Just Two Can Be Perfect Too
from Carole Matthews
Carole Matthews, author of With Love at Christmas and Wrapped Up In You shares how a Christmas with that special someone can be just as wonderful as a big family gathering - and far less stressful!
When my partner, Lovely Kev, and I got together we thought we’d like to spend our first Christmas with just the two of us. The relationship was too new to subject each other to the whole ‘family thing’. So we bit the bullet and, at vast expense, rented a windmill in the wilds of Norfolk. On Christmas Eve, we dashed to the supermarket, filled a box full of ready-made Christmas food and loaded up the car. The microwave came with us.
I’d taken a pop-up tree complete with lights and decorations that went into the living room and all the cards from our friends. On Christmas day, after a hearty champagne breakfast, we headed to the beach – a nudist one as it happens – but there were no brave naturists out in the bracing cold, just a lot of happy souls wrapped up in anoraks, walking dogs and wishing strangers ‘Happy Christmas’.
Our Christmas dinner was all pinged in the microwave and was ready in about ten minutes. After a surfeit of champagne, I’m sure it tasted no different from the ones I’d slaved over for hours on previous Christmas days. I’d forgotten to take the obligatory Christmas crackers so, in lieu of paper hats, we wore the tea towel and the oven glove on our heads instead.
On Boxing Day the lanes were crisp with a hard frost and we walked for miles until our noses were red with cold and our toes were numb. We snoozed the afternoon away, books unopened on our laps and not even looking at the tempting pile of board games that graced the windmill.
The next day, happy and rested, we packed up and drove home. It was possibly the least stressful Christmas I’ve ever had. We missed our friends and family, but it was lovely for just the two of us to be hunkered down for the holiday. One year, take a break from whatever your family tradition is and try it. I’d highly recommend it.