What Is the True Meaning of Christmas to you?

I am missing a major event in my Christmas calendar this year. Every year for the last 3-4 years the company I worked for organised a Christmas Dinner at a local homeless charity. The majority of the staff helped out. The night before we’d be roasting turkeys and peeling vegetables ready for the day ahead. The next morning the staff would split into three groups…prep and set up, serving and waitressing and the clean up crew. We’d feed about 100 homeless people and the volunteers that worked at the charity 365 days a year. It was just one day and one meal but the difference it made to how much I enjoyed my own Christmas was immense. Unfortunately the company I worked for went into liquidation earlier this year and therefore the Christmas meal won’t be repeated this year. It’s left me feeling a little hollow about Christmas. I don’t feel like I am doing anything outside of the norm to deserve all the trappings of the festive period.

But then I had a phone call that gave me the opportunity to change that, albeit on a much smaller scale and much closer to home.

I’m not particularly close to my Dad any longer..physically (he lives a long way away in a very difficult to reach part of the UK) or emotionally (for lots of reasons we’ve grown apart). That said, I love him very much and I think it’s incredibly sad that after losing my Mum after 25 years of marriage he is now having to watch the second woman he loved and married fade away after 20 years to Alzheimer’s Disease.

The call I received was from my sister who had a long conversation with my Dad the night before about how he was doing nothing for Christmas. He wasn’t even bothering with a tree, or lights, or presents. To all intents and purposes he’s in a house, in the middle of nowhere, alone. I can understand why he felt that way. Without a moment’s thought I said ‘well let’s get him up here, everyone can come to mine! I’ll call him now’ So, I did. After a few changes to the arrangements I now have my Dad and my stepmother coming to mine Christmas Day and then on Boxing Day (the traditional post-Christmas St Stephen’s Day bank holiday in the UK) EVERYONE is coming to my house. 15 PEOPLE! I’ve gone mad…because trust me I like my Christmas quiet! It’s another one of those things that is taking me completely out of my comfort zone. I can feel the anxiety level already creeping up but, I couldn’t have enjoyed Christmas at all knowing that my Dad was sat ‘alone’, sad and unhappy with just a 10 min skype conversation as the highlight of the day.

Kess Credits:

Body – Maitreya Lara

Skin – Lara Hurley Maitreya applier and Christy Catwa Head Applier

Eyes – IKON – Spectral Eyes

Hair – Clawtooth: Valerie – Brunette **NEW** at the Arcade Gacha

Top – [sYs] LAZY long shirt **NEW** at Chapter Four

Pants – Fishy Strawberry – Snowday Pants

Boots – fri.day – Jessica Boots **NEW** at C88

Decor Credits:

unKindness – Country Lane Boat Gacha **NEW** at The Liaison Collaborative

meadowWorks – Holiday Hound **FREE** KittyCats Advent Calendar

Kalopsia – Santa’s Sleigh **NEW** at Tannenbaum Holiday Market

Floorplan – Crate Sled  **NEW** at Tannenbaum Holiday Market

Kalopsia – Santa’s Bag of Toys **NEW** at Tannenbaum Holiday Market

Kalopsia – Santa’s Bag of Coal **NEW** at Tannenbaum Holiday Market

unKindness – Country Lane Lamp Sign Winter **NEW** at The Liaison Collaborative

unKindness – Country Lane Bench Frosty **NEW** at The Liaison Collaborative

7mad;Ravens Believe Sign **NEW** at Tannenbaum Holiday Market