Category: crEAting Christmas

All of us tend to create one or two family Christmas traditions over time, many of ours began when we had our own children, as our two girl’s loved to repeat what we had done the previous year and so it went on.

And now they have flown the nest but the traditions started back then still carry on.

Some of our family traditions happened accidentally, in that they were never started with the intention of becoming a tradition, rather they just evolved as they became a much loved repetitive theme.

One of these was the Christmas angel.

A tradition that began unintentionally the year I made a stocking for each of us in about 1987 when our two daughters were 6 and seven.

The very first year of our new stockings I had found two lovely little angels to balance on the top; poking out over the top they somehow finished the stocking off quite nicely and the girls of course loved them.

The following year I repeated this with another two different angels and after that they always waited eagerly each year to see what kind of angel would greet them on Christmas morning – it was more exciting than the stocking itself and so the tradition was born.

Over the years we have had fabric, wooden, metal, glass, porcelain, wire and even chocolate angels – whatever I find that catches my eye. Some have been quite tiny and others much larger but they always fit into the stocking. I haven’t got this year’s angels yet and it is one of the reasons we go for a trip into Derbyshire each year as there are plenty of those lovely little gift shops and I can search for just the right angel.

Of course by now, as you can imagine, I have a collection of angels carefully wrapped in tissue paper in a box labelled Special Christmas Angels and this is where they all reside – others are kept at my daughter’s homes. Sometimes one or two are allowed out at Christmas to hang amongst the other decorations and a few of them will now be over 30 years old.

Although both daughters left home long ago we still use the stockings I made when we are all together – but now there is one difference…….sometimes they surprise me with a Christmas angel on the top of my stocking if they happen to see one they think I would like.

Yesterday was quite a slow day…. I didn’t do very much other than make up the little posy of flowers for Helen’s mum. I deliberately chose these really cheerful colours as it is so grey and miserable outside.

I had to leave them on the doorstep as she was out but she rang me this morning and we had a lovely catch up and arranged that we will meet in the New Year…. (Covid willing).

This might seem an odd title for the Advent countdown but it is a very special day on my list of Christmas activities and has become a bit of a tradition.

On 8^th December 2015 my dearest friend and colleague Helen passed away after her brave fight with cancer.  She was only 51 and we had worked together for 13 years side by side, no matter which office we worked in, and we were moved about many times, she sat on the left and me the right.  We were affectionately known as ‘Hinge and Bracket’ and between us we administered the Legal Aid contract for the solicitor’s firm we worked for checking client’s eligibility for Legal Aid, compiling the claims and keeping the Solicitors in mind of the strict rules and compliance.

We both had a love of the job and although we were like chalk and cheese in every way possible we soon became firm friends, supporting each other through our many ups and downs.  Although we worked hard there was always time for lots of fun and we could often be found with tears of laughter rolling down our cheeks and if anyone in the office needed cheering up or had a problem they found their way to us, we always made time to listen. 

Christmas was a very jovial time at work with Helen and when the firm moved to larger premises with more individual offices we each decorated our own room, some better than others.  We had a large and spacious office and together we hung a selection of shiny gold and silver snowflakes and stars from the ceiling. The effect was much admired by our colleagues and so the idea came to us to award ourselves First Prize and make a certificate which, to everyone’s amusement, we blatantly displayed on our door! Some of our other colleagues thought there was actually a competition going on that they had not heard about.

Our good friends Miss T and J were situated a little way down the corridor from us and shared a very compact room no bigger than a shoe box and in comparison their meagre effort was a very sad looking lopsided Christmas tree, sparsley decorated with a few trimmings and it had obviously seen better days, so we sneakily taped a ‘Could do better’ certificate to their door – of course they knew it was us but thought it very funny. 

Feeling that their room needed jollying up a bit more Helen and I went to the Pound shop at lunchtime and spent a fiver on the most tasteless décor we could find (not difficult in the Pound shop), which included an oversized tacky banner, a battery operated door plaque with Merry Christmas that flashed on and off and a full length door curtain made of shimmering multi-coloured strips of Lametta. 

