The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles readalong 2025 - Part 2

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, and welcome to Part 2. We Continue our CC journey.

For anyone who has not already had the pleasure, the annual Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles read along is a real time annual MN tradition.
The Christmas Chronicles (Notes, stories and 100 essential recipes for midwinter) book began on 1st November.

We continue to read along and comment with the book which is set out in diary form. I will make a post each day (or let you know if there is no entry on a particular day)

Some regulars to the thread already have the book. For anyone new, it's a challenge to see of you can pick up a bargain. Vinted has come up trumps in the past, as has ebay. A rare and precious charity shop find is always a bonus. Don't forget, you can also listen along to Nigel's dulcet tones via Audible.

So, welcome to old friends and new, and don't forget that reading by candle light is particularly enjoyable. Cire Trudon may be one of Nige's candles of choice, but it's somewhat pricey. We don't discriminate against other less expensive brands - even if they are NVN (Not Very Nigel)

Pull up a chair, light a candle, grab a cosy blanket and join in!

I got completely behind with both book and thread - we are decorating at home I can't get to my book and have also been away for a couple of night - chaos! going to jump back in today though and will listen along on the audiobook for now. Can't believe it's December already dark, wet and windy here. Starting to feel Christmassy though and cooked Nigel's sausages and leeks again last night which my DH loves.

Happy Advent! - Christmas mugs out!

Happy December 1st to all! It marks the beginning of 2 frantic weeks at work, so Nigelness might be taking a back seat for a bit. But I have my advent calendars up (tea for DD, M&S for all of us, a tree with press-out card animals for me and our old faithful 20+ year old fabric nativity scene) and every evening I will be making decorations for my choir's contribution to the church Christmas tree festival, so that will be my fix, as well as reading CC on the train.

The crochet scarf is gorgeous @Bimblesalong. Wish I could knit but my efforts ended at 8 when my mum tried to teach me to make a 'Dr Who scarf'. Even that was too much for my fumbling fingers.

Happy Advent everyone! I am hopelessly behind on thread and book, but want to keep up for December.

It is dark, wet and windy right now. It does feel like proper winter.

@Seasidebubbles what pretty mugs. I might invest in a couple of Christmas mugs.

Morning everyone and happy advent! I am also behind on book and thread but have just been catching up with a cup of tea (gingerbread chai from my tea advent calendar - very nice). I hope advent brings some gentle joy to those who are grieving or unwell. We’re going through some family changes at the moment with DM so even more than usual I’m trying to make sure I see the little joys in each day, it’s not always easy.

I made my first mince pies yesterday - homemade mincemeat but shop bought pastry (NVN 🫣) DS declared ‘mum, these are good’ which is high praise! I might try home made pastry next time, any recipe recommendations gratefully received. No decorations here yet though, next weekend is earmarked for tree, lights and general Christmas-ication. @RainbowZebraWarrioryour new tree looks beautiful, and @AlicePotterythank you for posting such a wonderful view.

On another thread, there’s a conversation about a Dec 1st breakfast. I wouldn’t go for the sugar rush and red and green elf theming, but could get on board a special breakfast, in future years. Get the Christmas tablecloth out, eat together, light the advent candle.

In fact, I could get behind the idea of a first of every month meal out. I think as we have become urbanised, we lose the seasons a bit and a monthly marker might help. When DS moves out, it would be a good excuse for getting together.

@leporello if you want another go at knitting when you are less busy, look up continental knitting. It’s more compact and requires less arm waving than our usual method. I find it much easier. Also, crochet. Very easy to get started.

Happy advent, one and all!

Happy first of December all

Gorgeous knitting and home made decoration items

We still won’t get going with the tree and other decorations for two weeks because it’s the youngster’s birthday this coming weekend and we keep Christmas separate to that.

We do have an advent calendar and I do have an advent candle - and as it still feels dark in the house it’s a good day to have a candle burning.

If you want to steal pearls (murder mystery books handy hints and tips) hiding them as mistletoe berries until you can them unseen out of the house is possible! :-) not very Nigel, or perhaps it is, we would never know!

