Great Fun etc: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

07 December 2021

When Christmas is Hard (Facing the Season after Loss)

Christmas was always my favourite time of the year – until I found myself facing Christmas as a sole parent in 2016.

Five years on, I can look back from a new perspective where the grief has healed and the loss no longer stings. We have settled in to our new normal, and can reminisce about our awesome Christmases as a “whole family” without an ache.

But I remember that first Christmas and my heart goes out to those of you who are facing your own first Christmas after a devastating loss.

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12 December 2016

Surviving (and enjoying) Christmas

Decorating the Christmas Tree - at least it SMELLS like Christmas

How are things in the Christmas trenches where you are? How's that to-do list? Got an Elf infestation? An Advent Calendar mental block? Feeling like a Grinch?

I'm just writing in solidarity to say, I feel ya. Hang in there. This too shall pass.

December 26th will dawn and we will have made it through another Christmas - hopefully without too many additional grey hairs.

This is me and the kids' first Christmas on our own, and I have been fairly dreading it. We put up the Christmas tree on December 1st as usual, because the kids wanted to - they were excited that it was nearly Christmas. Me? not so much.
I strung up lights and garlands, hung decorations and Christmas wreaths with a rock lodged in my chest - going through the motions for them. The morning we were due to have our gingerbread house decorating "party" I sat on my windowseat with a few tears leaking - this Christmas season was not feeling OK at all. The first Christmas is the hardest, they reckon.

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07 December 2016

How to Construct a GingerBread House (& have fun doing it)

How to construct a gingerbread house (and have fun while you;re at it)

Right now you might be finding yourself in the thick of Christmas madness and this may at first appear to be another story to add to the pressure of all the things you could be/should be doing to make the season magical.
Don't worry, it's not.
This is a post written by a mum from deep in the trenches, who is facing her first Christmas as a sole parent and who turned to an old favourite tradition - and some dear friends - to help connect with JOY.

You won't find any professional-looking Pinterest-inspired gingerbread houses in this post to make you feel overawed or intimidated (though our houses are VERY well constructed and could withstand any earthquake - we'll tell you how). All decorating in this post was done by lolly-guzzling children and mums with sticky fingers and hands shaking with tiredness (or was that shoulders shaking with laughter?)

Here is a record of a village construction party that brought warm fuzzies into what was feeling like a very bleak time. It was an afternoon filled with laughter and teamwork, lollies and helping hands.

Let's get on with it:

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30 December 2015

Christmas in Hindsight

Christmas is over, and it was a goodie. Better than I'd hoped, better than last year, better than any Christmas for years, in fact.

If you read my earlier post, you'll know my theory: "less is more" and "giving is magic". Both theories held up this year.

We focused on kindness and left room for spontaneous hosting and blessing others.

Like candy cane bombing our local four square Carpark...

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14 December 2015

Enjoying Christmas & Finding the REAL Magic

This is not your usual Christmas post. I am not going to give you another list of things to do - you don't need that. There's an avalanche of crafty ideas on Pinterest, if that's what you're after.
No. This is a from-my-heart-to-yours post about how to REALLY have a magical Christmas and actually enjoy the season.

Isn't that what we all want? At this time of the year, don't we all wish we could recapture the lost wonder and magic of Christmas?

I wanted to write this post for the many, many mums out there who are madly trying to recapture Christmas magic yet are feeling only exhausted, overwhelmed and annoyed at that little Elf they keep having to invent antics for.
This post is for you. I'm here to tell you Christmas doesn't have to be an endless stress-headache.

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17 November 2015

Bringing Christmas Joy to Kids in the Philippines

Bringing joy to kids in Manila this Christmas

Christmas is getting an early mention today on my blog - which is something I usually try to avoid, but in this case I'll make an exception.
This year I am excited to be partnering with the amazing team at Children's Garden in Manila to help bring Christmas to kids who usually wouldn't get one.
My part in this venture started back when we were in Manila in August, and I was chatting to the wonderful Sharon (CG director) about ways I could help. Because the kids in Manila got under my skin, bigtime.

Seeing as I do love Christmas (in theory) I asked her how it is celebrated in the Philippines and she told me that each child has a Ninang (godmother) and Ninong (godfather) who gives them gifts on Christmas. I asked, do the kids at CG have a Ninang/Ninong?

