A Christmas Wish......................

 

christmas made magical for my own children

Christmas has always been a favourite time of year for me.  From a small child to a grown adult, i have always found something "magical" about it.  I owe that, in part, to the wonderful parents i have, especially to my mother who always made sure everything was so perfect!   Little did i know then of the struggle they both had to achieve such a bountiful indulgence of luxury!

Our house hold consisted of my mother and father, me, Pete and Catherine and my uncle PJ.  He is my fathers brother and lodged with us for many years, in fact i cant remember not having him there as a little girl!  We lived in a corner house at the end of a long terrace. A modest little house which had 3 bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and a small utility area.  We also had an open fireplace on which we burned coal  

During the month of December, we would start getting ready for Christmas at school!   We would be practising the nativity and making lanterns and paper chains to decorate with!  Back in those days, decorating the house wasn't even thought of until the two week build up before the big day!   Christmas adverts would start to be shown on TV  at around the 1st of the month and by the following week mum would have helped us all with our letters to father Christmas!   We had a ritual in our house, we used to lay our letters (with help from mum of coarse) flat on the lit fire, so that the draft would carry it up and out of the chimney!  Singularly, we would run out the front door to watch our letter "pop" out at the top and float up into the sky to the North Pole where Father Christmas lived with all his little elves.  Then the "Christmas Wish" was made!

Soon enough it would be time for the decorations to be put up.  It was then that the fun relay began!  We would have to wait for my father and PJ to come home from work so that the box of decorations could be brought down from the loft.  Dad would normally be the one to go and fetch them while uncle PJ had the job of blowing up the balloons!  I don't think there was ever a Christmas where a row didn't break out over where exactly the paper chains should be hung on the ceiling!  Mum was very precise and wanted them to be in the shape of the "union jack" which fitted the room perfectly!  We had paper bells and balls, lanterns and balloons, a right explosion of festive colour!  Mum also had a reindeer and sleigh with father Christmas and a huge sack of presents on it which took pride and place on the low windowsill.   Then it was time for the tree!  When i was very little, we had an artificial green one, about 4ft.  My mother always insisted that no one else touched it except her (i unfortunately did the same with my own kids)!  She would carefully unwrap the glass babbles and place them on the tree, followed by streamers and chains.  Then came the little fairy, she would always tell us a story about how the "fairy" came to life each night and flew around the living room.  I believed that for many years!  The one thing missing from out tree?  The fairy lights!  She would never have them on account that the house could burn down and us all init as well !

Still, it didn't detract from that first morning we came down the stairs and saw and felt the excitement and anticipation of Christmas!   We still had around two weeks to wait until the day itself and had plenty to keep us occupied in the meantime!   

On the last day of term, after the Nativity play was performed, we would all have our class party!  Music, games, food and fun such wonderful times and all a taste of Christmas that was yet to come!