Are you a Christmas Scrooge or Bob Cratchit?
Our family love Christmas. Saint Mick of Thana turns into Bob Crachit, full of Christmas spirit and good will. He is generous to a fault and surpasses even Tiny Tim in his kindness. The girls are full of Christmas cheer. They don their Christmas pudding earrings and Santa hats with aplomb. In accordance with family tradition we all play Christmas songs loudly in the car from November onwards.
My personal Christmas highlight has always been the school carol concert. This year I’m back in the UK so missed it, but now both girls have graduated from school it would have probably been too bitter sweet to attend anyway.
To be truthful Christmas does feel a little bit strange this year. I think it is because although we only have a week to go we are still not all together as a family. In fact, I had a full on row with the staff in Morrison’s the other day. I was definitely in the ‘right’ but uncharacteristically (I hope) I did react as a bit of a Christmas Scrooge. I have needed to remind myself it is more important to be kind than to be right? Anyway … what about you …
Where are you on the Scrooge Scale?
- If you have completed your Christmas shopping but then see the absolute perfect gift for a friend would you still buy them it?
- Do you view giving Christmas cards as a chore or a joy?
Do you write a Christmas letter about the previous year?
- Are you the first to give Christmas cards to friends and family or do you only give them to people who give them to you?
- Do you recycle gifts?
- Do you smile at facebook posts from people who have put their trees up early?
- Do you work longer hours than usual in December so as to avoid the build up to Christmas?
- Do you believe in Father Christmas?
- Do you look forward to Boxing Day when you can return your unwanted Christmas gifts and buy what you’d really like?
- Do you give more to charity at Christmas than you might usually do?
- Do you own Christmas pyjamas?
- Do you open your gifts before or after breakfast on Christmas day?
- Do you own a Christmas jumper?
- Do you own a Christmas hat?
- Can you name five Christmas films? Do you have a favourite?
- Does the idea of a ‘white Christmas’ excite you as much now as when you were a child? (if you live in a climate where it is a possibility).
Christmas Loneliness
I’ll pass no comment on the responses, but feel relieved that perhaps I’m not too much of a Scrooge after all. Actually, as I write this I have Coronation Street on the TV. Playing in the background of the soap opera is the song ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ which is juxtaposed against Barbara Knox, playing Rita Fairclough, crying into her photo album, bereft with loneliness. It is a pertinent reminder to add ‘Do you check on your elderly neighbours?’ to the above list. I guess that is the key way to demonstrate the kindness of Tiny Tim.
Christmas Spirit
Reflecting back, over the years our Christmases have been very different. From safari trips and hot air ballooning in the Serengeti when we lived in Tanzania, to scrumptious all you can eat and drink lunches at our favourite Sheraton Grande restaurant in Bangkok to wonderful lunches with the most delicious food you can imagine at my brother’s and his wife’s house we have always been very lucky at Christmas time. This year Annie comes home tomorrow so then Christmas can really begin. I am sure that any lingering Scrooge will dissipate completely with the joy of her arrival. (For a day or two at least anyway!)