THE CHRISTMAS RUG: AN UNUSUAL TRADITION

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Christmas is full of traditions in our home.  From those traditions that Gav and I have carried from our own childhoods to that of our boys’, to traditions that we’ve begun together whilst dating, and on to new traditions that we begin as time passes and we discover pastimes and little rituals that fit well into our family life.  However, there are also, as I’ve discovered, traditions that are created without realising, and those make me smile – especially the one I’m going to tell you about today, the Christmas Rug.

I need to take a step backward into my childhood to explain this fully to you, so bear with me.

Each Christmas holiday, before Christmas Eve, my mom and my Granny would bundle us up in our old Winter coats and we’d board the train [or coach – sometimes we went via the coach station, but the train and the huuuuge tunnel through Five Ways on our way to Birmingham was much more exciting] to Birmingham for our annual trip.  Whilst we were there, we’d see Father Christmas in Rackhams Department Store whilst he was visiting in his grotto, have a trek around Toys R Us [which was amazing as we’d never seen anything like it when it first arrived in the UK] and then mom would take us to C & A for a party dress to wear to the club on New Year’s Eve, and we’d also get a new Winter coat to boot.  These last two things were what I remember very clearly every year.  These two, new pieces of clothing were very important to me.

The party dress was always beautiful, princess-like and I adored every one of them [except for the black and red checkered one, I wasn’t fond of that one until all of my friends said they loved it] especially the burgundy crushed velvet dress with my black patent lace up shoes and the cream silk one with the beautiful pink ribbon belt [which my sister got her nosebleed all over].  Then there was the coat.  My favourites amongst all of them were the black “donkey jacket” as my mom called it, and the mint green Eskimo coat with the embroidered pastel coloured ski patches all over it.

So why am I telling you this? Because this is where the tradition of The Christmas Rug tradition stems from, I’m sure. Looking back over at least the last five years of photos, I have managed to bring into the house a new rug each Christmas.  Having three boys and two huskies on these rugs over those years however, has meant that no rug has lasted for a whole year and has ended up at the local recycling centre, and this is why Gav rolls his eyes and sighs [and is often far less polite than I’m making out here] each time he arrives home in December or November if I’m ahead of the game, to a new, rolled up rug in the hallway, just waiting for Christmas Eve and it’s great unravelling.  It’s worth noting in his defence that I do choose the most impractical rugs, just like I wanted the most impractical dresses as a child.  If it’s white, or sparkly, or fluffy, or enormous, then it’s the rug for me.  The last rug was a beautiful chunky knitted beige runner, the one before that a very thick, shaggy grey one, and this year….this year I have the rug of my dreams.  It’s white [my favourite], it has a beautiful stepping stone pattern to it, and it’s the softest, most come-and-sink-your [super clean] feet-into-it pile.  It’s like walking on fluffy clouds and the thought of my three little boys snuggled up there on Christmas morning, opening their presents and watching Christmas movies laid out in front of the TV has my insides all squished up and ready to burst with excitement.

However, I was caught.  As this year we have been so kindly given this beautiful rug to continue my tradition of the Christmas Rug from Linens Limited, and I wanted to show it to you before Christmas Eve.  And so, I let my smallest, and very often cleanest and by far the neatest little Jones play on the rug, for one morning only.  And when I say one morning, I mean fifteen minutes at best before we rolled it up and put it back into the hallway ready for Christmas Eve.

That said, and as mean as I now sound, Hero was so delighted that his little reindeer had a rug made of what he considered REAL SNOW to play in, that he spent his time making reindeer tracks in the pile and having so much fun.   My sister is already gathering her collection of GIFs representing my forthcoming reactions to the boys and Gav stepping on my beautiful new rug.  You’ll be able to see more of our new rug without the twinkly lights colour cast over Christmas in our Insta-Stories – we hope you’ll join us – you can place your bets on how long a snowy white rug will last in a house full of boys!

Our Christmas Rug was kindly gifted to us this year.  We’re very delighted and so grateful to Linens Limited for enabling my new tradition, and my opinions on the rug are my own.