Posts

Posted on

creating Christmas * day 6

The Santa Visit

I am writing this post late today as we have only just arrived home after our little festive jaunt over the hill here to Ashton Under Lyne to see Santa.  A visit to Santa is probably not high on the list (if at all) for a lot of my readers but I have no problem joining in with the excitement of the grandchildren waiting in the queue in anticipation of handing over a Christmas list and receiving a small gift.

For the two seven year olds this was magical.  Master Freddie had a very l o n g list to hand to Santa with every item beginning with Paw Patrol and then when that was exhausted Number Blocks. He had also written one for his little brother, baby Chocolate…though I suspect this was more another list of toys that he wanted rather than his brother. In fact, I doubt his little brother got a say in what he wanted!

I hadn’t realised what a long history Father Christmas has had and the changes he has undergone since his first  appearance around the 17th century.  It is from America that we have the Santa Claus we acknowledge more today as the one who comes in the night and brings gifts for children. 

It is not the first time either throughout history that there has been a move by some group or other to abolish Christmas or replace its traditional customs with something less religious. For 15 years from around 1644 the celebration of Christmas in England was forbidden.

Might it be again?  I see in the news that some schools are renaming their, now traditional, Christmas jumper days as ‘Winter jumper’ days and Tesco’s Christmas trees are being sold as ‘Evergreen trees’ all this lest they offend anyone.  It seems history just keeps on repeating itself in different forms.

I have no problem with having a Christmas jumper, Christmas tree, Christmas cracker or Christmas cake and I love to hear proper Carols being sung in the shops rather than the American non-religious songs.

So for our visit to Father Christmas we chose to go to Portland Basin in Ashton Under Lyne, an old mill building that sits alongside the Peak Forest Canal (as seen on the Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie) houses a museum and cafe.

This will be the second year as we all loved it so much last year.  It is quite low key compared with many and a lot of Christmas nostalgia. The museum has an indoor mock-up of an old street complete with chip shop and chapel.  Santa waits patiently in the tiny living room of a replica of a terraced house decorated to resemble the war years. 

It is reminiscent of my grandma’s house, complete with outside toilet and for all it is shabby, compared with today’s style of décor, it has a nostalgic warmth and cosiness.  We could all squeeze in for a lovely little chat with Santa and a photo all together at the end.

The museum is full of nostalgia, many of the items I can recall from childhood like the signs for the Christmas club and good old-fashioned paper chains.

One or two board games like Snakes and Ladders are making a comeback, and of course, Monopoly comes in so many different variations now. My family always had a game on Christmas Day night as there was no TV back then. Uncle Peter generally won, but maybe not fair and square!

Remember these patterns for baraclavas – my mum had this one I’m sure.

Not only was it our Santa visit but it was a day of crafting and of course the adults in our little party, me included, could not help joining in. 

Before we went to the museum we started our day at the Saturday craft workshop at the Vale in Mossley. 

This week they were making gingerbread wreaths using gingerbread coloured card and white felt tip pens, with a lot of glue and imagination. 

After our picnic we had chance to make some elf hats and hunt for the elf stockings around the museum.

And best of all (apart from the cost of booking to see Santa) it was all free; though we did leave a donation at each place. So well done to Tameside MBC for a fun filled festive day, and I, for one, will be putting my feet up now and watching TV.

I would love to hear from you please click here to leave a comment

Posted on

creating Christmas * day 5

The Christmas cake

I hate to rush myself but I do need to get a move on.  Having spent every day this week out and about for one event / appointment or another I need a day at home to gather my thoughts and stop them swirling around in my head.

And a bit of a tidy up in the house would be good – the vac has not been out of the cupboard all week.

So today is a day at home making the Christmas cake.  It is undoubtedly one of my favourite tasks for the wonderful aromas alone; the unmistakable smell of Christmas circulating the house.  I shouldn’t be, but I am nervous about the cake this year, although it is very much a tried and tested recipe the oven times in my new oven are far from tested and remain rather trying.   I can’t quite get the temperature or time right and last year it was slightly underdone.  DH ate it anyway, (he wouldn’t miss a chance for fruit cake) but I dismissed the idea of giving any to anyone else.

My recipe was, I think, from a Good Housekeeping Christmas magazine…a long time ago.  It is virtually organic; virtually, because the cloves and mixed spice in the ingredients list are hard to find (if they actually exist organically). 

I do prefer organically grown food even though it is hard on the budget, Sainsbury’s have a good range but some things have recently disappeared like their organic oranges so an ordinary one had to suffice.  I began using this recipe because it has chopped apricots instead of candied peel (of which none of us are a fan).

DH always helps me parcel it up now with brown paper and string – he was once a scout so can do a suitable knot. I make a dip in the middle to stop it rising too much and keep the top flat. So into the oven for a few hours and then the hard bit of deciding if it is done or not, I will err on the side of caution this year and go for slightly over done rather than underdone.

