Clearing out for Christmas

Madeleine Thompson - 29 Oct 15

It’s only October, yet we’re already seeing the creep of Christmas presents and decorations on our supermarket shelves and people posting ‘XX days until Christmas’ messages on social media.

It does seem like the preparation for Christmas arrives earlier each year. Some things are too early – the marketing and advertising hype, for example, but some do make sense – saving up to buy presents, planning time off work, and if you are a parent, carrying out the annual toy cull.

If you are anything like me and my family, you will have a lounge full of clutter, disorder, teddies, plastic toys and broken things.   Since our eldest was born, our once tidy lounge (well almost) has slowly morphed into something akin to the Broom Cupboard. I would describe the toys as falling into three categories – Teds, Big Things and Plastic Bits.

The Teds, I don’t mind. In fact I think it would be odd without them. We have a team of Teds, all with very lovely but logical names (Brown Bear, Purple Rabbit, Stripy Ted, Mrs Bear – you get the gist).

Big Things include a plastic tool bench, which becomes a kitchen/shop/roadside diner depending on the kids’ moods. There’s also the mini kitchen, a singing thing called Billy that jerks around to bad music, various push along/ride-on toys and a big carpet jigsaw.

Again, I don’t mind the Big Things. They serve a purpose and the kids seem to like them.

The things I find annoying, strange and irritating in equal measure are the Plastic Bits.

Do you have a house full of plastic bits? I don’t even know where they come from. I couldn’t tell you where we bought/acquired them from, but we seem to have boxes and drawers full of plastic. Plastic people, pieces of plastic missing from games, plastic dolls shoes, plastic till drawers, plastic phones, keys, plastic shopping cards, plastic shapes. It’s like plastic hell in our house!

So when my husband and I approached the annual toy cull recently, we took great joy in relieving the house of the plastic bits. We did this, of course, when the kids had gone to bed. It’s strange how they can go months without even noticing a toy/plastic bit, but become devastated beyond belief if you suggest giving it away. What’s more, the pain isn’t eased if you tell them it’s nice for the toys to go to children who need them more, etc. So it’s best (and easier!) that they just don’t know!

This year’s toy cull went well and we ended up clearing a lot of stuff ready for Santa to come at Christmas. On Christmas Day we will have lots of fun watching them open their new Teds and Big Things and no doubt we will start to accumulate the next round of plastic things ready for next year’s toy cull!

Madeleine Thompson

I am mum to my little chicks, Aisha, 6 and Abel, 4. Originally from Yorkshire, UK, I now live in a little town in the North West. By day, I work for myself as a freelance PA. By night, I indulge my passion for writing.

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