Why I didn't go to The Dickensian Christmas

Kent is rich in historical places, people and events. Medway in particular has these nuggets of gold that make me proud of where I come from.

One of the things I love is the community spirit and the events that are held.

Regular readers of the blog know that the family and I often go to events held locally.

Charles Dickens lived locally and some sites locally were included in his books. Subsequently in the summer we have the Dickens festival and in the winter we have Dickensian Christmas market and the Dickens Christmas festival.

These events have been a staple of my life since I was a child.

Christingle 2016

 

The Boy's and I went to our Church's Christingle service on Sunday which was great.

For us it one of the important traditions that we, as a family, enjoy. Yet, for others it is a real central activity at this time of year and with that it is always lovely to see a filled church with a varying degree of generations together.

For everyone who is unsure of what a Christingle is I though I would share it here.

Single Parents at Christmas

Most of us are now in the swing of this Christmas thing that seems to have snuck up on us.

I am halfway there when it comes to being ready but with only 17 more sleeps to go (thanks for reminding me boys) time is running out.

One thing that I am all sorted for is the arrangements for access with the boys over the holiday period.

I have always been very lucky when it comes to our Christmas arrangements year on year where I have consistently had the boys for the whole of Christmas day. (I usually have them Christmas Eve evening through to Boxing Day morning) and with that I usually get New Years Eve off too; i am really lucky!

Most people have the idea that Christmas and the holiday season is a mad packed month of organising to enjoy a family day/s together but it isn’t always that straightforward for a lot of single parent families.

There are often feelings of rejection, loneliness, abandonment and raw emotions and more often than not it comes out when trying to organise where the children are meant to be.

Hasbro Christmas Round-up

I have been lucky this year and have been part of the Hasbro toy tribe! It has been a great opportunity for both the boys and I to be a part of.

With these great opportunities and it running up to Christmas the boys and I have chosen our Top 5 Hasbro toys both from ones we have reviewed and ones we haven't!

Dickensian Festival 2016

We are extremely lucky to live in part of the country where we once housed Charles Dickens both in his early years and his last years; because of this we have several events throughout the year in Rochester to enjoy together.

 

One of my favourites is the Dickensian Christmas which was a staple event of my childhood and one that I like to get the boys involved with too!

 

The boys Mum also volunteers at these events so it suits us both to be involved; myself as a eager onlooker and herself as a breastfeeding support worker. So once I had collected the boys we were off to check our this years festivities.

 

We started off going through the Christmas market and fairground and as expected from yesterday it was much busier!

 

Dear Christmas House

It seems that this year has flown by and Christmas has really crept up on us although  I am sure that this can be said by most of us every year.

However, last year was busy and although it flew by it did so in a different way. 2015 was a year that I really put full energy into the fight to get therapy that I had long been waiting for. It was a year that saw me fight for adapted and accessible independent housing for myself and the boys, the year that I stopped being a hermit and ventured back into dating and finally, it was the year that William's solo journey was coming to the end and James would be joining us full time.

In between this we had a cancer diagnosis for my Dad and the massive decline of health for one of my uncles. That was one long year but it was a massive progressive and changing year for both the boys and I; this year, however, has been living and dealing with the change.

I was really aware that it would be massively unsettling for the boys. Subsequently, I tried to find a fun and constant activity to focus on and with the run up to Christmas we decided to embrace our new location through the vast array of decorated houses.

Somehow through this we became the biggest Christmas light critics that the UK had seen with us ranking each house: "I think that only scores 4 out of 10 Daddy because they only have one type of coloured light and they could have made more of an effort"

However, through this we quickly "oooo" and "awww" the same houses that made us smile. I thought it would be nice to write a letter thanking these wonderful houses for bringing a smile to our faces in what was a hard year.

Here is William's letter:

New Parents at Christmas

This time last year I had a belated birthday present when my lifelong friend told me that both his wife and he were expecting a child.

