OUR CHRISTMAS TREE

 

The annual Bailey family Christmas tree farm trip! And yes, we did get inspired by the Family Vacation movie which has become one of our all time favourites to watch on Christmas Eve! How do you feel about family Christmas traditions? When the kids were small I was obsessed with them. I think having our own little rituals to complete each year made me feel more like a "real" family. I was desperate for that big, cosy family Christmas and for the kids to look back and remember all the things we did together. maybe even replicate them with their own kids one day. 

Well fast forward 5 years and I feel differently. With the cost of living crisis, energy bills rising and general state of the world, I don't feel like we need to keep up with these traditions to be a "real" family. They just don't feel as important as they did before. 

I don't mean we don't do any of them. I just don't place the same kind of significant on them as I used to. If I don't feel like making gingerbread men on Saturday morning, I wont. I'll buy them from a shop and let the kids decorate them instead. Or if I can't be bothered to drive an hour to the Christmas tree farm, we'll buy one from the local garden centre instead. 

I'm all about making Christmas easy on all of us. No longer will we plan things weeks in advance and then force ourselves to complete them, even if we'd prefer to be curled up on the sofa watching Elf. 

Maybe that's our new Christmas tradition. To be slow, to be honest with ourselves and to not get hung up on what we 'should' be doing.