Mummascribbles – Christmas day – the dreams vs the realities – Mummascribbles
We all dream about Christmas day when we’ve got children don’t we? Our minds are full of images that involve perfectly behaved children, unstressed adults sitting around eating their weight in marshmallows and drinking wine throughout the day and perfect evenings when the littlies are asleep, the wine is flowing some more and the games are being played. Our Christmas day this year was a big realisation that this truly isn’t the case – in fact the only part that went as imagined was the evening – when Zach was asleep. So here I bring you Christmas day with a three year old – the dream vs the reality.
1. Wakey up time
The dream: it’s 7am, you’ve all woken up fresh faced and your little one is majorly exited to see whether Santa has been overnight.
The reality: it’s 5.30am (or it might even have been earlier) and your little one has woken up not because of the Santa excitement but because in his dream just now, he lost his baby (wtf?!) and is distraught. He is so upset that he’s forgotten that Santa even exists and climbs into bed with you from his little blow up bed on the floor. He falls back to sleep in your arms, sweats his socks off, makes you too warm and uncomfortable to go back to sleep and you lay there listening to him (and the other half) snoozing away. At 6.55am he sits bolt upright in bed declaring that he just heard Santa’s bells and he needs to go downstairs right now. You feel like absolute shite but hey, it’s Christmas – you have to just smile!
2. Discovering Santa has been
The dream: the excitement is beyond belief, your child sees their sack of presents and is absolutely overjoyed.
The reality: the excitement is beyond belief, your child sees their brand spanking new bike and is absolutely overjoyed – until they realise that Santa has forgotten something. Something that was ruddy impossible because Santa just can’t produce a pretend version of his cousin! Cue a very upset child which I caught on camera!!
3. Opening presents
The dream: your child excitedly open their presents, taking in everything they have received and watching you open yours.
The reality: after opening their own presents…they open yours too. And if you don’t let them, they make this horrendous whining noise that at 7.30am is not fun to listen to. You have no choice but to realise you can’t experience the fun of opening presents anymore while being a little stressed that they are also trying to open the present that they aren’t allowed yet. You are counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until the aunt and uncle who have bought it for them are due to arrive – and then discover they are running late!
4. Dinner
The dream: They’ll be so excited about this one off Christmas dinner that they’ll sit quietly and eat every mouthful off their plate.
The reality: they are hyper, they have been stuffed with other items of food all morning and they want to play with their toys. There is simply no time in their Christmas day schedule to eat proper food. They won’t touch the turkey or sprouts but will eat enough pigs in blankets to fill their tummy up and when you are just half way through your own delicious dinner, they are demanding to get down from the table (which they never normally do!), without even considering that there might be dessert. Of course, when you mention that there is ice cream in the freezer, they remain at the table and then surprise you by trying and enjoying a bit of daddy’s Christmas pud. You dread to think of what will be coming out of their bottom the following day!
5. Playing with their new posessions
The dream: they will thoroughly enjoy playing with their new toys and include any other visitors within their play.
The reality: they are completely unwilling to share their new toys and will get really ruddy annoyed if anyone tries to join in – even if it is their favourite cousin who they desperately wanted a pretend version of. The main present needs building and they very impatiently wait for daddy to put it together (and you are watching it get bigger wondering if your suggestion of putting it together at a different house was a good idea). Oh and it takes less than a few hours to lose 1 of the red balls from their brand new hungry hippos (we’d lost 3 by the end of the day!).
6. Bedtime
The dream: they are so utterly exhausted that they are ready to crash and burn by mid afternoon so when bedtime comes around, you expect it to be quick and easy.
The reality: they are so utterly exhausted that when bedtime comes there is hell to pay. Thrashing around not wanting to get ready for bed, not wanting their teeth brushed but still having time for the much needed story because it featured Santa! To be fair, when their head hits the pillow they are gone. The question is, when will they wake up?!
From that point on, I heard myself moaning a lot less, had loads of fun playing games with the family, drunk a fair bit of wine (though didn’t even get tipsy because I’d ate so much food), continued to stuff my face with cheese balls and marshmallows and then trotted off to bed at 11pm. I think it’s important to remember for next year that whatever you think is going to happen, isn’t. Hyper children, lots of food and brand new toys make for a different Christmas day than expected. Maybe we parents should request that the television channels put every single animation of Julia Donaldson books on all day long – the only time there was sitting down and quiet was for Stick Man!
How did your Christmas day differ from what you expected? Tell me you had cheeky, disobedient children the whole day through!
Of course, it was all totally worth it – especially to see this!