I was thrilled, excited and finally had one of my long existing friends become a parent; something that I was alone for what feels a life time.

This year has flown by.

A Christmas Message

This year has been amazing for lots of reasons.

But with this blog growing as it has and the friends that I have made because of it has been truly fantastic.

So I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. You guys have been great following our journey from home schooling, my In's and outs of daily life being a single, stay at home dad and just my own life posts.

Take a second to watch this message from the boys.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a fantastic day!!

Christingle

This is the third Sunday in Advent, so thought, as I mentioned before, to share a church related post as we lead up to Christmas.

For those who don't know what a christingle is, I've listed it's parts below.

 A Christingle consists of:

An orange, which represents the earth;
A red ribbon around it representing
 the blood of Christ
Dried fruits skewered on cocktail sticks pushed into the orange, representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons; A lit candle pushed into the centre of the orange, representing Jesus Christ as the light of the world.

This is one of my favourite things leading up to Christmas and was one of the first years that the boys were both old enough to truly join in.

The story of the Christingle is that there were three children, who were very poor, but wanted to give a gift to Jesus, like the other families at church were doing. The only nice thing they had was an orange, so they decided to give him that. The top was going slightly green, so the eldest cut it out and put a candle in the hole. They thought it looked dull, so the youngest girl took her best red ribbon from her hair and attached it round the middle with toothpicks. The middle child had the idea to put a few pieces of dried fruit on the ends of the sticks. They took it to the church for the Christmas mass, and whereas the other children sneered at their meagre gift, the priest took their gift and showed it as an example of true understanding of the meaning of Christmas. Subsequently this is now the symbol for the Children's charity: The Children's Society. Such a great cause check them out here.

http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/

Otherwise enjoy our photos from this morning.

Gingerbread men

William loves his cooking and baking and although I haven't blogged about it before if you follow me on social media sites you'll know that he does it all the time.

One of his favourite things to do is bake for Church. He sees it as a way of giving back to them and in return he gets lots of attention. (Mainly because he does it ALL himself and he's pretty good)

Recently he decided that he wanted to do a Christmas present for church one of gingerbread men and the others a chocolate cookie. So I gave him the recipe for it and 4 hours and 30 gingerbread men later this is what he achieved!

 

            

 

If you want the recipe comment and I'll add it later.

Another Christmas Favourite

As I posted previously about the things we, as a family, are looking forward to this Christmas I have been happily going down my list ticking things off.

This week we ticked off Santa coming down our road.

Our local Rotary Club comes every year with Santa, who slowly drives from house to house collecting for the much deserved charity.

Last night we had them. All day I had told the boys that there was a special surprise coming that Daddy arranged especially for them. So when Santa came they rushed outside waved loads at Santa and got a wave back!

They also donated.

Their little faces were priceless and worth every second of it.

So that's another tradition completed.

Have you started ticking yours off? What have you already done?

Christmas is coming

As I mentioned last week; I will be doing posts on every Sunday of Advent and centre them around the true meaning of Christmas.

I looked at last week at the Advent candles in church and this week we lighted the second candle.

The second one is meant to represent hope. I think this is something we all forget at Christmas though.

We often get caught up in the commercialisation of Christmas rather than why we celebrate it, and lighting the second candle for hope is a reminder even for modern times.

In the old testament there are many prophecies to say that Jesus would be born, but why were they needed?

Back then, even historical records show that, there were lots of violence, hatred and crime. The prophecy that someone would come to bring us hope within our darkness was a hope for a better tomorrow.

But that is still true today. When we consider the world we live in, crime, hatred and war, especially in the middle east, hope is something that is in high demand.
Even for me; I've had a lot of mental health issues recently as well as sickness in the family and sometimes in those moments I lose hope.

Today's lighting of the second advent candle reminded me that hope is a relevant thing to still have in this day and age.

If you are having a rough time just remember we are in Advent, and as we learnt last week, that time we know that Christmas is coming. We celebrate it because at the time Jesus being born was the hope we needed.

