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brassbandmaestro
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« Reply #45 on: 16:53:13, 19-11-2007 » |
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Well, I usually like Christmas but I may be working all the way through. So if that does happen, me and my wife will be having ours the weekend after. i, in some repects, am a bit like VW at Christmas time.
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #46 on: 17:22:06, 19-11-2007 » |
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I like Christmas. I generally celebrate it in a rather low-key fashion as I prefer to focus on it as a Christian festival rather than a consumerist nightmare. Generally speaking, by Christmas lunchtime I am knackered from having sung a ridiculous number of church services, and I have been known to abandon my Christmas dinner and go to sleep  (on one occasion I slept all the way through to the next morning!) I am especially looking forward to this Christmas, however, as I have not spent Christmas Day with a family member since 1999. For the past seven years I have been tied to London by church choir, and my family has been 300 miles away (Christmas Day is pretty much the only day of the year when I regret the oversight of never having passed my driving test). Now that Mum has relocated to Reading she is going to pick me up from Central London after church and we are going to have Christmas Dinner together for the first time in years  (just the two of us plus the dog & cats, I think, as my brother and sister are planning to spend the day with their respective partners' families). I have had a couple of attempts at having Christmas all by myself, but it never works out as planned. I did manage it in 2000 (I remember curling up on the sofa and spending the evening with the telecast of "La Boheme" from Glyndebourne) though I'd hadn't been able to cook for myself properly as I'd had a cycling accident on Christmas morning and had wrecked my wrist (long story  ). Last year I tried for another solo Christmas, but ended up taking in my former flatmate who was on the run from a nightmare family dinner, which was fun, but I'd still like to do it by myself again one of these days. |
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Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
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Antheil
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« Reply #47 on: 18:19:05, 19-11-2007 » |
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I've had some great family Christmases but also some which were dire. I think the problem is that we expect it to be "perfect", we don't expect to be taking family members to Casualty at 9.00 in the morning because they've sliced their palm open while attempting to butter a brioche. We don't expect the cat to run off with the lovingly assembled smoked salmon. We do expect Aunt Ethel to have one two many G&Ts and insist on her Vera Lynn impression. We also expect the massacre that is overcooked sprouts served with undercooked chestnuts.
We also expect indigestion, flatulence, watching The Great Escape and whilst Christmas lunch is cooking the men sloping off to the pub because cooking is Wimmins Work, then they come back half-cut and complain the turkey isn't cooked like their Mam always cooked it and why didn't anyone make that tasteless connection that is bread sauce.
And then, someone always mentions "Shall we play Monopoly or Scrabble"
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Morticia
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« Reply #48 on: 18:32:29, 19-11-2007 » |
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Aha! A kindred spirit, Anna (quelle surprise  ) Bread sauce. Why? Why why why? What kind of deranged mind invented it? Aside from being tastless it also looks as though it`s been consumed once and then regurgitated. Yuck yuck. Oh and while I`m at it, I`ll not give cranberry sauce/jelly table room either. And I don`t like brandy butter either! Just the brandy please  |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #49 on: 18:44:02, 19-11-2007 » |
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Bread sauce: a tasteless connection (shouldn't that be concoction, Anty?)?. Perhaps it is a man thing, but I love it, and usually make it myself in advance. Oh, even the aroma of those clove spiked onions and torn bay leaves stewing gently in milk is wonderful. It has to be real, though, none of that reconsituted packet stuff chez Dough, thank you very much. Have used this recipe recently.... http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Creamy_Bread_Sauce.aspx |
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Antheil
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« Reply #50 on: 18:46:46, 19-11-2007 » |
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Aha! A kindred spirit, Anna (quelle surprise ) Bread sauce. Why? Why why why? What kind of deranged mind invented it? Aside from being tastless it also looks as though it`s been consumed once and then regurgitated. Yuck yuck. Oh and while I`m at it, I`ll not give cranberry sauce/jelly table room either. And I don`t like brandy butter either! Just the brandy please Bread sauce, I think it is like Yorkshire pudding. Invented to pad out the limited supplies of meat available. I'm with you on brandy butter but I do like a bit of redcurrant jelly wiv a loverly roast chuck or a nice leg o' Welsh lamb. Cranberries are good for cystitis. I am informed. Also, I don't do mince pies or Christmas pud. (See thread above re flatulence and sudden bowel movements) Apologies for all who are about to eat. When I was a child, we always had Goose. Is this a Welsh tradition? There is a famous recipe for Lady Llanover's duck cooked encased in salt. |
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Morticia
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« Reply #51 on: 18:52:53, 19-11-2007 » |
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As far as I know, I think that goose used to be the traditional Christmas fare in these Isles until the turkey made a takeover bid. I could be wrong. I often am. Sigh. |
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operacat
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« Reply #52 on: 19:14:55, 19-11-2007 » |
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My biggest bug-bear over the `Festive Season` is New years Eve. I absolutely HATE IT !! All the forced jollity and celebration, people who would never normaly go near a glass of dry sherry yet, because it`s NYE, get totally hammered, generally become a pain in the backside and rush around kissing policemen or anyone they can get hld of. I find NYE rather depressing actually. I steer well clear of such celebrations.
