Angels for my Christmas tree

Christmas creeps upon us. The air gets chillier, and the nights become darker.

There are homes filled with Christmas cheer, the windows filled with colourful lights. Shops filled with gifts and songs about happiness and family everywhere I go.

A sense of anticipation in the air. I find myself thinking about family and what should have been…..our babies who didn’t get to stay.

We decorate the tree, thinking about how their first Christmas should have been. I think about how they will never get to spend a Christmas morning waking up early with a glint in their eye and smiles on their faces.

How we will never hear their little feet running into our room, or their shrieks of joy as they open their stockings.

Their faces filled with excitement as they see their presents and realise that Santa has been. I add a bauble their big sister made in school.

I close my eyes, thinking of them. A tear falls as I realise that there will never be a homemade bauble from them. But still, we decorate the tree.

Next, we add our Angels. They are not Angels with a white dress and halo but ones that are so very special to us. You see my Angels are my babies born too soon.

They have their own special baubles, a way for us to include them. A way for their siblings to share Christmas with them. A way for us all to be together.

They are not here with us in body, but we know that their love surrounds us and we choose to include them in our Christmas traditions.

So, this Christmas as always we will spend many a moment reflecting on what should have been but we will also take the time to enjoy what is now.

Merry Christmas to all our babies who didn’t get to stay.