Take a Girl Like Me: It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

It's Chriiiiiiiiiistmas!!!!

I've always loved Christmas. As a kid, we grew up on a council estate. It was just Mum & us 4 girls for a little while but then Keith came along and all was well.

My earliest Christmas memory is infact I think a mix of two different Christmas memories but like memories do, it's become a bit muddled over the years. It involves Rachel's birthday (my younger sister) which is 9th December and an ambulance taking me from her birthday party where I was having fun to a hospital, where I wasn't even though my bed was next to the ward's Christmas tree.
But then I remember coming home from hospital also in an ambulance and being carried to the settee. Next to the settee was the christmas tree, which had twinkly coloured lights, cotton wool round the bottom to look like snow and a painted plaster-of-paris ornament of santa's sleigh & reindeers, all pieces linked together with lil gold chains (I loved that ornament and Mum had it years). When I remember that, I remember feeling safe and happy and excited because it was Christmas.

No matter how much or how little money we had (usually how little) we were spoilt rotten. We never, ever felt like we'd missed out. We were always asked for a christmas list sometime in December and we never got everything on it but then we also never expected to.

Christmas eve when it was bedtime, we had to write our name on two lil pieces of paper, put one on the arm of a chair - Tracey & Joanne being the eldest got the 2 armchairs, and me and Rachel had one end of the settee each. The other was pinned to a sock & the bannister upstairs, so Father Christmas knew who's stocking was who's. Father Christmas sometimes seemed to be a bit pissed when we heard him giggling through the bedroom door, trying to put gifts in the stockings.

Christmas morning. Invariably we wouldnt have slept much and we'd gather on someone's bed, whispering but trying not to be heard, but at the same time being so excited we were probably shouting. Mum & Dad would always wake up slightly grouchy - I wonder why.

We'd open our stockings on the bed. Being amazed by lil trinkets such as a novelty pencil sharpener, a pair of earrings, a pencil, and ALWAYS ALWAYS an apple and an orange at the bottom. Oh happy days!!

Then we'd all gather on the landing outside the bathroom, Mum insisting we all had a wee before going down. I always got pushed to the back of the toilet line as as was said 'you can wait', and so I could. Then we'd line up at the top of the stairs jostling and fighting to be right behind Mum & Dad and we'd tiptoe down the stairs. At the bottom, Mum or Dad would slowly open the living room door and say (I can still feel the excitement even typing this!) "Has he been?"
Then the door would be opened and we'd all rush in.

Frantic present opening, all of us showing Mum & Dad what Father Christmas had brought up (as if they didnt already know) we'd all be excited with absolutely everything while Mum & Dad tried to remember what Auntie Irene, Eileen & Brian etc had brought us so when we wrote our thank you notes we'd remember who'd got what from whom.

Dad would always be in the middle of the room with a black bin liner, trying to catch flying wrapping paper. We'd want to open everything and play with it and were encouraged to just put it down for now and open something else. There would always be a 'main present' which was usually the most expensive gift and something to be treasured, things such as a bike, or a record player or a walkman or a dolls house. I remember Dad spending all Christmas eve building a Sindy dolls house for Rachel one year. I got a gorgeous bike when I was a teenager, that was the year it snowed all over Christmas and New Year and I couldnt get out to ride it, but the snowball fights in the back alley were ace.

Once everything was opened and paper was cleared away, we'd be left to play with things, and look through our pile of gifts while Mum & Dad had a much needed cuppa and a ciggie each.

I seem to remember when we were little (but dont trust my memories) Mum & Dad always opened their presents to each other right after we'd had ours. But I also remember a 'grown ups christmas' later in the day when Nana & Grandad, Auntie Carol & Stuart were there.
Because we'd never had much money, Mum & Dad always made a pact to not spend much on each other. But Dad never took any notice and lavished gifts on Mum, I remember her crying every Christmas morning when she opened something gorgeous, something she'd mentioned she'd like and he'd listened, unbeknown to her. I remember a full length mirror one year on a stand, I remember a gold bracelet which she cried buckets when opening, always with the words said through tears of "Oh Keith. Oh Keith". I'm crying now remembering. Happy tears,

After everything was calm, a cooked breakfast would be made. Then we'd all get our glad-rags on and get ready to go out. When we were little there was Mum & Dad, Auntie Carol & Stuart and Nana & Grandad, so they'd all 'do' a day each. One would do Christmas Day, one would do Boxing Day (Auntie Carol's birthday) and one would do New Years Day. When I was 10, the family grew by a cousin (Phil) and then another cousin (Carrie) a few years later but the family did the same routine forever and a day and it was perfect.

Sadly, as happens with life, things change. Suddenly one Christmas an older sister wasnt there cos she was with her husband and their baby, then another older sister so it was just me and our Rach with Mum & Dad. We'd all still do the getting together at Mum/Auntie Carol's/Nana's bit but Christmas morning changed quickly.
Once I moved away from home, I adored going home for Christmas. I'd married a man who disliked Christmas immensly (he was - and still is - a miserable, grumpy bastard) so going home was always a win-win for me and something I looked forward to for a couple of months leading up.

The family grew and grew, sisters had babies galore. And as happens, sadly people left us. Grandad first, then shockingly of all, Auntie Carol. Christmas's were never the same after that. I still went home for a few years but things had to be done differently. Nana left and then my perfect Dad. And my sisters families grew and grew, but sadly not mine.

Now we spend Christmas with Hari's family and its always lovely - they are another big family who love each other to bits. But I hancker back to those old Christmas's with kisses galore off Auntie Carol (dont let her see you wipe a kiss off or she'll sit on you and smother you with kisses or tickle you like mad), getting an Adam Ant LP and fighting to play it on the record player and having to listen to Mum's Shirley Bassey LP first, eating Mum's trifle (she made a mean trifle) , watching Mum & Dad looking exhausted after Christmas Dinner was done, playing board games with a young Phil & Carrie, playing dollies with our Rachel, watching Tracey try to put every item of new clothing on she'd got that year... so many memories.

One of my 'If I won the lottery' dreams has been for a long time - to rent a huge house and invite my family. That's 3 sisters and their husbands. Their children and their families (that's 14 nephew & nieces with their partners and their children) Mum of course and Hari's family too. Have a long table and caterers to do Christmas dinner and games after. Lots of fun and lots and lots of memories.

I really miss being with my family for Christmas, one of the drawbacks of getting older, I guess. Its amazing how different its is now to how it was then but then I am incredibly fortunate to have had such wonderful times and have all those lovely memories and every year I remember that plaster-of-paris ornament the twinkling lights on the tree and being loved.

I can be a bit grumpy on the run up to Christmas because I dislike being an adult! But I do love it, honest :)