Christmas. Hannukah. New Year.

All tumbling over each other this year, which is why I have not posted for a while. Hannukah started on the Tuesday evening before Christmas and ended yesterday, neatly running through Christmas, and now it is December 29th and New Year is looming before I am ready to think about it!  I apologise for not wishing eveyone a Happy Christmas beforehand, but as we are still only on the fifth of the twelve days of Christmas I wish you one now. I hope you had a lovely Christmas day and are still enjoying the season!

We have had a good time here with friends and family. My mother and brother were with us for Christmas Day, then on Boxing Day we all went out for a meal. This was a change of tradition for us. For nearly twenty years our family routine has been to be all together here on Christmas Day, then to go to Mum's on Boxing Day. She used to cook a lavish lunch and provide a buffet tea, until the cooking got too much and we started just going for the afternoon and tea. For the last couple of years even this has been getting steadily harder for her and she has been relying heavily on my brother to help. This year we noticed that the local Harvester restaurant (one of the larger chains over here) was offering a two course meal plus salad buffet on Boxing Day for £10.99. We suggested this might be a good idea as everyone from the five year old to the eighty four year old likes their food and it would save Mum and my brother feeling they ought to be catering for everyone. They jumped at the idea and we all enjoyed ourselves, so I think it may become a new family tradition.

On Tuesday we switched back from Christmas to Hannukah and held our usual Hannakah party for ourselves and our neighbours. This year we also added in Cherub's Little Friend N (whose poor mother was also supposed to come, but couldn't as she wasn't well). I cooked a mountain of latkes (fried potato cakes) which disappeared rapidly) and bought a matching mountain of doughnuts from Tesco. Hannukah recalls lights of theTemple in Jerusalem continuing to burn miraculously for eight days despite being on the last dregs of oil, so is celebrated with food fried in oil. Jewish food does not do low calorie! After Hannukah food for twelve on Tuesday, Tevye's sister and family and a couple of family friends came for the day yesterday which meant providing lunch and tea for thirteen. I cooked a mountain of baked potatoes, chicken and mushroom casserole, cauliflower cheese for those who don't eat meat (or in the case of Tevye's nephew's fiancee, non-kosher meat), various veggies, and a couple of apple pies using the pastry recipe from Linds' mince pies (delicious!).

If I had any sense today would be a restful, chilling out sort of day, but no - I am heading off to London on the train with four teenagers to hit the post-Christmas sales at the Westfield Centre in Shepherd's Bush. Eek! Tomorrow, I chill!

Advent Books: Week 4

Late, but posting this anyway for the record, our final batch of books for Advent. There were a couple of others I wanted that I ordered from the library, but they didn't arrive on time - if I could have got them I would have added in The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett and Bethlehem by Fiona French.

Sunday: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

Monday: The Nutcracker (Usborne Picture Book)

Tuesday: My First Hannukah board book (enough content for this not to be a baby book)

Wednesday: Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson

Thursday: Light the Lights: A Story about Celebrating Hannukah and Christmas by Margaret Moorman

Friday: The Legend of Old Befana by Tomie de Paola (more of an Epiphany book, but the library let me down and I had to fill a gap!)

Saturday: Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett

Her favourite from week three was Tomie de Paola's The Clown of God, and from week four Light the Lights ... but really we fizzled out rather towards the end (or life got busier in the evenings) and a number of the books from the last two weeks didn't get read at all. We did read all of The Story of Holly and Ivy, which she loved. I am still trying to nail down the different editions of this. Amazon UK has three: a picture book illustrated by Barbara Cooney, which at 31 pages long must be either heavily abridged or a retelling; a version illustrated by Christian Birmingham with 64 pages - this is the one I have in the Kindle edition, with the town name changed, which I am sure is abridged; and an old Young Puffin editon with 80 pages, which I think is a reprint of the 1958 original, although I am sure the copy I borrowed from the library for Star several years ago had a different cover. I am slightly frustrated that I don't know what is missing from the Kindle book, but I am sure something is.

Advent Books: Week 3

I wrote this on the train during the week, but needed to tweak the pictures and only just remembered!