Happy Advent! I've got my non-chocolate one out. Very very wet here today.

Sending thoughts to all those missing loved ones this Christmas - it can be such a bittersweet time of year. So many memories are bound up in the season - I always shed a little tear for my dad and for my lovely MIL though I also love the fact that many of their traditions are now our traditions and I like to think that keeps a little part of them alive. DH and I went for a twinkly Christmas lights walk to check out this year’s Christofle silver bauble and see if it was worth adding to our collection (it was!). - it has been so wet, but somehow this made the lights even more twinkly. Loving all the trees, wreaths and bits of Christmas loveliness. Looking forward to lighting my first Advent calendar tealight later - I rushed out so fast this morning I forgot to open it!

Gawd I miss Paris, @LillianGish Thanks for keeping me regularly sated with these lovely pictures.

Out of curiosity I looked up how much the Christofle bauble costs 🙈

Happy 1st December!

I have taken the whole day off work today to do the tree. I know, it's technically too early and definitely NVN but i've conceded to modern tradition in recent years. Besides, there's nothing wrong with too much Christmas 😂

I'll never be tempted to go earlier than 1 December though. I have a tradition of counting the first 100 trees. This started when I was very young - my mum and I would add to our counting everything we were out and about and saw a tree in someone's window. Our aim was to make it to 100. I still do this - but the 100 figure is achieved earlier and earlier each year. This year I counted 42 by last night (30 Nov).

It has taken me 6 hours to decorate the tree and house. It's my most enjoyable day of the year. When I was small, I desperately wanted my future job to be a Christmas tree decorator. I would go to the homes of people who couldn't be bothered and create winter wonderlands. My parents tried to explain that i'd have to much demand over a couple of days and no income for the rest of the year. 😂 I'm very particular about the tree - which we chose from a local farm last week - and the placement of baubles. Like many others, we have the tradition of adding to the decorations each year with a memento of a place we have been during the year - and this year's new bauble was the last to be placed, in a prime position for visibility.

I have Nigel's brisket in the oven. This has also become tradition since the publication of CC. I love having something slow cooking while I do the Christmas decorating, with the house filling with the aroma of porcini.

@PricklyBob please post a picture of your tree - I loved your post. I think the closest you could get to being a Christmas tree decorator might be to work in merchandising in a big department store. Attaching a pic of the tree under the dome at Galeries Lafayette - not my favourite this year in fact, it’s on a theme of ribbons and I think I’d prefer more tree. The Christofle bauble is pricey, but very beautiful @AlicePottery and I love the whole occasion of going to the shop off Avenue Montaigne. In fact earlier in the year we’d been to a superb Christofle exhibition at the Louvre so it felt like even more if a treat this time. You could easily spend that much on dinner out in Paris, but I’d rather have the bauble that I can admire all Christmas and then have the thrill of unwrapping it again next year.

I find it hard to explain what I look for in special Christmas baubles. They have to be in some way magical. So for instance I have one (the sole survivor of 4, alas), which is a sort of peachy gold transparent one, with damask patterns in rose gold on it. And I have one that's a pomegranate, opened with the seeds visible. Lots that relate to music in some way (I'm a good choral singer). I have this year bought a couple of little Amsterdam-style houses from Tiger for £2 each. I'm looking forward to getting everything down and unpacking it, but that will have to wait until the weekend.

Eesh the coldest, wettest, windiest day on the farm and I still feel petty rough. Cottage pie for dinner and an early night. Happy Advent to all :)

Happy December! I think the only seasonal thing I've done today is open my advent calendar. Been running an all-day event at work and am exhausted. And it's only Monday. And I've got the same again tomorrow. Wednesday is a trip to London and work Christmas lunch though.

Just catching up on the thread from the past few days.

@frozendaisy I also Love the British library crime classic series, my favourite genre is definitely the golden age of detective fiction. I’ve just finished an Anthony Berkeley one which was very satisfying. I got your reference about the pearls! Have you read the long Wimsey stories?

