Friday, December 17, 2010

"Christmas In England": X-mas Guest Post and Giveaway with Miranda Neville

Christmas in England
Hi Rita. Thanks for inviting me to join your Christmas celebration. I live in the US, but I grew up in England. The typical British Christmas has much in common with the American one, but of course there are differences, and not every family celebrates the holiday in the same way.  

The first thing that always strikes me about the British Christmas is how long it lasts. There are always two full days off work, Christmas Day itself and December 26th, known as Boxing Day. Most people take extra time to link the two weekends and New Years (some businesses close altogether) and in a good year you can string together ten days. During that time everyone eats, drinks and watches a lot of telly.  
My siblings and I would wake up horribly early on the big day and open our stockings, filled with small items and a clementine orange in the toe. My mother was a lifelong believer in recycled wrapping paper. At a fairly young age I noticed Father Christmas seemed to get his paper from the Big Drawer in the drawing room. A couple of years later all our illusions were shattered and she had us all wrapping and stuffing each other’s stockings, never using tape because that damaged the paper and made it less re-usable. 
After breakfast we were each permitted to open one present. Little devils that we were, we’d usually poked and prodded each passage enough to make an educated guess about a good one. Then off to church. The big unwrapping session happened before lunch with the grown-ups having their first of many drinks for the day. 

Christmas Crackers

The big meal is usually Christmas lunch. Since the Brits have no Thanksgiving, this is the day for turkey, served with a couple of stuffings, gravy, roast potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. Poultry of any kind is often served with bread sauce (basically soft white bread crumbs cooked in milk, flavored with onion and cloves). For dessert we’d have the traditional Christmas pudding, a heavy plum pudding served in a blaze of burning brandy, mince pies, and brandy butter (Butter whipped with sugar and brandy; my arteries harden as I write this).  Then clementines, nuts, dried fruits and Christmas crackers.

Paper Christmas Hats!
Crackers contain prizes which range from pieces of plastic rubbish to fancy gadgets and jewelry, depending on the price. They all contain tissue paper hats, which everyone has to wear regardless of how stupid they look, and slips of paper imprinted with appallingly bad jokes and riddles. Since everyone is usually pissed by this time (or very merry if too young to drink) everyone laughs a lot. I include a random photo taken last time I spend Christmas in England, just to demonstrate how dumb people look in paper hats. 
At 3 pm we stagger from the table to watch the Queen’s Speech. If sensible one might take a walk. Or collapse and watch another movie before tea and Christmas Cake, a heavy fruit cake covered with marzipan and decorated with hard white icing. (Note to Brits: please discover American butter cream frosting). 
Thus ends the official portion of Christmas Day. Supper is generally light. Turkey soup and/or sandwiches may feature.  Turkey Curry, made famous by Bridget Jones, is very likely in your near future. 
One of my very favorite parts of Christmas is decorating the tree. My mother believed in delegating tasks so I’ve been doing it since early childhood. I collect new ornaments when I travel and I’m particularly fond of ones I find in museum shops.
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What are your favorite holiday decorations? Do you collect different ornaments for your tree, or do you prefer a color scheme or theme? And is your tree real or fake?
One commenter wins her choice of one of my books.

~*~Giveaway Details~*~
Miranda Neville has generously offered to giveaway a copy of any one of her books to one (1) lucky commenter (Winner's Choice). Follow the guidelines below and comment for your chance to win! The giveaway will end on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 11:59:00 PM. The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve and contacted via email shortly after.

Giveaway Guidelines: To be entered in the giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment with either an answer to Miranda's questions or a question of your own!
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 Hope you enjoyed today's X-mas Guest Post from Miranda Neville in:

17 comments:

  1. You've brought a tear to my eye :(!!!!!!
    I haven't had an English Christmas since we emigrated when I was 7 (now 35)to New Zealand

    We celebrate it much the same here in NZ as we did in England except that its stinking hot, being that its the middle of our summer!!!!

    We're doing our first EVER real tree and I'm NOT convinced, probably go back to the old faithful fake one next year :)
    Either way its always covered in the kids hand made ornaments:)

    Great post and I'm in love with your covers ♥

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    cheers for the memories
    Cath
    cbcowley@gmail.com

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  2. The good old British Chrismtas can't wait! Mine is very like that. As for out tree it's a fake white one which i quite like and this years theme is silver and purple.

