A Christmas tree sapling from Germany
I know it’s not Christmas yet but all the shops have a ‘seasonal display’ already. In our local Co-Op I spied wrapping paper, choc advent calendars, fancy biscuits and enormous tins of sweets. I have considered if we should
A – Start collecting Christmas goodies together now and dedicating a corner of a cupboard to them
Or
B – Just imagine that Christmas should really only stretch over a couple of weeks so we don’t need to hoard enough food to last out a siege from November to January
Then what about gifts for the people we love? Should we
A – Tell them our income will halve next year when Wilf gives up his job so we are going to spend half of what we normally do
Or
B – Look for gifts in the sale that make it seem we have spent much more than we have
Or
C – Cut down what we spend and try to make a few gifts
The options are endless and I do know that Christmas comes but once a year but the shops make it last for at least 3 months. Our children are grown up but I do remember sitting with the younger ones in front of a television a few weeks before Christmas and as every advert came on so they changed their minds about that special gift(s) they just couldn’t live without!
If I were a perfect housewife (ha ha) I would hand make our cards, decorations, gift paper and knit everybody a jumper to die for (or die being seen in?). But I’m not so I’m going to buy hand made cards for the family from a lady I know who does a very good job at a reasonable price. I’m going to send an email to everybody at work wishing them happy Christmas and I’m going to give the cost of the pack of cards to charity. Then I’ll buy a pack of charity cards to give to our friends.
I am thinking of making Christmas puddings as gifts for friends and wrapping them up in pretty bags. I am also considering infusing herbs into oil to be put into pretty containers. Wilf makes pickled onions so we could add a jar of those and make small gift boxes. Put those together with a bag of almonds or walnuts toasted with honey and spices then I think our little hampers sound rather nice.
Maybe I’ll start knitting as well……….
I have started to think about other things I could make and I’m pressing a few leaves now to see if they will make gift tags…….I’ll keep you posted. I’m trying oak, rhododendron and lime tree to start
