planet vegan scotland

… and the ceiling and the tables and the shelves and the furniture and the stove…. People are surprised to hear that we don’t have a Christmas box to bring out at this time of year… No! We have a Christmas CUPBOARD! That’s how Christmassy we are in this family! And that cupboard is full of not just Christmas decorations, but Christmas books, old Christmas issues of magazines, Christmas CDs, Christmas DVDs, Christmas cushion covers…

But, let’s start at the very beginning. (It’s a very good place to start!) When the offspring were wee, Christmas, for us, started in November. This was because we made our own Christmas cards and so November was filled with a flurry of folding card, rubber stamping the chosen Christmas designs onto paper, sprinkling them with embossing powder, wielding the hot air gun, colouring in the pictures and then sticking them onto the cards. We had quite a production line going and, of course, being a home educating family, this led to discussions about factory conditions past and present etc.!

The children also, for a few years, produced a Christmas scrapbook followed by a magazine, which they distributed to home-educating friends, and the Christmas edition was very special, with themed puzzles, stories, pictures, reviews etc.

And every year, they made their own advent calendar. Here’s how… Firstly we would mark off 23 2cm by 2cm squares and one 4cm by 2cm oblong. Each year they’d take either the odd or the even numbers and secretly draw a Christmas picture in each box. Then, after designing and executing the front of the calendar, they’d give their pictures to me to stick onto another piece of card. I’d also cut out the slits on the cover. Then, in December, they’d each open the other’s picture. This gave us HUGE enjoyment over the years. (Sentimental sigh…)

Now we buy our cards from charities, the magazine remains only as back issues, and we don’t have Advent calendars any more….

So now Christmas begins for us on the first Sunday in Advent. Perhaps I should explain something here… We’re not religious, so our Christmas is a secular one, though we use the usual Christian terminology, as most people do, and we love Christmas carols… OK… Where was I? Ah, yes! The first Sunday in Advent… We’re a food-loving family. There’s no point in trying to deny it! And Christmas dinner, we reckon, is far too delicious to be confined to Christmas Day alone. So we eat it on the four preceding Sundays as well! And what do we eat? Well, nut roast, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, sage and onion stuffing, bread sauce (recipe on request) and cranberry sauce. Mmmmmm….

The next stage is the first day in December when we start listening to Christmas music. When my sister, Sylvia, and I were young, our family owned one Christmas record: Mantovani’s Christmas. Now, every 1st December, it’s the first Christmas music we put on. My mother, sister and I phone each other in the morning to play it over the phone and in our house, whoever of us has been out at work or university hears it playing on the CD player as s/he comes in the door! We also start decorating the house apart from the tree.

After that, we read Christmas books and magazines, listen to our other Christmas music and, whenever we can be together, we watch Christmas films. And about a fortnight before Christmas Day, we put up the tree and decorate it with mostly home-made decorations. Now we can watch White Christmas. 

We also make Christmas biscuits and mincemeat pies… And we eat tangerines by the dozen and put the skins on top of the stove. It makes a lovely smell added to the one emanating from the red saucepan filled with hot water infused with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves… (Sorry, a photo can’t demonstrate that, so you’ll just have to use your imaginations or, better still, do the same, if possible!)

Over the years my Christmas crafts have included patchwork and quilting 

cross-stitch

and, of course, memory booking. 

This year was The Year of the Bunting, which I made for the sitting room and the dining room.   Thank goodness for rotary cutters!

Also, this year has been the third that we’ve hosted the Scottish Vegans Yahoo Group Christmas potluck, a feast of vegan tastiness and congenial company. Here’s the sweet stuff we had this year…

When the kids were wee, another thing we did was go out one evening before Christmas and admire all the pretty Christmas trees in people’s windows. Now we’re a tad more cynical and, instead, we go out to the expensive housing estates nearby and mock the over-the-top decorations on roofs and in gardens!

On Christmas Eve, there is no sign of that very brief burst of cynicism, as we settle down together to watch It’s A Wonderful Life, our all-time favourite film in the whole… wide… world. Of course, we cry all the way through, apart from Johnny, whose eyes, nonetheless, grow a bit misty. The rest of us sob unashamedly and, in fact, as soon as the first scene hits the screen, one or other of us will mutter, ‘Well, I’ve started…’ and the others will agree that so have they…

When Sylvia and I were children, we always had bridge rolls made up with butter and corned beef mixed with tomato sauce on Christmas morning. I wanted to replicate this, but without the dead animal parts, obviously, and one year I hit on how to do it. So, on Christmas Eve, we make up bean paste, which is fried onion, equal quantities of kidney beans and chickpeas with tomato ketchup to taste. We love it!

Then, after the offspring have gone to bed, John and I lay a treasure hunt. We’ve had these at birthdays for many years and although Johnny hasn’t bothered with one for the last few years, they both enjoy a Christmas treasure hunt. Unlike the birthday clues, the Christmas ones, traditionally, have to rhyme, which requires a bit more ingenuity (though I do sometimes recycle old favourites!)

Jane insists that 6.30 is quite late enough for Christmas morning, and nothing will budge her, so John and I are pretty bleary-eyed when they both come through to open their stockings and receive the first clue! And after that it’s presents and hugs and kisses and enjoying our presents!

Sometimes my mother is at home and we pick her up and bring her over to our place to spend the day. The last couple of years, though, Sylvia has come through on Christmas Eve, stayed for lunch, and then taken her away to her cottage in Ayrshire. We have Christmas lunch and then, in the afternoon, we all watch The Muppets’ Christmas Carol: Michael Caine’s finest hour, in my opinion! And who would have thought that we could cry over the death of a wee frog puppet? (Anyone who knows us, actually!)

After Christmas Day, we go through to Sylvia’s for her Christmas Dinner and we all exchange wee extra presents, the ones from us including my famous (in the family!), home-made, vegan (obviously!) tablet!   And then that’s Christmas over, for us, for another year…

So yes, we’re a very Christmassy family and I just hope that whichever partners Johnny and Jane end up with will be just as Christmassy! 

Now all that remains in this Christmassy blog is for me to hope, dear readers, that you have the kind of mid-winter festival YOU like best and that 2010 is filled with love, happiness and the fulfilment of at least some of your dreams…

Title: Deck the halls – traditional carol

Our favourite Christmas films: It’s a Wonderful Life; The Muppets’ Christmas Carol; The Cheaters; White Christmas; Trapped in Paradise; The Bishop’s Wife; The Preacher’s Wife; Miracle on 34th Street (both versions); National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation; Scrooge (Alastair Sim); Scrooged; Silent Night; While You Were Sleeping…