Christmas in England

I’ve always been interested in the holidays and traditions of other countries, so when I moved to England I was eager to learn how the English celebrated special days.

I love the festive winter season. As the holidays grow closer the amount of mail I receive increases. What could be better than that for a letter writer? Brightly coloured cards in all shapes and sizes arrive daily, bringing happy sentiments from friends and family, near and far. They add such good cheer to the already growing excitement.

If you’re like me, you send out quite a few cards, and get just as many back.

I enjoy seeing all the different depictions of the holidays, whether they are religious, scenes of town and country, nature and wildlife or whimsical. In my holiday enthusiasm, I tie ribbons to my curtain rods making swags so I can display my cards around the house and continue to enjoy them throughout the season. They add a personal touch to my holiday decorations. By the middle of December my house looks like a card factory and I love it.

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It’s always sad to take my cards down at the end of the festivities. The room always looks so stark when the decorations are stored away for the next year. I always linger over my cards, though. I sit down and read them all again, smiling at the cheery things my friends and family have written to me. I used to keep all my cards but as you can imagine, after a couple of years or so, you tend to accumulate stacks of them. They are so pretty, I don’t want just throw them away.

Here in England, you can take them to some of the local shops to be recycled, which is a nice thing. But I was looking for ways to keep my cards and enjoy them a bit longer. So, I had a good think about it and came up with a few ideas to use some of my cards as holiday decorations and that way I can enjoy them year after year.

We’ve all clipped images off our cards to use as impromptu ornaments and as gift tags, and those are nice ways to recycle old cards. Some fold them into little gift boxes for small gifts too which is fun, while others make them into gift card or CD envelopes, which is a very clever idea as well.

Having a six year old, I used the images from my cards to create not one but two advent calendars. You know how impatient little ones can be as Christmas draws near. Using a large piece of card, I made a nice Christmas scene (I used up some old wrapping paper doing this!) Then I clipped out fun images and fixed them onto the scene in various places. Under each, I put a riddle or joke and we all had a “ho ho ho” each day.

I’ve used images to decoupage onto some tired old place mats we had and now we have nice mats for the holiday season. I painted our old mats red and green and then chose images from the cards, and also some of the written sentiments from inside the cards. I glued these onto the mats and then sealed them with a decoupage varnish. I did matching coasters too.

Another fun thing is to clip out some smaller images punch holes on either end and tie them together with ribbon to make a special garland to use on your tree or to drape over windows and doors. I cut circles, squares and rectangles for a bit of variety. This is a fun thing that little ones can help with, especially on those very long days before Santa arrives.

Finally I created a Christmas scrapbook using my old cards to decorate the front and inside covers and in this book, special holiday memories are kept; some written, some photos, all cherished and enclosed between the good wishes of our family and friends.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Christmas in England is not so different from home in the States but there are a few new things I've experienced during my holidays here.

Christmas dinner is a traditional turkey feast much like Thanksgiving.

It's punctuated with Christmas crackers; festively wrapped tubes that “pop” when you and the person sitting next to you pull on them. The person holding the larger part of the tube gets the prize inside. Each cracker comes with a small prize, which can be anything from an inexpensive trinket to a luxury gift. There is also a small slip of paper with a joke or riddle as well as as paper crown, which is worn at dinner to add to the amusement of all. It's really quite fun as we open the crackers, don our crowns and read out what are inevitably very corny jokes and riddles.

Our meal is finished with a traditional Christmas Pudding, which is an elaborate steamed fruitcake that is very rich. It's made in November as it needs time for the flavours to blend. Everyone is involved in the process of making the pudding and each person has to have a turn at stirring the batter for good luck. On Christmas Day our pudding is re-steamed, doused with brandy and set alight for a dramatic entrance to the dining room, where it is enjoyed with generous portions of brandy butter.

Usually by the end of our meal it is time to assemble in front of the television to listen to the Queens message, something she has delivered faithfully since 1952. The Message usually focuses on events of the year in the Commonwealth and personal feelings of the Monarch and is interspersed with photos of events as well as family.

These new additions to Christmas as well as the traditions I have brought with me from home serve to make an even more special holiday.

Merry Christmas!