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!

Really need a Nigel catch up as think I stopped reading mid November so thank you for the lovely snapshots @RainbowZebraWarrior

3 December

Mince pies and the shop windows of Nurenburg

The Christmas windows of Nuremberg are cluttered with the toys I never had. A tower of painted toy soldiers in hats; A bandsman's cap in green and gold; A bearskin you want to stroke; A shiny, pointed pickelhaube; A marching drummer with braided red jacket qnd golden chinstrap; A barman in a gingham shirt, with a bowler and frothing Pilsner. A bearded man in an Amish hat. A mouse in a crown and a mushroom with a shining red cap. It occurs to me that a mushroom probably always wears a cap.

Morning all. Gosh I am so tired and achy. I'm just looking at my diary to see what I can get out of - not a lot. Mums birthday today and Dad's tomorrow. Thankfully we don't go out for celebratory meals or anything like that (I get that we are the weird ones here) but I'll still have to pop in and wish many happy returns. I've also forgot to buy a card from DD to her Nanna. Its like ive just forgotten how to 'do things' Me and Dad don't do cards so that ones a bit easier. He's got a big bag of home made goodies including sloe gin. He will be happy with that. We then have Dentist, hairdresser, MOT and craft fair. I've offered to pay my Mum's cleaner to empty my conservatory in readiness for work commencing Monday as I simply can't do it. No idea where things will go.

Going to have half an hour later this morning to catch up with the thread and Nige on Audible

Hope you can take it a bit easy @RainbowZebraWarrior

I'm off to London for a work meeting followed by Christmas lunch - partly looking forward to it and partly struggling with energy and social batteries. Pic attached of my Christmas jumper for today (very lightweight sweatshirt I got on Vinted) - probably NVN but I love it.

Oh gosh I love this jumper and now feel the need to go searching for one on Vinted! It may not be VN, but it is gloriously cheerful. Speaking of which, I've just passed a chap on a bike who has been making me smile every day since 1st December. He and his bicycle are absolutely covered in tinsel and coloured fairy lights.

Hope the work do goes well and the social battery hold out.

Dammnit your post has reminded me that I’ve forgotten to shake my sloe gin again @RainbowZebraWarrior. I don’t think anyone would blame you for cancelling things if you don’t feel up to it under the circumstances
lovely pullover @martha79Ive just been looking for a sparkly-ish top in town that will
see me through my festive events. All of them were TOO sparkly for me except me that cost £120 and so therefore will NOT be coming home with me!
been for a nail appointment, now about to bob to b and M and or Lidl for some small trees for in front of the house and then I will start to trim!
Im still full of cold and I'm
now Assuming I always will be, forever and ever so long has it gone on.

I am definitely behind the curve here! Hope you are feeling better @RainbowZebraWarrior. I am hyper mobile and as a result fall over somewhat more frequently than most adults. My most recent effort (October) I found that my foot did not go flat on the floor as I stepped into the kitchen, my ankle turned and I went flying inelegantly (largely because I was avoiding smashing my head on the kitchen table). Couldn't see why on earth I had fallen; put it down to a random proprioception blip. About three hours later walked into the kitchen and saw that - for some reason - the transparent doorstop was in the middle of the floor. I'd managed to put my foot right on it, and then didn't see it when I looked to see why the floor was uneven 🤣 Time before that I did the splits treading on a carrot top (kids nick them and feed them to the dogs who sometimes eat them, sometimes not). Two ankles and one groin that have never been the same again 🤣

@HornungTheHelpful Oh gosh, a transparent doorstop does sound a bit like an accident waiting to happen. I have Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome so that's why I'm so shocked that I didn't seriously injure myself. I wear a special suit to hold my joints stable as I semi dislocate multiple times a day. Such fun. I absolutely dread slipping and freeze to the spot when it's frosty / icy!

