The ghosts of Christmases past

I'm really not feeling that festive this year about Christmas, but I have been thinking about Christmases past, in happier times.

I have three extra special memories, quite apart from all the usual warm and happy times I've spent with family and friends. And funnily enough, they all relate to Christmases in Germany but maybe that's because of the military background to a lot of my life.

The first was when I was an army nurse in the city of Münster. On Christmas Eve and carrying lighted candles with our nursing uniforms, our grey capes turned inside out to show their scarlet linings, we sang carols with the local people. As snow fell we sang 'Silent Night', and it felt very special to be sharing our Christmas Eve in the company of local people, all celebrating Christmas in an old and cobbled market square in a German city.

The next was while we were living in the attic of a farmhouse next to the famous Möhnesee Dam (Dambuster's raid), in the village of Delecke. (There hadn't been enough military accommodation for us, so we had found our own 'hiring'.) The farming family were lovely and always very kind to us, and as Christmas approached our landlord asked us to accompany him to some woodland he owned on the far side of the Möhnesee lake. Off we set on the trailer behind his tractor, bumping along, and, once there, as we crunched through the tree needles underfoot, it also snowed, and I can still remember the scent of the pines and the quiet of the woodland. "I have a surprise for you", said our landlord. "Pick a Christmas tree and I'll cut it for you." Then we trundled it back on the trailer, up to our apartment and decorated it in the warmth of our living room, whilst sipping mulled wine.

Then there was Düsseldorf, in a little church near the banks of the river Rhine. We'd somehow missed our own military church's carol concert, but knew that this little church held services in English. The pastor was Dutch and he was so excited when we all trooped in, as there was my (then) husband and I, my grown-up children, and included my German daughter-in-law who was pregnant at the time, and the pastor was so delighted to have three generations of one family, (including the bump,) to join him for the service. Düsseldorf has a thriving opera house and company, and half way through the service, two members of the congregation got up to sing a duet. But they were also members of the opera company and I will never ever forget their singing of the carol 'O Holy Night'. It was pure magic with such a rich sound, and instantly made 'O Holy Night', my favourite carol ever. I still can't hear it without thinking of that performance and the little church to this day.

I'm absolutely sure that you too will have memories of extra special Christmases too. I'd love to hear about those!

Photo: London's Oxford Street, Luke Stackpoole