An Ideal Christmas

Think of the 'Last Christmas' Wham video, but without the 'mostly glaring'. Deepncrispneven snow, good mates, good food and a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I would also like my cat to be there, but he gets upset in cars.

However, whilst I will have the cat it will be me, OH and FIL. Again.

Traditional, with the emphasis on Christ!

Flowers like to stay at home on christmas day so I get to do the cooking again, maybe I can get her to do it. I love traditional, we usually wake about 7ish and in the past have had to wake flowers up, when my boys were little they had to wait until 7am before they could come in to our bedroom to open their stockings and one year they decided it would be a good idea to tip them all in the same pile in the middle of one of the bedroom floors but they got mixed up as no names on the presents. Funny after that santa wrapped them in different coloured paper instaed of the same.
This year one of my sons is coming to stay on christmas eve and the inlaws are coming for the day and possibly one of the other boys and his girlfriend. Other than that the boys and girlfriends and my grandson are all coming to me on the saturday after christmas, so that will make 11 of us.

Please stop singing HappyBunny, I'm only a few miles away My Christmas has to be Traditional - if hubby is fit enough we will go to service Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we will eat and be merry - Doctor Who is on TV Getting Blackadder DVD set in. Soup for lunch, dinner is M&S turkey, duck & chicken ballantine (sp?), trifle after. Open my secret santa pressie. Relax all day, prefer not to get out of my jim jams. Boxing Day is the day for family and friends.

I have a barely controlable urge to throw things at the TV whenever the ASDA advert comes on (every 2nd minute seemingly).

Ideal Christmas? Dunno - haven't had it yet.

I love Christmas me , but i think its far too commercialised .Too much pressure is placed on poor families.As a child i remember 1 year when my dad was out of work , i was about 10That was one of the best.Were has all the home made prezzies gone ,such as wooden puzzles home made garages for boys and cots for girls.Plenty of people get into debt at Christmas and theres no need.I light a candle christmas eve to remember my freinds and family whos gone.I prefer tradition , my son still believes and thats ace ,his face is a picturein the morning .I always cook but i love cooking anyway and do it all yeararound .and wheres bond gone pmslHope you all have a great christmas

Last year was pretty perfect! OH and I were alone for Christmas Day - we opened our pressies and played with our new toys, then went for a wonderful long, muddy walk. Had fillet steak and some stunning wine for dinner. Then the whole family arrived and we had a traditional Boxing Day - 20 of us!! Excellent company and silly games with 4 generations!

It'll be the first one with Bean! X

The best christmas ever was the one before my dad died so christmas 1960 just a week before my 6th birthday, although very stressful for mum. I had a dolls pram it was under a sheet in the front room I ran up the stairs to tell dad as he was in bed, mum had lit the fire and next thing the chimney was on fire and I got locked in the house cos everyone else had gone outside including dad. The best because my dad was with us, he died in February 1961 aged 51 christmas was never the same after that.

As a big family, we're getting a bit fed up with all the hype and the expense of buying presents for people that they might not like/want/need etc. This year, my 3 sisters and I have decided to buy for our own off-spring and their children and for each other, missing out BIL's. We've set a price limit of just £5 each with the condition that we have to buy / make / find as many presents as possible within that budget. They can be silly, stupid, useless, useful, whatever We've all had so much fun doing this, I'm already up to 22 presents each with another £1.21 to spend on each. Presents to them from me so far have included home-made marmalade, jelly, pickles, chutney, colouring books, recipe books, (downloaded and printed from tinterweb) freebies from Bella Italia, packets of seeds, do-it-yourself planting kit (toilet roll middles with cut up plastic containers for labels), unwanted presents from previous years etc. Many of the things are totally useless but will give us loads of giggles opening them and will probably be passed back to the sender next year . It's taken away a lot of the stress we've had in previous years, and will give us time to concentrate more on our own children. I do like the "Christ" part of Christmas, hate it when people say "Happy Exmass".

Why is it that I remember Christmas as a child, as being woken up at 11pm on Christmas Eve to walk to Midnight Mass with my Mum and Dad and other sisters, seeing Baby Jesus being put into the cradle during Mass, singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithfull" and coming out of church to see snow falling? That's my idea of a perfect Christmas - being with my Mum and Dad.

A relaxed one!!!
Much as I love my mum...most of my Christmas day memories are of my mum getting incredibly stressed....batters not rising...desserts not eaten...my poor dad daring to open the oven door when asked to check on dinner!!!
Since we've had the kiddies our day has been pretty much the same...Open stockings in bed,eating chocolate for brekkie,popping to see Andi's mum(her birthday).Then getting home at lunchtime & enjoying the rest of the day...and NOTHING spoils it!!One year we didn't have dinner til nearly 8:00 cos the chicken hadn't defrosted!!My house rule is...it's a day for the family...& regardless of what might go wrong....we shrug it off & giggle..."that'll be Christmas ruined!"()
I enjoy the traditional run up stuff too.....Santa's grotto...carol singers..& a carol service the Sunday before.

As a young dad christmas was always perfect. Seeing my kids faces lit up with the whole experience, not just the commercial rubbish, always made that day special for me. As I have got older, I think my fave xmas was my first one in France. We had our best friends over from the UK, plus my daughter, SIL, and first grandchild. Had 12 of us in the house. Boxing day we all drove into the local town, where there is always an ice rink put up, beautifully decorated, and as we all skated round in the cold, it snowed. Just perfect.

I love Christmas, but we both have families (conveniently placed 300 miles apart) who want us there for Christmas. We usually spend Christmas Eve/Day with my familiars, then have to trek off to the in laws for Boxing Day and beyond and do it all over again. So it's the best part of a week away and tons of driving and really not very relaxing!

Now we have our own little family, I'm pressing for change! From next year, I'm hoping that we have the strength to say 'no' a little bit, and get to enjoy our own Christmas with all the trimmings, but with less hassle.

We both madly avoid confrontation though - unfortunately not true of our families... - so we usually end up taking the path of least resistance.

Usually ends up pretty good fun though...

And the Co-op one.

I hope to go to church Xmas Eve, I have a lot to be thankful for and reflect on this year, it will give me an hour or so of peace to do that.
Will likely nip round and visit Steves mum at his sister's house for a bit once the boys get here, and then back home for dinner and relaxing by the TV. I usually obsess about the cooking, but plan to take a more relaxed approach and (shock ) buy some bits and pieces that make it a bit easier.