Every year I have a hope. A hope that this will be the year where life is so organised that, for once, I’ll be able to sit down with a glass of mulled wine at 9pm on Christmas Eve and watch It’s a Wonderful Life instead of staying up until 2am wrapping presents, bits of Sellotape in my hair, writing cards to the neighbours as the last tealight sputters out (note: buy tealights).
It all begins so well. The list – or, rather, lists – are made and the cooking days planned in, but a few things usually get cast aside because work intervenes or because, well, life. But THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Planning brings calm, but plans are made to be veered away from, so follow this calendar as much or as little as you see fit, in the knowledge that even doing half of it will make life easier. It’s all about the anticipation…
BY KAREN BARNES
NOVEMBER
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MAKE A CHRISTMAS CAKE AND PUD (SEE P84 & P36)
Stir-up Sunday is on 24 November this year. The Victorians loved creating new traditions and started making Christmas puddings on the Sunday before Advent because the trad church reading begins ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord’.
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FEELING CRAFTY-CREATIVE? MAKE AN ADVENT CALENDAR
I’ve never done this before, but I love Georgina Hayden’s simple idea (see p94) for attaching stapled envelopes, filled with homemade goodies, to a thin branch, then hanging it up to enjoy every day in the run-up to Christmas.
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• This falls on a Sunday in 2019, so it’s a good day for forward planning. I make a point of scheduling this in, otherwise it doesn’t happen. Leaf through your delicious. magazines and favourite cookbooks (Delia Smith’s Christmas comes out every year in our house) and decide what you’d like to make. Then (potentially life-changing moment coming up)…
• Create a Christmas Spreadsheet of Dreams with Google Sheets (the idea of online director Vic). Here’s the genius of a Google spreadsheet if you haven’t made one before: it’s easy to use AND you can share it with the other people who need to DO STUFF. Include addresses for card-sending; a list of what you’ve bought for family in the past few years, so you don’t repeat anything (although do remember to ‘hide’ the presents sheet if sharing the document with family members); what you need to buy and when (food, presents, anything) – and who’s doing the buying. Plus whatever else you want to add – and share.
• Make a list of who’s coming to visit on which days and start to rough-out menus.
• Highlight the dishes to make ahead and freeze, then make a shopping list for the ingredients.
• Make a separate list of things it would be useful to have in: anytime ingredients that can be adapted for all manner of needs, such as cured meats, cheeses and so on.