I’ve been meaning to post this since Christmas!

This year, my kids decided that Mummy needed to have a stocking too, as Santa only brings gifts for kids. So, I gave them some shopping money (they’re 3 & 5 and don’t get pocket money yet), and they took their Oma to Chadstone to buy items for Mummy’s stocking. They made some great choices, include a Christmas angel with my name on it, a headband, a book to read, and some bubble bath.

On Christmas morning, we all had fun opening our stockings together, and the boys were so proud of the stocking they had put together for Mummy.

Christmas decorations often have a mix of sentimental and monetary value, so it is rare for people to get a whole new set of decorations every year (of course, if you think it is common, let me know!)

So that means each December/January we have to pack away those precious decorations and store them for another year.

Decorations can vary in shape and size, especially once you have a few hand-made treasures in the collection, so it can be a challenge to pack them. And then you have to allow for some being fragile and needing extra care in packing.

So how do you pack away your Christmas decorations - do you have any tips or secrets that could help everyone else this year?

Ah, it’s a sad task but the Christmas decorations can’t stay up all year.

I mean, I’d love the magic and spirit of Christmas to be with us always, but it wouldn’t be so special if we saw Christmas trees everywhere and lived with tinsel around our houses all year.

So it needs to come down, be packed away carefully and stored until next December.

But when should they come down?

I have heard many times that it is bad luck to still have them up on/after the 6th January, and others say it is bad luck to start the new year with the Christmas decorations still on display.

The twelve days of Christmas ends on the evening of January 5 - just as Christmas starts at night fall on the 24th December (traditionally, days ended/started with the light, not at midnight.)

Traditional decorations were mostly ivy, which were believed to hold the spirit of the trees. Taking down the decorations and putting the ivy outside releases the tree spirits back into nature; leaving the tree spirits trapped in the house for too long would prevent plants growing and the arrival of spring (obviously not an Australian tradition!)

When do you take down your decorations? Do you make it fun or is it just a task to get done quickly?

What was the best gift you received this Christmas? And why do you call it your best?

Don’t go by anyone else’s standards - the best gift you got may have been the cheapest, the least practical or the ugliest, but if it has meaning to you, we’d love to hear about it

The 26th of December is known in many countries as Boxing Day, in particular, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada.

Some say it originated as the day when Christmas was packed up - things put away, boxes thrown out, etc.

In England, it was tradition that on Boxing Day gifts were given to employees and the poor. The theory being that staff would work hard to give you a nice Christmas Day so on Boxing Day you thanked them with a gift.

It is a public holiday in Australia* so most of us don’t work unless we are in essential services or retail…

How do you celebrate (or not) Boxing Day? What does the term ‘Boxing Day’ mean to you?

* In South Australia, they have a Proclamation Day holiday instead of Boxing Day but it’s still the 26th of December.

With the amount of rain falling on Melbourne over the last two days, it doesn’t take much dreaming to envision a wet Christmas! Forecasts are for fine and 25, but I suspect it will be wet underfoot in many places still and the tree/ earthwork damage will still be visible anyway.

It reminds me of a Christmas when I was a kid - I only remember bits & pieces of it (and it may have been a family Christmas party rather than on Christmas Day although my memory is Christmas Day) I don’t remember Christmas celebrations themselves affected by rain and water, but going home was a different story!

Driving along Dandenong Road, the road was covered in water - at least ankle deep is my guess. There weren’t a lot of cars on the road, and all were travelling slowly and carefully. I think our engine must have been flooded because I remember Dad walking off through the pouring rain, trudging through the lake of the service road to reach a phone booth and call for help.

I don’t remember who rescued us and can’t imagine who he called for help - my Grandparents would have been closest but they never drove or owned a car! Maybe he just rang the RACV and I can only imagine how long a wait that would have been on such a night.

It was a bit scary - I think the car breaking down and Dad not automatically fixing it broke a few childish illusions

Here’s hoping Christmas Day this year will be a little less adventurous, as much as we appreciate the rain!

