One Christmas, Two Views

I put my hand in Santa’s big bag of Christmas blogs and was lucky to draw out a this gem from Vicki, mum of two, who blogs at The Boy’s Behaviour www.theboysbehaviour.co.uk. She is also co-founder of adoption support site www.theadoptionsocial.com.

I love Christmas. It’s a happy time of year for me and I want to make it happy and special for my children, but it’s not always that easy…

What I see:

The big pile of presents in the corner, tokens of love and special treats, chosen especially and wrapped with care for those who are loved.

The big tree chosen with care for it’s symmetry and height, smelling fresh and green, perfect for showing off my treasured baubles and decorations collected over the years. Illuminated by my favourite twinkly lights.

The big market, with a range of stalls, selling homemade sweets and treats, beautiful gifts to choose from. Wandering around with my family around me soaking up the atmosphere. With the smells of hot food and garlands of dried orange and cinnamon.

The big tin of sweets, traditional at Christmas time, loved by everyone who sees the bright twists of cellophane all nestled together. Which one shall I choose.

The big display of cards received, from people who know us well, from acquaintances and school friends. Pretty pictures, carefully chosen words, meaningful messages, reminders of people we don’t see so often.

What he sees:

That big pile of presents in the corner, showing off with their shiny paper, and big gold ribbons waiting to be opened. But they’re only for the good ones – am I worthy? Will I get as many as her? Which ones are mine?

The big tree with the sparkly lights and the shiny baubles aiming it’s pointy needles at any arms that dare to brush past. Are they pointy? Do they hurt? I’d better check. OUCH! Those brightly coloured baubles look too good to leave hanging there…don’t they? I’ll just have a look at that decoration there, I can make it look better, hang it somewhere else. SMASH! Heck, now I’m in trouble, I’ll go and hide.

The big market, with people everywhere, at every turn, getting in the way, blocking the stalls. The delicious smells of hot, fresh, sweet donuts, mingled with frying onions for the supersized hot dogs. I want one. I WANT ONE. I don’t want to be here, I want to go home.

The big tin of sweets, it’s there every year but they don’t let me help myself. I have to wait, I hate waiting. The sweets peek at me, I might just sneak a few…they won’t notice. But wait, so many to pick from, which ones do I like? I can’t make a decision. What if I make the wrong decision?

The big display of cards received, from people I don’t know but who know me, from my friends – but not all of them like me enough to send a card, she’s got more than me and likes showing them off. I wonder if my birth mum is going to send me a card?

2 thoughts on “One Christmas, Two Views

  1. Sarah

    It’s so hard trying to figure out what goes on inside their tiny heads but I think this is a pretty good interpretation. I think the thing about the baubles on the tree and all the other shiny things that come with Christmas is particularly relevant to my oldest. I seem to increase the amount of time I say “please don’t touch that” at this time of year. Great guest post and really please you joined in our Secret Santa. x

    Reply
  2. Emily

    This is spot on. We as adults were lookin forward to our first family christmas together and couldn’t understand why the children were not excited at all. We talked and it seemed that only did they have no idea about anything to do with Christmas (lots of teaching and fun there) they thought that they would move house afterwards as they came to us in January. It just shows that you can never explain permanace and forever family enough to children,

    Reply



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: