Am I the only person that doesn't live in an idyllic Christmas village???

[BankerMommy2010]

Dont get me wrong, I live in a lovely village, its quiet and surrounded by fields and farms... but reading on here everyone seems to have gorgeous village bakerys (we have a greggs) pubs with roaring fires (we have a pub no fire) carols around the Christmas tree, and lots seem to start Christmas eve by lighting their real fire :-0 it paints an idyllic Christmas setting in my mind...

A village within a city????

Our village is lovely, and after posting on here I have taken more notice of my surroundings, we do have a bakery/cafe/deli very nice it is too, we have a pub with a real fire so ive been told and apparently brews Christmas ale for December :-0 they do have a Christmas lighting ceremony but ive always been too busy doing something else. Unfortunately I don't have a lovely beach to have a Christmas eve/day walk along and im based in the Midlands so about as far as ypu can get from the coast :)

Yes, it's like a suburb within a city if that makes sense? It is called a village, but is classed as part of the city. It's very green with parks & woods. It's lovely. And looks very festive come late november. It's in the North West.

I live outside a town, but only about 30,000. There are 8 bakeries! Bakeries are huge in N Ireland, people are fussy about fresh bread. Also no shortage of pubs!

We live in a large village but its pretty spread out, we have a butchers, 2 village shops (1 posh and one co-op) and 2 pubs, no bakery . Its never very christmasy here, not many people decorate their houses (as most of the people here are aged 70+ and are not capable of climbing ladders) but if you go to the village down the road they have Christmas tree's all through the main high street, a few little shops that decorate their windows and a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the village green (much nicer) .

I live in a city. Right in it. I am a 10 minute walk from the city centre. I am jealous of all this village nonsense

But I'm also a 10 minute walk from our gorgeous Victorian park, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

We live on the edge of town... and have a co-op with a baker isle .

We do however live moments from the sea and castle ruins in one direction and a large park, fields etc in the opposite direction. Our local pub/restaurant has two fires. Our local cafe does a fab hot chocolate!

This will be our first Christmas in the area so looking forward to seeing what is on.

My village has little Christmas trees on the houses on the main road going through it. Father Christmas comes pulled by a tractor. No bakers. Not sure whether the pubs have log fires or not.

Its only as ive got older that i actually appreciate where i live. Its a large village with everything you would need eg local butcher/baker and a greggs , 3 farm shops within 15mins drive, and from any point you can see a field/hill etc. its generally very pretty at xmas as people do tend to put lights up. We have a square in the centre that has a big tree every year, and all the churches decorate their normal trees with lights. I can think of 4 pubs with open fires within 10 mins drive. And every year santa drives through on his sleigh with real reindeer, then the local school choirs perform in the square.

But we have to drive to good shops, there arent many jobs, and some locals still stare at 'brown' people. So you cant have everything :)

I dont live in an idylic village at all but in a newish (13 years) house. One of 7 in a close but they had to build around the fir trees. (used to be where we bought our Christmas tree from).

So when its frosty or snowy and I look out the window it makes a lovely scene...our houses are chalet style and as I get a sideways view of across the road it looks rather nice

I live in a small town rather than a village. It has a very big Asda, an aldi, a Tesco express, a decent sized Iceland. Plenty of charity shops and greasy spoons, dentists and funeral directors. There's a greggs and a pound bakery. There is a big Christmas tree, either near the bus terminus or the doctors'. Lights on the high street. Brass band when they switch them on.

No rural idyll round the green here

I live in a lovely village with a pub but not one shop. It's great until you run out of milk.
:)

I live in a lovely quiet village in the middle of nowhere. It's beautiful at Christmas, everyone really makes an effort with lights and stuff, there's part of the village everyone calls 'the grotto', it's wonderful.

We have no school, no post office, no shop, no bakers, butchers or pub. It takes a half hour round trip drive to fetch a pint of milk. So in essence the village is attractive but useless

I live in a touristy cathedral city which is pretty good at Christmas time. Within 15 minutes I can be in a candle-lit cathedral, a Christmas market with mulled wine, the local Steiner school which has the most amazing Christmas fair, lovely artisan food shops, or fields with cows, donkeys and seasonal greenery.

15 minutes walk, that is.