Father Christmas is thrifty too!
It’s Christmas Eve and the excitement is building in the Taylor household…The presents are (mostly) wrapped. The food has (mostly) been bought. It won’t be long before we are unwrapping our presents and setting off to the Christmas Day service at our church to celebrate the special day, (whilst hoping that the timer on my new oven is working).
But right now, Richard is getting ready to nip up to Derbyshire to pick up ‘Grandma Tractor’ (so-called because she has one). Grandma ‘Spikes’ (so-called because of her hairstyle) is being swept down the motorway by the high winds as I type this post. As for me, I am just relieved I can finally stop asking my family to remind me to take the turkey out of the freezer. I don’t know what possessed me to go for a frozen turkey crown this year and not our usual ‘big chicken’, (Capon, apparently). Actually, I do know what possessed me: it was on special offer in Aldi and it was in a nice box.
So, Father Christmas set a very generous precedent a few years ago. Instead of just filling our families stockings he went above and beyond the call of duty and filled the Christmas stockings of anyone else who happened to be staying at our house on Christmas Eve. Isn’t that marvellous? Mind you, I think he’s relieved that my sister and her family decided to go and visit my dad this year instead.
Last year, however, Father Christmas came perilously close to losing a couple of fans. We were part way through unwrapping our gifts in the lounge when Beth asked what Father Christmas had put in my stocking. ‘My stocking?’ I replied quizzically, ‘Maybe he didn’t leave me one this year.’ The kids were aghast. They couldn’t believe that Santa would forget to leave me a Christmas stocking. I, of course, was as surprised as they were and said I would go and have a ‘good look’ for it. I shot upstairs and after an extensive search I was relieved to discover that it had been in our en-suite bathroom all along. He had even been thoughtful enough to fill it with a number of toiletries that I had run out of prematurely.
Father Christmas should never be underestimated and every now and again you get a little bit of insight into the man behind the beard. This happened to us a few years ago when Beth hurtled into our bedroom on Christmas morning. She was firmly gripping her stocking in one hand and was excitedly waving a packet of glitter hair grips in the other
‘Look, mummy!’ she exclaimed, ‘Father Christmas shops at B & M Bargains as well!’