Bedtimes
Well children are beginning to get excited and count how many bedtimes before Father Christmas arrives. My little granddaughter asked me yesterday how many sleeps and, then went on to say, ‘but I don’t believe anymore, he isn’t real nanny. Though there was a man once called St. Nicholas…’ Yes, we know about him!
The thing that makes me smile most about the Christmas countdown is the purchase of the Advent Calendar. Does everyone do the same as I did and eat all the chocolates, then carefully close the windows so that Mum didn’t realise what I had done? Uhm! Naughty but nice. So thinking about Advent Calendars and chocolate I decided to do some research and see where the original idea came from. In fact it was birthed in Germany by the Lutherans at the beginning of the 19th century, when they would count down the 24 days to Christmas physically with various types of markers or the lighting of candles. Interesting, uhm!
So back to bedtime, young people/children who don’t go to bed at the same time each night are more likely to misbehave according to experts. Apparently a study of more than 10,000 children was carried out at the University College London. Bedtimes were studied and children who had regular bedtimes were better behaved compared to those who had irregular bedtimes. Erratic bedtimes were likened to jet lag and the longer it goes on the worse the behaviour.
Quite honestly I would expect that anyway and it’s no different with adults. Our bodies need a certain amount of sleep dependendant on our age and physical condition and who doesn’t get cranky when we are short of sleep. Did we need a survey to tell us the obvious?
Whatever this should be the one month of the year when our children are well behaved and adhere to those bedtimes. They are on a promise aren’t they? Believe it or not, Father Christmas will not bring those presents if you kids are naughty. AND am I the only one who is still old fashioned or does everyone call him Santa these days? I refused to call him Santa since the day I had a horrible dream and someone pointed out that Santa was a mis-spelling of Satan. So what’s that all about?
We know that Christmas was originally a Pagan celebration and was adopted by the Christians. Here I go again with my research and I have just spent an hour reading all about the origin of Christmas, and the festival of Saturnalia upon which it was based. This has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ. He wasn’t even born in December. Isn’t it interesting how in society we just accept the things happening around us as tradition and rarely bother to look into their roots. I will leave you to do your own research on that one, supposing you have the time.
Meanwhile, whatever your thoughts on Christmas remember this – For all those who open a present there are plenty more who won’t even have fresh drinking water or a bowl of hot food. Please therefore take this time to think what you can do to help someone else this Christmas. I heard a lovely story the other day. Someone who for several weeks bought a couple of extra items at the store and then when they had a full bag passed them on to someone in need.
So when you go to bed tonight, if you can’t go to sleep instead of counting sheep ponder as to who you can bless this Christmas. Who counts sheep anyway?
Chat soon.
Anna
