Childhood Christmas Memories and How My Crush Popped My Santa Bubble! (being gullible didn’t help)

Christmas is 5 DAYS away.  5 sleeps! This house is in countdown mode (well, not everyone) My husband is counting down the work days when he’s finished work for the year, 1 teen has no concept of time (still) and the other teen works in hospitality so he’ll always be shit out of luck.  I must say Mr 9 is the most excited.  I just want to stay home, bake things I only do once a year and watch Christmas movies, again!

I do love Christmas.  Growing up Christmas and Birthdays were my favourite.  I was lucky, we had a small family. My Dad’s family lived in Victoria and didn’t really visit.  My Mum’s side, Nanna and Grandad lived in Scotland until they moved back to Australia when I was 18.  So there was just the 5 of us – like a lot of people that grew up in the 80s and 90s, we didn’t have a lot of money, I know my parents used to fight about money (or lack of) a bit, but every year for Christmas we would get everything we needed and it was a massive deal.  Just like birthdays.  Every birthday my Mum would have the dinner table prepared full of party food – lollies, chips, party pies, sausage rolls, sandwiches, coloured popcorn (the kind that would make you spew if you ate too much) and all the fun food you could think of.  If it was a birthday that day, we would walk through the door after school that day and the dining room would be decorated with balloons and streamers and the table a kids dream.  We never had parties with school kids, not sure why I think because we moved around so much.  Me, my sister and brother didn’t seem to mind though. 

Christmas was the same.  Party food, but a little bit more fancier.  My Mum was the Customer Service Manger for Franklins for years so she got a discount when paying for the groceries each week.  She also got first pick of any food that was reduced to clear.  Mum just bought whatever she knew we would need at the reduced price and then freeze it until Christmas day.  Pretty sure none of us got sick from any of that freezer food, we didn’t care and just ate it anyway. 

Waking up Christmas morning was the best.  We weren’t allowed to open our bedroom doors or we would get in big trouble.  Dad would make little traps or tie string across our bedroom doors so we couldn’t get out/.  Mum and Dad would get up first, make their tea and coffee then tell us to come out of our rooms.  Then we would run to the lounge with Mum and Dad sitting there looking at each other and knowing their hard work had paid off. We would take turns to open the presents – that’s something I like to do with my own family now.  It’s special.  I am the middle child (eye roll) I have an older brother who is 22 months older than me and a younger sister by 8 years.  As a kid I was gullible as fu*k.  If you told me that the sky is going to turn purple forever and stay that way I would 100% believe you.  I believed I was adopted for a whole day before I asked my Mum if she was my real Mum.  My brother Steve got in massive trouble that day. I was also a dobber and a cry baby!  Far from what I am now.  So of course, at Christmas I 100% believed in Santa and his elves like in the movies. 

Don’t laugh, but I believed in Santa until I was in grade EIGHT!! Yes grade 8.  I was 13. I remember the exact moment aswell.  I was at school, that day our grade got asked to go to the channel 9 TV studio to film and be on a game show, you know those corny shows you see early in the morning with kids in their school uniforms?  It was one of those shows.  Only the smart and well-behaved kids got invited to go.  Me and my friends didn’t get asked so we had to stay at school.  It was during lunch time and the bell had just gone for the last period.  Fairly sure it was also the last week of school.  Anyway, I was getting my books out of my bags in the locker room and this boy that I had a massive crush on, Matt was next to me and says ‘I’m going to tell my little sister that Santa isn’t real tonight’ Ummmm what?

In my head I think I was having a panic attack and asking myself.  Santa isn’t REAL? What do you mean Santa isn’t real?  I asked him what he meant, he explained that his sister was a little brat and she got everything she wanted.  That kind of thing. Then I asked him the most stupid question and thank god he already thought I was weird!  You ready?  I asked him this and this is no shit.  I asked him… ‘if Santa doesn’t bring the presents then who does’? YES I REALLY SAID THAT.

I can still remember his face looking at me weird, like I believed in Santa or something.  Thank goodness he laughed then he asked if I was actually listening.  I wasn’t I was freaking out inside because I thought Santa was a real person. Then I laughed it off and told him that his parents would kill him if he did that.  He agreed.  Then he said he probably won’t do that, but it would be funny if he did.  Then we got our books and walked to class talking about something completely non-Christmas related!

And that was that! 

That my friends, is when my Santa Bubble popped. POP!  I was sad.  I loved the magic of Santa.  All of it.  Because I had a younger sister it was easier to believe. My sister and I would talk about Christmas all the time and play games about Christmas and Santa’s workshop.  We also went to church and they did lots of that stuff.  It was the best.  I think when my friend popped my Santa Bubble I was scared I wouldn’t be able to play games or Christmas wouldn’t be that fun anymore. Which, now as an adult I realise that wasn’t true.  I also thought it was weird that Santa and my parents had the exact same writing and they knew exactly what I wanted without me ever writing a letter sometimes.  See, magic. You must also remember I was a very gullible kid – this helped with my belief of Santa.  A LOT.

Not sure when my brother or sister found out Santa wasn’t real, but I can bet it wasn’t when they were 13 and at school. 

I think after that Christmas my parents clued on that I knew Santa wasn’t real.  It was weird, because we never said anything to each other.  Unless, something was spoken and I just choose not to remember that stuff. Again, magic!  Christmases were still the same, until I turned about 17/18.  My sister is 8 years younger than me, that’s a fair gap. Every Christmas me and my brother would all get excited, just like we did when we would have been her age.  Once you get older and try and path your way in life I have realised that Christmas gets trickier.  Kids or no kids.  My brother left home and joined the Army when he was 18.  I left home when I was 18 and pregnant by 20 and the rest is history.  Well, it’s not history there’s many Christmas memories had by all. 

If you’re keen for some more Christmas stories – read through my earlier blog posts, there’s a cracker one about how I stopped Christmas for an hour on Christmas Day about 5 years ago.  That was fun! Well it really wasn’t because I thought my kids were absolute arsehats for finding their presents, opening them, re wrapping them and then lying about it.  Fun!

However you celebrate Christmas in 2020 – here’s some helpful tips. In no particular order!

• Keep your alcohol and water intake the same.  Or not #yolo
• If people ask you if you need help, say yes.  Delegate that shit
• Don’t leave your wrapping until Christmas Eve, unless that’s your thing then leave it until Christmas Eve – whatevs
• Be kind to yourself. Always
• It’s the thought that counts. Always
• Find a Christmas Song playlist and dance in the house
• Have some paper bags and extra rum balls or rocky road extra for any cousins you may of forgotten.
• Do not pop anyone’s Santa Bubble.  Never
• Believe in some sort of magic
• Not everyone likes to celebrate this time of year for whatever reason and that’s ok, maybe ring/text them and ask if they are ok. Or pop over for a quick visit just to check on them

Or, if you or someone you know needs help, please call:

Lifeline 13 11 14

Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

Other than that my friends – have a safe and fun festive season.