So, it's Christmas Eve Eve here in The Land Down Under and I am, yet again, in the Christmas spirit. I was wrapping presents and now have my favourite Christmas album on while posting this.
So, my family has our own kind of Christmas traditions and I am kinda the one that makes sure these happen every year. Because this is my favourite time of the year, I put a lot of pressure on the day and the season leading up to it to be perfect...
Anyway, here are some of my favourite things about Christmas
- We have Christmas sacks instead of stockings. My brothers and I hang them on our doorknobs and on Christmas morning we wake up, sit together in someone's room and tip them out, finding heaps of lollies and chocolates and chips and, basically, unhealthy junk food. We also always got these packs of little cereal boxes but this year we won't have them (I went shopping with my mum today to buy the lollies... It won't be a surprise for me, but who cares... I know we're getting good stuff) because we realised that the three of us eat the most sugary cereals really quickly and then we are left with boxes of things like Corn Flakes sitting on the bench for months...
- Every single year we go for at least one drive around the suburbs looking at Christmas lights. We put on a Christmas CD and just drive, sometimes stopping off at McDonald's for an ice cream. This year, we took 3 separate drives to go everywhere we wanted to.
- If you know me at all, or have read anything else I've written, you'd know I love the city. Especially at night. I love going to the city and walking through the mall at Christmas time. It's nighttime but it's so bright because of all the lights. It's busy and so pretty. Hopefully we'll be going tonight.
- Usually on the first weekend of December (because it's when my parents are usually off work), we get out all the many Christmas decoration boxes, put on a few Christmas CDs and put up and decorate the tree before decorating the rest of the house.
- Eating chocolate covered sultanas. For some reason, you can only really get them at Christmas time which kinda sucks, because I adore them... On the other hand, it's probably a good thing you can't get them all year, because I'd never stop eating them and I'd be a blimp... Anyway, I'm eating some right now. Mmm...
- Christmas music. I love it. It makes me happy.
- Present shopping in big, busy shopping centres.
- Wrapping presents.
- Giving presents to people.
- The cheap junk, paper crowns and terrible jokes you get inside the cracker things at the table...
- The food. All the wonderful food.
And one other thing I love about Christmas. I love how different Christmas is here in Australia compared to America or Europe. I mean, I see American Christmases all over TV and the contrast is great. I mean, in most of America, it's cold as and a lot of the time, it's snowing. Here, it's hot as and you wear shorts and t-shirts and have the fans and/or air-con on all day.
Now, I can't speak for everyone else but this is how my family's Christmas Day usually goes down.
My brothers and I wake up early and open our aforementioned sacks of lollies. We wake up the parentals and have some kind of unhealthy, quick breakfast. Now, it depends on where we are going for Christmas but we usually get the food ready for wherever we are going, get dressed and then open our presents from each other. We pack everything up and go off to whoever's house we're going to. Once we're there, the women usually go help out the host in making lunch. Whoever's not helping just chats and catches up with the family. Then, eventually, after a lot of cooking, it's lunch time. We have a big lunch with meat and a lot of salads and bread etc. The women often clean up, the kitchen is crowded and the kids gather around the tree bugging the parents by saying, every like, 5 minutes, "Can we open the presents now?" Eventually, the parents come to the tree and a couple of the kids are assigned the job of handing out the presents. The presents are opened and everyone hugs and thanks each other. Dessert probably comes after the presents. It's less formal and everyone just gets some sweet stuff if they want. The adults have coffee and chat and the kids play with their new stuff. Then, nothing much happens. Sometimes people go the park and play soccer or cricket, sometimes the... older... family members have a sleep... Basically, the adults are often tired and the kids just play with their new stuff. Then, eventually, everyone leaves and we drive home and eat leftovers for dinner, if anyone has the room for anything else... That is basically my usual Christmas Day and dang it... I just got myself more excited for Sunday... 2 days, guys!
Anyway, I'm off to watch one of the most depressing How I Met Your Mother episodes ever just because it's the only Christmas episode I haven't seen like, 5 times..
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