Christmas day(Gail Moore) Christmas Day had arrived and I was the first one out of bed.
5:37 and here I am banging on my parents door.
I just knew I was getting a bike. My very first bike and I’m already thirteen years old.

Mums in the neighbourhood had been sneaking around for the past month tormenting their kids .
Somehow this year was different, we had just come through a depression and no one had any money so what you got you got. No answering back. Just be grateful say thanks and that’s that.

"Mum get up, it’s Christmas."
Mum arose , curlers in her hair, her grubby dressing gown, torn around the bottom.
About time she had a new one. It will be the first thing I buy when I go to work in two years time. I would be 15 and old enough to go to work.
All my money would go towards feeding the family and hopefully great christmas days.
Here I am yelling at her door to get up.
"Just give me the bike then you can go back to bed okay mum!"
Mum came to the bedroom door, gave me a paper bag, grabbed my hand , lead me to the back door, pushed me out, and said come back at 5:00pm. I heard the lock turn.
Locked the door and that was that.
I stood absolutely dumb founded sitting on the back steps, paperbag in hand.

Five minutes later, still in shock I moved off the steps, looked in the paper bag and walked off down the road. Tears of disappointment running down my face.
As I walked more and more children joined me.. by the time I reached the end of the road a further 18 children had joined me.

What’s going on? a couple of kids asked. Everyone was holding a paper bag and all had been given the same instructions.
Come home at 5:00pm no sooner no later.
My brown paper bag held a few plasters and an apple. My sisters held a bandage and a marmite sandwich.
Everyone looked puzzled as they emptied their brown paper bags.

So here we all were, 18 of us. Bewildered to say the least.
I sat on the ground, picked up a few stones and started to play knuckle bones , three maybe four kids joined me.
Some of the boys headed for the tip across the road. I yelled out.
Don’t touch the sea eggs they are crawling with maggots. All shook their heads . We know, stupid, one of the boys yelled out.
So we filled the day with hosing ourselves with the hose on the tap attached to the Rowes house. We scared ourselves nearly to death at the cottinghams house with a sheet hanging under the house.
We used the bandage and plaster for Allen’s leg when he got stuck in the barbed wire fence. Not one person left without blood on them.
The boys found an old bike at the tip and we all had turns riding on it.
They also got chased down the road after throwing rocks onto the motorway.
The girls found rope and played skipping until they were exhausted and then lay on the ground just watching the cloud formations.

Five o’clock arrived and we all headed back to our homes.

Christmas dinner:::

All the dining tables had been put out In the back yards with everyone sharing food.
A hāngi was pulled from the ground and they all shared the most wonderful Christmas dinner ever.
All agreed it was the best Christmas they had ever had.
That night the parents pulled the kids blankets into the yard and they all slept under the stars.

No one in the neighbourhood had money for presents so this was the best the mums could do.
All the kids agreed it was better than any gifts they could have gotten.
They made friendships for life and all agreed it would be the same again next year and the year after. I never got that bike that year but it never seemed to matter. I had better things to do.

Fast forward many years and our kids expect so much. iPhones, iPads, and all the most expensive things money can buy.
For many families it’s just the simple things in life that bring the most pleasures.

The End …..

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