Christmas Shop

[juliacornwal]

Has anyone ever been to the Christmas Shop in the Flower Market in Amsterdam? For a total Christmas freak like me it's wonderful, just Christmas music and Christmas decorations and nothing else at all. Wonderful crib sets and group figures and everything else down to tiny glittery objects, little glass angels and masses and masses of Dutch blue and white china tree ornaments.
It's great to go in the middle of the summer when, if you're like me, you're getting withdrawl symptoms and you can have a short, but necessary, wallow!!

[tigerlily11]

This is my last post so I'm going out in the style that this site was menat for. Helping people.
U don't have to go all the way to Amsterdam for a christmas shop.
There is one in Stratford-upon-Avon.

[Tups]

I've visited the Christmas shop in Norway but only because we were literally passing by. A bit of fun, I suppose but, without wishing to sound like Scrooge, I HATE Christmas, or rather, the commercial side of it all. What would the shops do without it, eh?! Ever since I was a little girl, I've felt uncomfortable about all the presents; probably because I knew my parents were poor and they were sacrificing themselves for us. Here's my list of reasons why I hate it:

1. Too much money spent
2. Too much pressure on poor families to over spend.
3. Too much pressure to be where you feel obliged to be,
rather than where you'd like to be.
4. Too many Christmas cards saying, 'Happy Holiday' or
such-like. It's CHRISTMAS for goodness sake!
5. Too many phone calls to/from friends and relatives,
badgering you to think of something they can give you!
6. Mums saying, 'I don't want anything; the pleasure for
me is in the giving.' (How selfish is that; don't we ALL
like giving?!)

A friend of mine has the right idea. She has persuaded her relatives, except for immediate family - though I think that would be a good idea too - to find something useful or amusing for less than a fiver. They have to put the receipt in too. What fun that would be! OK, it may take a little longer to shop but the expense would be minimal and the pleasure would be maximum!

[juliacornwal]

I like this answer, Tups and I agree with you very much. I loathe Christmas cards that say 'Happy Holidays' and I think they make us look like prats! We should either be proud of our religious festivals, or dump them, but not make watery apologies for them.

We don't spend very much on each other at Christmas, probably most on the grandchildren and even then they don't get dozens of gifts from us. I do, I admit, love to decorate the house, but I use the same decorations year after year and put them away very carefully at the end of the season, and I have never blackmailed my children to spend Christmas with us, because I don't want anyone there who feels they're obliged to be.

Frankly, and this probably sounds hideously trite, my favourite part of Christmas is Church. I love singing carols, I love Midnight Mass and I love the Christmas story. It's got everything, nice music, children and animals!

[Tups]

Glad you agree, julia. Just to keep myself in check, I write down what I bought and how much I spent on each person each year. My little book goes back about 10 years. It also has my Christmas card list. Apart from stopping me from buying 'just one more thing' for someone, simply because I've seen it in the shop and like it, it's very interesting to see what sort of things I have bought for people over the years. I don't keep a list of what other people buy me; that would seem so mercenary, although I wish I'd done it for the children so they could write more specific Thank you letters! (I wouldn't dream of getting them to make a list themselves as this would totally ruin the joy of opening presents. ) I remember my mum always used to try to get me to save the boxes and store them safely, in case the toys were worth something in years to come! What a pain that was! If you want to think about that, it's best to buy toys especially as collectors' items and not use them at all! My grand daughter will be just over 2 this Christmas. I really hope I manage not to indulge myself, the way my mum did for my children. Christmas morning was really obscene, with the room full to the gunnels with presents! Ugh!

[juliacornwal]

Actually I've found you can shoot yourself in the foot if you over buy for the grandchildren - because the ones they open first they forget about, step on, accidentally leave behind and otherwise generally abuse!

Mine had two presents each last year but didn't get them till Boxing Day, and as we were having a party on Boxing Day and there was one small present for everyone under the tree (all way under �5.00) I made them give to everyone else before they received themselves. They said afterwards that it was their favourite time of the party!!!!

I love Christmas, mainly because as a child I lived in a house where Christmas was a hideous battle of hangovers and unwanted relations and since I married I've turned it into a fun and delightful occasion. I go out of my way to see to it that it isn't spoiled. We live on the Isle of Wight and we set aside one evening in the run up to Christmas to take the children to see the Christmas lights (which abound here, believe me). They sing carols with us, no one (in my presence, anyway) gets stressed and says anything unkind, and we keep the Father Christmas tradition high on the list ... you know, leaving mince-pies and a glass of juice for him, and a carrot for Rudolph.

I thought it wasn't possible, because as a child I feared Christmas greatly, but if you keep it simple and make it exciting for the children, it can be wonderful!

[Tups]

That's the key thing; keep it simple! Would that we could all do it all of the time! Hey ho!