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All one's Christmases at once? No, thank you

Christmas. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Well, I think it is. I truly do. I LOVE Christmas and it is so much better with young kids. My kids are still in the magical time of believing in Santa. I've always loved Christmas. Every...

Kasey Simpson  profile image
by Kasey Simpson
All one's Christmases at once? No, thank you
Kasey and co set for a Ukrainian Christmas

Christmas. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Well, I think it is. I truly do. I LOVE Christmas and it is so much better with young kids. My kids are still in the magical time of believing in Santa.

I've always loved Christmas. Every year my grandparents would come into town and stay at our house. On Christmas Day we'd either be at our house or our cousins. It was simple. My mum and uncle always spent Christmas day together.

Let's unwrap this

But, my gosh, I really feel for those who spend most of Christmas Day travelling between this household and that. Or those who have to disappoint one family by going to their in-laws one year. We have a system with my siblings where, every second year, we align the visits so we have a 'whole' family Christmas Day. Which means every second year, it is quiet.

Luckily my partner's family is Ukrainian Orthodox, which means they celebrate Christmas on the 6th and 7th of January. Thankfully, we can give our full attention to each family, each year. It is relaxing. We can settle into one location, eat and drink too much, and roll home Christmas night. It works.

Although since the war with Russia, the Ukrainian church has declared that Christmas will be celebrated on the 25th of December to culturally make a shift away from Russia. A hot debate at the last Christmas. Understandably, a lot of the older generations were keen to make the shift to the 25th, however, my generation were not. All of my partner's cousins and his sibling have coupled up with non-Ukrainians.

It was a difficult situation to navigate.

If we shifted to the 25th of December, the majority of the family wouldn't be able to meet once a year. Lining up several families into one 'whole' family Christmas would be impossible. We had a big discussion and decided that we'd keep them seperate, ending on the note that the whole family being together was more important to us.

So how do you celebrate Christmas?

Kasey Simpson  profile image
by Kasey Simpson

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