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The Christmas
Lace Notes

You can't tell me when it's Christmas

4/12/2023

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There are two types of people who have their birthday in December:
  • People like my father who hated that Christmas was overshadowing his birthday on 5th December
  • People like my Mum's stepfather who loved that all the Christmas goodies were in the shops, just in time for his birthday on 6th December.
Uncle Reg, Mum's stepfather, loved pecan nuts.  In a world where things were still seasonal, they would appear in the shops around the 1st of December.  My Grandmother (Mum's mum) would always make sure she came home a little early on the first friday of the month so she could stop off at the greengrocers and buy him a big brown paper bag full.
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The rose gold tinge of their shell is so linked to December, in my mind.
Even with my birthday being in October, and many of the Christmas gifts being in the shops in September I didn't mind.  There was more chance I'd get an exciting birthday present because of it. 

In those heady days of the 70s, as a child, Halloweven wasn't really an event in South London.  So, it would be Christmas presents on sale September / October, then fireworks late October to 5th November and suddenly all the shops had Christmas decorations.  If you had an artificial tree (normally silver tinsel!) you could put it up in early December, but for those of us who had a real tree, then it would be week before Christmas.
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Christmas preparations would start in earnest on the last Sunday of November, for those who would make their own sugary delights.  Stir up Sunday is traditionally the day that families would make their Christmas Puddings and often their Christmas cake.

The reason for doing it so early was preservation and economy of time.  In the run up to Christmas, pre microwaves, finding time to steam a pudding for 8 hours, in order to cook it, would be difficult.  But if everyone was doing it on the same day, you wouldn't be expected to have visitors.
Fruit cakes are edible on the day that they are baked but it is one of those wonderful and magical chemical reaction things that a fruit cake is better if it's left to mature.  To help with that, we would feed it with a begrudingly given amount of whisky from my father's drinks cabinet.

I still make a Dundee Cake each year, using Mary Berry's receipe, only mine are cooked in mini cake tins that give two bites so you can snaffle one and not feel guilty.

In our house it's served straight and not with cheese which my Australian husband was shocked to discover his relatives in Yorkshire do.  He was also shocked by how much whisky was in the cake they served him and had to not drive for 6 hours after the cake!
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Even if you want to ban Christmas until after your December birthday then you are going to have problem with Advent Calendars.  Due to their nature, they have to start on 1st December.

This year, I had bought Hubby a chocolate one, as usual, but when doing my shopping order on Thursday, I saw the Woodmansterne Caltime Nativity Scene.  It was reduced because, well it was the 30th November.  So I treated myself.

Each day I get to take a few minutes out of my life and build a bit of the scene and I'm using it as a way to think and reflect in the lead up to Christmas this year.
For those, who, like my father gate keep when Christmas can start (normally after their birthdays), it smacks of those Bridezillas who won’t let others do anything during their wedding year.  

We each need to choose when our own Christmases start for us.
Just beind me, whilst I sit at my desk, is my candle advent calendar. 

This is a treat to have a small candle burn during my days when I'm in my home office, or light when I'm in bed, reading.

Again, it's an opportunity to take a few minutes out of my day to stop and reflect.

Someone once said to me that I was a hypocrite because I went to church or synagogue but I wasn't perfect.  I didn't respond because there was no point. 

They weren't going to understand that I follow my faith because I am NOT perfect. 

But I always strive to be a little better each day.
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Why is an Advent Calendar so special?

30/11/2022

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PictureA typical Medici shaped Advent Calendar
As a child, my Aunt would be the one who brought us our Advent Calendars.

There was a shop called 'The Library & Music Shop', so called because it sold books and music ... I know, and they had Medici Cards.  The Medici Society was founded in 1908 as a publisher of art prints and cards and I always thought that Medici cards were obviously the poshest because people would talk about them with that hushed voice of reverence. 

​The Advent Calendar theme would always be either religious or feature Father Christmas and the numbers would appear non sequentially so you had to hunt the number that you were looking for.
Each window would open to a drawing with the final one, the 24th December showing the manger scene.  This always confused me because Christmas Day was the 25th.  Never did get to the bottom of that one.

Advent calendars have their origins, as do many modern Christmas traditions, in Germany during the 19th Century.  Just like Christmas trees, we, here, in the UK, embraced them.
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My mum worked for a lovely couple who were German / Austrian and one year they gave me an advent candle.  I liked sitting in the twilight and watching the candle burn down to the next number.

I treated a friend to one, as a present, one Christmas.  They lit it, and promptly forgot about it. 

​Well, as you can imagine, it burnt down, past the next day and a few more days. 

​All I got was a complaint from them that it was a waste of time. ​Perhaps, occasionally, traditions are wasted on some people!

A big part of my childhood was the Christmas activities on Blue Peter. 

In particular, the Christmas Crown was the one thing I wanted to make.  Where on earth we would have put it, I have no idea.

​I was only recently that I found out that it was not introduced by John Noakes, rather it was first shown the year before I was born.

Want to make your own?  You can download the instructions here.
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These days, you can have presents in your calendar. 

Hubby has a tea advent calendar.  ​It's a great way to try out different flavours and an excuse to take a little time for himself as he makes his cup of tea and sits and drinks it.

I have indulged in a chocolate advent calendar.  Rather than just gobbling the choccies as I do with other things, I'm going to take a moment, each afternoon, and sit and eat my daily truffle.  

​Now that is a form of mindfulness I can cope with.

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A tree is a tree, is a tree, is a tree

27/11/2022

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PictureLooks like this tree was exceptionally small that year. Me for scale!
As a child, I would go with my mum on Christmas Eve to the greengrocers and buy our Christmas tree.

It would be left in the garden until my father came home, then he would put it into a large bucket of sand, then the bucket into a decorative box that he made years ago.  

On the front of the box was a paper cut tree on red paper that I think I made in Infant School.  It got turned around in different directions depending on how big the tree was (so whether or not the tree was in the box or on the box).

There would be around 20 minutes of wobbling the tree to get it straight.

Now with our artificial tree, getting it straight involves playing with 3 screws in the base of the tree stand.  Far easier.

As with most of the things involved with Christmas, my mother would save up the money to buy the tree from her part time job.  The tree would be up only until the 12th day of Christmas and would always be taken down for the 6th January.  The idea that it would be up any longer just didn't cross anyone's mind.  

During these early years of my childhood, my maternal grandmother lived in the first house in our road.  She always had an artificial tree, a silver tinsel one.  I thought it was rather magical. 

​My parents' friend, who lived opposite us had a green tinsel tree which they always hung long silver strands of silvery tinsel stuff on and 'angel hair' to look like snow ... I think it was just some form of thin cotton wool.  I always felt it very busy looking and was secretly worried that it might catch fire!


PictureHubby brought the tree in last night to 'rest'. I think he has forgotten that it's not a real life one.
From our first Christmas together, hubby and I always had a real Christmas tree but back in 2016 we decided that it was time to move to an artificial one as we were having problems sources trees that hubby liked. 

​I didn't realise that buying an artificial Christmas tree would take us 3 months and visits to over 6 garden centres!  But we found it in the end.

When we first got together, hubby and I bought a set of cheap baubles from Ikea (where we also got our first tree).  As we travelled around together, we bought decorations to remind us of our travels and I also made hubby a decoration each year.

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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
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