From the heart: Sharing is the best thing about Christmas. Picture: angharad homemade.
When money is tight, Christmas seems to loom like an all-devouring beast.
Expectations are high. Gifts for everyone. Even if you start from a low base of $10 a person or only buy for the children, most families are heading well into the hundreds of dollars before too long. It’s hard to see a way out of it cheaply.
One good thing about getting older, however, is that you slowly wake up to the realisation that “stuff” doesn’t make you happy – beyond that immediate visceral satisfaction.
We’ve scaled back the present giving over the years, both by choice and necessity. Gifts have become more about what people need, rather than want, although often they happily coincide.
I don’t miss the largesse, to be honest, though I can’t speak for everyone.
But what I couldn’t do without is the family feast. And by this, I don’t necessarily mean the traditional turkey stuffed to the gills, the ham with all the trimmings… I’m not a traditionalist in terms of the type of food. Salads and a barbeque will do me just as well.
No, for me it’s about sitting down together with family and friends and really sharing – good food, good wine and good conversation (although, as the wine takes hold, the quality of the latter can vary somewhat).
We don’t do it often enough in our society anymore. We’re too busy, too pressed for time, too stressed. I love that Christmas forces us all to stop, even if it’s just for a few days, and give a little of ourselves to those we care about the most. Even a little time for ourselves.
A sleep-in. A cup of tea you actually get to finish. A roll around the grass with laughing kids. A book read in a cosy corner somewhere uninterrupted. The little things. Snatches of time, so precious, yet increasingly rare.
That’s all I want for Christmas. And I wish the same for you and yours.
Of course, if you’d also like a truckload of shiny, bright new presents, I hope the jolly fellow with the white beard looks kindly on you, too.
