I loved many things about Christmas, including:
- Our real Christmas tree, especially with our coloured lights. We had a running joke that when it was carried through the front door, it was a "walking" tree, like in the story of Mog's Christmas.
- I even enjoyed my post-Xmas task of hoovering the tree needles, and when I was older, sawing the tree up for disposal.
- The presents (of course); especially if they were Lego.
- Seeing the grandparents on Boxing Day.
- A French relative had a really lovely crib, which when I was older, I would help to set up.
- Advent calendars, even the ones that just had pictures.
- Films such as the Snowman, and the Wizard of Oz. These had to be watched on the day itself, because we didn't have a video recorder until I was ten.
- Decorations in the street, and on lamp posts, which I think were far better in the 1980s than they are now.
I was less fond of sitting round the table for dinner, especially when "best behaviour" was demanded; I didn't like Christmas pudding; Nativity plays (taking part in them, or watching them); was scared of crackers and balloons; and didn't like Santa at all. My parents didn't do Santa, and whenever I "met" him I was always creeped out, especially if he didn't speak English (we went to France a lot). I liked going to church, but really freaked out once at having to dress up for the Christmas Eve children's mass; I felt that I was too old for that sort of thing (I was ten at the time).
I remember a slow realisation that lots of people didn't like Christmas much, including my dad, although he did a good job of hiding it in my early years. It was a shock when I first heard of Scrooge, and that anyone could hate Christmas that much. But as a teenager I became Scrooge-like about the extravagance of the whole thing. I enjoyed a school debate "this house agrees with Scrooge that Christmas is humbug". I loved the Raymond Briggs cartoon of the grumpy Father Christmas, and would watch it again and again. 