Christmas is only days away and the retailers and marketers are rallying to convince us that we must spend money on the perfect gift.
Whilst contemplating what to give my children this Christmas I tried to remember the best present I ever received as a child. With the exception of my first tennis racket I couldn’t think of a single thing. What I could remember, however, was a Christmas experience, which became an annual ritual and remains one of my most cherished childhood memories.
A generation on, I still remember the evening unfolding with perfect clarity. A few nights before Christmas, just as dusk turned to night, our father would bundle up my four sisters and I and drive us into the city. To share an experience alone with our dad was a great novelty for the five of us. He worked six days a week and went back to the office most nights after dinner. But at Christmas time we shared two important activities with him: we would go and see the Myer windows and then visit his office.
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