Festive Feelings

Ah December! Christmas has overtaken everything, the shops are full of festive cheer {and a million quirky gift sets to buy}, I’ve Christmas Carols on repeat in head and a to-do list a mile long.

I love this time of year. December always feels like it is full of magic. I can leave the commercialism, and the gift sets, and the adverts showing me all the latest gadgets I ‘must have’. What I love is having a month full of cheer, endless Christmas crafts, catching up with friends, Christmas markets and parties, baking Christmas treats, planning out the kiddos stockings, evenings spent with the fairy lights twinkling and a movie on the TV.

To me, it’s about spending time with loved ones and keeping up traditions.

Our tree arrived on Friday, so, as we do every year, we decorated it on the 1st. It’s the perfect way to kick off a month of festivities. Coming together for a couple of hours, going through the box of decorations that we have collected over the years, reminiscing about Christmases past. Decorating the tree, and the house, watching our first Christmas movie, eating lots of yummy food, cracking open the first box of Christmas chocolates {and the first bottle of Christmas booze}.

Family time. It’s what makes my world go around. Having my five little {and not so little} people altogether, despite the arguments and cross words that are inevitable.

It’s spending time together. Laughing and making plans. Watching old favourites on the TV. Making crafts that we’ve done every year since the girls were little. Teaching the little ones our traditions. Singing songs. Decorating gingerbread houses. Drying orange slices to hang up.

The kiddos love the run up to Christmas just as much as me. It’s more important than any gifts or presents. I won’t lie – the kiddos love walking in to the living room on Christmas Day and seeing the piles of gifts under the tree. And I love watching their faces as they open gifts they’d hoped for – but not expected. While I don’t go crazily overboard with gifts, I do like to be able to spoil them just a little at Christmas. They’re good kids, and don’t ask for much all year long, so it’s nice to give them some treats this time of year.