Christmas - More Christmas - It's Christmas

It’s 10 days from Christmas and I can only thank my parents for the amazing job when I was a little boy, when it came to keeping Christmas magical for as long as possible. I remember the excitement of Christmas Eve the last minute shopping as the day slowed down and the excitement I felt leading to the shout of ‘bedtime’.

I remember going to bed with a plan to catch Santa and would try every year diving under the blankets making a spy hole to watch for is arrival only to fall asleep in my snug warm hidey-hole. Without fail, I would wake up to my sock full of sweets and fruit and rub my head on how he managed to sneak into my bedroom again? I never had the feeling he wouldn’t show up, he always turned up even if it wasn’t snowing.

Never once, can I remember a Christmas that wasn’t magical and wonderful as a kid and I count myself extremely lucky to truly mean it. I know there are many people out there that don’t share this experience or grown out of Christmas, which breaks my heart. It’s a case of each to their own, happy or not just be happy.

I tried my hardest when I became a dad to make December as wonderful for my kids as I could. It wasn’t easy with little available cash but the wife and I tried our best. That one month a year, that is filled with a little something more. More joy, more smiles and more magic. A sort of escape from everyday life, for the entirety of a month. Things Christmassy in school, church, in the streets, in town and in your house. Tree and decorations with strings of cards hung from the wall. To create memories that I hope one day my now adult children will carry on when they have kids of their own.

There’s something so special about Christmas for me. I even love the hectic time we have shopping. All my plans come to the top of my pyramid, which started way back in January. Sounds idiotic but that is how I have always felt and has a lapsed catholic I do understand the spiritual meaning of Christmas. How big I felt walking down the street for midnight mass even if for the first few after it still mend going to church Christmas morning as well.