Domain goes shopping for some Xmas treats.
There is a diligent young real estate agent who visits my 89-year-old mother in her large Sydney suburban home every few months.
Keen on the listing he reminds her that when she is ready to sell, he is the one who can assist her to exchange her five-bedroom home for much fortune.
After all, he says, now is the time to hit the market with demand strong in her tightly-held suburb – and she must consider if a five-bedroom house is something that somebody living alone really needs today.
The one reason my mother won’t sell the family home … Christmas. Photo: Stocksy
My mother is polite to “this lovely young man” but she quietly scoffs at the suggestion that it would be a good idea for her to sell.
After all where are the extended family members to be entertained, fed and accommodated when they visit for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve the head count in this house rises up to about 20.
There are children, spouses, grandchildren, grandchildren’s girlfriends or boyfriends and, at times, a number of Christmas orphans.
And of course, two pet dogs brought along by the grandkids.
The Christmas countdown begins when the garden is given a spruce up by my sister in late November.
By mid-December the Christmas tree has been put up, and Christmas cards strung along the living room window.
In the early hours of Christmas Eve the kitchen fills with food and a staff of head chef, my brother; and sous chefs, any other spouses and generations roped in to cover anything from de-veining prawns to peeling vegetables.
In the day, leading up to Christmas Eve dinner, the dining room and adjoining lounge room are also given a makeover.
The dining room table is extended, a second dining table is erected in the loungeroom. Flowers, collected by my niece in an early morning trip to the flower markets are arranged along with trinkets and the “good” settings, cutlery along with glassware that dates back to my parents wedding.
In the early evening carloads of various family members begin to arrive, and in true Australian style, are parked across the front lawn to cater for the big numbers.
The celebrations begin with champagne on the back verandah and then progress into the loungeroom, to the tunes of Christmas carols, and unloading of presents under the Christmas tree.
The Christmas Eve Dinner is then served. In total there are about four courses – it is without exaggeration to say that the table groans with food. And the wine list, compiled over a year by a team of son-in-laws and their “garage wine-cellar” collections, is impressive.
All guests don paper crowns from the bon-bons, filled once again with crappy plastic toys and even worse jokes – which at this time of year we somehow find amusing.
For many years dinner was followed by the setting out of beer and biscuits for Santa and carrots for his reindeer on the back verandah – but with the youngest grandkids now teenagers that tradition has been put away for a few years.
With the kitchen finally cleaned up as the clock winds towards midnight, now is the time to bunk down. Yes, about 20 people are housed for the night in a five-bedroom suburban home.
Extra mattresses and airbeds are placed wherever there is a few square inches of free carpet. That leads to extra beds in the bedrooms, the living room also becomes a sleeping zone and the hallways have also been populated in the past. Last year we also extended the accommodation to a tent pitched in the backyard for the night.
That way my mother wakes on Christmas morning and finds her house filled with family. Weary family members slowly rise, just in time to get the next meal, the Christmas Day breakfast under way.
Coffee is doled out and platters of fruit, pastries, bagels, croissants and smoked salmon and ham are served before the opening of the presents under the Christmas tree. At this time the loungeroom becomes a sea of wrapping paper and presents are unwrapped.
It is then my mother recollects incidents from the night before and takes in the Christmas morning scene and says with great satisfaction, how much she loves her home in this moment – filled with people enjoying themselves, the place messy and lively.
And that is why she cannot possibly sell her five-bedroom house any time soon.