"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old mans hat..." is a song we used to sing in my school choir at christmas time, way back when. Now a days, my girls and I will break out into singing the same song on the drive to school each December morning. We love Christmas.
One of the lovely things about Christmas is that it happens every year, regular as clockwork, and today's celebrations still resemble much of the way we celebrated christmas when I was growing up. Not much has changed although my kids (second generation city slickers) have never experienced a country christmas like what my parents grew up with. I realised now what a priviledged it was to catch a glimpse of that country life as a child.
I love the warm, exciting, childish enthusiasm that takes envelopes me as we enter the festive season. I often think back to my childhood memories of Christmas. My memories are mostly positive. It was a lovely time of year for us. Thinking concurrently, nowadays my kids love the count down to Christmas too, especially when it includes advent calenders and choc tidbits each day and pressies at the end. Hmmm Christmas is still such fun.
When I was a kid, my Mum used to tell us about how she grew up in a little country town called St George, in far west Qld, and how on christmas morning, she'd wake up early, go outside and find sleigh tracks in the dirt roads, and hoof prints for the reindeer, or was it big boomer kangaroos??? Santa had been. But for me, growing up in suburbia, there was no such tracks, but it was still great fun imagining what life would have been like, celebrating christmas in the countryside.
When I grew up, in my family, each year we would meet on a set day before Christmas at a huge country family gathering... We'd have up to 100 family members from all over south east Qld meet up in Gympie or Tinana , in a little country hall, for a whole day event. We'd drive 2 hrs from Brisbane to arrive by morning tea time. We'd connect firstly with my grandparents, and it was all my nanna's family connections... Nanna was one of 7 sisters and a brother, and they're families would all drive to the hall to meet up with us as well. Everyone who could cook, brought a contribution towards morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea.
After morning tea, we'd have a cent auction. A pack of ten tickets were 20 c each and everyone bought a gift to put into the auction. Then we'd all buy tickets and bid on anthying we saw that we'd like to win, and hopefully win it off the table. The numerous children present all had a job to be display horses and carry each item for bidding, around the hall for everyone to look at. You'd have to walk very slowly and stop when people wanted to get a closer look. The auction was something of an experience... Ive never seen anything like it before or since. 
The majority of my extended family were country folk and they cooked breads and puddings and biscuits and made sandwiches for lunch and we city kids loved to eat the wonderful treats they brought. We'd eat iceblocks n watermelon in the hot sun too and cold christmas pud with cold custard for dessert. We would have a talent show after lunch, where any family member who had a talent of some sort would perform. I as a young singer tutored by my father and nanna, would perform many an olden day song to warm the hearts of the oldies in the crowd. I was adorable as a little kid, and became more painfully shy as I grew closer to those teen years, eventually fading from the stage to allow the younger kids to take up the challenge of performing for the oldies.
After the talent show, would come the christmas carols, which heralded in good ol santa clause to the song Jingle bells, always dressed slightly differently each year, and varying in height, padding and gruffness of voice, as each uncle or cousin or nephew etc took turns playing him. Santa'd give out pressies to all of us, pause for photos and make a quick exit.Following afternoon tea, we'd all hop in our cars and drive the long drive home, with most of us kids falling asleep in the back seats, whilst parents chatted quietly in the front. If not, we'd sometimes all break into song, on those long drives home, singing in a round, amongst my family and I,
"Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat, please put a penny in the old mans hat." Hmmmm I still love Christmas, and whilst I pause to savour this special season, let me send you my biggest Christmas wish ever.
I wish that you would know personally, in this Christmas time, the wonderful love, joy and peace that the babe in the manger- Jesus brought to this world many many christmases ago, and May He watch over you and keep you safe and secure in this wonderfully special holiday time. God Bless. Love from Jodie.
