Amongst the plethora of Christmas songs I’ve heard this year, one that really stands out is White Wine in the Sun” by Australian Tim Minchin. 

He’s the bloke who wrote the musical version of “Matilda” and the great comedy series “Upright”; a true genius in my book. 

The song isn’t the catchiest you’ll ever hear but I love the story it weaves, of him coming home from overseas for Christmas to see “my dad, my brother and sisters, my gran and my mum” with his jetlagged daughter who will be passed around “like a puppy at a primary school” and then (spoiler alert) by the end he’s melancholically hoping the same girl, now a woman, might just come home from overseas for Christmas to see him. Oh my heart-strings!

Watch and listen to the song here

We’ll get to see some of our kids this Christmas but not all; one has chosen to sit in a hut in the bush potentially filled with strangers and buckets of rain (one of my ideas of hell) and another is overseas living her best life. 

She chose to leave on Christmas Day last year (if you want to fly cheap, do it on Christmas Day) and though we’ve been lucky enough to see her since, the distance between us will seem vaster tomorrow. As does the distance between us both and our departed parents at this time every year.

Whatever you are doing tomorrow, I hope it is with people you love and who love you in return. 

Despite the other themes of Christmas that Minchin touches on in his song (religion and consumerism), for me, that’s what Christmas is truly all about. Being with the people you love.

Merry Christmas everyone.