to our Christmas Celebrations

Christmas is absolutely my most favourite time of the year. I drive my family crazy with Christmas CDs on in the house all the time and tapes of Christmas carols in the car, decorate the house inside and out and wear THE most amazingly Bad Taste earrings. I love all the preparation that everyone seems to grumble about and get more and more excited as The Big Day approaches. I guess I'm just a kid at heart!

For those of you who have just landed from Alpha Centauri, Christmas is the season in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The date is purely arbitary, as nowhere in the Bible is any indication of a date given and our modern calendar was set out long after His death.

He was most certainly NOT born in 1 BC or 1 AD, or even the non-existent Year Zero: King Herod is known to have died in 4 BC and as the New Testament indicates that Jesus was probably about two years old when the Magi called to see Herod, the most likely year for the Nativity is 5 or 6 BC. As for the precise DATE, that we cannot tell with any accuracy - but in December in the Holy Land it is far too cold at night for the shepherds to have had their sheep out in the fields! The most likely month is March, but this is purely conjecture, and the exact date will never be known.

We celebrate Christmas in midwinter as a tribute to our pagan ancestry : when Christian missionaries reached these shores, they quickly adopted an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach and superimposed Christian festivals on existing pagan ones. Thus, the midwinter solstice celebrations were transformed into Christmas and the vernal equinox into Easter.

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS : A YORKSHIRE CHRISTMAS
On or near the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, Advent candles are lit in many homes, schools and churches, one on the first Sunday, two on the second, three on the third and so on, with a final central candle lit on Christmas Day; these are often on a hanging decoration known as an "Advent Crown." The build up to Christmas will be much the same as anywhere else - frantic shopping, last-minute present buying, spending FAR too much money, etc, etc. In our village, we still get carol-singers going from door to door in the week (or two) leading up to Christmas, and it is usual to reward the singers with either money or refreshments (or both) - mince pies and either hot chocolate/cocoa or (even better) mulled wine - sweet red wine with spices, traditionally heated by plunging in a red-hot poker but more likely to have been put in the microwave these days! The "Wassail" is a VERY old custom, of Norse origins (and we are in Viking country here!) - the wine or ale was heated in a bowl and passed round to the toast "was-hail" meaning "good health" (the word hale still persists in the expression “hale and hearty,” meaning strong and healthy.) Mince pies are made with mincemeat – which doesn’t contain meat at all, although it probably did once : the "mincemeat" is a mixture of dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, candied peel, etc.,) apples, spices, sugar and suet, often moistened with brandy or sherry, and baked in small pies. They SHOULD be oval in shape, to represent the manger, but as very few people have tins that shape they are nearly always round now.

Plum puddings, or Christmas puddings, should have been made ages ago as they take time to mature. Most people buy theirs nowadays (and I never make them as nobody in my family even likes them!) They are a very rich, dark pudding made with all sorts of dried fruits, nuts, spices, black treacle (molasses?) and sherry or brandy. They are steamed when first made, and re-steamed on Christmas Day before being served with a sweet white sauce or brandy butter. When the puddings are being made, everyone in the household must take it in turns to stir the pudding and make a wish. It is also a tradition to put in a silver coin - preferably a silver “threepenny bit” (LONG obsolete, but many families still have one just for this purpose.) - and whoever gets the piece of pudding with the coin in on Christmas day is especially lucky and their "pudding wish" (made when the pudding was stirred) will come true!

Christmas cakes are also very rich and dark and contain just about every dried fruit you can think of, nuts (usually blanched almonds - I remember spending ages as a child blanching the almonds for my mother to use, and just about cooking my fingers at the same time!) glace cherries, candied peel and once again, sweetened with black treacle. They are covered with a layer of marzipan or almond paste (my son prefers his marzipan "neat" so I always make some extra for him to eat!) and then thick white "Royal" icing made with icing sugar and egg whites.

