Blink and it's over

             Hello, lovelies.

       There are 20 'sleeps' until Christmas. Wrapping the mountain of presents has started. The food is being ordered, and the mince pies are being made. Christmas is almost here. But the list of all the things that are waiting to happen before the 25th is growing larger by the day. Sometimes by the hour. Will we get it all done in time? Can we squeeze everything in before we can sit back and enjoy the festivities? Or are we trying to do too much and are in very great danger of missing out on just about everything? Is there a perfect Christmas? Or are we missing the real point of it all?

            My daughter has just announced to the room at large that there are only 20 sleeps until Christmas day. That’s 19 days until we have to get everything done. All the preparations, all the planning, everything has to be in place for that one day of the year that everything has to be perfect. A clean and tidy house. A mountain of presents all expertly wrapped under the beautifully bedecked tree.  All the Christmas cards individually written and posted out in time. The ‘Thank you’ letters waiting to be sent out once the presents have been opened. The food laid out, prepared and cooked beforehand. And any Christmas traditions need to be organised and carried out. The school Christmas jumper day needs to be remembered, so it’s not just your child that turns up not wearing one. (True story) And don’t forget to get a couple of spare presents for those ‘perfect’ friends and family members that turn up bearing gifts, so you don’t have to, in a panic, dash around your house desperately trying to find something you can secretly wrap and hand over to them, declaring that you definitely didn’t forget to buy them one. All this has to happen in the next 19 days.   

            But, what is a perfect Christmas? Is what we see in the films and on social media telling the truth? Beautiful homes, expensive presents and everyone walking around with big smiles on their faces, drinking eggnog and eating as many chocolates as they want without putting on any weight. My children have all asked me what I want for Christmas, and all I can ever answer, with absolute conviction, is that I want to have a tidy house and for my children to be happy. Is that what Christmas is about? A tidy house and happy children?  Yes. And no. Great for my children. But the cost of maintaining a tidy house is exhausting. My children can’t walk into a room without making a mess. Shoes everywhere. The cushions on the floor. My kitchen looking like a bomb had gone off after they have made one sandwich. And as for being happy, kids are fickle. One minute and they’re jumping with joy at s silly meme online and the next, they’re killing each other because one of them have looked at the other and breathed the same air. So, children can be happy and then not in a blink of an eye.  And trying to maintain the happiness of all my kids, at the same time, is almost impossible. Last year, my two youngest children fought all of Christmas day, over nothing. And as much as I tried to make everyone’s day peaceful, I failed miserably. Is that what Christmas is about?

            This year, money is tight. Very tight. Presents are more on the sparse side. All my great big plans are being put on hold this year. No big theatre trips. No panto. No going up to London to see the lights. And yet we are hurtling towards the big day, and I haven’t managed to get on top of all the things that need to be done. Apart from the Christmas clean. That has started. In fact, that started all the way back in September. It’s a year-long project that never seems to end. Is that what Christmas is about?

            But what do I really want for Christmas? Putting aside world peace, an end to world debt and all dresses fitted with actual pockets, I have no idea. I want everyone to be happy. I want a perfect day. I want it to snow. None of these things are realistic. But the one thing that I don’t want is for me to be so caught up in the preparations that I blink and it’s all over. And we’re halfway through January before I notice what’s happened. I don’t want to get lost in the mess of it all. I want to walk my dogs, looking at all my neighbour’s houses, marvelling at their decorations. Listening to all the Christmas songs playlists. Drinking eggnog. Eating my own body weight in mince pies. And watching every Christmas episode there is. Even the TV shows I don’t like or watch. I want to forget about a ‘perfect’ Christmas, and just have a peaceful day. A day filled with laughter and singing, crackers and food. My children won’t remember all the time I spend cleaning and organising. By the middle of March, they won’t remember what presents they received or didn’t. But they will remember the singing and laugher. And that’s what Christmas should mean.