‘Twas the night before Christmas; there wasn’t a sound.
Not a possum was stirring; no-one was around.
We’d left on the table some tucker and beer,
Hoping that Santa Claus soon would be here;

We children were snuggled up safe in our beds,
While dreams of pavlova danced ’round in our heads;
And Mum in her nightie, and Dad in his shorts,
Had just settled down to watch TV sports.

When outside the house a mad ruckus arose;
Loud squeaking and banging woke us from our doze.
We ran to the screen door, peeked cautiously out,
snuck onto the deck, then let out a shout.

Guess what had woken us up from our snooze,
But a rusty old Ute pulled by eight mighty ‘roos.
The cheerful man driving was giggling with glee,
And we both knew at once who this plump bloke must be.

Now, I’m telling the truth it’s all dinki-di,
Those eight kangaroos fairly soared through the sky.
Santa leaned out the window to pull at the reins,
And encouraged the ‘roos, by calling their names.

‘Now, Kylie! Now, Kirsty! Now, Shazza and Shane!
On Kipper! On, Skipper! On, Bazza and Wayne!
Park up on that water tank. Grab a quick drink,
I’ll scoot down the gum tree. Be back in a wink!’

So up to the tank those eight kangaroos flew,
With the Ute full of toys, and Santa Claus too.
He slid down the gum tree and jumped to the ground,
Then in through the window he sprang with a bound.

He had bright sunburned cheeks and a milky white beard.
A jolly old joker was how he appeared.
He wore red stubby shorts and old thongs on his feet,
And a hat of deep crimson as shade from the heat.

His eyes – bright as opals – Oh! How they twinkled!
And, like a goanna, his skin was quite wrinkled!
His shirt was stretched over a round bulging belly
Which shook when he moved, like a plate full of jelly.

A fat stack of prezzies he flung from his back,
And he looked like a swaggie unfastening his pack.
He spoke not a word, but bent down on one knee,
To position our goodies beneath the yule tree.

Surfboard and footy-ball shapes for us two.
And for Dad, tongs to use on the new barbeque.
A mysterious package he left for our Mum,
Then he turned and he winked and he held up his thumb;

He strolled out on deck and his ‘roos came on cue;
Flung his sack in the back and prepared to shoot through.
He bellowed out loud as they swooped past the gates-
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, and goodonya, MATES!’

I just found some instructions for making some really cool Christmas ornaments. They are even ‘green’ ornaments as you can pull them apart in January and use the bits many times before recreating ornaments next Christmas if you wanted to.

SO check out these Lego ornaments instructions and have some fun decorating your house this Christmas! Great entertainment for the kids and the whole family could work together on these.

Just loving that I found these!

We spend Christmas Eve doing silly things as a family! It started when our kids were little but we all love it so it’s kept going – our kids are now grownup and bring along boyfriends and wives, too. The new comers find it a bit strange at first but soon they’re hooked – it’s a lovely way to relax before the big day and it really gets us feeling good and happy to be together.

A lot of it is just silliness that follows when you laugh a to but some things we do are:

• think up lots of reindeer names for Santa or give each other reindeer names
• tie pillows around our tummies and say ho ho ho a lot
• someone usually finds something silly at a discount shop and we all take turns wearing it and acting to suit – so we get snooty with a feather boa or have a twang with a cowboy hat
• read out spoonerisms (where parts of words are swapped around in a story e.g. Santa’s sleigh skies through the fly)
• having staring competitions
• sing silly songs (like ‘next verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse’)
• tell tall tales where one person starts the story and stops mid sentence for someone else to continue on

I found it challenging to have a little boy when I first became a parent – he was enthusiastic and energetic, and I had a lot to learn. Between my nervousness and his exuberance, my son wasn’t babysat very much except by my parents so I didn’t get out much.

For his second Christmas, my cousin gave me an awesome present. She had written out a voucher for a night’s babysitting!

It was such a thoughtful gift – she’s often given thoughtful gifts but this one was a stand out and probably kept me happy many times leading up to and after the actual night we used the voucher. It helped that she was experienced with kids and is so calm that trust was easy.

This is my thank you to my cousin, plus a little hope that someone else could give a similar gift to new parents they know – it could make such a huge difference to them and its cheap, too!

I don’t remember such a fuss being made about a baby’s first Christmas when I was younger – I never saw baubles and stockings declaring ‘baby’s first christmas’ until my own kids were at least teenagers! And I’m not sure anyone benefits from this change – well, no one other than the retailers that is.

For starters, the baby can’t read and doesn’t really care – sorry to disappoint you but it’s true. If the baby is old enough to sit up and watch Christmas around them, they’ll be more interested in the wrapping paper, people and decorations than a stocking (especially as many are insipid pastel things for some silly gender bias).

I prefer the ideas from Santa’s Elf on items that are at least reusable - put the year of the first Christmas on the stocking they’ll use for the next decade or so or get a beautiful photo you can display. Much better use of money than a stocking that is too small to hold anything and looks silly if used for baby’s second or third Christmas.

But even better is to just enjoy Christmas with that baby – they don’t stay babies for long so treasure it by playing together rather than buying mementos you’ll just have to store and never look at again.

A special note for grandparents, aunts, uncles and so on – it’s cute to acknowledge someone’s first Christmas with a baby but think about if they really want a cheap stocking or a genuine keepsake. My daughter was inundated last year with cutesy stockings and baubles – she feels guilty throwing them out but hates the idea of storing such nonsense. The friend who took a lovely photo of each parent holding the baby and framed them put in a little more effort and his gift is proudly on the wall for all to see.

