I am never going to forget last Christmas. It has got to go down as the best and the most different for me. Everyone who spent the day with us is going to remember it, too.

It was to be my major outing. Only two months before then I didn't have a clue about naturism. If anyone had said what I was going to be doing on Christmas 2001 I would have laughed in their face. In the weeks before I went from thinking naturists were nuts to thinking it was a cool thing to be into. Up until my big day I had gone nude in my room and at a friend's house. Never before in front of my family. I was excited and scared at the same time.

On the 24th I made sure I found out who were coming over. I got a list of their phone number and called them all. Some I had mentioned naturism to. Most didn't have a clue I was interested in it. Some thought I was joking when I told them. After I convinced them it was not some seasonal joke they were surprised but not shocked. That night I went to bed thinking about how the next day would go. I was all geared up for it in my mind as far as I could be. It took me some time getting to sleep. It reminded of me when I was younger and not being able to sleep because of being excited about Santa.

My big day eventually arrived. I hadn't worn anything to bed (just as I hadn't been doing for at least a month) so my day would start off nude. I could hear everyone was downstairs and I nervously walked to the bathroom for a shower. Getting ready took me longer than usual. I was very nervous about having my family see me naked the first time. I was partly putting it off for as long as possible and partly wanted to look as clean and presentable as possible. After my shower I went and put on my makeup. I even brushed my pubic hair. Weird or what.

Once I was feeling ready and had built up some confidence I walked to the top of the stairs and listened to what was being talked about in the kitchen. I thought they would be talking about me. Instead they were talking about when the turkey should be put in the oven. There was no point waiting any longer so I took a deep breath and walked straight down the stairs and into the kitchen. I walked through the door and said 'Ta da' and put my arms in the air just like I had preformed an amazing magic trick. Nobody said a word for a few seconds and it was my brother who spoke first and said "you're mad". Not the kind of welcome I wanted but it could have been worse.

Everyone tried to act like everything was normal. Dad carried on getting the turkey ready and my mum and brother were peeling sprouts. I joined in the food preparation and chopped some swede. While chopping away with the knife and getting squirted with swede juice I realise this nudity thing was going to be more interesting than I had thought. You get to feel a lot more of what is going on around you when nothing is covered. Even cutting up a vegetable became an adventure.

Half an hour or so later we went into the living room and got our presents from under the tree. Once we all got into opening our gifts and thanking everyone for the nice things we had been given everyone seemed to forget that I was naked and it was just like any other Christmas. I got the minidisc player I had asked for and also some clothes. When I unwrapped my skirt I held it against myself to see how it looked. Everyone looked at me as I did. It must have looked as strange to them as it felt to me. Covering up part of my body with the skirt felt more embarrassing than being completely nude. Nobody said a word and got back to opening gifts.

After about two hours our first guests were due to arrive. I was watching TV when the door bell rang. I had almost forgotten about being nude by then. Dad went to answer the door and when I heard their voices I went into the hallway. They were definitely shocked by me. I had warned them on the 'phone but that didn't look to have helped. I felt really self conscious and almost ran straight to my room to get some clothes on. That would have been silly and not achieved anything so I said a quick hello and went back in to watch TV. Ten minutes later the door bell rang again and this time I got there first. Like when going into the kitchen earlier that morning I gave them a 'ta da' which was followed by dad's friend, David, saying positive sounding 'well look at you'. His wife was nice as well and told me I was being very brave.

Mum and dad came into the hall way to greet them and their other friends who had arrived earlier went into the living room. I followed them in and sat myself down on the floor. They made an effort to act as normal as possible and we chatted about school and things. A few minutes later their other friends were shown in and dad got them all a drink.

By the time we sat down for lunch three more friends had arrived. They were all really laid back about me being nude. While we were eating dinner one of their friends started talking about nudity and asked me some questions about why I wanted to go without clothes and when I started doing it. After everyone had a chance to talk about it they all seemed to relax a lot more. The wine must have helped a bit too. I knew they would chill out about it eventually, but it surprised me how quickly they did.

In the afternoon we all went for our usual Christmas day walk. It was way too cold and I wasn't brave enough to go completely public so I put on some clothes. It wasn't that bad putting them on. Not uncomfortable but not pleasant either. I had got used to being naked and wanted to keep it up for as long as I could. When we got home and in the warm I went up to my room and took my clothes off again. That definitely felt better. Going back downstairs was incredibly easy that time. Nobody took any notice of me. In any case they were all too interested in topping up with more food and wine.

In the evening we had the usual stint of silly party games. They were mostly fun and no problem for me apart from when the Twister was brought out. I could tell they were uneasy about it and I did the noble thing and offered to sit on the side and spin the wheel. It wouldn't have bothered me to join in but I knew they would all have felt uncomfortable. The only time I did join in was for the solo game (someone spins to see which limb goes on which coloured blob and you have to defy gravity for as long as possible): the longer you could keep going the more chocolate coins you got. I managed to win so was rewarded in the end.

By the end of the day everyone was really chilled. The friends who had looked shocked when they first saw me nude didn't look to care any more. The last of them left at around midnight. I had a great day and was one of the best Christmases I could remember. I felt really proud of myself for what I had achieved that day.