The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024 Part 3

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Welcome to thread three.

The Christmas Chronicles is the story of Nigel Slater’s love for winter. Taking you from 1 November all the way to early February, The Christmas Chronicles covers everything from Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Year to Epiphany. Throughout the season, Nigel offers over 100 recipes to see you through the build-up, the celebrations and the aftermath.

Anyone who hasn't yet joined in, there's still a big chunk of the book to go as you can see from the description above. It's in diary form with an entry most days and is easy to dip in and out of.

Anyway, welcome friends new and old. Pull a cosy chair closer the the fire, light a candle, pour a glass of something warming and settle in.

I also used to make pomanders - they last a surprisingly long time! I've not done one for decades though. The challenge used to be not to stud the cloves too densely as they shrink quite a lot.

We just have permanent colds and I do keep losing my sense of smell - things feel at a remove, just wispy scents. And to me, ALL fir tree-scented things smell like loo cleaner! Sorry you've not been happy with your calendar. I'm really hacked off with my M&S this year (you may find me moaning on the relevant S&B thread) and we all feel we've been subjected to a 'bait and switch' in terms of marketing). But! that serves us right for not sourcing a traditional continental Advent Calendar from Vienna or a German Christmas market as Nigel does, with pictures of the Holy Family and old masters details behind the doors, and a liberal crust of glitter. (actually I've got a really sweet card calendar too, a Molly Brett (nostalgic children's illustrator) picture with bunnies and woodland stuff and things like lanterns and Christmas pudding behind the doors.)

😱😱😭😭😭

GlomOfNit; Could you add a few drops of essential orange oil to your slices?

Ha, Nigel is very me today bemoaning the lack of any sorry of weather in the south east.

My Mum gave us a pomander she made last week @rainbow-It smells of nothing at all which is so odd, as I remember the ones she used to make when I was little being up for months and still smelling the whole time, as does she. Which leads me to conclude there has been some meddling with both oranges and cloves somehow!

Glad you had a lovely few days @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense. Krakow has been on my list for years, but I have been variety thwarted on planned trips due to illness and the next time a house fire. Thirds time is a charm maybe for next year.

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense HFM Green grocers have them in stock on their website and I assume in store.

Nooooooo! Damn you Ocado and down with your easy peelers!!

I've just nipped into Sainsbury's for a few bits and the Seasonal Shopping Madness is now in full swing. I stood patiently while a chap leisurely perused every packet of fillet steak, only to have another apparently spectacularly-lacking-in-awareness man then push in front of me and do the same. They knew full well what they were doing, they just don't give a fig. Selfish arses.

DD has been making these lovely Christmas trees out of waitrose magazines. (Ignore the weird Anime cosplay wigs in the background) it has been relaxing just watching her.

They are so pretty @RainbowZebraWarrior. Sorry to hear that about your mum

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense I feel your pain. There were no satsumas in my local M&S. They had tangerines, which I bought. They are not nice

@Lilliangish sorry about your friend.

Hello everyone! Popping in again because I've been enjoying the Playmobil Advent Calendar that's running and it occured to me that I should have mentioned it here since some of you might like it too. I don't think I've seen any of you there. I thought your DD (and any other youngsters) might enjoy it, @RainbowZebraWarrior, and there's still a few days left to leading up to Christmas.

Playmobil Calendar

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Sorry to hear of difficult times for more of you. 😞 Wishing light and love. ✨✨✨

Christmas isn't really happening here but I'm actually okay with that.

Thanks @AllTangledUpInTinselAndTiaras I usually follow all of the playmobil people threads, but somehow I've forgotten about this year's Christmas one. I'm on it now. I particularly enjoyed this year's 'Election special'

Thanks. I got some at Francis Thomas last week but they weren’t great 😭

I thought it'd be right up your street, but couldn't be sure I'd seen you on previous threads.

Your DD's trees are very pretty!

