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The Christmas
Lace Notes

Why are Christmas movies so comforting?

24/11/2023

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In the 20 years since Love Actually was released, I've rediscovered a love of Christmas movies.  

Part of me harks back to watching White Christmas with my Grandmother.  Cuddled up on the sofa, sipping proper cocoa made with jersey milk.  It would be so thick you could use it as grout, but it was rich, creamy and made, as with everything my Grandmother did, with love.
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Last year, I started my Christmas movie a day, epic.  And once again, this year, I doing the same.  Watching schmaltzy films and horror movies and action movies.  But all come with Christmas featured in them.

​We can argue whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but other action films, such as Fatman definitely are.
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Earlier this week I witnessed a small argument at work:
It is
No, Die Hard is not a Christmas movie
It is, you know
No, it's not
Yes, it is ....
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Watching White Christmas, and all the other films from the 50s that my Grandmother loved, allows me to sit and snuggle down into the happy memories that she and I made together.

But there is another side of watching a film again and again and again.  

The familiarity of the film allows you to let it wash over you.  You see things that you had forgotten and get that jolt of happiness from the memory of when you first saw it.

However, for me, it's being able to have it, almost, as background to creating a new memory that you now attach to the film.  
​I'll often have it onwhen I'm knitting or baking.  The feel of the yarn, the small of the cookies, then become intertwined with the film, the music, the memories of previous years.

It is almost as though you can make a memory even bigger and brighter and more wonderful by adding to it again and again and again.
I try to sprinkle in, new films, some of which will become favourites and others are to just to pass the time.  
​
A Castle for Christmas was watched the year it came out because I knew one of the ladies who had dyed the yarn for the movie.  It is now the first film that I start my watch days off with.
Then today, watching another Hallmark film (yes, you can joke that they all have the same plot) I was struck by something.

These films are not just feel good films.  

Yes, the women in these films are normally successful, confident women.  Yes, they always find that they have lost touch with life and find meaning through some wonderful handsome man.

But there is one thing that is refreshing in these movies.  These women are always middle age.  They are at least 30 if not early 40s.  They are attractive but that is secondary to the skills that they have in the films.  They are lawyers, CEOs, chefs, you name it.  They are financially independent (mostly) but have often isolated themselves from everyone. 

Yes, they often fall for the guy, but often they fall for finding friendship with other great women.

For me, it is this last thing that I find the most fulfilling with these films.  Connections, relationships and friendship.
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Is it still worth sending physical Christmas cards?

23/11/2023

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I’m down to just three physical Christmas cards a year now.  Gone are the years when I would make 20th or so cards.

Now, both of my parents are gone.  Hubby’s family don’t exchange cards (apart from one sister) and my Niblings are environmentally conscious. The last bastion of of physical cards was the office but the move to remote and hybrid killed that too.
I first started to make Christmas cards back in the late 80s.  
This was out of necessity.  I was suddenly living on my own and had very little money.  

Christmas cards were expected.  A social handshake where you would sit at the start of December and start to write them out over two or three nights.

The first year I made simple lace from Christine Springett’s Lace for children of all ages.

Another year it was folded ribbons to make stars.  Often, it would be whatever workshop my local lace group had arranged. 
In previous years, different online lace groups would run a Christmas card exchange. I’d make a decoration and attach it to a card like the one here.
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Then, I realised that it wasn’t that the work I was putting in wasn't getting any praise, it was that it was being ignored.  If someone has taken the time to make you something, even if it’s not to your taste, you should at least acknowledge it.  

One year,  I made 14 of these lace decorations.

Each took an evening to make.With work and other commitments, this was a month of my spare time.
My brother, my sister and hubby’s sister all thanked me.  My mum gave me a hug.

But no one else acknowledged them.  ​

​
When I brought this up to my mum she said how people loved them.  Yeah but they couldn’t take 2 secs to even tell me the cards had arrived.  ​
Some years, if there just isn’t time, I will buy a card froma friend or artisan and send that. 

​So now, I just make 3 cards.  
  1. My brother and sister in law
  2. My sister and brother in law
  3. Hubby’s sister.
Today, I went to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for their printing workshop.  We saw it advertised back in August and I think I was the first person to book.  

The day was run by the wonderful Louisa Hare of First Folio Cards.  
First, I drew a sketch of a wistful cat looking at trees and the moon then cut it into the lino.  Then I printed a blue background followed by the lino print.  The idea was to  create the idea of a dark sky, at night.

Finally, ‘Merry Christmas’ was printed inside in a fancy font. 

​I have one print which is just black and I’m going to frame that one and out it in my office.
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So, let’s look again at my question;  Is it still worth sending physical Christmas cards?

My answer is that it’s just the same as it it with making handmade gifts for Christmas?

Some people are craftworthy.  
For them, I’ll make anything.  
​For all the others, then an e-card. 
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Schrottwichteln or Scrap Gnomes

22/11/2023

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Today, was a Spa day, a present from work for our team after completing a massive project. 

I was all warm and relaxed from my massage, snuggled in my complimentary robe, knitting and doing my other favourite activity, in these situations; listening to snatches of conversations. 
The two ladies, opposite we’re talking about Christmas and work secret Santas.  One of them asked if the other if they knew of this German tradition where you take a nice, unwanted gift, wrap it and then you play a game to see who will get which gift. 
Rules
I found these rules on a German language blog
​When all players are sitting at the table and all the gifts are in the middle in front of you, you set a time for how long you want to play. Then the dice are rolled in turn. Each number rolled then has its own rule. First, everyone has to roll a six - because whoever rolls the six gets to choose a present from the middle (don't unwrap it yet!)
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  • ​6 : You choose a present from the middle and place it in front of you (do not unwrap it!). If you already have a gift in front of you and you roll another 6, you can unwrap your gift.
  • 5 : You can exchange your gift with another player (whether he wants to or not and regardless of whether you have already unpacked or not)
  • 4 : Everyone passes their gifts clockwise.
  • 3 : You must exchange your gift with the player to your left.
  • 2 : You must exchange your gift with the player to your right.
  • 1 : You get to decide which players have to exchange their gifts.​
Of course, there is nothing stopping you from creating your own rules to fit who you are playing with.
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    Why the Christmas Lace Notes?

    Wow - 2024 marks the third year of the Christmas Lace Notes and this year, we have podcasts too!  The Christmas movie a day has started.  One a day, every day until Christmas.

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  • Home
  • Book Blog
  • The Lace Notes
  • Podcast
  • The Christmas Lace Notes
  • Want To Make Lace?
    • First Things First
    • Choosing a Pillow
    • Bobbins >
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      • Bobbin Materials
      • Spangling
    • Tools, notions and beads >
      • Boxes and Bits
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    • miniature
  • Freebies and Whatnots
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    • Where shall we go next?
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