With apologies
An anti-social Mort
Ahh - are you in Scotland, then? Because it's usually the Scots who go in for NYE, while the English celebrate (if that is the word I want) Christmas (if that is the word I want)  And no, I don't like it - or rather, I never used to like it, because (a) I'm not a Christian (b) I don't like the forced jollity EITHER!! However, over the past few years my partner and I have managed to work out ways of enjoying the holiday - which is what we call it, not Christmas - I know some people don't like the way the Americans say HAPPY HOLIDAYS, but we prefer it because it is NEUTRAL. Every culture that has ever existed has devised some way of celebrating the Winter Solstice, so this is what we do. We do like some of the food that's usually associated with the Festive Season, so I cook it - but the vegetarian version!! And we have more alcohol to drink than usual. I duuno, does that seem dull to you? We have only ourselves to please, so we just treat it as a time to rest and relax. Oh yes, and I ALSO don't like Christmas music!!!  |
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nature abhors a vacuum - but not as much as cats do.
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operacat
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« Reply #53 on: 19:18:43, 19-11-2007 » |
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Suppose christmas is never as cool as when yer a kid, just way it is.
For me Xmas hasn't started until I've stood in a supermarket queue behind someone with a trolley full of booze who says "Of course I wouldn't bother except for the kids" oh yes, and have you noticed how often people say, Oh, I hate Xmas, it's so commercialised, people have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, etc.etc" before they go off and bend the plastic buying toy Kalashnikovs for their teenage sons..... The thing is, I can remember when I was a child in the '50s people saying "Oh I hate Xmas these days, it's so commercialised...blah, blah". So everyone hates Xmas, everyone thinks it's "too commercialised these days" - but everyone has ALWAYS thought it's "too commercialised these days"!!! SO WHY DO THEY ALL PARTICIPATE??!!! |
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« Last Edit: 19:25:36, 19-11-2007 by operacat »
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nature abhors a vacuum - but not as much as cats do.
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martle
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« Reply #54 on: 19:21:57, 19-11-2007 » |
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As far as I know, I think that goose used to be the traditional Christmas fare in these Isles until the turkey made a takeover bid. I could be wrong. I often am. Sigh. Indeed, Mort! Turkeys is a yank thing - they're not indigenous to the UK - and a graft-on from Thanksgiving. Goose was it up till the C20th (think of Bob Cratchet and Scrooge!). If there are enough people, a goose is fab (and not just at Xmas  )  |
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Green. Always green.
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operacat
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« Reply #55 on: 19:22:58, 19-11-2007 » |
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For me, as someone who loathes the commercialism and frenzy, and who has no religious belief, this is the one aspect of Christmas that really moves me; the ancient Pagan idea of the earth at its quietest, the day at its shortest, and the turning point between the dying year and the new one. Of course the irony is that it is so much the opposite of the mainstream Christmas.
Perfect Wagnerite - looks as if there's somthing else we have in common!! For us it's the Winter Solstice..... |
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nature abhors a vacuum - but not as much as cats do.
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #56 on: 19:26:17, 19-11-2007 » |
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Perhaps it is a man thing, but I love it, and usually make it myself in advance. Oh, even the aroma of those clove spiked onions and torn bay leaves stewing gently in milk is wonderful. It has to be real, though, none of that reconsituted packet stuff chez Dough, thank you very much. Have used this recipe recently.... http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Creamy_Bread_Sauce.aspxI love it, too, if it's properly made like that. I also love chestnut stuffing. We use to have rum sauce with the pud - sweet white sauce with rum. Tends to be brandy sauce now, but I agree with those who don't like brandy butter - simply too sickly. |
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #57 on: 19:29:20, 19-11-2007 » |
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If there are enough people, a goose is fab (and not just at Xmas ) Whereas if you're on your own, I find pheasant very good - much tastier than turkey. Ron, I may well try that recipe for bread sauce this year! |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #58 on: 19:31:18, 19-11-2007 » |
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Mort's in Norf Lunnon, Opuss. For most Scots, it's only recently that Christmas has become as important as Hogmanay: the turning of the year was the main social and family occasion, and bearing in mind the close relationship between many Scots and liquor, the high spirits of the eve are often spirit based. This explains why Christmas took a back seat for so long: http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow12.htmnow, of course, it's easier for businesses to have a synchronised grab-fest both side of the border.... |
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #59 on: 19:35:27, 19-11-2007 » |
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You are all very welcome to Russia, where 25th Dec is just a normal working day  The big festival here is New Year (Jan 1st) of course, although the Russian Orthodox Church has a rather low-key celebration for Christmas... which it dates on Jan 7th. (I am not going to get into ecclesiastical dating conundrums here, however!). In practice the Russian Orthodox Church's big festival of the year is Easter anyhow. We do get an extra little odd holiday on Jan 14th, called "The Old New Year"... it's when the New Year would have fallen had the State not tweaked the calendar post-Revolution, to match the rest of Europe (Russia had fallen two weeks behind because of incorrect calculation of leapyears for centuries before). Of course, dedicated hedonists will see in all this the chance to have a party once-weekly (Dec 25th, Jan 1st, Jan 7th, Jan 14th) for most of a month, with Feb available for a post-dated hangover that lasts until the Lunar New Year (which is celebrated by most of the native peoples of Siberia...) |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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