by Cheryl Brand

Created on: December 19, 2011

 My Christmas Memories

One of my earliest memories of Christmas growing up in England was of the men that sold chestnuts that were cooked over coals in what looked like a garbage can with holes in it.  I still remember seeing the bright red coals alight through the holes.  They would scoop up a dozen or so chestnuts and scoop them into a paper bag for the delighted customer to take home with them. 

My childhood Christmas's were spent in London, so these traditions are coming from the North of London.  There may be other traditions that I will likely not know about celebrated in other parts of the United Kingdom.  I will tell you of ours.  We as children looked forward very much to going carol singing.  We talked about it and made our plans at least a week before Christmas like as to where we would go which streets were the most likely to enjoy the season's songs.  We would go out dressed warmly with scarves and hats and gloves and hope that it wouldn't rain that night, and sing our hearts out and receive monies for the effort.

We would find a Christmas tree decorated to perfection by our Mother with "angel's hair" strewn over it so that at night the lights would appear to come through spider webs of illustrious thin silk-like coverings.  Our table was set as if for a king, with Christmas balls in some decorative vessel and satin ribbons placed so carefully across the table to entice the senses.  We would have Christmas pudding that was lit with brandy brought to the table with a sprig of holly on the top.  The Christmas pudding would hide threepenny bits inside, and if you bit on one, you would be able to keep it and make a wish. 

At the head of each place setting was a Christmas Cracker which is a highly colored aluminum papered flute with ruffled ends that had a banger in the middle accompanied by a paper hat and a joke and a favor of some sort.  Now these crackers when pulled would make for great conversation around the table which was laden with fruits and nuts and trifle and Christmas ca
ke laced in white icing, and a yule log dusted with powdered sugar, and other tasties such as mincemeat tarts.  We would talk, sing carols, play music with whatever musical instrument we could find, might be a comb or two spoons.

When all the eating was finished, my Mother would bring a big pot of coffee and cream in a jug and sugared citrus candy, and chocolate truffles, and cheese and crackers to end the meal with a fruit bowl and candies on a tray.

The day after Christmas was "boxing day" and that was for the purpose (an age old tradition) of giving money to the tradesman for their services during the year.  That would include the mail man, the milk man, the garbage man and the like.  Children would play with their toys and the older set would enjoy leftover turkey sandwiches and pickles with mashed potatoes for the main meal, red cabbage and pickled onions were my favorite but I also loved pickled gerkins. 

After it was all over my Mother would put the Christmas tree in the back yard and put bacon strips, and nuts on the tree for the birds to eat.

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