My mother used to say ‘Christmas is a family time’. With fixed ideas about what that meant for us, she made those ideas clear.
We used to play ‘Happy Families’, a card game that features fictional families. Each family had four members – father, mother, son, daughter and an occupational theme, so there was Mr Bun the Baker, Mrs Bun, Master Bun and Miss Bun.
Families aren’t as predictable as Mum or ‘Happy Families’ would have us believe.
Yesterday, our local paper announced that grey seals have returned to Orford Ness. They’ve spent most of the summer at sea… The first 200 adult seals arrived in 2021… They’ve arrived for the fifth consecutive year… Pupping season is underway… Numbers are expected exceed last year’s 228 pups.
I’ve watched seal families in groups on the beach. They don’t like to be disturbed, they seem to sleep a lot, movement is limited. I know some families like that.
In contrast, each day I watch the squirrel family in our garden. They’re always on the move, often eating… Jumping from tree to tree looking dangerous… Chasing each other in both play and mutual aggravation. I know some families like that, too.
At Christmas people ‘do family’ like seals, others like squirrels. Seals travel, but having arrived, they congregate in large groups and don’t move much. Squirrels stay closer to home, but are always active, always eating, playing and aggravating in smaller groups…
One friend will find family serving Christmas dinner at the Salvation Army; another will find family in a local care home. Some will meet with their church family, some with their pub family, some with their football family. Some families will have a new member joining them for the first time; others will together remember those no longer with them.
This morning, helped by seals, squirrels and Mr Bun the Baker, I’m reflecting on the qualities that make family – faithfulness, loyalty, love, reliability, belonging, protection… and remembering that Bethlehem family, many years ago, that still affects families today.
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