This week's books:

Christmas by Jan Piemkowski



A Flower Fairy Christmas



Saint Lucy by Silvia Vecchini


The Clown of God by Tomie de Paola



Tod and the Clock Angel by Andrew Matthews and Christian Birmingham



The Night the Stars Danced for Joy by Bob Hartman



The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola



Alongside those we are reading Chrissie the Wish Fairy (having made it to the end of Holly the Christmas Fairy. Oh joy!) and A Street Through Time by Anne Millard and Steve Noon, one of a series of gorgeous illustrated history books published some years ago by Dorling Kindersley, mostly out of print and getting hard to find at a reasonable price. Cherub adores this book. We look at one double page spread each night, and she tries to find the various small illustrations around the page in the main picture. Last night we added in The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden, which also seems to out of print except in a Kindle version which I downloaded last night. I am slightly irritated as I think this many be an abridged version, and the town name has been changed form the original Aylesbury (real, local and name familiar to Cherub) to Appleton (fictional). Why?

As for last week's books, Cherub's favourites were Brian Wildsmith's A Christmas Story, the pop-up version of the Nutcracker, and Jan Brett's Christmas Trolls (an all time family favourite, this one).

Advent Books: Week 2

The books for advent have been a huge hit so far (with the exception of Saint Andrew which she took against). This weeks selection is:

Sunday: A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith



Monday: Nutcracker (very pretty pop-up / lift the flap version)

   

Tuesday: Saint Nicholas by Mary Joslin



Wednesday: Country Angel Christmas by Tomie de Paola



Thursday: Mary by Brian Wildsmith



Friday: Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett



Saturday: The New Star by Taffy Davis



Highlights for Cherub from last week were The Story of Christmas by Jane Ray, which Cherub has wanted read every day. Apparently it was also their storybook at school one day, which delighted her. I love Jane Ray's style of illustration, the text is traditional and flows well, and I noticed for the first time that in a couple of the pictures Mary is discreetly nursing baby Jesus (a nice touch, I thought). Mog's Christmas by Judith Kerr is an old favourite, but Cherub now gets the humorous touches that went over her head last year. Another one we are both loving is Jan Brett's The Twelve Days of Christmas, which I am expected to sing in its entirety. We both love the little vignettes at the side of each page showing a family finding, cutting and decorating their Christmas tree. Jan Brett's pictures within pictures are always a delight.

Laissez Faire Christmas

This has been a strange Christmas. I haven't been well all week, with a flu-like virus that has thrown me for a loop. Pretty much all I have done since last Saturday is read, knit, watch TV, eat and blog. Trying to do anything else has made my head spin. I finally made it out of the house yesterday, when I went with Tevye and Cherub to do a little last minute shopping (urgent need for a new laptop power cable!), to see the Christmas decorations at a nearby shopping centre and have a treat in a cafe there (it was going to be coffee and cake, but turned into lunch). By the time we left to come home again my head was whirling round at 100mph, and that was me done for the day.

Thanks to the unplanned week out of my schedule, this has been a Christmas when whatever got done happened, whatever didn't, didn't, and there was absolutely no point in worrying about it. A laissez faire Christmas.

Stuff that didn't happen:

• Baking - no mince pies, no apple pie, no cakes or biscuits. I had already made Christmas puddings, but everything else got bought, not make.
• Midnight Mass - I was looking forward to going to Midnight Mass for the first time in years, but after the trip out yesterday morning it was obvious that I wasn't up to it, nor ready to to drive myself to Mass today (and probably not tomorrow either). 
• Christmas crafts with Cherub - I had hoped to do some crafty stuff with her last week.
• Cleaning - Tevye, bless him, did enough to stop the house looking a mess. 

Stuff that did happen:

• Gift wrapping - almost all the presents were already bought, and some already wrapped. I did the rest in bits over the week. A pair of furry slippers for Angel are still sitting at customer services in Marks and Spencer, as I planned to collect them when I went to the archive (which obviously I didn't do). 
• Christmas dinner - I already had an online order with Waitrose in the pipeline, and they delivered despite the traffic chaos caused by the snow. Tevye did a little top-up shopping and collected the turkey. We have cooking Christmas dinner down to a fine art, thanks to teamwork and a checklist. He picked up more of the work than usual, but I was able to do what I need to do. 
• A relaxed, family Christmas - a good day, with time to play with new stuff and enjoy each others company. Our friends from Next Door also came over for a while this afternoon. Now I am upstairs with the laptop, enjoying a bit of peace and quiet to slow the head-whirring again.