So I will ask that this week in the midst of the Christmas run up that you consider the people who are having dark moments and are in need of a little hope and if we can't help and encourage people  in the season of hope and good will for all then we're focusing to much else where.

We're in Advent, Christmas is coming and so is the remainder of our hope in our darkest hours.

Christmas Begins

In my last Christmas post I shared the things that I am looking forward to. Number 1 was Decorating the tree and Number 2 was painting the window.

We achieved both yesterday. :-)

The decorating the tree was far harder this year because of the boys ages. But we managed to do it.

And our window painting.

I'm very artistic so every year I paint the inside of our windows in a Christmas design. The only problem this year is the boys wanted to help.So it isn't to my normal level but it was fun doing it.

oh and if you're wondering how I do it, I use water colours so it's easy to wash off after Christmas.

So it's official in our household Christmas run up has begun.

Things i'm looking forward to this Christmas

My first, of I'm sure many posts, around Christmas.

I get the boys today and it looks like the run up to Christmas will be starting for us.

So thought I'd join the linky list and list the things that we'll be doing and what I'm looking forward to.

1. Putting the tree up and decorating it together.

2. Painting our windows with our Christmas theme.

3. Seeing our local Rotary Club come round collecting with Santander riding on his sleigh.

4. Baking; Gingerbread house, Christmas cookie and biscuits.

5. Carols at church.

6. Christingle

7. Arts and crafts.

8. Going to see Santa at his grotto.

9. Watching The Muppets Christmas Carol.

These are just a few of the things that we do but these particularly are my holiday favourites.

What are yours?

 

Advent

As some of you know I attend Church every Sunday.

Church is very important for me, and the boys, for lots of reasons as well as finding, in-depth, about Christianity.

I have decided then that for the next few weeks, especially on a Sunday, I will dedicate a post specifically for Church, Christianity and it's relation to Christmas. As for me I believe we wouldn't be celebrating Christmas without a fundamental understanding, even if it has been lost a little over time due to commercialism, of the truth behind Christmas.

So my first post is about Advent.

For those who don't know Advent actually starts today; Not tomorrow, although we are so use to it starting on the 1st of December because of the lots of commercial calendars that are available.

Advent starts on the Sunday which signifies four weeks until Christmas. (Four weeks? Scary that it is creeping up so quickly)

Every Sunday in Churches around the world a candle will be lit for the next four weeks, with the final, fifth, candle being lit on or close to Christmas day. (Usually to represent the light of the world being born)

What I only learnt today though is Advent actually translates from the original Latin in to "Coming". The coming of Jesus and subsequently the coming of the day of his birth as well as the holidays.

So it's official today is the day when the Coca-Cola advert is actually right and "The holidays are coming"

The boys and I do different things over Advent. We all have one Chocolate Calendar each, this year I have also purchased a toy Calendar (I didn't know they existed until this week!) In each type of Calendar we open a door counting down each day and get a treat inside (with the toy one we chose Playmobil where we get a character or a piece of scenery to create an over scene over Christmas.)

We will also have an Advent candle that we light everyday and burn down the wax for the following day. This for us is our Christian tradition to help us remember that Christmas is centralised around Jesus.



So what are you doing to count down to Christmas and 'celebrate' Advent? Do you have any traditions?

Christmas and Children

Originally written December 2011 — updated in 2026 for clarity and reflection.

Christmas is such a lovely time of year.  

It is probably one of the busiest seasons for churches. Many people attend services at this time, which is wonderful because they are setting something aside for God.

I often wonder if this has something to do with our childhood memories.  

Most of us remember the Christmas rush at school: the play, the Nativity, and the carols sung loudly in assemblies. Those moments helped us feel the Christmas spirit. My sister‑in‑law recently posted on Facebook, “Christmas songs playing in the car and it’s snowing — now feeling all Christmassy.” It reminded me how deeply those traditions stay with us.