Summer has gone and clocks will be going back this weekend. The leaves are falling quickly from the trees and the skyline is more often has a grey or black look to it, but don’t despair! Christmas is just around the corner!
One of my favourite times of the year is Christmas, especially when you have five year old twin girls. They still believe in Father Christmas. Oh, I wish I was five to believe that this magical person delivers all the presents to all the children of the world in just one night.
I have to admit I love watching the decorations appear across our cities and towns and hear the Christmas songs being played in our shops. It just gives you the feel good factor and makes you feel like there is nothing wrong in the world. A comparison would be like living in Disneyland 365 days a year. Sadly it’s not the real world.
This time of year is so often a bittersweet moment for me, because it makes me reflect upon my own childhood where christmas was not always the happiest of times filled with festive spirit .It more often was like a war zone in my childhood home. Then my father left for good, I’m not sure I actually saw him again on a Christmas Day, then again I can’t remember sitting down on Christmas Day to eat lunch as a family. I truly have no recollection of that happening. Although it initially had a negative outcome as I entered adulthood, I was able to turn it into a positive approach when I became a dad.
I promised myself when I became a dad for the first time 22 years ago to always celebrate Christmas Day with my children no matter what the circumstances and I have always seen my children on Christmas Day. Even when my first marriage ended I always made sure I saw my three oldest children on Christmas Day even if it was just for an hour, which was more than my own father ever did, but I have reversed the effects of my own childhood. So out of a dysfunctional childhood comes a very positive effect, which I could say thank you to my parents for, not a chance! It was me that changed and broke the cycle of unhappiness. With no help from my parents. I took the negatives and made them positives. Which of course anybody can do, just a shame my parents couldn’t make Christmas just a bit better for me.
Nowadays I am incredibly lucky I have my wife and five children, which is why I love Christmas. This time of the year is filled full of love and laughter and so many memories that will live on forever in my children’s memories.
This is why I love this time of year. Christmas is all about family. Something sadly missing in own childhood, but it will never be missing from my children’s lives.
This year I’m hoping all five of them will be in the same room at the same time which is a very rare thing to happen, but all the money in the world couldn’t buy the happiness I feel at that moment that I see my five little brats together haha!
So roll on Christmas Day. I can’t wait!
Do you love Christmas? I would love to hear.
