Christmas at my house

 Well, here in Switzerland Christmas Eve is where it all starts. A few years ago, when I was younger we celebrated Christmas on the 24th with my mum’s family and then on the 25th we celebrated with my dad’s family. Both my grandparents on my dad’s side died and the family around my little cousin prefers to go away over Christmas.

So now, we mostly celebrate on the 24^th and the 25^th is just the day after, where we stay together watch movies and play games. It's not Santa bringing the presents in the night of the 25th, no it's the "Christ child" or in German "Christkind" coming on the 24th when it gets dark.

Now, let me tell you more about the 24^th at my house. First of all, I sleep in, always. Then I have breakfast with my family. After that I go back to my room, turn on some Christmas music or start a movie on my laptop, then I start wrapping all the presents (this year this happened a bit earlier, on Monday already). I love wrapping up all the presents. I get to choose some nice silver and white paper and afterwards decorate it in my own style. Almost every year, my dad and brother give me something to wrap as well. “You can do that better than I do”. Then we have a small lunch, since we’ll have a big dinner afterwards. After lunch I finish wrapping everything and bring the presents down to spread under the tree (We always decorate it the evening before - not this year again, because we are going away after Christmas and wanted to look at the tree longer, so we put it up before).

At around 2 pm it’s time for coffee and tea with desert and then we start getting things ready for dinner. It’s funny how we work as a team then ;), of course there is always Christmas music in the background and we start fooling around. Some funny dances were created because of that.

Then it’s definitely time to get ready, before everyone arrives. I like to dress up a bit and

look nice at Christmas. After that I get everything ready for our “aperitif”.  My uncle always picks my grandparents up and they arrive together. We have prosecco or champagne and nip a little something. It’s always fun to catch up and talk properly. Then it’s time for the salad and our “Fondue Chinoise” (It’s not the famous cheese fondue everybody knows, no it’s meat Fondue). That’s our tradition here, we have it every year and it’s so yummy with different sauces.

Time for presents now!!! My brother and I always get the presents under the Christmas tree and give them to our family and then we take turns unpacking them. It’s always so much fun, especially when you don’t know what’s in them.

After the presents we get back to the food again, with some Chinoise soup and the a yummy desert with coffee and Christmas cookies. Slowly we come to the end of the day and we all go to bed happy and content. 

Christmas at my House by Becca

Since before I can remember, Christmas has been my most anticipated time of year. It began as sheer excitement for the prettily wrapped parcels beneath the tree, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to love it for more than just that reason. Of course, the prettily wrapped parcels are an added bonus!

I’m the eldest of seven children, so as you can imagine, the atmosphere when I arrive home on Christmas Eve is mental. Even if I went home in the foulest mood and not at all excited for Christmas Day (which would never, ever happen by the way), walking into that house and having six excited little people squealing about the fact that Santa’s coming would be impossible to ignore, and impossible to not ‘catch’.

I work in retail, so I’m usually working on Christmas Eve. Once that’s out of the way, I go home, pack a bag and then travel back to mum’s house. I have a stupid tradition, where I play ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ during the car journey, simply because it fits so perfectly. When I arrive, my mum is usually found making Christmas dinner preparations in the kitchen. Whether that be getting all the pots and pans ready, peeling the veg, or adding the finishing touches to a Victorian trifle, she’ll be there, and usually with a drink to hand me.

What comes next is waiting for the rest of the house to go to sleep. Easier said than done. I can’t blame them. I can remember, so clearly, how excited I used to be on Christmas Eve, unable to sleep because each time I closed my eyes, images of waking up on Christmas morning repeatedly took over. So, for mum and I, it’s a big waiting game until they’re all finally fast asleep in bed. Once they are, we begin to move presents from the designated ‘hiding place’ to the living room. I love this. I love placing the wrapped up gifts into their separate piles. When it was just me and my younger sister, our presents were placed in two separate piles, but now that there’s seven, it’s a little tricky, like a sort of puzzle. I can’t put into words how important I feel putting their presents in place for when they awake on Christmas morning. It’s so much fun, and Mum and I usually cast excited smiles at each other as we get to work. By the time we’re finished, we’re usually knackered, and it isn’t long before we head off to bed. We share a soppy hug before we part, which always makes me brim with tears (I’m so over-sensitive, haha!) and then sing, “See you on Christmas morning!”

Last year, I was ridiculously eager. I put an alarm on my phone for something ridiculous like 5.30 am and ended up drinking numerous cups of coffee, watching the TV, reading, gazing longingly at my own pile of presents, and face-planting the floor before anyone else woke up. It was torture! In the end, they woke at about 7.30-8, and as they hopped down the stairs, one by one, I was relieved to finally be joined with other people who were awake! I adore racing into the lounge before them, waiting for them to reach the doorway, and then flicking on the lights. As their eyes glance around at the presents, their tired faces quickly come to life and it’s wonderful to watch! Once everyone’s sat by their pile, we have to wait for Mum to wake up. It’s a rule. She usually comes down about five minutes later, and I get a cup of coffee prepared for her, haha. Once she’s settled in one of the chairs, coffee in hand, dustbin bags at the ready for the discarded wrapping paper, the fun begins! Being in a room with that many children, and my teenage sister, all of them tearing off wrapping paper and launching it over their shoulder, it gets messy very quickly! I usually run around like a headless chicken, depositing the paper in the dustbin bag. I love watching them opening their presents, I suppose it reminds me of when I was little. As is normal for excited children, once the wrapping paper is off and they’re faced with their presents, they want to play with everything straight away, so chaos usually ensues.

What comes next is Christmas dinner, which never, ever gets boring. Mum decorates the table beautifully, with candles and tiny glittery trees, and usually, because there are so many of us, we have to pull chairs from other parts of the house, otherwise there’s no way we’ll fit! The only thing I don’t have on my plate are sprouts, because they’re disgusting! BLURGH! But other than that, we all devour the food on our plates and finish up with comfortable, bloated tummies and satisfied appetites. Next comes pudding, and after that, we usually head back to the living room, to watch whatever Christmas film is on TV.

I look forward to Christmas throughout the year. Although people say not to spend your life waiting, I do find myself waiting for Christmas Day. No matter what’s happening in my life, I feel relaxed, at peace, and completely trouble-free. There’s something magical about the 25^th of December. Being with my family, eating a huge Christmas dinner together, helping Mum take the presents into the living room, having a drink while she preps dinner… It’s all so beautiful and something that I look forward to constantly. Christmas, in my eyes, is the best time of year by far.

From me, I hope you have all the most magical Christmas, full of happiness and excitement and love! I hope you all eat way too much, are spoilt by Santa, and have a very, merry time! I know I will!

Happy Christmas,

Becca xxx