To me Christmas is a time for families to be together and a time to treat our children and grandchildren.

In the present climate, Christmas, for the majority, appears to have little to do with religion, even though that is the historical ‘reason’ for this festival. Ostensibly about the birth of Christ, it is now little more than a ‘money making exercise’ for shops and businesses that starts around August. For many, it has become merely a time to overindulge in food and drink and increase debts.

Normally our gifts, mostly for family, are personal, individual, limited and very modest in price, but this year I have changed tack. They are all busy people, and I want to make their lives a bit easier, so this year each household is getting one combined present to share – a robot hoover, and bought on-line.

I was given one by our son when I was very ill about six years ago, and it remains my ‘household friend’. It has had replacement bits, easily bought and exchanged – new for worn out, and is still doing a stalwart job. I still smile as I remember, one evening (when it was a new) I switched on the light ‘for it to see’ as it cleaned a room’s carpet! Why? I have no idea – just a lapse! A bit on a par with sitting watching my first automatic washing machine!

When I was young, though we had Christmas events at school, Christmas really started on Christmas Eve when the tree was decorated. Mum had made the Christmas cake and pudding several weeks before, but they had been wrapped and put away. On Christmas day we visited Dad’s parents for Christmas dinner and tea. Grandma either fell or cut her finger most years, so as a little girl, as I loved my Grandma, I was never quite ‘free’ from anxiety until dinner was over and she sat down. We played a lot of games and sang round the piano. On Boxing Day we had tea at Mum’s parents. The grandparents and other relatives came back for tea, and though the grandparents knew each other, never the twain did meet except at weddings. After these two occasions, that was that! Christmas was over.

Time passed, our Grandparents aged, and as we lived just down the road from Dad’s parents, the Christmas festivities were moved to our house.

During my teenage years, the highlight was going carol singing round the village, starting at midnight on Christmas Eve. After little sleep, Christmas day became a day of helping Mum to cater for about seventeen people. After a delicious dinner, the washing up faded into a repetitive ‘fog’ of tureens, side-plates and ‘ be careful not to break’ best china.

Christmas changed when Dad died. It was different and special in later years with our own children’s excitement, but Dad ‘made’ Christmas for the family. He led the carol singing round the village, carved the turkey, organised the card games in the evening, and I can still ‘hear’ his fine tenor voice as we sang round the piano, with him choosing and me playing . Not only did he disappear with his infectious enthusiasm, but something more ‘intangible’ also vanished, never to return. Maybe it was simple progress of time and the passing of an era, but I don’t think so.

Today, carols lose their meaning after being played loudly in shops and on the radio for several weeks before Christmas and eventually become simply annoying, and the traditional Christmas trees erected in November become almost unnoticed by Christmas. We become habituated to the extended razzle/dazzle, so that it no longer causes any thrill of excitement.

It was not so when I was young, and, though times after the war were difficult and we had very little, even the orange we were each given from Santa, tasted amazing!

As teenagers, after Christmas, a friend and I would take any money we had been given, go into the local town by bus, and we would both buy a new skirt and jumper. It was an all-day event! We chose carefully as these would be the only new clothes we would have that winter.

The modern day generation are used to so much more, resulting in a much stronger sense of ‘need’. But this is inevitably accompanied by a loss of appreciation or/and satisfaction. These qualities cannot be easily learned. It seems that, by and large, Christmas has become no more than an advertising and profit making opportunity, causing but also fuelled by this ‘need’, with a few days off work. The vicars still read the designated scriptures, but a diminishing few appear to be interested or affected.

Having said all this, I am so looking forward to staying with our family, chatting, playing games, singing round the piano and going for walks in the winter air – now it is without having to cook the dinner or even wash up. Old age has limited advantages!

CopyrightACoatesworth