We sneaked in early the next morning and proceeded to glam up their office, streaming the oversized banner in zig zag fashion across their very low ceiling and completing the look with large dangly baubles.  When we had finished it looked like a bad version of Santa’s Grotto complete with a singing Santa, positioned just outside the glittery door curtain, so he would be triggered into song as soon as anyone passed through.

We then went back to our own office and waited.  It wasn’t long before everyone started arriving and we kept hearing the shrieks of laughter down the corridor. Of course they all knew instantly who would be the culprits but we kept a straight face and denied all knowledge – it was the best £5 we had ever spent and somehow Miss T and J managed to work the rest of the week in their ‘grotto’ and even the Management saw the funny side, though Singing Santa did have restricted hours after the first day for all our sanity.

After Helen died, Christmas at work was never the same for me; the laughter and spirit in the office seemed to die with her.

As many long term readers of my blog may know, in remembrance on this day each year I take some flowers round to her mum, nothing elaborate just a small posy of flowers that I make up myself to say she is not forgotten.

We have a little chat and a catch up and remember Helen together. Whilst I am carefully assembling and wrapping the flowers I am often deep in thought remembering all the people in my life that are no longer with us this Christmas.

I might shed a tear or two but it is not a sad day – I am remembering all those happy memories.

Christmas is a time for giving….so the saying goes, and for me it is not just about giving presents to people I know but spreading the giving a little wider, especially giving to those who are less fortunate than myself and people I may never meet.

As a family we really do have more than we need and for us Christmas is a very pleasant indulgence. I put things on my Not so Secret Santa list that I know I might not buy for myself. They are not always useful things or things I need but I think at least at Christmas I can satisfy having something just because I would like to have it and not feel a pang of guilt.

But I know not everyone is so lucky. There are many less fortunate people, homeless and lonely. So with the Christmas spirit of giving in mind I put aside some time today to think of others and do some giving by sending out a few donations to some of my favourite charities like the Salvation Army who do amazing work at Christmas giving up their time to help people in need.

It is not all monetary donations though I do try to give back in other ways by using my time to make a few ‘crafty’ items to sell at our local Church Christmas coffee morning where all the proceeds go to support the charity Crisis. They provide homeless people with a Christmas dinner, warm clothing and hairdressing on Christmas Day.

I love making things that will help to raise some of the money – part of the fun is thinking up ideas of things to make that use very inexpensive materials. Over the years I have made rag dolls, stockings, tree decorations, writing boxes and wreaths. Below are a few of the things I have made.

These little bags below were made from left over wrapping paper and old Christmas cards – like a selection box they contained a handful of the assorted mini chocolate bars – the ones you can always find on offer in any supermarket at Halloween time.

These painted terracotta plant pots I got free from a lady in the village where our cottage is in Scotland. I bought a pack of tulip bulbs to divide up between the pots and packaged them in cellophane with a hand stamped label.

Using a variety of stamps and coloured inks I made an assortment of six little Christmas cards and packaged them in these pretty tissue parcels – all hand stamped.

Even if I am not able to do anything else it doesn’t cost me much in time or money to add a few extra Christmas groceries to our local food bank when I am shopping in Sainsbury’s or fill a shoebox with a few inexpensive items for one of the Children’s Christmas Shoebox appeals.

My attempts at giving back never feel like they amount to much, they are small gestures but I do hope the little I do to give back helps to put a smile of someone’s face this Christmas.

Other than that today I had to go to the hospital in Leeds to have the usual routine blood tests. It was rather challenging trying to get there as they have closed some of the roads that lead to our house for resurfacing and in their wisdom the ones that they closed today were different to the ones they said they would close on the website information (I suppose I could have guessed that!). Then just outside our village we were held up at a junction as three wide load escorted lorries pulled out in front of us and joined the main road, then proceeded at 20 miles an hour down the middle of the road all the way into town. It was another 3 miles before we could turn off onto an alternative route. The alternative route took us off the main road to town and onto a windy back road where we then ran into a tractor (not literally) that was hedge cutting and removing overhanging branches for the council and had to crawl along behind him!

Luckily the blood tests are done on a walk in arrangement rather than an appointment time. Afterwards we had a trip to Ikea for one of those picture ledge shelves and a wander around Home Sense. It was quite late when we arrived back home and hence the reason I am late with today’s post which you will be reading a day late no doubt.