Town striker on Christmas in the Campbell Household
- Fraizer Campbell gives an insight into his Christmas
- Striker balances family life and football
- Fraizer's blog was first seen in The Terrier
Someone’s banging a pan and a spoon at like 6am latest because they’re excited its Christmas, so I’m always up early doors!
My kids are always buzzing in the build up to Christmas and to be fair I was too when I was younger! I think when I was three or four, I got a drum set; that’s the first present I can remember!
I was sitting there in my dressing gown on Christmas morning and absolutely battering them, it must’ve been really annoying for my parents, I’m not sure what they were thinking, but I was having a great time.
When I was younger and living at home, we all used to go to my Gran’s on Christmas Eve before going down to the Working Men’s Club. I reckon we used to stay down there until like midnight, but it was really exciting when we got home because we were always allowed to open one present.
Pretty much every year I think the excitement would just get to me and I’d crash out on the sofa, the floor, or pretty much anywhere, just like I do after a match day after all that running!
I’d wake up at some silly time on Christmas morning, like my kids do now, and then we’d have a traditional Christmas Day. I look back at those with good memories because as you get older, people get jobs and you can’t go out Christmas Eve anymore or stay the whole day on Christmas.
For me it changes year on year, sometimes we will train Christmas morning or sometimes Christmas night; it varies from club to club.
If you train in the morning, you can get back and have your Christmas dinner with family. For us, this year, because we are away, we are still going to be in a hotel on Christmas Day, so we will have our Christmas dinner, come into train and try not to throw up! Then we’ll go off to the hotel and prepare for the game.
As I say, Christmas Day is always changing in terms of schedules, but it’s the same old gang together, so around 15/16 of us usually every Christmas. Obviously, it won’t be the same this year, but we have the technology to make it feel as special.
So, what’s Christmas like nowadays in the Campbell household? Well, firstly I saw people putting their trees up in November, but that’s far, far too early for me! We put ours up a couple of weeks ago, I think, right at the start of December.
It feels Christmassy in the house but out the house, which is a lot of the time in the hotel it feels strange.
The kids are buzzing in the build up to Christmas and love watching films. I’ve watched a ton of them recently, but I’d have to say either Elf or Home Alone are my favourites.
Christmas shopping as been even harder this year, I’m sure you’ll agree! With so many games, training sessions, trying to spend time with the kids and COVID, it’s been tough, but I’ve just about got it all sorted.
Christmas Day? Well, that’s just chaos! I’ll be woken up by one of my kids banging a spoon on a pan shouting at us to get up, so they can open their presents. I actually had to tell my oldest last year not to get up before half six; she was starting to take the micky!
I don’t mind having to get up at that time, though, because it means I can spend more time with them. I told my eldest about the plan for Christmas this year and she was a bit upset that I’d have to leave after our dinner and stay in a hotel, but that’s part of being a footballer.
It’s only a day, I know it’s Christmas Day, but I’m there all morning so I’ll be up from around 6am and I’ll try and enjoy the day as much as possible, but we have jobs to do at the end of the day.
Christmas dinner has to be one of the best meals of the year doesn’t it… I mean turkey with cranberry sauce, I love the stuff, I can’t get enough of it!
And to save the argument, brussels sprouts are horrendous; banish them! To be fair, I like to see them there, you know, on the table as an option, but I don’t want them anywhere near my plate!
I think we are all looking forward to Christmas Day now and I can’t wait to get my hands on some new socks and slippers; they’re the presents I really like now I’m getting older! When I got them about 10 or 15 years ago, I thought, why have they got me these! Now, I can’t get enough of them!
I’ve had some really dodgy presents over the years too, but I can’t expose anyone right now, I’ll save those stories for a little bit later!
I hope you all can have a very Merry Christmas and can spend time with your loved ones!
