Just like the ones we used to know…
Feature
Wham’s song has not lost its popularity since the mid-1980s and I have associated it with Christmas ever since my childhood. I still remember Christmas fun in pre-school and primary school as well as Santa visiting, who in my case I was always terrified of instead of excited to see. I wonder why? This year we asked you to send in your childhood Christmas photos. It is clear that some of you knew what you wanted to be even in your early childhood. “My fondness for large schemes could already be seen at that time – I only liked large-scale toys. My short, boyish hair reveals my practical side and my ‘less is more’ motto,” explains Sandra Wróblewska of Kajima Poland. Apart from Christmas itself, carnival balls and dressing up as characters have also emerged as a favourite theme. Daniel Bienias of CBRE wanted to be: a cowboy, a pilot, a traveller, an actor, a dancer, a smuggler, a pirate and a rally driver... but somehow the now head of the office department of an international real estate agency didn’t get to be any of these. Joanna Mroczek of CBRE recalls: “When I was little my dream was to have superpowers – invisibility, flight, mind-reading, conjuring things up and wish fulfilment. I wanted to be a fairy, a superhero, a magician, all in one. But the eventual realisation that this is not possible only lasted a moment, because now it seems that I have acquired such powers after all, as more and more extraordinary things work out for me,” says the head of the consultancy and market research department. The photo of Agnieszka Mielcarz of Knight Frank with Santa brings back a flood of memories: “The determined look I have in this photo was a combination of a number of factors: the discovery that these gifts were not actually the stuff of a child’s dreams, and the reluctance to yield to the dictate of posing with this plain-looking Santa, but it mostly reflects my total rebellion against having to wear Snow White headgear. In spite of my mum’s constant efforts to transform me into a good girl, which probably included the hand-made Snow White dress made of net curtain fabric, my appearance was usually quite rebellious."
