Getting the Christmas decorations out, I found the Santa bought the year our boy-child was born. Image: Su Leslie, 2015
Zimmerbitch
age is just a (biggish) number
Getting the Christmas decorations out, I found the Santa bought the year our boy-child was born. Image: Su Leslie, 2015
Zimmerbitch 
One minute it’s their first Christmas, and the next . . . they are all grown up. Life is all smoke and mirrors.
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That’s so true Mary.
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We give the boys a Christmas decoration each year. (They got one from Nepal this year!) That way, when they eventually leave home, they’ll have some decorations for their own tree. They are the first decorations to be put on the tree each year and I love the memories they bring.
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I’m so loving reading about others’ Christmas traditions and rituals. I adore celebrations and work really hard at creating rituals around events. Christmas tree decorations are such powerful memory-tokens; I can imagine in the future, your boys decorating their trees and sharing the memories and stories — as I hope my boy-child will do too. Cheers, Su.
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Does he still like to decorate the tree?
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He lost interest a couple of years ago, which is a shame because it used to be a big deal for us, complete with elaborate meal that I’d be cooking while the boys put the tree up. We’ve done away with a proper “tree” and now have one made of light. The decorations go into bowls which get distributed around the house. The only tradition the boy-child still really loves is his home-made advent calendar. I wonder why!
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Ha! I am not surprised about the Advent Calendar! I like the idea of bowls of Christmas decorations. We don’t ‘do’ Christmas anymore as far as trees and lights etc go, unless we are hosting the family Christmas.
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I can’t resist tinsel and lights 🙂
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Su, I’m ready to start decorating as well! I love Christmas and even though it will only be the two of us until after mid-month, the house will be decorated and enjoyed. We’ve given the girls ornaments and so have their grandparents, so one day they’ll have lots of their own with special memories. Our older daughter just included on her Christmas list that one gift might be the gift of her ornaments to take back with her.
janet
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Hi Janet. Our Christmases are always very small and low-key. My family is overseas and T’s family don’t really “do” Christmas. But I still love decorating the house, and still make an advent calendar for the boy-child, and we have a few other seasonal rituals that have developed over the years. Like you, I buy Christmas ornaments as gifts and telling the stories of each of them is part of the process of decorating. That and a couple of glasses of champagne!
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A fun photo. I will be getting a new tree and decorations this year – we need to be a bit more festive.
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It’s lovely how getting a tree and decorating it can make people feel good. We have done away with a “proper” tree; we’re all a bit allergic to pine and don’t really want an artificial one. We’ve strung up some lights in a tree shape and filled bowls and platters with decorations. Given that the boy-child is hardly home, it’s what suits us best and I’m loving it.
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We are determined to enjoy Christmas this year – for the first time without my daughter as she has a job in Wellington. We want to set new traditions.
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Congratulations to your daughter on her job. Though it will be hard not having her at home for Xmas. We seem to be re-inventing our celebrations every year as our lives change. This year the Big T gets back from a business trip to the US on Xmas Eve, so it is going to be a very low-key Christmas in our house.
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There is always Skype which makes it a lot easier to bear.
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These memories are so precious. I think my daughter keeps an ornament that my parents bought for my first Christmas tree 🙂 Sometimes things are more than they appear 🙂
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That is a lovely way of putting it Ines. We cling on to the smallest ephemeral objects precisely because they contain so much more than they could ever appear to.
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When I was a child, the only Christmas decorating we had in the house was the tree – a real one with a hodge-podge assortment of decorations. I LOVED the tree each year.
Now, as an adult, it is my least favourite decoration and I would happily not have a tree at all … but the boys – adults themselves – still love coming home to one. I guess it is one of the things that we cling to … that our childhood memory of Christmas doesn’t change when we go home.
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For as long as the Big T and I have been together, he’s gone out every year and bought a tree — a real pine, complete with falling needles. He is really allergic to pine, but hates artificial trees. I loved the process of decorating it, and so did the boy-child, but I really wasn’t crazy about endlessly cleaning up pine needles. Our decision to go minimalist and create a light tree has been one of the best we’ve made. The boychild kinda misses the tree decorating, but is hardly home these days anyway. I’m not sure what we’ll do in future when (hopefully) he’ll be coming home for Xmas. We may have to go back to something traditional for the old memories it will invoke and the new ones it will create.
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Maybe that’s my problem. We haven’t had a real tree in years. There is something special about the smell of pine in house, the imperfection of the branches, and of course, the gentle tinkling of needles falling off the tree 😉
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… and the soft hum of the vaccuum cleaner sucking them up 🙂
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hahaha! – yes, I forgot that one!
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Wow!So old and well-preserved!It looks as if it were brand-new!It carries so many cherised moments with it,dear Su 🙂 xxx
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Thank you dear Doda. Poor Santa is definitely looking a bit loved. Some of the edging has detached, and he has some smears of pine sap from the “olden days” of the real Xmas Tree. But he still evokes many memories. Not least of walking through the John Lewis department store in Milton Keynes where he was bought — heavily pregnant and full of expectation. I remember that feeling when I look at my boy-child even now. Wishing you a very happy weekend my dear friend. xxx
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Oh,so much behind this old Santa, which looks new despite the signs of time!I am sure you’ll never dispose of him and you’ll pass it down to the boy-child.Happy weekend to you too 🙂 xxx
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You are right Doda. I have no idea what happened to the wonderful tree ornaments that my parents had when I was a child (lost in one of the many moves probably), so I cherish ours and the stories that go with them so that the boy-child will have this thread to his childhood to share when he has a family of his own. No matter how tatty Santa has become!!! All my best to you my friend. xxx 🙂
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Yes!Isn’t it wonderful?I am sure you would love to have some of that old family ornaments.My sister and I have kept some and every Christmas we relive those wonderful family moments with mum.Dad is still here … 🙂
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