Christmas trees are an integral part of the Christmas decorations, and became popular in Britain in the nineteenth century, when Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert introduced the custom from Germany. I love a real tree and always buy the biggest I can realistically get into the house! We use holly, ivy and mistletoe to decorate the house too - mistletoe is hung up and kisses can be legitimately exchanged under the mistletoe, but a berry must be removed for each kiss, and once all the berries are gone - no more kissing!! (Mistletoe is getting very rare in England and most is imported from France so it is pretty expensive.)

Most churches of all Christian denominations have a midnight service on Christmas Eve : it is my absolutely favourite part of Christmas - it will, as always, start with the choir processing round the church singing "Once in royal David's city;" they will stop by the crib (stable) for the blessing of the crib and the model of the Christ Child will be placed in the manger. The choir will continue round the church until they reach the choir stalls and the service which follows will be a full "sung Eucharist" - the church is over 900 years old and believe me, the atmosphere is wonderful. I remember coming out of the church after the service in the first few minutes of Christmas morning a few years ago with both my daughter and my god-daughter; a sprinkling of snow had fallen while we were in the church, but the sky was clear and brilliantly starlit. The moon was absolutely full and there was just the shadow of a vapour-trail from a high-flying plane across the moon's face. An old man who had been in the church with us pointed it out to the girls and said "Look! It's Father Christmas's sleigh!!" and you know, we would all swear we actually SAW it! it was pure magic, and a moment my daughter (now 18) still remembers!
We then go back home and put out a mince pie and a glass of sherry for Father Christmas (who never fails to amaze me with his ability to stand upright, let alone navigate, after GALLONS of sherry during the night!) and a handful of hay and oats for his reindeer, put out stockings for him to fill, and pack the children off to bed.

Christmas stockings aren't usually hung by the fire (too much of a fire risk!) but hung/laid at the foot of the bed. The MUST hold a handful of nuts, a tangerine - it's a pity they no longer come foil or tissue-wrapped nowadays - a shiny polished coin, a tin of Sharps toffees and a few small toys - "stocking fillers" - with the main presents either under the tree or in a pillowcase at the foot of the bed.

Christmas dinner is usually served at midday in this part of the world - evening "dinner" is not a northern tradition - and the traditional roast is goose although most people have turned to turkey in recent years. The table will be decorated with candles, bits of holly etc, and everyone will have a Christmas cracker by their place. Before anyone starts eating, the crackers HAVE to be pulled, the awful jokes laughed or groaned at, the amazingly cheap toys (unless you have been REALLY extravagant!) marvelled at and paper hats donned. Whichever bird is chosen, it will be served with roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, peas etc., sausages wrapped in bacon, sage and onion stuffing, chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce or bread sauce, and giblet gravy. The Christmas pudding will have been steamed for around two hours before being turned out onto a serving dish, topped with a sprig of holly before having brandy poured over it and being set alight. The flaming pudding will be carried into the room before the flames have died down (curtains drawn and lights off to give the full effect!) and then it will be cut up and shared out, served with brandy butter or sauce, and everyone will search for the silver coin! IF anyone still has any room left in their stomach, they can always fill up with mince pies, nuts and fresh fruit, before settling down by the TV or radio for the Queen's Speech. Even the most ardent anti-royalist seems to tune in - it is now very much part of Christmas. After the Queen's speech, it is still very much the thing to play games - either charades (suitable for all ages, from grandma to the youngest children) or board games and card games. In most families Christmas Day is the one day you will find the menfolk volunteering to do the washing-up! ("You've been working hard in the kitchen, dear; go and put your feet up for a bit." For which read, YOU go and sort out the squabbles!) We never seem to be able to eat much for tea on Christmas Day, we've eaten so much at dinnertime! but it's usually a cold buffet-type meal, with cold turkey or goose, boiled ham, cold roast pork etc, and salads - and of course sherry trifle, Christmas cake and yet more mince pies! The Christmas holiday continues into Boxing Day - still a time to visit relatives and exchange gifts and traditionally, Christmas lasts for twelve days - the tree and all decorations MUST be down before Twelfth Night on January 6th.