My mother passed away on December 21st, 2009. I remember that it spoiled Christmas that year, and each year after everything about Christmas seemed different. I just didn't feel the same about it anymore.
I guess it's because my mother was the key ingredient in Christmas for me. Since I (and my siblings) were children my parents always made sure we had the best Christmases one could hope for. It was my mother who instilled in us the whole spectrum - not just presents, toys and food - but the history of Christmas around the world (she'd read stories to us about Christmases in other countries and showed us illustrations of how people elsewhere celebrated). We used to attend church and Sunday school and our church held a Christmas pageant every year. They'd invite the kids who attended Sunday School to take part in the pageant. They had elaborate costumes that we'd be excited to wear and most of us played the parts of the three wise men or the shepherds. Only the prettiest girl got to be Mary and the handsomest boy Joseph.
The best part for me was that we'd get to sing Christmas carols as our procession entered the church: Angels We Have Heard on High was the one I liked to sing the most, and I practised it every day and night for weeks before the pageant.
At home we'd have lots of visitors, which always excited me. At first it was many, many relatives, but as these began to thin out when we got older and my siblings and I had close friends (even boyfriends), we'd go to a film after Christmas dinner. We'd either do that or play board games at the table once everything was cleared away and washed up.
But it hasn't been the same for the past 13 years. Sure, we always tried to give our kids the best Christmases we could, and we had fun but it wasn't the same and now the magic is gone.
I'm glad you're going somewhere else to spend Christmas because I think it will help you enjoy it a bit more. It still is a special time despite our losses and all the changes in our lives.
I wish you the best as well, full of warmth as you said, and peaceful too.
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asenathwaite
(no subject)
Date: Friday, 23 December 2022 20:50 (UTC)I guess it's because my mother was the key ingredient in Christmas for me. Since I (and my siblings) were children my parents always made sure we had the best Christmases one could hope for. It was my mother who instilled in us the whole spectrum - not just presents, toys and food - but the history of Christmas around the world (she'd read stories to us about Christmases in other countries and showed us illustrations of how people elsewhere celebrated). We used to attend church and Sunday school and our church held a Christmas pageant every year. They'd invite the kids who attended Sunday School to take part in the pageant. They had elaborate costumes that we'd be excited to wear and most of us played the parts of the three wise men or the shepherds. Only the prettiest girl got to be Mary and the handsomest boy Joseph.
The best part for me was that we'd get to sing Christmas carols as our procession entered the church: Angels We Have Heard on High was the one I liked to sing the most, and I practised it every day and night for weeks before the pageant.
At home we'd have lots of visitors, which always excited me. At first it was many, many relatives, but as these began to thin out when we got older and my siblings and I had close friends (even boyfriends), we'd go to a film after Christmas dinner. We'd either do that or play board games at the table once everything was cleared away and washed up.
But it hasn't been the same for the past 13 years. Sure, we always tried to give our kids the best Christmases we could, and we had fun but it wasn't the same and now the magic is gone.
I'm glad you're going somewhere else to spend Christmas because I think it will help you enjoy it a bit more. It still is a special time despite our losses and all the changes in our lives.
I wish you the best as well, full of warmth as you said, and peaceful too.
Merry Christmas.