Getting our priorities right! The true meaning of Christmas.

Having spent the last few days cocooned in our cottage making homemade Christmas cards and presents, decorating the Christmas tree and generally getting into the festive mood ,it came as quite a shock today to find myself being jostled and pushed in the supermarket as people frantically dashed from shelf to shelf piling baskets high with alcohol and festive food to feed an army (two armys come to that!)

Now in our house we plan to buy all we need on Christmas Eve. A risky tactic you might think, but does it really matter if we don't have turkey for dinner or they have run out of Christmas pudding? I think not! In fact it all adds to the fun.Last year our turkey was half price only hours before the store closed. The Christmas tree was £5 and despite being sold supposedly without roots it has survived the year in our garden growing new shoots and has taken pride of place on our windowsill once again!

I am glad we decided several years ago to keep Christmas simple. We've made all our Christmas cards and most of our presents at minimum cost and the response we have had has far outweighed anything we would have had if the cards had been shop made. People appreciate the gift of time given in the thought and making of the gift in the commercial world we live in.

Only tonight on the news there were pictures of people in Salisbury who have so little money in the current recession they are having to rely on food kitchens to help them eat. These are normal people like you and me who have lost their jobs or fallen on hard times and are unable to eke out their money to feed their families, whilst shops like John Lewis are advertising 'presents on a budget' at only £19! I sometimes wonder if we have lost the plot?

Christmas is about the birth of a baby boy who was born in a stable amongst the farm animals , it's a time for kind acts and that warm fuzzy feeling of watching the school nativity play where the lamb walks in with his tail wrong way round or Mary leaves the baby off stage and has to run off to retrieve him!So, instead of getting stressed,relax ,forget the unimportant things and enjoy the spirit of Christmas!