There's nowt I can cancel really. It's all necessary stuff. I get my hair washed by the hairdresser as I can't do it myself (I dislocate my shoulders) Looking forward to the Christmas market on Saturday, but moreso for DD. It's the only socialising she really does outside of school.

@piscofrisco Hope you got your trees sorted. Speaking of sparkly, tops, I posted a photo of a lovely vintage pudding bowl I bought from vinted last week for £1.50. Well it arrived the other day, except the parcel was squishy and obviously clothing. I filmed myself opening it as I knew there must have been a mess up. A black silk tunic with diamanté buttons on slid out of the package. Spoke to the seller, it wasn't sent by her. Spoke to vinted who can't trace who it came from or where my pudding bowl is, and just said keep the tunic. It's new with tags and I googled the designer. It retails at £255!! It's not really my thing, but I might just make an exception and wear it on Christmas day!

Have also just been and bought a long sleeved festive top. I'm thinking it looks a bit pyjama like, but that's fine. I'm not going anywhere anyway. I just wanted a Christmas top. Hopefully it will look better on me than it does on the steering wheel! 😁

Ramble ramble... quick question. Does anyone have an M&S food collection slot booked? I booked one when they came out and can't remember what I ordered.. I really need to go and amend it but don't know if there's anything I actually need? Any inspiration welcome.

Love the top @RainbowZebraWarrior - I've no idea what brand mine is to help you search for one unfortunately - no labels and it cost me £2.50 after a long insomniac night of Vinted browsing 😄 I was definitely the most festively-dressed today!

I'm another one in the hypermobile gang and I'm feeling it today - felt like I was contorting myself into all sorts of shapes in the chair at the restaurant trying to get some sort of support. It's been a nice day - good food (I ended up having smoked salmon followed by grilled salmon as one of my colleagues had ordered salmon by mistake when they don't like it, so we swapped starters). Secret Santa was fun too - we all know each other pretty well so everyone seemed to get something very 'them'.

Glad I booked an early train though and have no shame in being the first to leave! Off work now until Monday - I have some festive music stuff at the weekend, and the sound bath on Friday, but otherwise looking forward to some proper downtime.

@piscofrisco , there is no such thing as too big when it comes to trees, in my opinion (except possibly the year we had to cut the top off ours to make it fit!). We lived in a lovely villa in Shanghai for 5 years that had a (pointless, waste of space, hard to heat) beautiful two-storey sitting room and I was in my element with a 10-footer! We had to get our very tall neighbour to put the star on top but the beauty of China was we just had a lady come and deliver it and shout at her staff to make it stand upright, then they came and took it away when we were done.
@martha79 I absolutely love that jumper! It's perfect and very 'me' so if you get fed up and decide to vinted it on, please give us a heads up! (Vinted is so a verb.)
I like yours too @RainbowZebraWarrior - that sort of 80s-retro bow design seems to be in the shops this season so I think you are very with it.
Sorry for all the injuries. I am the absolute opposite of hyper mobile and barely bend at all (which also leads to random injuries because I have no 'give' but I don't dislocate). I think somewhere in the middle is probably best

Oh poor you! I'm lucky - I don't have Ehlers-Danlos - just hyper mobility syndrome, and sounds like the hyper mobility is much less severe than you; I do empathise though - I've had a number of full and partial dislocations over the years and it's awful. One of my daughters is severely hyper mobile and we used to have to realign her finger tips multiple times a day. It's slowly improving. As I get older I subluxate less frequently, though counter-intuitively I find myself needing to stretch (carefully!) more often - as my muscles seem to take more flack from my crappy tendons/ligaments.

The transparent doorstop has been moved on 🤣

Beautiful winter skies here today and now the PIANO EXAM (it has definitely taken on capital letter status in my mind) is over, hoping to be a lot more Nigel!

