So the Christmas tree is up and the great consumerist festival begins, I feel like such a scrooge these days. I am not christian, agnostic, with pagan leanings, would be the best description of my philosophical position but I have always loved the sense of magic at Christmas and I mean magic in a mystical, spiritual sense as much as anything. Christmas was a time of magic and happiness, hope and renewal but these days it is summed up in the image below, Banksy’s iconic shopping bag Jesus. Consumerism killing the spirit of Christmas in a big way. One of my favourite Banksy images.
I promised to be on my best behaviour over Christmas, keep the bah humbug to a minimum. I do still love the Christmas tree, every decoration is a memory. Putting up the tree has always been a special ritual in our house, each year on the night we put up the tree we give each other a small gift, usually a Christmas ornament. The ritual started when our daughter was very young, (about two), when on the night we put up the tree I gave her a new Christmas picture book. Then it morphed into an ornament for the tree and we started giving each other a special ornament. The night the tree went up became our special part of Christmas. We would prepare a special meal and it would be just the three of us, a quite special time. To this day Bronte says it is the best part of Christmas, our quite family dinner and the ritual of putting up the tree together.
What are your favourite parts of Christmas? How do you create a sense of magic?
Gum trees and Galaxies 
I’d never seen that Banksy picture before, what a beauty…in a sad but true way. Lots of baking and gifting of homemade biscuits etc…is still big for us and always appreciated. The almond bread is in the oven as we speak. Getting in before the 40 degree days start!
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Love the baking we used to do a lot more along those lines when Bronte was young, still manage some. The heat in the kitchen is a deterrent, lets hope we get at least some cooler days.
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We like to have some lights but skip the tree these days (we did have one when our son was at home). We celebrate the mid-winter festival by having some favourite food and relaxing. On the shortest day we go and greet the dawn to celebrate the days getting longer and treat ourselves to breakfast out in a good cafe.
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That sounds perfect, love the idea of greeting the dawn. Christmas in Australia is very different being high summer, the northern hemisphere Christmas seems right but here it feels odd. Have a wonderful Christmas break.
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Hi Sharon, I like your Christmas Tree ritual. It can be quite dispiriting to see the gaudy display of consumerism at this time of year. As my family all live interstate gift-giving can be a challenge, but this year we have sent each of the nieces and nephews a special ornament for the tree. Perhaps we might make this a regular Christmas ritual too. Have a Merry Christmas.
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