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The Wind Down

Tan France

Dec 13, 2021
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Well, we’ve finally hit that point in December, when the entertainment industry starts to wind down for the Holiday season, and lemme tell you, I could not be more grateful for it. It feels like I’ve been going non-stop since February, with filming and parenting, and so it’s so nice to know that there’s a couple week period where I can rest and take stock of what this year has been all about, and recoup enough to tackle the craziness of next year. In my job, I usually, mostly know what my next year is looking like, a few months in advance, and it’s set to be my busiest yet. So, I'm so glad I can decompress before that.

Did I tell you what my plans are for the holidays? Well, here goes, just in case. My whole family, 17 of them, including my mum, siblings, their partners and their kids, are all coming to stay for a week. None of them have ever been to the US before, and we’ve never taken a vacation as a whole family before, so this will be epic. Half will be staying in my home, the other half in a hotel close by. It has been so stressful to arrange, because of all the changing rules and policies around covid, but we’re now just 10 days away from their arrival and I'm praying it all goes smoothly and they can get here.

It’s not just that I want to hang with my family. It’s that they’ll all get to meet my son, Ismail, for the first time. I'm really close with my family, so for them to not have met him yet is tough for all of us. When one of us has a baby, we shower that baby with love, and we all help with the first few months of raising that baby, so that it’s a little easier on the parents. I can’t wait for a week of my family being able to hold him and love on him. Ismail is now 5 months old, and getting much more active and likes constant interaction and entertaining, when he’s awake, so it’ll be nice to have my siblings keep him entertained for the week.

I think they’ll all love it here so much that they won’t want to return to rainy England. That’s how I felt when I first came here 17 years ago, and then 3 years later, I made it my permanent home.

Ismail has finally turned a corner. We had some incredibly hard weeks, with him not eating or sleeping well, and the past week or two he’s been eating better and sleeping so well. I hope it continues, but I'm hyper-aware of the fact that they switch things up every few weeks, which really keeps you on ya toes. But, we have a much happier, playful baby right now, and it makes me so happy to see him happy.

This will be his first Christmas. Even though I'm muslim, I love the joy of Christmas, and I was always so jealous of the kids that celebrated it, when I was a kid. So, we have a tree every year now, and I can’t wait to create some holiday traditions for our boy. We didn’t get him any gifts. We’re not really big gift givers, Rob and I, with each other. We do regular acts of kindness for each other, which we much prefer. Also, Ismail is too young to care about gifts. As he gets closer to 3-4, we’ll do small gifts, but even then, we’re determined not to spoil him. Just 2-3 reasonable gifts and then great food and baked treats to enjoy as a family. I can hardly wait.

I wanna know some of your favorite traditions with your families. What were they? I might need ideas that I can incorporate, over the coming years.

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28 Comments

  • Author
    Tan France
    Thank you all so much for sharing your traditions with me! It was so lovely to read all about you and your loved ones and how you celebrate this time of year. x
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  • Família Marinho
    What a lovely bulletin Tan !
    Wish you all the best for you and your family. Babies are precious and it's the best thing ever to see them grow. Enjoy all these moments until he becomes a toddler, he'll be running all the time eheh hope everything goes …
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  • Christine Donahue
    So excited for your family Tan! My husband and I have a 2 month old (Declan) and Thanksgiving was very tough on him, he was very overwhelmed meeting so much family for the first time. I hope it goes well for you all! We are very excited to do an annual…
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    • 23w
  • Lisa Lehwalder
    Birthdays are our biggest gift giving holiday so that we might focus on more of the Christmas spirit of family gatherings, good foods, cozy activities, visiting and just being together. When our kids were little Santa of course would visit and leave pr…
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  • Ganene Jordan
    I'm so happy for you and Rob and baby Ishmail. Despite being Muslim, you're doing what fits your family. Any tradition is a good one and something to look forward to. My family is American Indian and family gatherings have always been the highlight ex…
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  • Kim Flodin
    I did not do this with my kids, but if I were starting over, I would: the 4 gift rule: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. I think that's lovely and keeps the excess in check. A warm holiday to you and yours, Tan.
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  • Guðrún Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir
    In Iceland we have the tradition of going to the cemetery an put lights on the graves of our loved ones. We also celebrate Christnas on Christmas Eve. In iceland we also have 13 Santas (not just one as in America). Those boys have not always bin good …
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  • Charlotte Engel
    in germany we are really big on advent calendars; giving kids a little gift/challenge/sweets each day of december leading up to christmas, and we open presents on christmas eve after singing. in my family we also always do a “project” we don’t have tim…
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  • Marie Wintriss
    What a lovely update, Tan! We really like to focus on stocking stuffers, more so that "big gifts." Like you, we share love and joy with each other all year long, and don't feel the need to "wait" for a holiday. One of our favorite things to do is visit…
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  • Vivian Forster-Englund
    We say we will do small gift and we end up doing a lot. Lol. our tradition is one gift from each parent and a stocking. We only have one son and didn’t want him being over loaded. We let our families do that. Christmas is about love and family. I l…
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