The Real Meaning of Christmas

Blog This: Challenge 24 -

What does Christmas mean to you and your family?
Have you got some traditions??
What will you cook?!
Who will you spend it with?
Got a favourite Christmas memory?
How are you decorating??

What does Christmas really mean to me?

That's a hard question, it means a lot of things to me. Christmas also means a lot to my family, in particular my Mum's side of the family.

I absolutely LOVE Christmas. Can't get enough of it. I wish I could have Christmas lights up all year, I really do!

From a Christian perspective Christmas is the time that we give thanks to God for sending His Son to the world for us. My Mum likes to have us round on a Sunday evening in the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas to light the Advent candle/s. There's a reading from the Advent book and then we light the candle/s and say a prayer. I haven't been to many of these in the last few years and I know my Mum would love it if we made an effort to be there, but even when I went to church all the time I found lighting the Advent candle to be quite boring, not that I didn't appreciate it's meaning and symbolism, but, it's boring. Sorry Mum.

Christmas on my Dad's side of the family means getting together at Nana's, eating Nana's fabulous food, opening presents, then sitting around talking and dozing and eating punch. When I was little we nearly always went for a walk to the park and played on the equipment there. I think once all my cousins' kids get older that might become a thing again, but for now it's all about lazing. Or watching the cricket if we do Christmas at Nan's on Boxing Day.

Christmas with the In-Laws is about catching up with family that we don't see very often. Despite the fact that the family on Mr.P's dad's side live within an hour of us we hardly ever see them, so every other year or so we catch up for Christmas lunch. Mr.P's mum's side live a bit further a field (Grafton and Katherine, N.T), and they usually come back to Richmond (not the N.T cousins, the Grafton ones) so we usually try to get in some time to see them too.

Christmas with Mum's side of the family is all about the laughs and the water fights. My Mum's side of the funny are all loud and funny and we usually spend the entire day doubled-over in stitches from laughing so hard.

It gets pretty hard having so many families, someone always misses out, but I guess that's just the way it is. If I had a teleporter Christmas would be so much easier, no spending hours on end driving from place to place.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas decorations and lights. The thing I was most excited about when Mr.P and I bought a house? Buying a tree and decorations and lights. Thank God we moved in in September so I only had a little time to wait before I could start putting it all up.

We have a fair amount of Christmas lights and the goal is to add a little something more each year. This year we will have icicle lights across the front of the house, I have fibre optic lights to put along the front porch, a bell for the lounge room window, reindeers (5) and a Santa for the bedroom windows, fairy lights for the tree and a HUGE waving Santa which stands at the front door. This year I have also gotten some coloured solar fairy lights to put on the letterbox, plain white solar fairy lights to wrap around the two trees, and fibre-optic solar powered stars to put at intervals along the fence. Next year I plan to put lights on the roof! We will be the Griswold's and I can't wait! Thank God we don't have neighbours across the street from us...they wouldn't be able to sleep with all the light we'll be projecting!

Christmas to me is all about hot days, good food, punch, buying presents for the people I love, spending time with my family and water fights. I Love a Christmas water-fight!

What does Christmas mean to you?