I’m not 100% sure of the accuracy of this but it certainly sounds plausible. Perhaps Santa could confirm this?

According to the Alaskan Dept. of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, the male antlers drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, EVERY single one of them from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should have known… only women would be able to drag a (ahem - sorry Santa) rather largish man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost!

I love giving gifts that really mean something to the other person - it takes more time than buying a box of chocolates or a book voucher, but the look on their face and the knowledge that the present will last (in their memories at least) is well worth it to me.

I remember I once gave a babysitting voucher to my cousin who had a boisterous toddler - the look of joy on her face was priceless, and she treasured that voucher above her other gifts (by treasured I mean she kept it away from her toddler whereas he could look at her other gifts!) It was a simple gift and affordable as I had little money at the time, but meant a lot to her.

Another year I gave another cousin a calligraphy set because I remembered her saying she’d love to learn calligraphy. She had forgotten telling me that so her gift was a surprise but really suited her.

What presents have you given or received that are memorable for more than the price tag?

We have some good friends who have a 2 year old son. His was the first Christmas present we bought this year - we saw it months ago and grabbed it on the spot for him.

On the weekend, we saw our friends and gave their son his gift. It was a little barn (made out of fabric like a small tent) with 8 soft animals (4 pairs of mother and baby). He wasn’t overly excited when it opened and I set up the barn for him, but he then played with his animals happily.

We all left together to go to carols by candlelight - and the barn came with us. One determined two year would not let go of his blog in the car or walking from the car to the park where we had carols, and likewise to go back to the car! He did put it down to run around the park and eat a doughnut, but we got the message that he loved his new barn and animals.

That is the sort of reaction we love when giving a present!

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house no one could remember the names of Santa’ reindeer:)

For anyone else trying to remember the names to tell the kids or win Trivial Pursuit here they are:

• Prancer
• Dancer
• Donner
• Blitzen
• Dasher
• Vixen
• Commet
• Cupid
• and, of course, Rudolph

But I also heard that it would take more than 214,000 reindeers to pull a sleigh of 333,333 tons (based on one soft toy per child I think it was) Now there is no way I’m going to list out 214,000 reindeer names, even if I had a hope of knowing them all!

Of course, whoever did those calculations didn’t factor in the magic of Santa or the white boomers so the 9 names above are enough for me!

When I was 16, I spent my first Christmas away from my family (we did presents and stuff a few days early instead). Along with about 12 others from my scout district, I headed off to Perth for a Venture (this is a huge camp for Venturers, like a scout Jamboree. People travelled from across Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and more to attend, and we had a ball.)

We left on Christmas Eve, packed into two vehicles (a people mover and a 4 wheel drive). Christmas night we were in a place called Ceduna for our Christmas feast. To be honest, I don’t remember what we ate but we laughed a lot as we ate and I do remember what we drank. Our district leader wanted to give us a treat so bought us a bottle of sparkling wine; he also wanted to conserve our collective funds so he purchased some cheap Spumante. And spew-mante is definitely what we called it…

Over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, we covered some 2890 kms (from Melbourne to Norseman) and viewed some of the diversity of Australia - metropolitan Melbourne and Adelaide, rural Victoria, the Great Australian Bite and part of the Nullarbor Plain.

It was a very different Christmas for me - rough, no presents, sitting in a car for most of it - but I wouldn’t change it for the world as I saw so much of Australia and had a great time with friends.

In fact, now that I have thought about that trip again, I think we will have a travelling Christmas soon - probably next year.

We had our break up at the scout hall last night - Santa came, we played games, we ate food and we had lots of fun. Some kids even got badges and awards.

The hall was decorated with paper chains, balloons and pictures of Santa. Best of all was a tall Christmas tree near one corner, with a basket of presents from Santa. But the tree didn’t touch the ground!

The tree was hung from the roof on a rope so it swings - can’t knock it over that way I guess, and it does get a few knocks with 60 or so kids running around. I don’t know how’s its made - its sort of spirally and then has decorations hanging on it. I think its pretty old, too.

Oh, and thanks for my present Santa!