Wednesday 14 November 2012

What's your Christmas fantasy?

I have this incredibly romanticised, idealised picture in my head of what Christmas should be like. It's a picture based on watching too many rom-coms and Christmases spent both in Europe and America.

Pre-kids my Christmases spent abroad have been some of the best. We have done skiing in Europe at Christmas a few times. Christmas day in the mountains, skiing, that was perfect. No huge roast dinner, but snow and Gluhwein a plenty. Somehow European Alpine Christmases are hard to beat. Walking around beautiful mountain villages, the smell of log fires burning in the air, snow under foot, beautiful white fairy lights in the trees, the air bitterly cold against your face. Perfection. Christmas in Europe makes me feel glad to live on such a beautiful continent.

I have also spent two Christmases in America. Again, both as magical, although for different reasons. I have tried to achieve a mixture of experiences taken from my holidays spent abroad, trying to recreate the magical feelings of the past. I haven't been able to do it successfully though. Somehow, something was missing, but I can't put my finger on what it is. In my head Christmas has log fires, deep snow, sledging, hot chocolate & champagne. I wanted to capture an alpine feeling. Unfortunately we rarely get snow at Christmas and not enough to sledge or make snowmen, so that is the first fail.

Now we have the boys, the magic is returning. Especially now Noah understands and is so excited he starts talking about it in August. Going on the Severn Valley Railway to Santa's grotto, putting the tree up and letting Noah decorate it, advent calendars, sneaking in to his room when he is sleeping to leave his stocking on his bed, seeing his face as he unwraps his presents. This year we have my sister and her family next door, so the boys will get to see their cousins, so we are hoping that there will be lots of time spent with them too. Also thanks to Pinterest, I am pulling together a few ideas that I want to try out, to start our family traditions.

Since having the boys, I've discovered that THEY are the magic in Christmas. Their innocence, their belief in all things magical. I'm already SO excited about it, even though its still 6 weeks away.

What traditions do you have at Christmas? What makes your Christmas magical?

 

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