When I was a child I loved Christmas. I mean of course what kid doesn’t. It would start when the decorations were put up. In December. Now I’m an 80s kid so the decorations were, how can I say, large and shiny! If you weren’t there you missed out. Ceilings and walls were covered. Photo frames, the TV- which was the size of a smart car, everything had to be decorated. It was an event! Tinsel was boss! Sparkly, shiny and lots of it! The tree was artificial. Ours was green but I longed for the white one my aunty had. Strings of lights with big decorative shades and always at least 2 bulbs not working. Don’t worry put them at the back of the tree or hide them with some tinsel. There was no theme to the tree just an array of mismatched, multicoloured baubles and handmade school decorations. Bless you mum for putting them on there every year. If you didn’t make egg carton bells or a cracker out of an empty toilet roll were you even a child of the 80s?

Presents were not so extravagant as they are now. There was not an abundance of money then. At least not at our house. But my mum always tried to make sure I had what I wanted and as far as I can recall I always did. The excitement of Christmas when you are a child is amazing. It really is magical. It was never so much about what I was getting but waiting to see ‘has he been?’. The one year I can remember being most excited I was almost sick. I must have been about 6 or 7 and I just could not sleep. I was up and down those stairs. I bet my mum was pulling her hair out! Eventually she pacified me with a Kinder egg present that was under our tree already. I managed to sleep but I woke at what must have been 4am. I got straight into my presents without waking my mum as I know she would have told me to go back to sleep!

Some of my favourite toys…

Technology was different then. You had a computer hooked up to a monitor with a tape player. Games came on tapes boys and girls! They took about 10 years to load and made a really annoying noise while doing it. I had a ZX Spectrum. My favourite game was Dizzy. Dizzy was an egg that went on adventures. Awesome right?! Most of my friends had the same computer or a Commadore 64. But if you were really awesome you had an Atari. The coveted games console with instant gameplay and no crappy annoying noise. If you went round someone’s house with an Atari and they didn’t invite you to play on it that was a right travesty!

Television was also a whole different experience. There were no 900 channels, with catch up or live pause and rewind. Netflix was when your nosy neighbours was curtain twitching! There were 4 channels. If you missed it you missed it tough luck. You ran to pee in the breaks or make a quick cup of tea and if you were watching BBC you’d had it as there are no commercial breaks. Oh and TV had a finish time. Yep when they ran out of programmes they’d out a creepy picture on the screen and play a horrible noise to send you off to bed. However, despite this seemingly lack of choice there was always something to watch. At Christmas it was Noel Edmunds, Morecambe and Wise and TV specials. You’d get your TV times Christmas special out and plan the TV schedule for the week. The Snowman was always a firm favourite and still is of course!

As I got older and entered my teens the magic was lost and although it was still fun to spend time with the family it was never the same as when I was a small child. As I grew into a young adult Christmas became more about partying with friends and the social side of it. One year I attended 4 Christmas dinners! But I still longed for those magical days.

And then I had my first child and there it was. The magic. It was back! I couldn’t wait for my little bundle to get excited for Christmas.

Ok not so little bundle ha! I mean the first couple of years it’s more exciting for the parent. At age 2 he wasn’t all that sure of Santa but I was super excited to take him! And at age 3 was when he first started understanding what Christmas was all about.

That was the first year I was awake before him. Excited to see his face when he had seen what Santa had left. We’ve never gone over the top with presents but always had lots of fun and excitement.

I was so excited when he was 4 I took him to see 3 Santa’s! Which on reflection was really stupid because he’s a smart kid and in the top photo above he told me ‘thats not my Santa, he has the wrong eyes’! Lesson learned. He did have 2 Santa visits last year as I was due with my second son and I had a feeling I would miss the breakfast with Santa that we do every year. And yes I did miss it. My mum took him, I was so sad I couldn’t be there though.

I was a bit busy having a c section for our lovely Christmas present last year…

Coming out of hospital at 4pm on Christmas Eve was a bit crazy and Christmas day came and went in a blur. My mum came to the rescue to feed all 5 of us as it was our year to have the Mr’s 2 children too. Thank you mum you are an angel! I don’t think I have any photos of Christmas day last year! So this year I am looking forward to spending a more relaxing Christmas as a complete family of 6. There will be chaos at times and no doubt there will be beanboozled and pie face! But most of all I know there will be lots and lots of magic ❤️

Have a wonderful, magical Christmas.

Peace and love xxx