This is the 25th and final blog posts to celebrate my 25th published novel, A Skye Full of Stars.
What’s the best thing about Christmas?
For me, it’s family.
Christmas is the best time to meet up. Everyone’s available at some time or another – nobody’s (usually) gone on holiday or planned other things. Everybody knows when Christmas is so putting together the jigsaw of who to see when has already happened weeks or months before.
My Christmas Day is reserved for the very closest family, who live nearby, and then on Boxing Day we all travel for an hour or so to join in a big gathering of my husband’s clan. That’s noisy! We eat too much and talk a lot, and the kids get really excited. I love watching children open presents. I’m at the happy place in my life where I can afford to buy most things that I want and so I’m truly not bothered about receiving gifts – though more chocolates are never in the way. I ask the parents of all the children in the family for suggestions so I know my gifts to them will be wished for, and if the parents are too slow to give me the info, I suggest trumpets and drums. That tends to concentrate their minds.
Usually (although it’s different this year, because of a landmark birthday in the family so plans have been brought forward), then there’s a gathering of the Moorcroft clan between Christmas and New Year. That’s fine. I don’t mind how far I extend Christmas! Sometimes it takes place at my house or sometimes the home of my brother and sister-in-law. It’s quite a big undertaking to be the one to host, but it’s worth it.
My strategy is to buy as much food as I can online, but have it delivered a day early in case of missing items. (Then I ask my husband to shop for replacements as he doesn’t seem to mind a crowded supermarket as much as I do.) I cram as much hot food as I can into my cooker, and everything else has to be cold. All the drink is put on a counter in the utility room for people to help themselves (some wine and beer on the patio as I don’t have a big enough fridge for it all). I also accept offers of help in the kitchen. It gives me a chance to chat to people individually and it also shares some of the work. When it’s time to get lunch on the table, I grab anyone near enough to ferry the food out or to usher people to the table.
After the meal, there’s more exchanging of gifts, everyone talks like mad for a couple of hours then goes home with hugs and farewells, leaving a ringing silence behind them.
Next day, my husband and I eat leftovers.
A Skye Full of Stars is out now!