The downside is that having me largely out of commission meant Tevye has had to pick up more of the slack than I would like. He did so willingly, but it means he has been busy when he could have done with more rest and relaxation - and it really doesn't seem fair that the Jewish member of the household has had to pick up the tab for Christmas. On the positive side, I am on the mend, albeit slower than I would like. The coughing is easing up, and I can do a bit more before my head turns to mush. And Christmas happened regardless. Watching The Nativity last week and listening to Pope Benedict on Radio 4's Thought for the Day this morning (broadcast yesterday, but I only caught up today) made up a bit for not being able to get to Church. Everyone has reached Christmas Day evening contented. And finally

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to everyone who reads my blog. Thank you for bearing with my ramblings! 

The Nativity

I didn't intend to watch the retelling of the Nativity that the BBC showed on primetime TV over the last four nights, but I stumbled onto the second episode on Tuesday and got hooked. I went back and watched the opening episode on iPlayer, and then kept up with the rest of the series. I loved it.

Now, I know re-enactments of Bible stories are very much a matter of individual taste and preference, and I know there are aspects that can be criticised from a theological perspective, but I thought the BBC did an amazingly good job at bringing the Nativity story to life in a thought-provoking but in many respects believable way. It also was remarkably clear in expressing what the Nativity really meant - the Son of God made flesh, conceived miraculously and born of a virgin for the salvation of the world.

The story had three strands. First, Mary and Joseph, and their response to her pregnancy; second, a shepherd suffering under the Roman yoke; and thirdly, three magi determined to follow an extraordinary astronomical phenomenon to its climax and very aware of its significance. I found the first strand profoundly moving as it showed the impact of Gabriel's revelation in ways I found credible, but which I had not really considered. Understanding what had happened to her, but also confused by it and unable (or unready?) to undertake the difficult task of explaining to Joseph and her parents Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. When she returned visibly pregnant, Joseph's horror - and mistaken explanations - were entirely credible.

I have never thought much about Joseph's response to Mary's miraculous pregnancy, and have glossed over Matthew's comment that Joseph planned to put her aside, somehow mentally overruling it with the dream that changed his mind. But of course, there must have been a time lag - of hours, days, weeks, or months we don't know. And how hard that time must have been for Mary. Because really, who would have believed her without divine intervention. How hard it must have been to see her parents' disappointment, Joseph's rejection, her community's scorn. The screenplay dragged out that time lag, with Gabriel appearing to Joseph only when they were on the outskirts of Bethlehem, where Mary's parents had begged him to take their daughter for safety. Even after the dream, it takes a suitably dramatic time for him to accept the truth of Mary's situation - but this is a drama, and by exaggerating the point, it makes it well, and makes the reality of a miraculous birth more apparent.

The shepherd's story was a subplot intended to make the point that the Messiah was not about violent revolution. The magi strand grabbed me more, and was used as a vehicle to explain who Jesus truly was. The magi's grasp of theology and the Jewish idea of Messiah may have been anachronistic, but again, a bit of dramatic license clarified the point of the story. The final episode ended with a classic nativity scene, with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the magi in the stable, surrounding the baby in the manger.

After watching the final episode I did a little internet digging, and was surprised to find that the scriptwriter was Tony Jordan, a former Eastenders writer (a well known UK soap), and also responsible for Life on Mars. When he started writing The Nativity he didn't believe the story; by the time he finished, he did. He stumbled into the project more or less by accident, following a slightly drunken pitch for a humorous take on the nativity story. However, once asked to write the script, according to this Daily Telegraph article he became uncomfortable:

"... the more I thought about it, the more I thought my idea would be a travesty – to take the most beautiful story in the history of the world and turn it into a cheap gag." So he began researching. The gospels weren't, he reports, much use. Two of the four don't mention the nativity at all, and the other two "very helpfully contain about 400 words on the whole subject'', which wasn't going to make much of a dent on four peak-time half-hour slots on BBC One in the immediate run-up to Christmas Day. Past attempts – reverent and controversial – to bring the story to life didn't impress him either. "I knew I wanted to put heart in it. I've never seen that done before."