@Seasidebubbles those Xmas mugs are gorgeous! Especially love the one on the right, such a beautiful winter scene

The musical advent calendar has been a hit so far, DS wanted to play musical statues with it (or as he calls it the freeze dance game which is nice and literal) and no complaints from DH.

The tree is up, and kitchen has been decorated in a very hallmark, candy cane, gingerbread, garland explosion which is definitely NVN but makes me very happy!

Aw you've triggered some happy memories of 2 seasonal dinners when my kids were small.

• candle lit dinner on the Winter Solstice as it was the shortest day/longest night. Not a fancy dinner necessarily but fun with all the lights off.

• a "romantic" dinner on Valentines Day. I used to make 2 big heart shaped shortbread biscuits and sandwich together with whipped cream and strawberries.

2 December

To Nuremberg and the Christkindlesmarkt

Slowly we dawdle, scarfed and toasty-hatted, into the market square. The lights illuminating the stalls are switched off. Families cluster around the two fir trees standing guard at the church, but others attempt nonchalance, pretending they are not determinedly securing the perfect vantage-point for their clicking Canons. This time, the perfect spot is actually taken by a police surveillance van. I find an excellent viewpoint outside the communal entrance of a block of flats.

Morning all. I'm feeling very sorry for myself this morning. I tripped outside school when picking DD up last night and have made a right mess of my knees. Quite comedic thinking back, tripped over a paving stone, went flying through the air and landed on all fours, but something in my head apparently told me there would be less impact if I rolled, goalkeeper style (or maybe it was just the momentum?) so I rolled onto my back into a massive dirty puddle and just stopped myself from rolling onto the actual road. I have two big scabby eggs on my knees and two holes in my brand new trousers. I was absolutely filthy and soaked from head to toe and had to drive us home sitting on a bin bag. A lovely elderly couple who were sitting in their car got out and checked on me (which is more than I can say for the workman up a ladder 10 yards away who just looked at me like I was an imbecile)

Anyway. I am just so grateful that A. I was able to get back up and B. I didn't smash my face in / break anything. I am so sore today though.

I have the busiest couple of weeks coming up and I have no back up. There's only me. (violins) Thankfully, I got a lot done yesterday before i fell over. I will do what I can today, but anything that truly doesn't matter can go swing (that's pretty much my status quo anyway)

It pleases me that I feel I am still of an age where I can report that I Fell Over rather than I Had A Fall. Small mercies.

Yes show us yer tree @PricklyBob!
I have ear marked Wednesday for trimming up day, but will go and get the trees after work today if I am not as cold and wet as yesterday.
Ive also got a car full of foliage and branches foraged yesterday to unload before I go today so had best get moving. I feel very behind with my trimming and DD1 is most put out as she likes it all to be done by now, but I realise that any pressure Im feeling is entirely of my own creation so Im choosing to be sanguine about it!
In slept from 8pm last night to 5am this morning which is unheard of for me. Ears still feel full
of gunge so back to the Dr’s for me I think.

Have a lovely Tuesday all

Bloody hell @RainbowZebraWarrior! Hope you are not feeling too stiff this morning. Have you Arnica you can apply liberally? And painkillers?
it feels a real shock to fall over as an adult doesn’t it? Fall over indeed, definitely NOT to ‘have a fall!’. Well done for your parachute roll landing though-entirely right-you probably saved yourself a broken limb there. My Dad was in the para and the training remained with him til the end of his life, when he was constantly falling over but rarely hurt himself much-because of the
roll!

@HannahDefoesSpringFlingI LOVE the idea of a candlelit meal for the longest night of the year.Im stealing that :) And maybe a recess one for the shortest night. Appeals to the pagan in me that does.

@RainbowZebraWarrior oh no! It's a horrible feeling, falling over- I hope you're not too bad today.

You poor thing @RainbowZebraWarrior
Anti-inflammatories, if you can have them, and keeping gently moving.

Our tree went up on Sunday, as the children would have been outraged if I'd done it on my own. It is a mismatch of all beautiful, colourful, ugly things.