Christmas came even earlier this year, with the shelves of the supermarkets festooned with gifts and decorations in October!! I always thought Christmas was reined back in France, that glitz and commercial music were less popular, but in fact, it’s become like anywhere else, much to my dismay.The fact they were holding a Black Friday sale in the kids’ clothes shops said it all!!
Up until end of November I was feeling very scroogish about it all. Most of my Christmas, I would feel like that, until this year…!
If I was to put my finger on it, it was probably my desire to have a more participative Christmas with my family, where we actually agreed together what we could do to make it as meaningful as possible.
One of my aims was actually to help DD and DS realise that Christmas is not just about receiving but about giving. Not that it stops here. But is part of an ongoing mission to be generous. So we keep a chart every day in December. I sign the days they have been extra thoughtful and in turn they get a surprise or gift. Unsurprisingly, it became a bit of a competition especially when some marbles were up for grabs! but I drew the line at helping to stack the dishwasher or tidying up their rooms as being “generous”!! We stripped down our Christmas, using our reusable advent calendars instead of buying more. They still love using the nativity calendars and seeing them play it out, was like MAdeleine or Théo’s first Christmas all over again – long may it last. When they grow up, will they also wonder, like I did, what is all this for? Will they become scroogish? Yes, and no, because after all it is just a part of growing up!
Instead of a tree, I have created a decorative Christmas arrangement – just some branches given to me by a neigbhbour in a huge vase which I got second-hand, and articifical foliage from Maisons du Monde (a present to myself!). Just as fun as a tree, the kids decorated some baubles themselves and added some from previous Christmases.
The third way that we have tried to think a bit more about the meaning behind the season is to help others have a better time. Yes, I had to admit that Santa doesn’t come to family, every year. The magic died a little but we put magic into it, by preparing some gifts for a family thanks to a wonderful lady, Ruth Louis, who started this project to give to needy families through the Société de Saint-Vincent-De-Paul in Lyon.
I’m glad to say that doing all thi definitely helped bury the Scrooge, and bring out the Santa Claus in us. I love the anticipation for my kids, particularly because our youngest will be celebrating his first Christmas this year, making sure he doesn’t miss out!
Happy Christmas to you and a prosperous, healthy and happy 2018 as the French would say!
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