The stockings are ready - not just ready but hand-quilted, and I sit here, knowing that Heathrow is closed for incoming flights, and very far-flung family and friends are possibly in departure-lounges half a world away. Those in the same country are snow-bound, ice-bound on dangerous road surfaces, so here I sit.
There's not a lot more I can do.
The one positive thought is that if no one else arrives I will not starve for a couple of years. I might weary of turkey and mince-pies, but I will not starve, except for the company of those keenly awaited.
It gives me more time to think about explaining a very traditional English Christmas to two guests from far away, one of whom doesn't speak English.
Stockings? Well, they are essential. You hang them up beside the fireplace, and during the night some portly old gentleman manages to squeeze himself down the chimney, out through the door of the wood-burning stove - yes, it is lit - and then he puts presents in your stocking.
The stove is hot, burning-hot because of the yule log, which is actually a great iron-hard hunk of the old gatepost and it will smoulder for days. The yule log must burn until Christmas morning, so he has to get past it with a load of liqueur chocolate. Tricky.
And by the way, he travels through the air, on a sleigh, with bells. With reindeer.
No one ever sees him, except in department stores and garden centres from late October onwards.
We have this vast turkey. No one is really all that keen on turkey, especially the red meat, but we have it, golden and glazed and stuffed with nuts and herbs and sausagemeat and apricots. The guest from far away who spent last Christmas with us was so enchanted by the stuffings that she ate them for breakfast, so this year there are even more exotic stuffings. Perhaps I should have replaced the turkey with roast beef or salmon, but now it's crouching there in the freezer. Biding its time. Like me.
What everyone seems to prefer is 'pigs-in-blankets'. We all like them, but we only have them at Christmas.
No one (but me) likes sprouts. We have sprouts, lots of them, and I'm not following the adventurous recipes for alternative cooking. Boiled sprouts and the attendant aroma is deeply traditional. So deeply that the smell lingers for days, despite the yule logs and the cinnamon candles.
One of us likes Christmas pudding, so we have a great big one and he can have it cold for breakfast on Boxing Day. We all have to have a bit though, with brandy butter (yuk!) and if all is going well I manage to set fire to it before serving. Sometimes it is possible to choke or break a tooth on the coins hidden inside. Flaming Christmas pud!
We have crackers and will explain the jokes to our guests, which may not be easy, cross-culturally and bilingually. It is also fairly obligatory to wear the flimsy paper hat and appreciate the plastic toy.
Mince-pies are as essential as tinsel and fairy lights, even though no mince is involved, and no fairies either, as far as I know.
The Christmas tree holds memories old and newer - glass ornaments several generations old, and cardboard angels made at Playgroup. We mustn't be without it, nor without the dangerous scramble in the depths of the attic to find the treasured ornaments in their unmarked, unidentifiable boxes.
And so we wait, the turkey and I, in our own private Advent.
Happy Christmas, everyone, and may all your journeys be possible.
If no-one turns up, you can always come round to us - no turkey, no paper hats or crackers or fairy lights, but you could keep all yours for when the snow allows the travellers through and come here for roast duck - Christmas pudding and sprouts are obligatory though I'm afraid!
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you, Jane, or you could toboggan down the hill for turkey and sprouts!
ReplyDeleteI do so hope you will not be home alone with all the turkey and mince pies and that your visitors will be able to make it through - bit like the Three kings perhaps although I doubt a camel would have any more luck than an aircraft do you?! Isn't it mad that we do eat all that stuff and have all those things when nobody actually really likes any of it?! Tradition is all.
ReplyDeleteIt's no good saying you could come here to people left on their own this year either since if they could come here they could go wherever they had planned. Christmas with a difference methinks in 2010.
Jane
Yes, there will either be fourteen of us or two - depending on the weather. And only one of us eats turkey. He's going to have to take his time over eating two M and S turkey breasts, £25 each... (thus avoiding the red meat).
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your comment - we do actually have a key in a key safe hidden in the garden. Except it was temporarily in the house...
Oh dear, it does sound as though you're having a "New England" kind of snowy Christmas - and here we've had no snow as yet this season. They're predicting flurries the day I'm flying out, but it's not expected to be much, so hopefully I won't have delays. Anyway, I hope your guests all make it! Sounds like you have some wonderful traditions to keep. Safe travels, and a warm Christmas to you and yours!
ReplyDeleteMarigold Jam: all that matters is for people to be safe, and I appreciate the safety measures at Heathrow. But it's embarrassing when the visitors are potentially able to take off in several feet of snow and are unable to land in a few inches.
ReplyDeleteIsabelle: I hope your visitors make it, too. I've gone for the turkey breasts in previous years for that same reason, but wanted the drama of the big whole one for the visitors. Oh, well..........
Leslee: It's the impacted ice, rather than the snow....no salt, no grit for anything other than major roads.
I hope you avoid even the flurries and have a very happy time.
Happy Christmas RR. I too like sprouts. Have you tried them sliced and stir fried with a little sesame oil....divine.
ReplyDeleteHope all you visitors arrive safely.
I do love staying put on a holiday, especially when weather is stormy.
ReplyDeleteA belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I do hope the guests arrived without undue drama. I had an excellent time with the family and managed to cook a turkey for the first time — perhaps surprisingly, it turned out fine. But I think the pigs-in-blankets went down best of all — thanks for the inspiration :^)
ReplyDeleteOff in an hour or so for a trip into the Ruahine, with an excellent weather forecast — wish I could send some to you.