoned me in tears, to say the GP had just told her that my father was dying.
He died exactly a month later, 10th January.

That Christmas was very sad, but my father was always a very jolly, cheerful type, who’d certainly never have wanted to be the cause of sad Christmases, so after the first year, we made a real effort not to let it cloud the season.

I am very much on my own now, and Christmas is just another day for me. I do have a really good meal, starting Christmas Eve, opening a bottle of wine, and hoping there will be something reasonable to watch on TV.

Yes, Tiley, I love Christmas, everything about it. It’s my favourite time of year. What a miserable few dark, cold weeks we would have without it. I’ve always enjoyed all the preparations too - today I’ll be getting down the decoration boxes to sort through and making the almond icing for the cakes. We went to two of the grandsons’ Christmas concerts last week, on Saturday I saw my lovely great niece performing in a seasonal murder mystery, and my DDIL and I made wreaths nearly as big as our front doors yesterday at a lovely workshop with warm mince crumble and mulled wine. I even enjoy writing the cards, with a Christmas film on the telly and another mulled wine. There may be a pattern emerging here.

Is there any point getting an early diagnosis for Denentia? We don't need any intervention at present