Well, here we are heading into that time of year again. Each year it just seems to get sooner and sooner. I am not sure if it is because I am getting older and older each year, or because the shops just keep commercialising everything, as soon as Father’s day is over, the Christmas decorations etc all seem to make their way into the shops!

It’s incredible and absolutely amazing, I recall when I was growing up the festive season started in December each year. This was the day you put your Christmas tree up and decorated it. Well with things the way they are at the moment with financial issues and money being so tight we have decided that we are going back to basics, the things we actually loved about Christmas and making it a wonderful experience were we make a lot of the foods from scratch, bring in opportunities for us to enjoy doing activities together as well as making Christmas decorations and presents as well.

The emphasis is all back on the experience and giving rather than receiving. This has to make our Children and us better people as time goes by, and also help to create a nicer Christmas atmosphere for all. So our Christmas 2008 season begins with us researching our traditions, Both British / Australian ones and the Polish Christmas traditions. Our aim is to find a way to mesh them both together to create the ‘Gołąb Family Christmas Experience’, which we can begin this year (Rather than having a more Polish or British Christmas experience on alternative years) and hopefully carry on into the future.

Firstly I think Christmas will begin with traditional foods added to the Christmas table. We are in the process of collecting traditional recipes from our earlier Christmas experiences and trying to find a way to create the perfect Christmas day meal with a blend of both cultures added and not a lot of waste or double up of foods available. Once we have a list of traditional British / Australian recipes and Polish we will work our which ones we will continue to move forward with. Maybe we will choose to keep them all just in smaller quantities! We are also looking at devising a Christmas Menu of foods to be eaten over the Christmas Eve,  Christmas Day times. Polish traditions say we have no meat on Christmas eve. only Fish (traditionally carp). Most of us don’t eat carp, so i think we will stick with the no meat rule, but leave the carp out.

Secondly we will be celebrating Christmas eve and Christmas day with equal emphasis, Something we usually don’t do it’s either Christmas eve one year and Christmas day the next.

So the fun begins, over the next few weeks leading up to December we will be busy making Christmas presents and decorations and refining how we will experience our Christmas 2008 in a blend of Cultural ways.