Christmas celebrations

It's only 22 days until Christmas!  Do you celebrate Christmas?  What are your traditions?  Do you still believe in Santa Claus?

The best thing I love about Christmas was seeing Santa and getting gifts because I wasn't a spoilt brat on getting alot of stuff other things while growing up.  My parents weren't rich and we had to survive on only one income.  Back in the times when I was a kid interest rates for home loans were very high and my parents had to survive with the standard of living expenses on one low income my father used to come home with weekly.

What happened to respect of today's kids?  Should naughty kids be rewarded at Christmas??  I pretty sure in my times kids didn't get their wish list for Christmas if they were naughty. I grew up believing kids should be seen and not heard!  And be thankful for having a roof over their head, clothes on their backs and freshly cooked food on the table.  Today kids aren't like that...no respect for their elders, no manners used and definiately they are fussy eaters.  Who's fault it is?  The parents.... because they intend to spend money on modern technology and allow them to use computers, ipads, etc for many hours. I understand the parents want what's best for their kids to stay off the streets but what happened to family time these days when kids overtime spend with modern gadgets?

When I was a young kid, I used to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my belated Nanna (who used to travel by train and stayed for two weeks over the festive season) at home.  My mum used to make our Christmas cake and pudding weeks in advance.  By this time of the month we had our ceiling decorations and tree up in the lounge room.  On Christmas Day my parents were up early to start preparing lunch.  After breakfast we opened our presents and had a traditional roast for lunch.  We had turkey and ham served with roasted potatoes and other vegetables. I don't know how I fitted dessert in but we had plum pudding served with warm custard. 

By the time I got married our celebrations changed.  We had our inlaws and our children to celebrate the festive season with.  Up until three years ago we all used to meet at one house and had a big lunch with either chicken, turkey and ham served with either vegetables or salad.  For dessert the traditional plum pudding went out the window because some members didn't like fruit based desserts.

But now as I grow older and had experienced some unpleasant events, my spirit of Christmas is never the same. If it wasn't for my children, I wouldn't even bother celebrating the weekend.  But I would like to celebrate totally different now as I am getting bored with the years I had been celebrating with.  I would love to experience at least one white Christmas in the northern hemisphere or see how my other extended family members celebrate with their families across the country.

So share with me on how you celebrate your festive season?  Are you happy with the way you have done it over the years? Or are you like me, wish to have a change of scenery?