Once out of the oven and cooled it will be parcelled up and fed rather erratically, as in when I remember with a little tipple of brandy.  At some point I will marzipan the top (remembering the apricot jam this year to avoid a dash to the co-op for some), and then top it with some ready roll white icing.  I don’t bother with the sides as I hide everything under one of those traditional old fashioned cake frills.

It will be ready then for the grandchildren to put the decorations on, most likely when we are all together on Christmas Eve. We use the same little figures each year but I bought a new Santa this year as the old one looked a bit faded. I expect all four of them will join in this year – so that will be fun. Master Freddie had to decorate it all by himself last year as the other grandchildren were unwell and stayed at home.

Thank you Joy for your lovely comment and poem on my post Advent day 2 for anyone who didn’t see the comment here is the lovely little poem by Eleanor Farjeon, it will be copied into my journal for me to look back on.

How will you your Christmas keep?
Feasting, fasting or asleep?
Will you laugh or will you pray,
Or will you forget the day?

Be it kept with joy or pray’r,
Keep of either some to spare;
Whatsoever brings the day,
Do not keep but give away.

Have a lovely day everyone, back soon. X

Posted on

creating Christmas * day 4

The Christmas music

We had a rather lovely, but oh so tiring, day yesterday.

We had plans to venture down the M1 a little way to Meadowhall…our friendly out of town shopping mall – or as in my case not so friendly.  I find the noise of these places resembles something akin to being in an echoing submarine, which is an unlikely comparison given that I have never been in a submarine but my imagination is convinced it would be the same.

It was quite festive though.  Larger than life teddy bears singing Christmas songs (the grandchildren would have been delighted), lots of dangling, glittery décor hanging like chandeliers above us and an abundance of Christmas goodies…far more than are really good for the planet.

I came home clutching a rather sweet little carrier bag from one of my favourite shops The White Company containing two silver stars, one for each daughter. 

I usually give them angels, balanced on the top of their stockings but for some reason angels are seemingly in short supply this year so the stars are on standby just in case.  Though, as angels often do I am sure one (hopefully two) will appear in time.

We had a look in the Flying Tiger for anything that caught my eye but apart from a string of copper wired lights and some ‘handy’ Christmas bags I could not be tempted.  I wasn’t tempted either in Lakeland or Waterstones and DH who is not known for his love of shopping was obviously getting a little jittery so we left, went round to Ikea for our free tea and coffee and came home.

I am in the stage of gathering.  I have a little heap of foliage I collected in my greenhouse ready for the wreath making day and a run off a few sheets of my printed linocuts for the card making day.  Waiting in the kitchen is the marinated fruit to make my cake today and weather permitting DH will be festooning the tree in our front garden with a string of lights.  So nothing to show yet and the reason I am leaving you with a little offering of some festive music for Advent day 4.

Carols and music is so much a part of Christmas; I miss the Carol singing the old way going around the streets in the village with our lanterns, Carol sheets and a few frozen fngers but with the promise of a warm mince pie and a hot drink at the end.  Now our village has decided to move with the times and offers Carols in the Park and Carols in the pub.  Somehow through other commitments I missed both events!

I mention music today as I will most definitely be beating my Christmas cake mixture to the sound of Carols at Christmas – all my favourites on one CD…turned way up high whilst DH is outside so I can join in and sing quite off key and no-one will know.

This music is unfortunately not on my CD and is a favourite.  Do have a listen.

Posted on

creating Christmas * day 3

The Family Newsletter

I must admit I do like to receive a yearly update from our friends and family, the ones that we don’t see very often. It is a great way to keep in touch. I find they all differ in their content…some are more serious and some quite funny others tell of their travels, holidays, and achievements and for others they can express a good or difficult year.

I find it is good to be able to join in and congratulate, sympathise or make a mental note to make contact more frequently if anyone seems to be struggling with their life through illness or just a bad patch. We all need support at sometime in our lives.

There are some surprises too like the time I found out my cousin who I see very little of, save for major birthdays and funerals, makes the most wonderful patchwork quilts!

I have sent and received them for many years now. At one time I had to handwrite each one, sometimes onto airmail paper – (those lovely printed Christmas ones) and it took a while though they would probably be much shorter back then. Now I write everything into a word document, add a few pictures and send it by email. My blog is such a useful tool to run off a quick newsletter as I can reuse a few photos and see in an instant what we were doing in any given month.

I am not sure if the newsletter, like postcards, is a dying custom or even a custom at all. At one time I would write letters throughout the year (remember them?) to friends and family who lived away, so I suppose this is the equivalent of many letters through the year but all at once.

I wonder how many people reading this send a family newsletter or receive one?

Sorry I was a little late posting this today – it has been a rush so excuse any garbled bits and spelling etc. Mum rang me just after midnight last night thinking I had rung her disturbing me from my slumbers…so a sleepless night afterwards.

Back tomorrow X