George
Picture this. It's Christmas morning and you are huddled around the tree as a child with your siblings and parents. You are sat there in those 'lame' Christmas pyjama sets that your Mum Purchased for you and your siblings to wear for the family Christmas photo. Your parents are looking groggy, as they cautiously sip their third coffee, in between yawns, from being woken up at five am. The open fire is roaring and pushing some serious heat into the otherwise frosty room. Some Christmas tunes play faintly in the background and you can smell the mulled wine, that your Mum stated was not too early to be put on, mixed with the pine leaves of the Christmas tree. You are all gathering around the tree excited to open your gifts as a family. What a perfect Christmas day.
Christmas seemed a simpler time as a child, just being excited to receive presents and eat chocolate all day. That is what we all remember from our childhoods and we remember them well. But I must ask you this, what were your favourite gifts as a child you ever received? I can't honestly remember mine, but what I can remember are the nuanced details of the scene above for every Christmas morning. Strange isn't it that we remember the experience of Christmas day, as opposed to those material items we 'needed' so much at the time.
One of the first Christmas I remember I was maybe five or six years old. We had this massive lively room and it was coloured yellow and blue; yes that was the style in the naughties. I remember my Dad putting a Christmas CD on as he and Mum groggily got up to open presents with my brother and I. It was like the scene above, although mine and my brother's gifts were always separated so there was no fighting or mixing up of the gifts. Anyway, my excited three-year-old brother went to open his first gift from Santa and it was a bottle of Radox. Like any three-year-old, the poor boy starts crying as what does a three-year-old want with that? He of course thought he must of been naughty and was being punished. Turns out 'Santa' had mixed up his Christmas presents with our Nana's birthday presents. Silly Santa! This is one of my favourite Christmas memories, which I cherish and all look back on now with my family.
Another Christmas I remember vividly was when I was around ten years old. My Mum had promised that if I stayed awake until ten she would let me go into the lounge and watch the Charllote Chruch Christmas special; again a popular naughties figure. I managed to stay up and then we ate after eight's and watched it together. We giggled away and drank tea next to the massive Christmas tree and had a great time and sing-a-long. My dad knew nothing about it, until now, sorry dad! But I think the secret made it even more special.
The final Christmas memory I want to mention is from when I was about thirteen and my brother and I learnt the words to a famous Christmas song and performed it for our parents with a little dance on Christmas Eve. Our Dad even filmed it on his video camera. We felt like singers having our own little music video; again in matching Christmas pyjamas. I remember thinking we were giving our parents the world, with this world-class concert performance, when in reality we both looked rather stupid. It is only now when I look back that I realise we were giving our parents the world, a silly moment with their children to cherish.
Think about your Christmases as a child and read the three stories above. Can you remember any gifts, given or received from your childhood and teenage years? What do you remember about Christmas time? I'm willing to bet it's odd stories and quirks like my examples above. In this case, the gift of Christmas isn't what you receive, it is the precious time spent with family making memories. I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes from Burton Hills ' The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.' Have a merry Christmas with your family this year.
