Well Merry Christmas! I wanted to write about traditions and how we often do things at Christmas with out thinking about the reasons or symbolism behind it, but that seems far too serious this Boxing Day*, so I'm going to talk about what MY family does to celebrate Christmas.
In Perth where I live it is Summer, so my family have never had a hot Christmas dinner. Until this week! Every Boxing Day growing up we would pack the car and head down south to the beach and spend a week with my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and Grandparents (and whatever friends would show up). We crammed 10 of us (usually more) into a 3 room duplex with an outside bathroom and we had the best of times. We would spend most of the day at the beach, my uncle (Dad's brother), Dad and Pop (Dad's Dad) would be gone most of the day fishing or crabbing. We'd have afternoon sleeps every day and we'd stay up late partying with all the neighbours at night. So you can see the beach and my Aunt & Uncle were a huge part of my Christmas growing up. They don't have the beach house down south anymore but they do have a house north of Perth near the beach. The kids and I went up there on Monday and had a great time at the beach then that night my husband joined us from work and my lovely Aunt cooked us my first ever hot Christmas dinner. Roast turkey, ham, roast vegetables and plum pudding & custard for dessert. It was good the sea breeze was in making it a cool evening, I certainly can't imagine eating all that hot food on Christmas day! We stayed over and went to the beach again in the morning. An immense sense of peace always comes over me at the beach, I think it is my favourite place to be, especially watching my family enjoying it too.
Christmas Eve has 2 family traditions that stem from my parents. 1. The house MUST be clean 2. You HAVE to watch "Carols by Candlelight". The clean house always seemed a little crazy to me but now I'm a parent, I get it. If Mum had all the housework done, then on Christmas Day she could enjoy it like everyone else and not be cleaning up or cooking. I don't know if other places in the world have Carols by Candlelight as we do but it's where a crowd sit with candles and sing Christmas Carols. The biggest and best (in my opinion) is in Melbourne at the Myer Music Bowl were thousands of people sit and sing songs of praise to our Lord and is broadcast on TV. Most suburbs have there own carols and if you have the opportunity to go to one, I highly recommend it. With our beautiful weather, being able to sit in a park and sing and share Christmas spirit with others is great.
One of my husband and my new traditions we have started with our kids is going to look at Christmas lights. Some people go to so much effort and I think it's wonderful to admire there hard work! The photo above is of a house near us, apparently a single lady decorates her house and she collects for the charity CANTEEN. It was wonderful being out with lots of other families admiring the lights, getting excited about Christmas.
Christmas day my kids are up early, they can open their stockings first (they love us to watch, so we get up early too). Then we have to have breakfast and get dressed then we hand out our family presents. I'd love to tell you we make it to church but since having kids we've never made it Christmas morning! Too much to do! My Mum is the oldest of 3 girls and my Nan (her Mum) is still with us. Each of the girls had a boy and a girl, so now all the girls of the family take turns at hosting Christmas lunch. The host supplies the house, chairs, plates, bread rolls, icecream and then every family brings one plate of cold meat, salad, dessert and drinks and we have a shared lunch. We're all very organised now, we plan out who's bringing what so there's no double ups and we draw out names so that everyone buys one present for someone. This year was at my cousin Sharon's house, it was good but a little hot. We didn't seem to go too crazy on the food this year and I know I didn't over eat, I actually felt hungry last night (unlike every other year)! It was wonderful to see my Nan, who is so special to me. She's 87 and I lived with her for 2 years when I was younger. What made it even more special was that she pulled my name out and got to buy my gift. She bought me a beautiful silver heart pendant on a chain and I will treasure it for ever.
We came home and jumped in the pool (it got to 36 degrees Celcius, that's 96.8 farenheit) and then the kids played with their new toys. We all went to bed happy and super tired. My daughter had tears in her eyes, hugging me in bed, saying this was the best Christmas ever.
I hope all of you had wonderful day with family and friends, and remember Jesus IS the reason for the season.
Love Vanessa.
*Boxing Day originated in England in the middle of the nineteenth century under Queen Victoria. December 26th, or Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries.The traditional celebration of Boxing Day included giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, needy individuals, and people in service jobs. The holiday may date from the Middle Ages (A.D. 400's--1500's), but the exact origin is unknown. It may have begun with the lords and ladies of England, who presented Christmas gifts in boxes to their servants on December 26. Or it may have begun with priests, who opened the church's alms (charity) boxes on the day after Christmas and distributed the contents to the poor.