No. They have never had one.

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11 December 2014

Christmas for the Five Senses (when you're unChristmassy)

I may have struggled with feeling un-Christmassy in Christmases past, but those old grinchy years aint got nothing on this year. Really and truly, I am the most un-Christmassy I've ever ever been - at least since having kids, anyway.

I've been trying to figure out the reason and have narrowed the culprits down to two main causes:

My kids are getting older. NONE of them believe in Santa anymore - not a single one. The magical wide-eyed wonder of the Christmas season has dimmed in their eyes; hence, the dimming of wonder in my own. When the kids were little, I got to relive the childhood magic of Christmas through them. Now that it is waning for them, it has waned for me too.
I'm now a working mum - I am still working right up to the 19th of December. There's no time for Christmas crafting, creating or leisurely browsing of festively decorated malls. For me it's the mad scramble to fit it all in before the deadline.

Hence, no magic.

I'll bet there's got to be a few of you out there, who for various reasons (like me) have lost the Christmas Spark. In the hurry flurry of mall-madness and To-Do lists, is it any wonder that the Christmas Spirit has gone AWOL for some of us?

In an effort to recapture the old lost magic, I was browsing through a few of my old Christmas posts and came across one that really spoke to me, and I thought since I am both time-and-inspiration poor these days, I'd share it again in a bid to recapture some of my old Christmas zing.

It might just spark something for us reluctant Grinches. So making an encore from Christmas 2011, here is...

FROM CHRISTMAS 2011:

I decided the other week that Christmas really is a celebration for all five senses.

Sight, taste, smell, hearing, touch.

For the eyes, there have been the sights of Christmas: watching favourite Christmas movies (like The Nativity Story, Polar Express), the spectacle of 10,000 glowsticks lighting up Vector Arena, blinking Christmas lights, decorations everywhere you look... Christmas is a visual feast.

My ears have soaked up the sounds of Christmas - new Christmas songs which ushered in the season with joy and old favourites which have moved me to tears.

The smells of Christmas filled our home - our pine Christmas tree, the whiff of cloves hung on doorhandles. The aroma of baking tarts and glazing ham, mulling wine and roasting turkey. Each scent evokes the ghosts of Christmas past; reviving memories, reminding us how fast the years are flying by.

The taste of Christmas is still to come. Oh the Christmas goodies. The loosened belts, the groaning bellies {and please oh please some Lindt Chocolates in my stocking?}

What about the touch of Christmas? If Christmas is for the five senses, where does touch fit in? Is it in the creating, the crafting, the baking, the making? Well, yes.

Or is it most especially in the giving? The way your life touches another as you reach out and give a gift? Show you care? Share what you have? YES!

Christmas is more about touch than anything else, I realised.
And my kids are watching me. Watching us.

Dash had his eyes opened the other day as we were driving back from dropping off the gear to the City Mission.
"Mum there were real poor people there," he said to me as he climbed back into the car.
The line had stretched out the door, people queuing up for help at Christmas.
There followed a whole discussion about why they needed help, and how we are blessed to have enough to share with those who don't, and why we give.
"Son," Mr G said, "One day you'll find out that giving is actually more of a buzz than getting. Really."

I looked at my husband and I knew he was speaking truth out of his heart. He lives it, he's not just spouting an idea. I felt grateful to be married to a generous man, who is modeling generosity and philanthropy to our children.

They see when we give to those in need. They'll remember how we make time as a family at Christmas to collect gifts and household items and take them to the City Mission.
They'll be storing up memories of how they helped fill up a shopping trolley with Christmas treats and delivered it to friends who needed a boost.

They are learning that THIS IS JUST WHAT WE DO AT CHRISTMAS.
It's as much a part of Christmas as decorating the tree and eating candy canes.
We give. Share. Reach out. Touch.
And in doing that, we discover the real JOY of Christmas.

.............................

In my time-poor, magic-diminished Christmas I can increase my Christmas spirit by surrounding my five senses with Christmasness. I can take my family to pick out a live tree from a Christmas tree farm, even if I don't feel like it. Watch the Nativity Movie to remind myself of the reason for the season. Take friends to see our church's production of Scrooge*.

