Christmas When You've No Children
A salute to those not holding children in their arms this Christmas.
Christmas is for children, they say.
Not so. Christmas is for everyone.
It’s for the child-full, but also the childless and the childfree.
This Christmas, I will happily reprise my role as mad aunt in the corner, drinking fizzy liquids, emerging every now and then for mighty crack with my nieces and nephews. This is the life I have chosen.
Photo Description: A woman in a wide-brimmed pink hat drinks from a cocktail glass. She wears a white top and there is a greeny-blue plate in front of her.
But my thoughts go to all those who are not holding a child of their own in their arms this Christmas, and who wish they could. They’re the ones whose stories are seldom heard. They’re the ones who:
Tend to elderly parents.
Work double shifts so their colleagues can celebrate the arrival of Santa.
Prepare Christmas dinner for the hordes.
Walk in silence, their dog by their side.
Are given the child’s bedroom when they return to their families, not their old bedroom.
Take refuge in the sun.
Turn their loneliness into charity.
Wait in vain for the conversational pendulum to swing their way.
Are asked, ‘Is anything stirring?’
Slip out of the room for a few moments to rub salve on their souls.
Merry Christmas to the mad aunts, the stressed-out parents and those mourning the children that never came. Let’s all take care of each other.