The previous evening, as soon as Meg was safely put to bed, I turned my attention to making a start on my Christmas card list - or at least those items that I knew would have to be posted. Altogether there were about 40 cards to process and I thought I would divide this into four tranches of 10 - in the event, I pushed this up to 14 before I went to bed so that I knew I had done a third. Early yesterday morning, I woke up just after 5.00am and rather than going back to sleep, thought I would make some more progress on the remaining cards. By the time Meg was ready to be got up and breakfasted, I had done all but five of the cards because, as I was making good progress I felt the impetus to press on. Our domestic help called around today and we had already planned to make a major focus of this morning the erection and dressing of our Christmas tree. My son and I had ensured that we had taken everything from its storage place in the loft so after our domestic help had done some of the essential tasks oh her stay with us, we turned our attention to the Christmas tree. A certain amount of furniture rearrangement is called for so that we can locate our tree in its eminently suitable location in a corner of our hall and near a plug point. Our domestic help actually rather likes dressing of Christmas trees and she made a superb job of it. After the tree was put into position and clad with its lights, we then started to dress the tree with a fairly large supply of baubles in our possession. We seem to have a huge supply of baubles because we have inherited some from the family tree that we used to adorn in addition to which our domestic help added some of her own excess and finally a job lot which she bought in a charity shop when, in the past, Christmas was over and the store wanted to dispose of them. Dressing the tree and then some of its immediate environs seemed to take most of the morning but I am pleased to say that the result is as stunning as always. Meg and I did not venture out this morning but just before lunch I sat with Meg whilst I finished off the last of the Christmas cards that I needed to write. I had sent off an email late last night to one of Meg's cousins to check the most recent address of another cousin and then I did a thorough check that I had an up-to-date definitive list of the Christmas card list with a tick against each item to delineate that I had actually sent a card this year. Incidentally, when I first started to computerise my Christmas card mailing list several years, I handed a copy of it to my son and daughter-in-law so that at the time of our actual demise, they know exactly with whom they need to communicate. This so-called 'death list' actually needs to be updated year by year as some people on it almost inevitably have succumbed to the grim reaper.
Almost inevitably at this time of year, a lot of the focus of attention of all of us is the forthcoming Christmas festive period. The carers in particular know that they have to cope with the demands of both work and family and they are busy planning how and what presents they are going to give to their children. In bygone days, when belief in the Santa Claus myth was almost total, we used to shout up the chimney to indicate what presents we hoped would be brought.The giving of presents at Christmas time is an interesting tradition. The term Boxing Day actually dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The giving of presents is linked to an older British tradition in which the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families since they would have had to serve their masters on Christmas Day. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and sometimes leftover food. During the reign of Queen Victoria, the wealthy would give gifts to servants and trades people in boxes as a thank you for their service. The gifts would often include money, goods, and Christmas leftovers. However, Meg and I rather like the traditions that are followed in Spain. Here whilst Christmas is important, some symbolic presents might be given on Christmas Day itself. But the major feast in these times is 'Reyes Magos' or what we term the 'Three Kings' who traditionally brought presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newly born Christ. In the small fishing communities around Spain, the young children are brought along to the dockside or landing area here they can actually observe the Three Kings, in all of their fine robes, descend from the fishing boats, evidently from overseas. In some of island communities, the Three Kings actually arrive by camel as well so no effort is spared to impress the very young. Traditionally, too, there is a procession throughout the town where small sweets are thrown into the crowd. So most Spanish children would expect their principal presents to arrive on January 6th ('Reyes' in Spain) and not on Christmas Day itself.
Of course the other thing about the days before Christmas is the Christmas music. Since we have bought our two 'Alexa' smart speakers, we have been playing some wonderful Christmas music to ourselves. In particular, I quite like Bach's 'A Christmas Oratorio' whilst Handel's 'Messiah' and Haydn's 'Creation' are perennial favourites. There are still some communities in the UK where you can turn up, be identified as a tenor, baritone or bass and having had the score of 'The Messiah' thrust in one's hand, carry on and sing your way through the whole oratorio. I think this used to happen outside Leeds Town Hall, for example. This morning whilst we were putting up the Christmas decorations I played Harry Belafonte's 'Mary's Boy Child' which my sister and I bought as an Extended Play (EP) record between us when I was about 14 years old. I also remember some Johnny Mathis songs from about this time period as well and, in particular, 'Let it rain' which I often sing around the house when it is pouring with rain outside.
© Mike Hart [2024]