My Mum's going to Canada for 6 weeks, over the Christmas & New Year period, to stay with my sister & her family, (her hubby Baggie belongs to the forum). Will be the first year without seeing my parents & the first Christmas since my Dad passed away, so will feel strange. I think the Christmas spirit starts to wane once you reach the age where you have to start spending money on presents for other people! Suddenly you realise how much commercial pressure there is to spend, spend, spend. When I got into my 20s I vowed never to have anything to do with it any more & spent several Christmases refusing to celebrate it at all. Feel a bit guilty about that now as it must have spoilt things a bit for the rest of my family. Still don't really bother with presents though.
Like my fellow Postie Shaun, I just see it as weeks & weeks of extra work, but will do my best to be Chrismassy for the benefit of others -& probably secretly enjoy it too.
Taz will no doubt have to spend some time on Christmas Day dealing with the ponies at her livery yard, so I'll go help, which might be a nice way to spend the morning, then home for a big lunch & curl up on the sofa together to watch a film or six & moan about having eaten too much.
