Celebrating the Magic

Christmas is peering around the corner. This year especially, it seems to have come round quickly for my household. I feel almost ambushed by its sudden approach.

I'm not a religious person but I do believe in the magic of life. It's in my sack of greatest gifts along with health, children, choice and imagination. Putting aside the shopping and materialistic side of the festive season, Christmas has always held a magic for me. Maybe it's because my parents made a big effort to set the day apart as something special, hiding even the decorations until a week before the big day. Christmas Day was one of the few times of the year when my family would spend the whole day together without the thought of preparing for the next day. We would sit around in our pyjamas, giving and opening gifts, eating things that probably weren't very good for us (nuts and raisins, mince pies, chocolate), and watching our fill of festive TV. My mother would cook up the traditional lunch, serve it at the traditional time, and then she would promptly fall asleep. There was nothing unusual or grandiose about our celebration but those twenty four hours were like a colourful snapshot of our family, the three of us in the best of moods on the best day of the year. This was true magic to me.

So I wanted to share some of that magic with you in the run up to Christmas, extend a welcome to my family snapshot. There'll be books, films, photographs and much more in Fi's Magical Advent Calendar. I'll kick off on the first day of December. See you then.