…Winter Solstice..Yule…Christmas.- all over the Northern Hemisphere, in places where the darkness rules at this time of the year, grew the Festivals of Light, to lighten the darkness of an otherwise mysterious and fearsome world. Though I am not now a Christian, I grew up in a Christian home, so my earliest experiences were of the beautiful Christian story and its artefacts - the Nativity, The Gifts, animals everywhere, an abundance of stars (and one in particular!). A story combined, in my house as in so many others, with the older Pagan traditions of marking the Winter Solstice by bringing in greenery from outdoors; always a decorated Christmas tree (Thank you, Prince Albert!) but rarely a Yule Log - except in the form of a chocolate cake with robins, Father Christmas and tobogganing Snowmen, all added with abandon!
When I had my own family, I continued the old traditions and added some of our own - each year I buy and make one or two 'special' ornaments to hang on the tree, to join the obligatory toilet-roll Santa, made by Tim at nursery when he was three, and cross-stitched, bamboo chomping Panda, crafted by Hugh around seven years old. Both of those are non-negotiable. They go on first, in pride of place.
I also made Advent Calendars for the boys for three decades - covering a cereal packet in Chrismassy paper, attaching the annual gift of a religious ('proper') Advent calendar from their paternal grandmother, and filling the box with tiny, individually wrapped little gifts that I had collected through the year. For several years, these included the eternal egg laying plastic chicken from Hawkins Bazaar, which was an absolute treasury of ideas - the arrival of 'The Box of Stuff' from Hawkins was an event in itself each December..
Well, Tim had his last calendar when he was 30 - and now I have decided that Stockings are also no longer appropriate for the moment. Finding 'stuff' to put into them got harder and harder…I know that there was a groan when the apple, tangerine and banana were retrieved, (but, I suspect, never eaten) and one more can of car de-icer would be one can too far this year!
So this year, Baskets will take over - now for both boys and their partners - and material gifts will include more creative items than in the past… (can't give away TOO many secrets…) - but the tree is still up, the Naff Gnomes and Nut Crackers will still make an appearance, The Santas will once again convene on the desk in my hall.
The Ancestors will still get their bits of tinsel on their heads (whether they like it or not, though I think Sir Henry, as Queen Elizabeth 1st's Champion was more than used to a bit of glitter and bling) and I will still worry about the abundance of The Banquet (Who can eat what?, will there be ENOUGH? and will the roast potatoes be DONE??)
All will be as it should be - including last minute anxieties and panics. There will, of course, be more than enough…and we will all be, and have, more than enough, because we will have what I value more than anything material these days. All around me, I will have my dearly loved ones. I need nothing else.
Enough!!
If you want to know what my own childhood Christmases of the 1950's were like - listen to this - Dylan Thomas reading his own 'Child's Christmas in Wales'. It is a blueprint for the way working class family festivities in Wales played out for decades, probably centuries, and a Transport of Delight for me each time I listen to it.
Make time to sit with your families and friends this Midwinter festival time, dear readers. Tell the stories…happy and sad. Write them down…remember them. Remember those no longer with us…for in your remembering, you make them immortal. Remember and love, as best you can, those who are with us in the Here and Now - for in the end, love is all that is necessary, all we need and all that will remain, when the tinsel and trees are down and disintegrated into dust.
Make Merry and Make Memories, my friends - and the heartiest Greetings of the Season, however you celebrate it, to you all, from all of us at Autumn Cottage!
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