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    elizabeth_14@hotmail.co.uk

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  3. Hi Cath: glad to bring back old memories. Every year I toy with idea of a fake tree and end up buying a real one. I love the smell but hate the pine needles which go on showing up in odd corners for months.

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  4. Elizabeth - your tree sounds very smart, not say regal!

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  5. Loved hearing about how the Brits spend Christmas. Those hats are pretty hilarious. We have always had a fake tree. I like the idea behind a real one but I don't want to have to clean up after. I like that my fake comes with lights already on it. Makes my life so much easier. My favorite ornaments are ones that my grandmother made when all of her kids were growing up. They are so pretty and I always enjoy all the the stories that are told about how they were made.

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  6. I've always loved decorating the tree as well. My mom started to give us ornaments in our teens so I've got a number from her (many years, while after xmas shopping, she'll have me pick up next years gift to ensure I like it). Between gifts from mom & other family & freinds as well as hand-me-downs, I have only a few ornaments that I actually purchased on my tree. And enough left over I could decorate a 2nd smaller one. :)

    Happy holidays.
    gamistress66 (at)
    aol (dot) com

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  7. I love ornaments but I rarely get a tree so it's kind of moot. Growing up, we kids convinced my parents to get a real tree once and, after cleaning up all the fallen pine needles, they refused to have another one. In the past, I'd get a real tree, a little Norfolk Island Pine, but they tend to get really straggly over the years (I put them in the backyard after the holidays) so no Christmas tree this year, as much as I love the evergreen scent.

    I've bought Christmas crackers over the years and made kids wear the tissue paper hats, but they just look cute instead of silly.

    ironss[at]gmail.com
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  8. I loved reading this pos and leaarning about a "English Christmas" I think the paper hats are cute! Do they have a meaning? We have a little fake tree with lights that the kids decorate with ornaments that I have collected or ones that friends and family have made for us. One of my favorite oranaments is a little black bulb with my little girls hand print on it. the fingers our painted to look like snowmen. She made it in pre-school. Thanks for sharing today!

    evjochum[AT]aol[DOT]com

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  9. @ Sheree - glad you make your kids do the paper hat thing. We all need to make fools of ourselves sometimes & the best time to do it is among family.

    I don't know the origin of the hats, Johanna. I should look into it and let you know.

    Danielle, Gamistress & Johanna. Thanks for stopping by. I so agree with you all that the best ornaments are those that have personal meaning.

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  10. How fun!! Thank you for sharing! I think Christmas Crackers are wonderful!!
    We have a real tree and there is a mixture of ornaments on it. Some are from when I was a child, some that my husband and I were given over the years and the rest are given to my boys every Christmas.

    cbandy10(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  11. I spent Xmas in England once, but I don't remember anyone wearing the hats. I do remember that everything was closed for several days and it rained the whole time.

    I'm allergic to pine needles, so the tree has to be fake. As for decorating, I'm way too unorganized to have a theme for the tree. I just thrown the ornaments on, string some lights, and call it a day.

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  12. @ Cindy - thanks for stopping by. I went to buy my real tree yesterday and they had sold out! Luckily they have another order arriving today.

    @JenM - rain in England is a perennial problem LOL. But I hear they've got a lot of snow this year.

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  13. Thanks for sharing an English Christmas. I guess if everyone gets "pissed" enough the hats won't matter lol. Great post Miranda. I love your covers.
    This year I have a gorgeous fake tree, it's so full and pre-lit and aside from the real smell of pine being absent it's fine. I have all Santa and Angel ornaments with hints of Disney in between. :)
    Carol L
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  14. We have a artificial tree. I collect Xmas ornaments from the places I travel. I buy them as souvenirs and use them to decorate my tree. I enjoyed reading about the British Christmas.

    kelly_mann@hotmail.com
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  15. I enjoyed reading about your memories of celebrating Christmas in England. It sounds like a great way to spend the holiday - with food, family, presents, and television.

    I always love decorating for Christmas. I have a ton of various decorations that I have collected over the years. I don't really have a favorite color scheme or theme. I just seem to decorate with whatever I find to be cute or pretty. I seem to have a lot of cartoon ornaments, such as Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown, and Disney characters. We use a fake tree because I don't really want to clean up after a real one. Fake ones are much easier. Happy Holidays!

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  17. lol! we've always had fake trees (no real trees grows here) but we always spruce it up with lots of lights and tinsels, and we always place an angel on top.

    Merry Christmas Miranda!

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    aldayrcs@gmail.com

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