I can throw an impromptu Christmas party after school for the kids I work with and their parents, creating lasting memories for them. (Photos in this post are from that party which I literally threw together after I finished work at 11am today.)

And finally I can give. Of myself. Of the money I've earned. Find someone to bless and make a difference to their Christmas.

(And if I'm still not feeling it, I'll download some Pentatonix Christmas hits. "Mary Did You Know" is a guaranteed chill-inducer.)

*"Scrooge" is on this Sunday at the Aotea Centre 10am and 5pm. Tickets $5 with all proceeds going to a very good cause, just can't remember what it is! If you want to come let me know!

How about you? How's the Christmas Spirit levels at your place?

CHRISTMAS POSTS THAT WON'T MAKE YOU WANT TO QUIT PINTEREST:

My *UPDATE* Guide to an Unstressy Christmas
My Christmas Index Page (filled with the ghosts of Christmas posts past)
Christmas Movie Reviews (so you know what to watch to get in the mood)

23 December 2013

Gingerbread Houses and My Village (with Printable Recipe Card)

A long time ago I wrote a post about a Village. It takes a Village to raise a child, I quoted. But here in suburbia, where do you find a village when you need one?

I was reminded of this post as I sat down to share these photos with you, of the gingerbread-house creation day we enjoyed on Friday.

It started last year, with my friend Mel and I. We each got a cheap gingerbread house kit and spent the morning slapping icing and lollies around with our kids.

This year Mel said, Hey can we do that again? Because it was great fun for all of us, the mums and the lolly-lovin kids.

We made a date for when school was finished.

Then my friend Nic caught wind of our plans - Ooh can I jump in on that? she wondered. She'd been missing Mel and was keen for a catchup.

So on Friday we found ourselves surrounded by royal icing and sweets, constructing a gingerbread village....

Nic and I go back years; we met through kindy when our boys were three. I met Mel through Nic (I won't bore you with the details). For someone like me who moved house, town and school every year or two, went to ten different schools and doesn't have a childhood friend to her name - having roots in a community like mine is like Magic. It's a blessing, a benediction and a miracle.

My children have friends they've known since preschool. I have women in my life that I have history with. Not just these two darling ladies I built a gingerbread village with, but way too many others to fit in my kitchen (you know who you are; I love you all).

We hung out all day. Leisurely glued together the houses, while the kids decorated and ate gingerbread men (if you follow me on Instagram your feed will have been been photobombed with those snaps - sorry about that!). We ate lunch outside under the grapevine while the icing hardened, and then we set the kids to work on the decorating...

It was hilarious to watch how each family took a different approach. Nic's house, so methodical and detailed. Mel's house, so colour coordinated and pretty. And ours...? An explosion in a sweet shop.

Our house (the explosion in a sweet shop)

Mels' House - so pink and pretty

Nic's House - a detailed work of art

As Dash said, before he randomly dripped icing all over the roof, "It's not about a competition, it's about having fun, right?" Yep, you've got it in one, son.

It was the best day of this Christmas season so far.

Spending time hanging out with some of my Village, making a village.

Brilliant.

Stress-Free Fun Gingerbread House Creation

Why stress over creating a Gingerbread House from scratch when you can follow our lead and buy a $16 kit from the supermarket? Ignore the icing they supply with the kit and whip up a batch of Royal Icing.
Glue the base of the house together first; then leave to set for 20 minutes before sticking on the roof.
Leave for another 20 minutes to harden and then go to town decorating with the remaining icing and lollies galore.

Here's my printable recipe card for Royal Icing, along with a lovely easy recipe for gingerbread men.

Merry Christmas!

[right click to save to your computer then simply print]

16 December 2013

My Christmas Ideas Treasury

Christmas can be my favourite time of the year, but the trick is to find a way to enjoy the festive season without killing yourself. Here I have collected all my Posts from Christmases Past for you to find. My thoughts, my ideas, my favourite recipes, our favourite Christmas movies and some snapshots of the best day of the year at our place.

(I'm actually holed up with Scrag and a bucket as we negotiate the second child in our family to come down with a nasty vomit bug. School has three days left to run, and I'm running out of shopping days. Enjoy clicking through this collection while I wipe my son's fevered brow and hold his bucket. Merry Christmas!)