A Very Special Christmas

Since Christmas is in the air, I've decided to write this story for you all to enjoy.


I used to love our family's Christmases, with the smell oozing from my grandmother's kitchen and all of our little cousins bouncing around, giggling with excitement, but I think you can all agree that that is why we love our Christmases.


Only this year, it won't be the same.

This year there will be no smell pouring from the kitchen and no excited cousins running around.
And this is all because my Dad lost his job.


I don't blame him, of course, only that everything has changed since my Dad lost his job; we had to move into the cheapest apartment we could find as quickly as possible, since the Government took our house and this meant that me and my three brothers and sisters had to change school and try and fit in with people who have known each other for ages, this could be easy if you are seven like my youngest brother, but not as easy if you are twelve, like me and everybody laughs at you because your clothes are old and too small for you (but you can't get any new ones) and you spend every lunch in the girls' bathroom.


Our life has totally changed from Back Then, my Dad's salary is now a fifteenth of what he used to get (and that wasn't a lot Then) and so what we buy now either comes from the local supermarket, the bar next to our apartment or the pound shop.


I love the pound shop, I know it isn't a very good thing to say and it portrays me as a person who really has NO money. I'm not like that, but I still enjoy going to the pound shop; I get really excited when Dad comes home whit his small paycheck and says :"Kids, we're going shopping!!!!". When he says that, I know he doesn't mean that we are going to go grocery shopping or hunting for a cheap buy. I know he means that we are going to the pound shop.


I usually save my allowance until I can buy a few pairs of earrings or something special. My siblings always spend their money on toys as soon as it is in their chubby hands, but I have learnt that if you really want something, then you have got to work hard for it. For example, on our last visit to the pound shop I bought a photo album and I started to fill it with memories of Then.


I don't want to forget.


I CAN'T.


Anyway, today is December 24th and everybody in my house can feel that, this morning we took the bus out of town to go and buy a nice Christmas tree. When we got back, my Dad gave each of us a ten pound note that we could use to buy each other presents. From the pound shop I bought my nine-year-old sister an angel necklace and my seven-year-old twin brothers twin trucks. I bought my parents a picture frame each, and in each frame I put one of my drawings which had gotten an A+.


In the evening we sit down on the floor and eat our canned tuna sandwiches and Pepsi. We put our presents under the Christmas tree and sit down on the sofa to watch the Christmas specials on telly.
I end up being crunched in the middle of the sofa, with my sisters head on my lap and two pars of little feet stuck in my ribcage. 


Whilst my Dad is turning the TV on, I think that his year there has been no Turkey, no Potatoes and it's been a while since we've seen our grandparents and cousins, but it has nonetheless 


A Very Special Christmas. 


This work is entirely fictional, any refer to actual facts is just pure coincidence
S.V.