Which, I think, he did. Even with extensive research, to take the short Biblical accounts and turn them into a two hour drama clearly needs imaginative extrapolation, and this was done very thoughtfully. Mary and Joseph come across as real personalities and sympathetic characters. In Catholic tradition Joseph is usually shown as an older man, but here he was younger, maybe ten years older than the sixteen year old Mary, and found this younger Joseph plausible and likeable. Mary reminded me in some ways of the Mary in this "Kissing the Face of God" picture, which is a favourite of mine - a real, living, loving girl, not a plaster saint.

In my digging, I didn't find any Catholic reviews apart from one vituperative one from someone who hadn't watched the series and clearly misunderstood a secondhand account of the plot. As I said initially, it didn't always match up with Catholic theology and tradition (for example, Mary's fiat to Gabriel was not explicit). I can understand that others might watch it and hate it, but for me it brought the Christmas story to life and left me with thoughts to ponder.

ETA: This reviewer hated it.  On the other hand, Austin Ivereigh of Catholic Voices tweeted that he loved it. I'm sure there will be more strong feelings in both directions.

Thursday Thirteen: Christmas Decorations

Thirteen things that are making our house look Christmassy:

1. Advent calendar. This one has / had chocolate coins in for Cherub, the older two have Cadbury's chocolate calendars.

2. Animated teddy that sings Jingle Bells. Someone gave it to Cherub when she was tiny. She was terrified of it, but now tolerates it so long as nobody switches it on!

3. Playmobil nativity set. Mary has apparently gone walkabout. Must remember to look for her tomorrow.

4. Silver spiral tree originally bought to use as a Jesse tree. This year I only remembered for the first four days, so decorated it with red and gold baubles - much more cheerful than a mostly bare, failed Jesse tree.

5. Cute snowman decoration made at school by Cherub. Very simple - two cotton pads, a paper face and hat, stuck to a small plastic milk bottle and decorated.

6. The girls' stockings are hanging from the bannisters. This snowman stocking is Cherub's.

7. An angel decoration made long ago by Angel.

8. Christmas cards stuck to the bannisters.

9. More Christmas cards displayed in the ornamental card tree I bought last year to use as a Jesse tree. This year I switched trees to accommodate larger ornaments (failed!) so it is being put to its intended use.

10. Advent wreath on the dining table. A wooden candle ring with an artificial candle wreath and pillar candle inside. It took me years to come up with an advent wreath I liked. On Christmas day I will switch the purple candles for gold ones.

11. Tiny olive wood nativity. about four inches high. Picture not great as there is a yellow tissue box behind.

12. Metallic star decorations dangling randomly from the ceiling.

13. Christmas tree - five feet tall, artificial. Star and Cherub decorated it and chose the colour scheme. It stands on a small table in front of the patio door, and the red curtains make a nice Christmassy backdrop.

Thursday 13: Childhood Christmasses

Thirteen things I remember about Christmas during my childhood:

1. The Christmas tree. We had what today would be a small artificial tree (in the sixties that meant bright green tinsel) which sat on the broad windowsill of our living room. I think the tree usually went up a couple of weeks before Christmas, and was a cause of big excitement.

2. The tree excitement was as but nothing compared to the excitement when the other decorations went up. We lived in an old beamed farmhouse, and a few days before Christmas my parents would hang crepe paper streamers from the beams, criss-crossing the ceiling of the living room, while we were in bed asleep. The next morning we would make the thrilling discovery that the house had magically (or so it seemed) been decorated, and Christmas must be just round the corner.

3. Christmas stockings were filled overnight by Father Christmas. Not the big, decorated Christmas stockings my girls have, but our own everyday long socks. My brother and I were allowed to open our stockings (stuffed with small gifts) whenever we woke, so long as we didn't wake our parents!

4. Downstairs we would find a present each, and a joint gift, usually a game. Everything else had to wait until the afternoon.

5. Church in the morning, about which I remember very little except that we went and there were carols - this was to the village Methodist Church, of which my parents were members, and which was dominated by my dad's extended family. I don't think the service was any more child / family oriented than usual for a Sunday.

