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No need to buy a Christmas tree when they are dotted around the property for Nature to decorate.
With help from a gang of starlings.
Gang better fits these amiable avian thugs!
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It’s been almost 50 years since I had a Christmas tree. There wasn’t much point once I began living alone and not long after I became a cat person.
Cats and Christmas trees! 😺
The first Christmas trees I knew must have been spruce.
As small children my brother and I were taken to Trafalgar Square to see the lighting of the tree which had been sent each year since 1947 from the people of Norway, in gratitude for Britain’s support during WW2.
Our own tree of course was quite humble, but we enjoyed decorating it. How it never caught fire I don’t know, since it bore lighted candles!
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The tree was erected in our front room which was adjacent to my bedroom.
On Christmas Eve “Santa” placed presents beneath it, but I stayed awake one year to watch.
Before long my parents appeared with gaily wrapped packages which confirmed my doubts!
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Children are such mercenary creatures. I didn’t care at all that my presents didn’t come from the North Pole on a sleigh with Santa.
What a little spoilsport I must have been. I had disproved the existence of the tooth fairy as well, but I was sensible enough not to let on!
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Those early Christmases were nothing like what it became.
Our big feast consisted of a chicken with stuffing and bread sauce and there must have been roast potatoes and a green vegetable, beans perhaps.
My mother could turn plain green beans into a little bit of heaven.
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Preparations for Christmas had begun weeks before with the making of cakes and puddings which involved much stirring and adding of currants and sultanas and brandy.
Once the pudding was cooked, old silver three penny pieces were inserted, or if they were not available silver charms. It was considered lucky to find one in your pudding.
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On Christmas Day the pudding, still in its basin, was put on to boil and when the moment came, it was turned out into a dish, anointed with more brandy and set alight.
It was served with – brandy butter. Back then I enjoyed it but my, is it sweet and filling!
It must have been in the short break between the main course and pudding that we pulled Christmas crackers, so we were all wearing silly paper hats and the adults were all smoking.
There was the Queen’s speech.
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We then adjourned, the adults to talk or doze, Peter and I to investigate out new possessions, but it was not the end of the Christmas feast. Soon it was teatime!
Out came the cake.
It had been kept in a tin and regularly bathed in more brandy before my mother clothed it in a thick layer of marzipan prior to the decorative icing which was such a shame to ruin.
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Mum continued making those cakes until her very last Christmas, even in Asia where she had to find substitutions for many of the ingredients. She often made several cakes, giving them to favourite people.
For many years I brought such a cake home with me after I’d been for a visit. I’d never said I didn’t care for it and and many of my friends did.
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Those were good Christmases. It wasn’t just the presents and food, it was that everyone was happy and laughing.
After the War, the happiness and laughter will have been very special and back then no-one had much money, so the event was still quite simple and uncomplicated.
The last year I really felt Christmas in my heart was the first year I went back to boarding school in England.
During our time in Asia, Christmas was something only the colonials really celebrated and in warm weather it seemed odd. My mother decorated a green plant with red roses she made from crepe paper. She did her best, but it hadn’t been the same.
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Then in 1962 I found myself back in England. Just why I was sent to spend Christmas with an acquaintance rather than with family, I don’t know, but I took trains from Bideford in North Devon to Ashburton, a pretty small village 65 miles to the south.
That winter was bitterly cold and snow created a picturesque scene for Christmas morning.
The lady I stayed with was someone we had met on the ship coming home from the Far East. She was very sweet to me and we had a lovely time. I imagine she was missing her daughter in Australia.
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The following year I was invited to spend Christmas with my aunt and uncle in New York, so they could meet me and decide if they wanted me to live with them.
As we did homework late one afternoon in November, we were told that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I remember being deeply affected but what really shocked me, when I arrived in New York three weeks later, was that people in America seemed to have forgotten already. Christmas was in full swing. Maybe it was the right attitude to take.
The airport where I arrived was called Idelwild but by the time I returned to England after the New Year, it had become John F Kennedy, JFK.
Little did I know how many years of my life I would spend there.
I was born on JFK’s birthday, and have always felt a bit of a connection to him. It is interesting to hear how the assassination affected you–and Americans not so much. Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos.
A very festive post!
The real trees are so much nicer. We have an artifical pre-lit tree that has lasted since we moved here in 2012. I am not a Christmas person at all, but Julie is, so she loves to decorate the tree. If I lived alone it would just be another weekday with no celebration whatsoever.
Best wishes, Pete.
Me too Pete. The commercialism and bad behaviour plus working at the airport I suppose all killed any feeling I ever had for it. I am always glad when it’s over except that then we are into another tax year and I start getting anxious about getting my papers in order. I really wish I could withhold tax from the incoming government but we don’t get that option. POTUS-elect praises cheating on taxes so why would anyone be honest but it would be the little people who got punished. Hard to say Happy New Year when all I feel is dread.
You have the most beautiful Christmas tree of all (and to think it didn’t cost you a cent/penny – lucky you)! It’s great to read about your Christmas memories as a child. With sunny weather during Christmas season, our celebrations (and food) probably look very different to yours. However, the fruit cake sounds the same (except that no one in our family liked it and so it was never on our table during Christmas). Berto’s mother apparently baked the best fruit cake in the county and he loves it. I buy him a small fruit cake from Woolworths every year – it’s been a standard Christmas gift from me for the past 28 years 😄.