Is your eldest a boy or a girl Greeky?

I'm 33 now and I still call down to my folks to help decorate their tree every year and my sister who is a grumpy 20 year old goth/rocker type even helps.  But my brothers stopped helping when they were 4 I think

a 17 year old lad, that is why I have been lucky to get this far, but it seems all our fmily traditions are stopping now I will still do them, but it leaves you with an empty feeling Temps can't quite describe it

They're not stopping LGS....they're just on hold for a bit while your kids find their feet.  Soon it'll be that they want to go out for New Years and not spend it with the folks.  I can't imagine how difficult it must be knowing you've spent the last 17 years trying to make everything so special for them.  But they do come back. 

Awwwwww Sunsets big 's
They are still you babies, no matter how old they are or where they are

ah Thanks Temps, I know they will, just me being silly but now I know how my mom felt all those years ago, and I know exactly what my kids are thinking

You're not being silly at all...if Finn thinks he's ever getting out of tree decorating he's another thing coming

I'll be here in 15 years time when you post the same Temps

and Moonie yes they are and always will be

Awwww.... my mum only stopped buying me and my brothers selection boxes a couple of years ago. I was a bit gutted about it.

what the sentiment or missing out on the chocolate Toid?

Aww, LGS, I think I can relate to what you're feeling.  I felt a bit sad when my son moved all the cuddly toys off the bed. The look of sadness on Trotty the pig's face was heartbreaking. 

 Ditto Sunset!

Slimmie not a nice feeling is it hun?

But am sure the adrenalin will start to rush soon...

Both, of course!  I'll never get a Curly Wurly in a box again..

I'm 37 and I still decorate my Mums tree , I'm a big kid at heart.


I know how you feel though kinda, having no kids myself the magic just isn't there at Christmas.

Filth!

I truly hadn't thought of that. I must be slipping..

My dad gets us a selection box every year, has done since we were kids

Except the year I got married he bought me and my hubby a tin of roses because he felt I'd grown out of the selection box thang....he hasn't made that mistake again

My nine year old told me that he doesn't believe in Father Christmas anymore!


His big sister (12) was so distraught that she managed to convince him to believe again!

We always say, If you don't believe,  you don't get,

 I wonder if that's why my near 19 year old still beleives. 

You mean to say.....      Aw noooooo  

I never believed in Father Christmas, not even when I was tiny.

Awwww that's so sad!....

I didn't get my first selection box until I was 35. My parents had views on chocolate.

Nah, it's not. I was fine with it. I just thought everyone else was daft, that they hadn't worked out all the presents came from their parents and other rellies!
I pretended for a bit that I did believe (even put notes up the chimney) because I thought the grown-ups would be disappointed if they realised I'd rumbled them.

My younger brothers both believed, though. By this point, we lived in a house that didn't have a chimney, so me and my mum told them Father Christmas had a "special key" that could open the front doors to all houses without chimneys.

I know exactly what you mean LGS. My three are all in their twenties now and I can remember feeling really sad the first time they said they didn't want to help decorate the tree. However, don't give up hope, my 24 year old is nagging me to put up the decorations and wants to help decorate the tree this year and my (nearly) 21 year old insists on hanging a little Santa decoration he got when he was 8.  Hang on in there LGS, in a couple of years they'll be back doing the decs with you.

Mine all believed...even when one of my sons caught me putting a pressie at the end of the bed...I told him..'ya reckon Santy Claws has the time to climb everyones stairs aswell!'............I also told mine that I gave money so that he could afford to make the pressies...(cos elves don't come cheap)...so they knew that I had at least participated in the pressie giving!...

Ahhhhh but you will have grandchildren in a few years to start all over again

I didn't ever grow out of it but being a young Mum my Mum now has me AND mini me chucking deccies everywhere

Awww Deman   I think you always know in the back of your head....there's just something in the back of your head telling you not to ask too many questions.

The family on my mam's side used to tell us that Santa left stuff in their house for us.  I knew this wasn't true because I knew my mum bought presents for our cousins..but still...I never went too far with the questions

What did you do come Easter?

On a simliar note I felt very sad a couple of summers ago when I realised my son didn't want to come out with me on little day excurtions in the summer holidays - it was a really sad summer the weather was awful too!

Oh, I remember that too, liverbird. It went downhill after that, when he started to stay in bed all morning.  Welcome to teenage.

It's horrible isn't it Fab? I've got used to it now but I remember that summer very well!

my daughter wanted jls tickets and i said well i'll have to buy 2 so you can take a friend *she'll be 16 by then* and she said *why don't you want to come with me* i nearly fell off my seat  im 35 and she tinks i'm dead old  but she likes to steal my clothes


on topic, i never allow anyone to do the tree, but me  they never do it right

I'm with you Aimee, I'm very particular about how my trees look. I'm going to let Hetty have her own little tree that she can put whatever she likes on so she won't mess mine up. I'm also going to make sure I make the most of the time I have her as a little one because by the sounds of it it won't last long.


Big  to Greeky and all of those who's little people have grown up quicker than they'd have liked.

I can relate to the sudden realisation that you're there... they are suddenly grown up (well.. kinda)...   16 years I have been counting down the years saying-in jest of course  - that it was the countdown to freedom (though reoffending and having my son 5 years after extended my sentence).

next thing I know she's away at school...  "doing lunch in Guildford mummy"... "oh, and I want those Cavala shoes for xmas mummy"  (no... I dunno where the mummy thing has come from either!)...  

As for decorating the tree....   they were never allowed near it... I am WAY too much of a control freak for that!    

I should add though... that previously mentioned 16 yr old daughter won't allow me to stop doing the "santa's been" thing.

I still have to do the flour footprints from the door to the fireplace... stomping around stepping in a binbag of flour in hubbies boots....   I have asked if I still have to do it....   she was horrified at even the question!

I never felt sad about it though - and I hated Santa impersonators in shops. I thought they were scary old gits

Then again, I also caused a minor scandal in primary school by announcing that god didn't exist. And then telling everyone exactly where babies came from