In The Twelve Wishes of Christmas, Sharmila gets the chance to experience Christmas for the first time. Writing her story, I often thought about what made the festive period so special for me as a child and what makes it special now with my children. For this post, I thought I’d share some of those memories with you.
Growing up, my family celebrated Christmas in a BIG way, and I wanted to make sure I created that same joy I used to feel for my children.
The festive period always begins for me when we put up the Christmas tree and start decorating. My mother used to decorate our home beautifully. She has an artistic skill that I could never match so I have adopted the quantity over quality approach, and I admit I may go a little bit overboard, although I haven’t put inflatables on the roof…yet.
As a child, our tree was usually artificial but nowadays we’re lucky that we live very near a Christmas tree farm. When my children were young, our tradition was to go to the farm on the first weekend in December to pick out our tree and each child could choose one new ornament from the small shop there. As my children became teenagers, they were less excited about choosing the tree but I still get that thrill walking up the rows of firs trying to find the right one. (I think my husband knows exactly how Zach felt while he waited for Sharmila’s perfect tree to call out to her.)
Of course, I can’t talk about Christmas without mentioning presents. As a child, there were always piles of them under the tree. Although I never thought about it at the time, now I marvel at how, in between their incredibly busy jobs and looking after us, my parents still managed to find time to buy, hide and wrap so many presents. Particularly since those were the days before giant online retailers so my parents would have had to stand and queue one shop after another. I shudder at even the thought of doing that.
Growing up there was never any pretence that Santa delivered our presents. We all knew my parents bought them for us. With all the effort they put in, I think they definitely deserved the acknowledgement. But I did want my children to believe in Santa Claus. The children would leave out offerings for Santa, although there was always a debate about what we would leave out. I suggested milk and bread while my husband suggested wine and cookies – you can guess who was pretending to be Santa in our family. And we would use the NORAD Tracker to see where Santa was on his journey and encourage the children to get into bed. Unfortunately, Santa was usually over Italy before my children actually fell asleep.
For Christmas Day itself, dinner has to be the biggest tradition. If you ask my sisters or brother, we would all say the turkey is what stands out. It was always, without fail, a little bit on the dry side. (I say a little bit in case my mother’s reading this). But for us, that was perfect because it meant there would be plenty of leftovers and my mother could make her famous ‘Turkey Jhal Jhal’ – dry-fried turkey with chillies and spices. Delicious! I think we gradually ate less turkey on Christmas Day so we could have more leftovers. Nowadays, I’m in charge of preparing the turkey and it is, to be honest, cooked to perfection. But nobody looks forward to my leftovers.
As a child, the highlight after lunch would be all the Christmas TV. That was the only time of year we would buy the TV Times and we circled the programmes we wanted to watch. I loved watching the musicals like Meet me in St Louis or White Christmas but it was also the time of year that the latest blockbuster would be available on TV. Nowadays, with streaming services, waiting to get the latest movies isn’t always as special, which could be why my daughter claims that our current after-lunch tradition is taking long naps. After that, we usually spend the evenings playing our newest boardgames.
But the one constant for Christmas, growing up and now, is getting to spend time with my family amid all the love and laughter. Last year it was tough not having everyone around. But this year, the anticipation and excitement have already started and I can’t wait to celebrate with my loved ones around me.
If you celebrate, what makes the festive period special for you?
Ruby x
The Twelve Wishes of Christmas is available to download now.
