Nana put money in our pudding under the custard too, an old English tradition. We didn’t ever choke on the threepences.
She always had an amazing Christmas table, with chocolates and lollies in beautiful glass dishes, and glazed fruit.
The kitchen had this delicious smell of pork and chicken and roast potatoes — that smell still reminds me of Christmas.
Always a trifle too; I was careful not to get too much of the cake at the bottom because it was soaked in wine. I used to get the custard and cream and jelly at the top.
The afternoon snooze after all the food, while my 90-year aunty was still wide awake, my dad and I snoozed each side of her.
Backyard cricket, or splashing in a blow-up plastic pool.
My nana and grandy (as we called him) would make us sit up and watch Carols by Candlelight on the TV, but they would always say, these aren’t carols they are just songs about snow and stuff, they aren’t like they used to be.
I caught myself doing that last year, which made me chuckle to myself.
I love going to church on Christmas morning with my family and singing loudly along with the family and thinking our voices blend so well together, it is such a feeling of belonging.
It’s so exciting seeing the Christmas tree being lit up with pretty lights, and funny ornaments decorating the tree that the children made when they were in kinder — I still have them.
I still remember when I found out Santa wasn’t real. I was devastated.
What is real is Jesus Christ. He actually was born, it’s his birthday. It’s actually Christ-mas, not Santa-mas or Tree-mas.
So, this Christmas, when we look at Carols by Candlelight, maybe we could listen to the words more carefully, or when eating our festive food, to think of the reason this all came about. It’s okay to love all that, as I was saying earlier, but we need to remember the real meaning, I think. Don’t you?
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called wonderful counsellor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace.
You can read about it in Isaiah 9:6 or the full story in Luke 2:1-20.
Chaplain Liz Spicer
