Fifty things I love about Christmas

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I've had a bit of a break from blogging for the last month. Having written two blog posts a week all year, I figured I deserved it. This one is a bit self-indulgent too. I've got nothing profound to say about writing (you'll have to wait until January for that), I just wanted, on Christmas Eve eve, to list just a few of the reasons why I love Christmas (in no particular order):

  1. A week (at least) off work
  2. Morrison's cranberry and white chocolate boule
  3. Seeing family
  4. Having such a bad memory that even the presents I bought for myself are a nice surprise
  5. People smiling
  6. Chocolate with no excuses or guilt
  7. Fairytale of New York by Kirsty McColl and the Pogues
  8. The Christmas bumper edition Radio Times
  9. Children getting excited
  10. Two weeks off Seminary
  11. A beautiful Christmas tree in my living room
  12. Roast parsnips (the ones they do at the Two Brewers in Chelmsford are the best ever)
  13. The Downton Abbey Christmas special (apparently no one dies this year)
  14. Choosing perfect presents for people. I wish I could boast here about the amazing gift I got my Dad, but there's a chance he might read this.
  15. A husband who cooks Christmas lunch, and thus makes up for not being able to cook dinner the rest of the year (actually, I love him all the time, no just at Christmas)
  16. Singing Christmas carols. Apart from Away in a Manger (done it to death this year, never want to hear it again) and Silent Night (because the fact that the words are wrong drives me potty)
  17. Two weeks off the school run
  18. Really fabulous things in the shops
  19. Friends coming over bearing gifts
  20. Carol services
  21. Nativity plays
  22. Crackers. Yes, I always wear the hat, but not the plastic moustache.
  23. Christmas jumpers. Especially on Christmas jumper day.
  24. Doing a pixie hamper
  25. Christmas Lights by Coldplay
  26. The Christmas Doctor Who special
  27. A yule log, as made by me on Christmas Eve
  28. Turkey and cranberry sauce and bread sauce and pigs in blankets and stuffing and... well, all of it really.
  29. Hearing the children tearing into their presents in the morning.
  30. My husband being home
  31. Nice cheese
  32. People who don't think about Jesus all year thinking about Jesus
  33. Decorated shops and businesses
  34. Midnight mass/Carols by Candlelight/Nine Lessons and Carols/Christingle/Crib services and other special church services of various kinds.
  35. Chocolate oranges
  36. Exciting chaos for a few days before "the big day", and the contrasting sense of peace when I'm sitting watching the Queen's speech with a glass of Shloer and it's all over.
  37. Wrapping presents
  38. Unwrapping presents
  39. Troika
  40. The Call the Midwife Christmas special
  41. Pantomimes
  42. Decorated houses
  43. Reflecting on past Christmases
  44. Reading people's annual newsletters
  45. Putting out biscuits for Santa
  46. Seeing what presents everyone got
  47. Reading Christmas scriptures
  48. Waking up to presents on the end of my bed (when I was a child, anyway, and my middle daughter just told me this was her favourite thing about Christmas)
  49. NORAD tracks Santa
  50. Advent candles.

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