The bauble in the above photo is the very first one Mr C and I bought together! It has survived 3 house moves, 2 children, 7 cats, 2 dogs and is still in one piece!
Christmas memories over the years are so very precious, more so as you get older. Ever since buying that first little bauble, we have made it a tradition to get a new little ornament for the tree each year. After 32 years of marriage, we now have quite a collection! Each one holds its own sweet memory. That very first one was bought in Woolworths (sadly in administration now) back in 1975, we were young, newly engaged and had very little money but we did have our dreams of what we hoped our future would be and that bauble, we knew, would be the first of many that we would buy with our future family.
How much our expectations of Christmas have changed! Our first few Christmas's were very frugal, the first year as new parents, we bought most of our little sons gifts secondhand! I am not sure when things changed but change they did. We soon found ourselves caught up in the panic and madness that overtakes the majority of us at this time of the year. We made the big mistake of taking on store cards in order to buy our children some super presents. Then we had the lean months afterwards when paying the cards off became our reality.
Of course now we know better, or do we? We no longer have young children to buy for but we still want to make our loved ones happy this Christmas. How easy it would be to join the annual panic and buy, buy, buy! All that would achieve would be to put back paying down this years 10% off the mortgage. Luckily I have been collecting presents over the year (from ebay, charity shops, car boot sales, charity catalogues etc) it is not about how much we spend that matters, it is about the thought and time we have taken, that is what really matters. The Christian message is one of love and an unfrazzled Mum who can spend some quality loving time with her family has to be the best gift of all.
Wishing you all a stress free time preparing for your own Christmas celebrations.
5 comments:
I haven't spent much this Christmas. Bought a few small things and made some things. As you say, it's the thought that counts and the message should be one of love not of money.
We also have the bauble tradition. Every year we buy a special one to add to the collection and now there are over 300 on the tree. We can't fit more on so every new special one means that one of the plainer ones has to go.
Hello sharon! Good to see you back again! lol at the 300 baubles, maybe you could find a second tree? (2nd hand and saved from the landfill of course:)
I wouldn't have anywhere to put it, Catz. It's bad enough trying to find room for one tree here :)
great post- i'm not religious at all but i completely agree with your final comment quality time together is the important thing not spending a fortune on presents. I'm so glad we're doing the elf thing because it's so magical and it's making me focus on what's really important rather than getting tooo caught up in the commercial stuff- ooh maybe i should write a post about that :)
Oh Sharon we have much the same problem! I do envy folk with big houses that have a hall large enough for an old fashioned tree! (not their heating bills though!;)I still have a lot of de- cluttering to do and it is even worse this time of year!
Donna- I notice a lot of Mums getting somewhat frazzled this time of year (I used to be one of them) I love your elf and it is obvious that your children do too. I will be looking in often for elf updates! :) Yes you should put your thoughts about the rampant consumerism onto your blog, it might help other young Mums.
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