6. Christmas dinner (which is what we called lunch, English terminology for meals being erratic and confusing!). Earlier or later depending on where Auntie and Uncle (my mother's adopted parents) had to drive from. Uncle was a Methodist minister, so couldn't leave until after his morning service. When they lived in Norfolk, we would wait for them to arrive and eat later; when they lived in Cornwall, they didn't arrive until the evening so we ate without them earlier.

7. Dinner was always traditional - turkey and all the trimmings, followed by Christmas pudding made according to Auntie's recipe.

8. The turkey was delivered several days before Christmas and, this being before the days of freezers or fridges large enough for a big bird, was stored in the cellar - hung up I imagine, otherwise the mice would have got it. There was one year when a mouse got into the pantry and nibbled the Christmas cake that was waiting to be iced.

9. No after dinner drinks at Christmas or any other time - we never had alcohol at home, being a good Methodist family. In later years my dad might have the occasional glass of beer and my mum a very rare glass of wine or sherry (until she discovered she was allergic to red wine) but both my parents were always more or less teetotal.

10. Serious present opening after lunch. As we had very few relatives to give us gifts, my mum always bought us quite a lot of low value presents so we would have the fun of lots of unwrapping. I carried on this tradition with my daughters - I enjoy shopping and wrapping, and they enjoy opening.

11. We never put presents under the tree. They were stacked up on the sofa in what we called the "end room". Our house was long, with a large farmhouse kitchen, our family living room, and the end room on the ground floor. The end room was what I guess in earlier days might have been called the "best parlour" or some such. We only used it if we had visitors, on special occasions, and for music practice (the piano was in that room). At Christmas it was warm and cosy with an open fire. The presents magically appeared on the sofa overnight, delivered by Father Christmas. We knew that they were gifts from our parents, grandparents and so on, but I think we must have imagined Father Christmas to be some kind of cosmic postman. Peeking through the door to see the sofa piled high on Christmas morning was another big thrill.

12. Playing games. As a family we enjoyed board games, and there was always at least one new game to keep us busy at Christmas.

13. Tea time meant turkey left overs, salad and bread rolls (always bridge rolls, I think), followed by mince pies and Christmas cake, homemade with marzipan, icing and our usual cake decorations. I remember a Santa on a sleigh, some little fir trees, and a Merry Christmas greeting. After tea more playing with new toys and games, then tired and happy to bed.

Sans Day Carol

I mentioned that I have been enjoying carols from Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band this Advent, and thought it would be fun to share some of the traditional English carols they sing over the next couple of weeks.

First up, the Sans Day Carol, a nineteenth century folk carol that originated at St. Day in Cornwall. Like many old English carols the words embrace the Crucifixion and Resurrection, as well as the nativity ...

1. Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary bore Jesus, who was wrapped up in silk.

Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly!
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly!

2. Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary bore Jesus, who died on the cross.

3. Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary bore Jesus, who died for us all.

4. Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red,
Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead.

It is best known in this arrangement by John Rutter:



I prefer Maddy Prior's more lively folk music version ..

Advent? Don't Panic!

If you want to spend Advent preparing to celebrate the real reason for Christmas, go and read my friend Karen's No Panic Advent Series.

Now.

Advent Traditions: Young Wheat

According to some traditions, we are linked to the ancient past by young wheat, which in the Advent period represents the awakening of all new life. It is still a custom in Slovenia, usually on St. Lucia Day (December 13th) or St. Barbara Day (December 4th), to plant wheat seeds in shallow bowls. The bowls are placed in the crib, under the Christmas tree, or elsewhere in the living room, and during the Christmas period fresh green wheat sprouts grow from the seeds. This wheat is left to grow until the Festival of the Three Kings (Epiphany) or until Candlemas (February 2nd) at the latest. Similar traditions still exist in France, where lentils are also grown, and in croatia and the Ukraine, where the sprouted wheat has place of honour on the Christmas table.

Christmas! Traditions, Celebrations and Food Across Europe (Stella Ross Collins)

No wheat seeds here, but on the feast of St. Barbara (4th) I plan to cut some twigs from the hedge surrounding our garden, put them in water and see if I can force them to flower during Christmas.