As a child, being abroad at the time, I had many of those Christmas mornings where you wake up to presents under the tree. I did open my window to see if it was snowing and year after year, I always tried to trace Santa’s footsteps - the ones he conveniently forgot to leave behind each time. 

Of course back then, I did believe in Santa. The thought of my mum putting all those presents together simply didn’t work for me. But now as an adult, fully aware that the red robe and black boot attired, massive white bearded, big bellied, reindeer-riding man doesn’t exist, I can’t help but wonder why I never kept the magic going.

As soon as we came back home, Santa stayed abroad. No more did I wake up to look for his footprints or the nice things he’d left for me under the tree. Sure, I’d still get a present, but it wasn’t under the damn tree, it was handed to me – the excitement of looking for my name on one of the many presents was stripped from me.

As the years went by – to be precise, as I aged – I’m guessing my mum figured I had outgrown the whole ‘present’ thing on Christmas and stopped giving me any. Instead, we would wake up, make breakfast, plan lunch and make it together; if we had guests we would sit around and chat and you know… do normal stuff.

Putting the tree up also became a problem, unless I really insisted on it. I confirmed just how badly we were doing when on asking about the Christmas lights,  I was sent to the garage to a box covered in seriously healthy cobwebs, you’d think it had been there before Christ’s birth!

It then dawned on me that we hadn’t put the tree up the last two Christmases and I wondered how I personally forgot to. I also realised that to feel that Christmas magic, I had to make it happen. 

Sure, Santa will be away (and do not mention that he was never there to begin with, it’s true but upsetting) but I will still make the most of it.

That said, this Christmas will bring back sweet memories for me. It will be everything I remember Christmas to be – without the snow, of course. I might just even sprinkle flour on the veranda and window seals if I’ve truly gone insane - how’s that for snow? Seriously though…it will be awesome!

Merry Christmas.