Thanks so much to everyone for all your kind comments and suggestions for my friend. @RainbowZebraWarrior is right when she says this is such a poignant time of year for many reasons and I really appreciate the fact that this a thread where you feel you can be upfront about what's really happening and not have to keep up a pretence that it's necessarily the most wonderful time of the year. I was going to make a little Christmas stocking for my friend based on some of the suggestions on here, but conscious that this is a marathon not a sprint I think it might be better to spread the gifts out into the dark days of the New Year and beyond. Thanks also for the all cheering updates both Nigel and NVN. @GlomOfNit I loved hearing of your cat deterrent efforts around the tree and particularly loved your observation: leafing through, I just read 'I find the smell of dried oranges and cloves a bit musty in an auntie's-wardrobe kind of a way, but it appeals to others.' Which is a beautifully elegant NS put-down. @Confusedmeanderings I love your crib and the story behind it and the idea of the Magi slowly advancing along the mantlepiece. @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense you made me laugh out loud with Fir tree scents always skirt so close to loo cleaner! - so true! Thanks again @RainbowZebraWarrior for this magnificent thread and I hope you have a lovely trip.

Today my mum and I went to see the Christmas decorations at a National Trust house. They were beautiful so I’m really glad we went. Mum has to have an operation tomorrow so at least she had a nice day out today.

Wow. When I first scrolled to your post, I thought Yowzers! That's one impressive house and was just about to ask about 'your' beautiful library.

Ha! I wish!!

Sorry, I also meant to say that I hope your Mum's operation goes well tomorrow.

Thanks Rainbow

Good evening, all. Hope everyone is well.

It's a very clear and cold night here. It's a brilliant night for planet spotting, depending where you are with half a dozen planets visible. Jupiter and Mars are the brightest and most visible, being 57 degrees above the horizon. The rest of the planets are all sitting at 16 degrees.

I feel like I have a cold coming so I've just taken some paracetamol and hoping it doesn't turn out to be a stinker.

Hope the cold holds off @RainbowZebraWarrior , and you and Dd enjoy your trip tomorrow. Sending kind thoughts to everyone having difficulties or feeling stressed.

Thanks @Seasidebubbles

One last sunset photo from the school run this evening. We also said goodbye to Santa today. For context, there's a house near DDs school that has a massive waving santa in their upstairs bay window. It's been displayed every year since the 1970s (I think) and every time the house has been sold, he's been left for the new owners with instructions that he must be displayed for the local people to enjoy. All new owners have complied. We've waved to him every day on the school run during the Christmas period for the past 10 years. This year will be the last year DD will go to school in the village, so it was sad to say goodbye. Obviously we will still see him if we are out and about locally.

I've also heard the Choo Choo of the Santa Train at the railway museum down the road this evening. Lovely memories of when I used to take DD on it in her younger years.

I like to imagine that it is really @ChessieFL 's library tbh.

Love that about the inherited Santa @RainbowZebraWarrior. Sending you all the health through the ether...I am DONE with colds/flu/poorly dogs legs and anything else in the illness sphere at this point,,, although half our office are out sick with the weird non Covid Covid virus that's going about. I've been in to work for a few hours today to cover as we are desperado and Christmas is quite often one of our busiest times. It tends to exacerbate whatever is going on for people anyway, good or bad.

I STILL haven't wrapped anything.

The inherited waving Santa is lovely! I’m so glad all the new house owners have carried it on.

Oh blast from the past! Some of my earliest memories on MN were of the Playmo threads (NormanTheForeman??). In fact they inspired me to play with do my own Playmo story about how we were going to go camping - it started out as a social story I did for DS2 who's autistic and went a bit mad. I'm very happy to see that MNers are still playing with their Playmobil!

@RainbowZebraWarrior have a lovely trip! 🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰

If your DD is ok with enclosed spaces (as in an open ride carriage)/dark indoors setting, she may enjoy the ride called The Flying Trunk:

Tivoli The Flying Trunk

It's a gentle ride with lovely wooden toys and scenery from fairytales. I thought she could have a look ahead of time to see if she might like it:

A look at the ride

Oh and make sure to plan your visit to Tivoli so that you're still there past half three when it gets dark - it looks particularly lovely then, with all the lights and decorations.