What Christmas Means To Me
What Christmas means to me
I appreciate that Christmas means something different to each of us, but when I look at this picture I am filled with memories of what Christmas means to me.
When I was a child my family celebrated Christmas the only way I knew how. On the 12th of December we would decorate the inside of our house (usually only the lounge) with decorations we had made together. Growing up in a small country town in New Zealand, it was not a custom to decorate the outside of the house. My sisters and I would make lots of different decorations for the lounge and the tree.
· We would concertina two colours of crepe paper.
· We used to get the metal tops from the glass milk bottles, (not that they exist now) mould them over the lemon juicer to make a nice shape and then thread them together.
· We’d get coloured paper and cut small strips to make circles, and then loop them together to make a paper chain.
· We would blow up balloons and hang them in bunches around the room.
A real, green pine Christmas tree, with coloured lights and handmade trinkets would be the focal point of the room. The red, green and white decorations that filled the room with colour, is what Christmas meant to us as a family.
The smell of pine would fill the house and combined with the smell of Mum cooking the Christmas cakes and other cakes and biscuits in preparation for visitors, it was an unforgettable aroma. And let’s not forget singing along to Christmas carols and songs in the lead up to Christmas. This is what Christmas meant to me.
While my grandparents were alive we would alternate Christmas dinners. We would feast on goose (later replaced with chicken), a leg of ham (later it was mutton ham which was just as nice as the pork ham). New potatoes and mint peas, and of course other seasonal vegetables. Our desert was jelly, fruit salad, pavlova and trifle.
Father Christmas would always visit us and we were thrilled to find that he had left us fruit, lollies, nuts, coloured pencils and colouring books, a doll and dolls clothes and one year I remember a new bike.
To be honest, I love Christmas. I am very fortunate that my husband had shared similar childhood experiences. For the majority of our children’s childhood we did not live in the same country as our family and I noticed that their Christmas was not the same as mine had been. Our children are loved and given wonderful presents and we have the most wonderful feast. But we did not have family around us to share our experiences. Family can be very beneficial especially at this time of the year.
When I asked my children what signified Christmas to them, their response was FAMILY. The few times they spent with all our family was enough to know what they missed out on every other Christmas when we could not be together. The fact that they have shared that experience is enough for them to know what the true spirit of Christmas really is.
What about you, what does Christmas mean to you? What are your favourite childhood memories of Christmas? Leave me your memories; I am sure my other readers would love to hear your story.
© By Vicki Williams, Director, Coachingbyrovick.com.au
Since writing this article I have had many people say that this has hit a nerve or bought back a flood of memories. This is great. I am so pleased that you have taken the time to think back to what Christmas was for you, we get so busy that we forget to reflect on memories like this.
One person told me that they had forgotten all about their childhood Christmas memories and now that they have them fresh in their mind they were going to share them with their children so that they could recreate a tradition that had been forgotten through the generations.
I have other Christmas articles on this blogsite that I urge you to read and reflect on, some of them may just assist you in moving through Christmas with the least amount of stress.
What a flood of memories you brought back to me. Brought the tears too. Memories of spending Christmas in Kaiapoi with the family and grandchildren and extended family. Each year going to another family member’s house. Everyone pitching in to help making it a great time. Christmases have not been the same since you moved away. Christmas without family can be a very lonely time.
When I was a child we had Christmas celebrations with plenty of goodies to eat. Sharing presents with family and friends. The worst part was the ritual from my mother. As we had had some rich food, we needed a good clean out….. with a dose of licorice powder dissolved in water. Yuk!!!! it was horrible. Doreen
Hi there Vicki
What a great idea this is, though it would be better if we could choose our own password as I am given one with 12 letters and numbers.
Yes Christmas is a wonderful time and I love it too Vicki, interesting though that with christmas nearing, so many people I talk to don’t love it the way we do. Many of them have family issues that spoil it for them and some of my close personal friends have family issues that I can’t even comprehend, and they really just would rather christmas goes away. It has made me realise how lucky we really are and that even though we don’t get to share christmas together, what we have made for ourselves and our families fill in the gaps for those who are not with us in presence but always in thought.
Anyway I do love it and even though I may not always be organised early I always am ready on the day.
I guess the most important thing to all of our family is tradition. We always make it the same every year, and make it special, none of the cold picnic at the beach or park stuff for us. Always the traditional hot turkey and veges, lots of traditional puddings at lunch time, get stuffed full, then the kids all go and have tea with their respective families, cold left overs for tea (if there is any space) with anyone else that cares to pop in or has no family to share with.
This year will be a big break from tradition for us with Neville not going to be able to spend christmas day with us as he will be down south with race horses, not a good thing for either of us and to be honest I am hoping it won’t be a regular thing for us, if so it will blow tradition out the window for us and I guess we will have to make some new ones.
Have a great christmas everyone, make it so, where ever you are or who ever you are with.
Diane
I love Christmas! To me it is about family, good friends, good food and wine and giving presents. i love the Christmas carols too and midnight mass.
It is interesting when I hear people complain about family stresses at Christmas, how they don’t want to spend the day with this person or that. For me Christmas was so different, as there was just my parents and my sister with all of our family in England. I used to envy my friends having all their family around. Sometimes it is good to just appreciate what you have and be grateful that you are able to spend Christmas with your family.
We are very fortunate this year to have my in-laws staying and some of our closest friends for Christmas dinner- other “orphans” from NZ!
My Mum sure made up for not having family to share Christmas day with. It was open home at our house and all day different friends would call round for our extended champagne breakfast. It became our tradition. We would eat non-stop all day then have a ham or chicken for Christmas dinner with roast vegies followed by trifle for desert. It was loads of fun!
Thankyou Vicki for reminding me of all those happy Christmases.
Merry Christmas everyone!