My daughter was also happy with her brother’s ‘first Christmas’ idea of starting a family album where a photo of my grandchildren (I assume more will come!) will be placed each Christmas as a record of the family growing.

So I just think people should put a little thought into first Christmases rather than those commercialised ideas retailers want us to follow. I don’t mean to offend, just to get people thinking…

As a cub leader, we’re always looking for ideas for un nights that help the kids develop income way. Throwing around ideas this term we thought of doing a Christmas night where kids’ families come along and share their culture/traditions.

The idea is for a parent/grandparent to talk for 10 or so minutes about the Xmas traditions of their home country/region, showing any costumes or props, then answering questions.

It’s a nice way to celebrate Christmas without just being about gifts or decorations and it’s a fun way to teach them about different cultures and countries (must remember to have a world globe handy!)

Did you know that you can easily keep up with the Love Santa blog by following us (LoveSantaAu) on Twitter? We tweet all posts (whether written by us or by the community, so yes if you post we’ll tweet about it!) and other bits of information and updates.

And this week, we’re running a competition through our Twitter profile, too – all the details are in our specials page but the short version is just retweet any of our tweets this week to be in the running.

For something a bit different, over the weekend I got my kids to cook some biscuits that reindeer and boomers will like – we will make them again on Christmas Eve but we HAD to test them first of course!

Make your favourite biscuit dough

roll out the dough then cut into carrot shapes (I found a carrot cutter in a local homewares store but you could do it by hand…)

put carrots onto greased trays and into the fridge

after about 20 minutes, put tray in oven to cook (15 minutes at 180 is usually enough but check your recipe)

cool then remove from tray

make some green icing and cover the carrot tops

make some orange icing and put into an icing pipe (or a ziplock bag and cut the corner off)

zigzag the orange icing over the carrots

let the icing set then store in an airtight container (if they last that long – my kids have never eaten carrots so willingly!!!)

For icing I mixed 1/2 cup icing sugar with 2 teaspoons of water and 2 – 3 drops of food colour. Add a little more water if needed but make sure it is thick rather than runny.

As parents and families, we often get excited by a baby’s first experience of things – and Christmas is no exception to this.

Of course, what happens for the baby on Christmas can be very different as it could be one day or 364 days since their birthday. A newborn will have no idea Christmas Day is special but an older baby will notice things are happening.

Many of the things done to show it is a special day for the new family form mementos (keepsakes) that can be saved or even reused, such as:

• a Love Santa letter that is added to a scrapbooking album or frame after Christmas
• a toy Santa or reindeer labelled for the baby or ‘first Christmas’ can be used as an annual decoration or plaything for a limited time each year
• giving a (full size) Christmas stocking with the child’s name and year on it – this can be used at subsequent Christmases
• Christmas tree decorations with the name and year or ‘first Christmas’ on the decoration – again, this can be used each  year as a reminder and given to the child for their own home when they are an adult
• mini Christmas stocking with ‘baby’s first Christmas’ printed on it
• a top or suit with ‘baby’s first Christmas’ printed on it – if given early enough, this can be worn at various December events, too!
• a special photo (such as a photo with Santa) can be framed or highlighted in an album
• a personally written letter, poem or story can be displayed that Christmas then stored in a scrapbooking album or treasures box

Leading on from last week’s post about warm vs cold Christmas images, what are your favourite Aussie images?

Baby playing with Christmas Gum tree tinsel

The majority of Christmas cards with an Australian theme are cartoons of Santa with a surfboard or looking like a swaggie or have an iconic animal in a Santa’s hat. They’re usual cheerful and fun, but do you like them?

I think it would be nice to have a bigger range of Aussie Christmas images we could choose from each year. How about some decorated gum trees or people sitting in a park to celebrate Christmas? Love Santa letters don’t show snow, and some are very Australian (Koalas or white boomers pulling a sleigh for example).

So what Aussie Christmas images have you seen and liked? If you can, share them with us so we can all see what is on offer.

Santa understands that it can take a very long time for Christmas Eve to actually arrive when you’re little so after he signs his letters Love Santa he turns the page over and writes a bit more.

Back in 2009, this is part of what Santa wrote on the back of some letters:

I travel a lot on Christmas Eve and it is really special when I arrive to find something made by children just for me. These apricot balls are very yummy – and if you make enough, you could wrap some in cellophane to give as gifts as well as leaving some for me!

You will need: 400g condensed milk, 250g Marie biscuits, 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice, 1 cup desiccated coconut, 1 cup chopped dried apricots, ¾ cup chopped pecan or cashew nuts (optional)

What to do:

Mix everything together.

Roll into balls

Roll the balls in extra coconut, sprinkles or sesame seeds if you want

Put the balls in the fridge to set – you can even freeze them!

These apricot balls are very yummy so why not try them while you’re waiting for Santa and his letter to arrive? If you have made anything Santa has suggested, let us know how it turned out!

Carolling isn’t a big deal in Australia but we certainly learn carols at school and enjoy Carols by Candlelight in various parks. And there is something special about being together, singing fun songs and listening to a combined voice.

There are traditional carols, fun (children’s) carols and even local variants of carols (such as an Aussie 12 days of Christmas). Some evoke an emotional feel while others bring a smile (like Santa kissing Mummy last night).

So what is your favourite Christmas carol? If that questions is too hard – what is your favourite type of carol?

Where do you like to sing Christmas carols?