We always put up our decorations on the first of December. Years ago we used to stick to the “twelve days before and twelve days after” rule but December is so dark and gloomy that it needs all the sparkly light it can get. We haul the boxes of decorations out of the cellar, dust off the fairy lights, and fill the house with sparkles.
We Met in December
We have a love/hate relationship with The Elf on the Shelf – ours came to live with us eight years ago. Ours is strangely lazy – sometimes he stays in the same spot for days at a time (for better surveillance, I’ve been told) and at other times he can be found creating mischief in the kitchen. Now the children are all teenagers they get involved in finding him new jobs to do so we never quite know what to expect…
Nigella’s Christmas cookbook is my go-to for recipes and I’ve been cooking many of the same ones for years – her ginger glazed ham and macaroni cheese is our traditional Christmas Eve meal, and I always start December making her cranberry mincemeat.
One of the nicest things to do on Christmas morning is before the opening of the presents – we take the three dogs to the park, wrapped up against the cold, and watch them chase balls while we chat to all the other people who are walking their dogs as well. It means we get a bit of fresh air on a day that’s all about chocolate, mince pies, turkey and sitting in front of the television, and the dogs burn off some energy and hopefully don’t spend the whole day trying to steal Christmas dinner from our plates!
Christmas is all about family for me – I cook dinner for everyone. My sister and her family travel down from Scotland, and my mum – who lives around the corner – cooks the roast potatoes in her oven and brings them round wrapped in a towel to keep them warm. We spend hours at the table, drinking wine, playing silly games and chatting, and everyone – even the teenagers – loves it.
My other favourite thing about Christmas is watching Hallmark movies - curled up with a hot chocolate by the fire, a candy cane acting as a stirrer… one of my teenagers is a big fan too so we will sit there together and just soak up the whole cinnamon-scented atmosphere, which leads me to…
Scented candles. I buy one every year – scented with cinnamon and spice and big enough to last the whole of December and beyond. We keep our Christmas decorations up until twelfth night, and I like the place to smell Christmassy until the very last moment the decorations come down!