01/12/2013

One Sunday afternoon...

This time of year makes me think about my childhood and the traditions we had, although I'm sure they wern't classed as traditions by my parents, it was just the way things happened...
Thinking back, we did the same things for Christmas each year, so I'm going to call them traditions...

There wern't very many of them but one of the ones I remember clearly and fondly is choosing the Christmas tree...
This was my job, no one else was allowed to do it but me... My dad and I would go to a very specific farm ( the one we bought big bags of potatoes from) it would always be a Sunday afternoon in December, I remember the drive there, down the country lanes and round the final corner and the little car park opposite the farm, I couldn't wait to pick the Christmas tree...
We always had a real tree back then, the trees were lined up down the middle of the yard bunched against each other with some leaning against the cowshed (they were never the good ones)...
It would always be light as we arrived and dark and cold when we left, every year would be the same, I would scan the line of trees then inspect every tree one by one, pull it out look at it, put it back... It would take hours my dad would leave me to it, helping me if a tree was too heavy... Every year, the farmer would try and help and suggest a tree, but no I had to do it myself till I found the perfect tree and I always knew when I'd found it...
My dad would then tie it to the roof rack and off we would go home...
It was always so exciting to choose the tree the start of Christmas... my mum would be at home sorting the tree decorations out and we had a lot of them, all different shapes, sizes and colours non of this matching business some glass, plastic, homemade, glittery, paper and she always made the most amazing fairy out of an old Sindy doll, crepe paper, glitter and tinfoil... I loved the fairy couldn't wait for her to make it... She used to make it once we'd gone to bed and I came down in the morning to a beautiful tree fairy...


Once we got home the tree would be stood up in the garage over night in a bucket of water so it's branches would fall and it would regain it's shape...
I was always impatient at this bit... I wanted the tree up so badly so I could decorate it... Whilst I was at school the next day my dad would bring the tree in, put it in place and put the lights on ready so I could decorate it after school... My mum always put the fairy on top, cotton wool round the base & on some branches and a nativity scene out... A quick spray with fake snow stuff...
The rest was mine all mine and I loved it... All the glittery, shiny baubles, homemade pinecone ornaments and crackers... 
Waiting for the presents to go underneath! 
Christmas lights switched on every morning, I loved Christmas back then, not sure when I became so jaded about it all?... 
Maybe when my mum worked on the district and used to make extra food for the elderly people who never realised it was Christmas (hmmmm... That's possibly a whole other story!) 
Christmas then was good, the tree was amazing, now I have a small, fake tree on a shelf!... Meh!... But I still love the lights at Christmas... X

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