Merry Christmas!

What Christmas Means To Me

When I was young Christmas was bitter-sweet. The good side was that we sometimes saw my grandmother (Mumma) who I loved… the down side was I never felt close to the rest of my family. With Mumma everything was happy. I remember her ferns and the tree frogs and that she always went out of her way to make you feel happy. She was loving and caring for a young girl who was a stranger to affection and positive attention.

For the rest of my Christmas’s I struggled with feelings of abandonment and disappointment. Neither parent was capable of the love a child needed for reasons of their own so by the time I was an early adult I blankly boycotted Christmas and rejected anything that even looked like Christmas. In fact for over a decade I rebelled against a great deal of mainstream society, commercialism and family tradition.

It has only been through many painful life events that have brought me to my knees and helped me to realise slowly, the deep longing inside for family, human connection and the magic of Christmas. Bit by bit I return to the little girl inside me who loves the sparkling, shining anticipation that offers presents, yummy dinners and a few kind words from Mumma.

Over the last seven years I have been re-claiming Christmas with differing degrees of success, largely depending on the events of the year before. My girls gave me the special gift of a new family who loved me and wanted to share happiness and magic.

These days Christmas holds the promise of celebrating and embracing new concepts of family I largely did not have in my childhood. It offers opportunities to give to my girls and share with friends. It also opens the possibility of valuing myself and decorating my house in ways that temporarily make everything shine. Now I can appreciate Christmas in ways I have not before! Most of all, I have learnt to appreciate the people in my life who bring happiness and joy.  So this is what Christmas means to me!!!

 

I would love to hear what Christmas Means to you?

 

 

 

3 Responses to “Merry Christmas!”

  • Hazel Treloar:

    I was quite touched by what Christmas means to you….will add my thoughts later..Hazel

    Reply
  • Hazel Treloar:

    I have always loved Christmas. To me it is a time when the family gets together. In these days when family are scattered around the world it is especially important to be in contact just for a short time by whatever means available, whether it is a phone call, a text message, skypeing…just the contact is so precious. My particular Christmas habit is to gather as many family members as possible together in our home for a few hours about one week before Christmas, an early Christmas celebration. We have four married sons. Their wives enjoy going to visit their parents for Christmas. I like to do this. I often have no idea what we will do on Christmas Day, until the last minute. We often end up spending the day with friends, a quiet time. Being together is what is important. We are a large family. There are thirteen grandchildren and four great grandchildren. All the children know us. This is important. It gives them a sense of belong and feeling important. Yes, christmas is for families and especially Christmas is for little childrn….Hazel T

    Reply
    • Vanessa Bushell:

      Hi Hazel, I love your idea about being together is what really matters. I agree, our family and friends are precious and it’s great to see how aware you are of this! Thank you for sharing your Christmas and your family with us.

      Lots of love and Merry Christmas
      Vanessa

      Reply