Dad, loved christmas, he would spend all night decorating the house on Christmas Eve so that when we woke up on Christmas mornnig the house had been transformed and it was magical.  Apparently Father Christmas did all the decorating!  

It was the only time of the year that dad actually helped with cooking the dinner, not to mention putting a hoover around the house!  And he would be so tired that christmas evening he would end up falling asleep in his chair!  Mum would muse that she had this activity 364 days a year!  

We were allowed to open our small present in our stocking and eat the sweets and fruit but we had to wait until after breakfast to open the presents around the tree.  We would sit around the tree and dad would take a present out, one at a time, read the label and pass it to that person, we would all watch as they opened it, the children’s faces glued to the present, mum and dad’s glued to the face to watch the expression!  It would take hours to unwrap the lot and we all just sat and waited patiently - gosh we were well trained!

Every 5th year we got a big present and he was always so proud of the fact, that we all just accepted that.

Our dad, put the magic into christmas and our mum put all the hard work!  It was always fun though, and I try to create some of his magic with my children.