Tis the season to be jolly (My Perfect Christmas)

Member Name: January

Product:	My Perfect Christmas
Date:	06/11/03 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Laughter, Happyness

Disadvantages: Can be expensive, You need someone to share it with

I love Christmas, it's a great seasonal celebration and the best things about it are listed below.
Here are my top ten best loved things about Christmas.
They all make up to be the things which make my perfect christmas.

1. Putting up the Decorations.

Getting all the decorations down from the attic is always a good bit of fun in our house, our attic is one of the places thats only visited once a year unless anything is getting stuffed up there because there's no room for it in the house and to go into the attic is always funny.
It's dark and we have to take a light up there so there's always plenty of giggling and joking going on.
Once the decorations have been dug out from all the other things you've forgotten you put there it's back downstairs to sort out what is going up and what needs to be replaced
Then it's on to the decorating.
We hang up the banners which say Merry Christmas and put tinsel round the windows, blowing up the ballons is also a good laugh and hanging up the father christmas and reindeer mobiles makes the rooms look all christmasy.

2. Decorating the Tree

We have a nice sized plastic christmas tree, which my daughter has to decorate every year, she takes great pride in the job and watching her decorate it is nice.
We have bought real tree's in the past but hoovering up the pine needles and getting them stuck in your socks for long past new year has put me off buying them.
When all the tinsel, little chocolate decorations and the star on the top of the tree has been put on, it's time to switch on the fairy lights and everyone in the house goes ahhh.
It's officially christmas then in our house and this happens about December 20th when my daughter has broken up from school.
We don't like to decorate too early otherwise you end up getting hyped up to soon.

3. Sending the Christmas Cards.

This is where the diary has
to come out, we have lots of friends and I like to send the cards early as some of my friends live abroad and I like to know that the cards have arrived on time.
My daughter likes to send lots to her school mates and cousins and choosing which card to send to whom is fun.

4. Christmas shopping for gifts.

I always go out in the school holidays with my daughter to buy presents, we always take our time and let the rest of the crowds rush around.
We both have a set amount of money, which is spent on family and friends.
Looking around the shops is great and we both go around the town in a sort of circle, up one side of the high street and then down the other side, stopping off half way to have coffee and a snack.
This way we get to chill out for a while before it's back into the hive of busy shoppers, most of whom seem to be rushing around.
The shopping trip takes us at least four hours and we stop off at the car whenever our arms are full of bags.
Then it's back home to wrap the presents.

5. Wrapping Presents.

This is where our front room ends up looking like a bombs hit it, with presents, scissors, cellotape, gift tags, and bows and gift bags all over the place.
My daughter and me sit with coffee to chat and wrap all our presents, with the music on the sterio.
I love this part of christmas as I like to imagine the faces of my family and friends when they open the presents I've bought them.
If I have bought anyone a small present I like to wrap it up then put it in a bigger box, wrap this box then put that into another bigger box, this way it takes them a while to get at the present.
One year when the oldest kids were about five and six, I wrapped up their presents in so much christmas paper and cellotape that it took them hours to get at them.
Which was good considering they used to get up at about half past six on christmas morning. I like to wrap them and put the family's
presents under the tree.

6. Delivering the Presents.

On christmas eve, I like to deliver the presents to my family and friends as we only have our youngest daughter at home now.
It's also my sons birthday on boxing day so we get a double celebration and I like to deliver his presents on christmas eve.
It's a good time too as you get the chance to sit and chat with your friends and have a drink.
Or arrange to meet down the pub over the christmas and new year hols.
I love this time.

7. Buying the Christmas Food.

This is done by me and my partner and daughter, as we all like to go out together and buy the food in for christmas.
Picking out the meat, veggies and tinned stuff is easy.
Then it comes to the special things, like after eights, tins of roses, luxury mince pies, cream, gateau's and other treats.
Then on to the alcohol aisle. I'm not a big drinker but do like to relax with a bailey's or a tia maria over the christmas hols, my partner gets his tinnies and bottle of single malt whisky.
Then it's off home to tuck into the house and make it cosy.

8. Cooking Christmas Dinner.

I like to have the kitchen to myself when I cook the dinner, it's a time when everything has to be prepared and timed to be ready for three o'clock.
We like to eat at this time than everyone is fed early, so that all the main food work is out of the way, washed up and put away.
Then if anyone is hungry later on it's cold meat and snacks.
I like to do roast beef and pork for the dinner as no-one likes turkey in our house.
Cold boiled ham and chicken is cooked the day before so that it can be used for sandwiches later on christmas day.
I also like to do roast parsnips, lots of veggies, roast chestnuts and have lots of things in dishes like beetroot, pickled onions, cranberry sauce, horseradish sauce ect. We also have to pull crackers and wear our party
hats to eat dinner in.
Christmas has to be good eating and fun.

9. Opening Presents.

After the main meal, everyone chips in with the washing up and putting away of pots and pans.
Then it's back into the front room to open the presents from under the tree, this is one of my favorite parts of christmas.
I like to open mine and see who has bought me what, as well as seeing the faces of the my family, it's great.
There's always lots of chattering going on at this point and the house seems very alive and merry.

10. Chilling Out

When all the food has been eaten and the guests have gone home, it's time to chill out infront of the fire with my baileys over ice or coca cola and tia maria.
Everthing is calm and happy and the tv is usually switched on, so that we can relax with our drinks and reflect on the days fun.

I love christmas.
Here's hoping your is just as good.

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