I have made no secret of it but I freakin’ love Christmas time. Sometimes people try to mess it up with their grinchy ways, but even that has never stopped me from being as enthusiastic as fuck. I love the quality time with the Little Mister – the novelty of school holidays hasn’t worn off yet and there’s so much fun stuff to do. I love giving myself permission to do all of the festive things the moment the 1st of December ticks over! None of this ‘right after Halloween’ shit over here. I am the kind of person who thinks it’s more special to wait until December – not when the big retailers tell me to start buying!
Sure, this year, I have had to start a bit of gift shopping early so I could tick things off before the Little Mister finishes school and I get too fatigued (my belly would give Santa a run for his money right now ho ho ho)! But other than that, the decorations and the baking and the tree have had to wait! I’m a stickler like that!
So you can imagine the level of excitement I feel when the 1st of December arrives!
Here are the things I love doing the most:
Watching the movie Elf
It’s ridiculous, it’s cheesy, it’s got so many hilarious quotes from Will Ferrell’s character Buddy the Elf. I can’t help but love it. I am sure this movie is the kind you either are obsessed with or cannot stand and would rather bash yourself over the head with a blunt object than watch it a second time…but I will never tire of it!
One of the best things I’ve ever done is brainwash the Little Mister into loving it! We sit together and we laugh at every funny line, singing along with every musical number. SO GOOD.
One year, he wanted to be referred to as Buddy the Elf for like two straight weeks. This was the kid who normally couldn’t stand for anyone to call him anything but his full name (first and surname) at the time!
Decorating the tree
It’s messy, I feel like the (plastic) tree we have used for a decade is looking a little tired, and each year I wonder how the hell I have managed to accumulate so many new decorations (oops), but when I see the Little Mister’s happiness and I think about how special it is for his dad to lift him up so he can chuck the star we bought in Kmart on top of that fake foliage, it makes me smile.
The tree never looks Instagram perfect, with the Little Mister putting a bunch of ornaments all on one branch and the tinsel being too sparse, but I really don’t care. It’s perfect to me. I refuse to re-decorate it once he’s out of sight.
We play the least cheesiest Christmas songs we can find and make an occasion out of it. It’s a special time.
Baking
This year might not be quite the same level of fun (thanks to gestational diabetes), but luckily I love the actual process of baking more than I love eating what I’ve made. Well…just. Haha.
I love sharing the experience with the Little Mister, I love giving away the things we make to the people we love. I like all the red and green sprinkles because DUH. The stuff we make at Christmas time is so different to what we make throughout the year. It’s the best.
Maybe I can’t eat any of it this year, but I hope to make up for this come Christmas 2018, I can tell you now! Do you think anyone would care if I had a make up Christmas in July after the baby is here? Would that be breaking my own ‘no Christmas before December’ rule too much? 😜
Preparing for Santa’s arrival
Sometimes (OK so all the time LOL) I miss our before-children tradition of hitting the local bars on Christmas Eve (just to make sure we were nice and seedy by Christmas morning haha), but now I do really get a thrill out of helping the Little Mister to get everything ready for Santa’s overnight visit. We make some goodies for him (and add some carrots for the reindeer). We put the sack out so it can be filled with pressies (Santa’s elves sure like building presents that look just like the stuff from Kmart 🤔). We put a special, magical key out so that Santa can get into the house even though we don’t have a chimney or a fire place (the Little Mister’s very inquisitive and from a very early age we had to think of a way to help Santa so he didn’t freak out about the logistics). We squish up on the Little Mister’s bed and read a Christmas story book together.
One day he will not believe anymore, but I know that he will enjoy helping us to keep the magic alive for his little sister for much longer and that is something I look forward to as well.
The buzzing social atmosphere
We live in the kind of hometown where people tend to spread far and wide, only to return for special times of the year, like Christmas. It’s a great time for catching up with those we have missed throughout the year. There are Christmas parades, pretty lights, barbecues with family friends, the occasional child free lunch on the water (no mojitos for me this time 😩). I think that this year I might be a bit less able to keep up, but it is nice to run into familiar faces around the place and just feel that lovely holiday vibe.
What do you love about December?Â