Evening all,

It's been a day of unexpected adventure, not for me, well only through concern, but eldest decided to walk home from college, over 3 hours he started at midday, and he asked, so we succumbed, H & I met him in the pub and then brought him home, hadn't seen the local in full fairy light glory. Subtle, quite pretty.

Rest of Christmas present and food shopping is a joint effort now, actually a lot has been, quite nice it being a joint affair, might insist upon it in future.

Advent candle burning down.

House smells of indian curry.

Hope everyone having a relaxing and/or enjoyable evening.

@Celiathebanshee I promise I'll let you know if I get bored of it, but it probably won't be any time soon as it's so comfy - had that and a really fluffy fleece jacket on for the journey home and almost felt like I was in pyjamas 😄

@HornungTheHelpful I'm definitely finding myself less flexible as I get older too, which is good in some ways. Although since my recent bout of covid, my joints have felt even less stable than usual - I suspect it's partly lack of exercise but maybe also some kind of post-viral effect.

Great tops! @RainbowZebraWarrior I think yours would look great with some black trousers. Also, I have no suggestions for what to order from M and S, but I wouldn't bother with the fish and chip bites. We tried them this evening and they were ok, but nothing special. I think I prefer a fish finger!

I haven't had chance to do much Christmas wise. I've done a bit of shopping and that's it. I plan to make puddings tomorrow or Friday though. I've lots of mincemeat in the cupboard left over from last year, so I don't have to worry about that. What I am worrying about is a rat population explosion that appears to be happening in our street. I live in a small country village, so the odd bit of unwanted wildlife is to be expected, but they are out and about in broad daylight and venturing into houses so something has to be done. The rat man has been called!

Picked up our tree today. Managed track down a Fraser fir - so fragrant - and went with DD to collect it. She carried it back on the bus! At the moment it just has lights on - reminding me of Nigel’s observation: It is hard to imagine a tree more lovely than one threaded with nothing but a single tiny strand of white lights. I’m waiting for both kids to be present to decorate more fully - but in the meantime enjoying sitting here quietly in the glow.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I hope you are okay. I am hypermobile and I also dread the ice. I have a weak ankle and I walk so slow on ice.

@LillianGish That's a beautiful tree, I hope we can get a real one some day. They are so much nicer in my opinion.

We put our tree up at the weekend, it's a mix and I just let the kids decorate it so it's a bit random too, but that's okay.

I just finished off some shop bought mince pies but Nigel has got me in the mood to make my own so I might just do that this weekend.

I have been thinking of Christmas drinks to add to the next shop. What will you be drinking at Christmas?

@frozendaisy thank you for reminding me I had an advent candle! I had completely forgotten

Loving the tree pictures @RainbowZebraWarrior the ivy on yours is gorgeous - DD has a friend with an artistic Mum who decorates their house beautifully with greenery every year always wish I had the same skills!!! I quite fancy just simply white treelights too could be really simple and beautiful but don't think I would ever get it past the kids!! (Although it would be the safer option with our lovely but young dog - we mostly just decorated the top half of the tree last year just in case 😂) Can't wait to get our tree at the weekend and make the house feel a bit more Christmassy.

@Lemonbaytree , I think it might be my gallstones talking because I can't have cake or pudding this year, but I was tempted by a Christmas cake liqueur I saw online the other day. Also a 'figgy pudding iced cider'. They were both in this list on the Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2025/dec/02/best-christmas-drinks-uk

Busy busy busy this week and falling behind with my CC reading. I have to deliver a box of home made decorations for the Christmas tree festival at church tonight and I'm up against time! DD1 is helping out, so I think we'll make the deadline.

Just catching up on the thread as I’ve been away and had a busy few days - all lovely things but I’m ready for a bit of calm and quiet now. I’m torn with Christmas these days - I love the magic and tradition but don’t enjoy the consumerism and fuss.

I’m really loving these December mornings (when it’s not raining). I wake up early and lay in bed watching it get light then open my tealight calendar and burn it while I get ready for work. If I’m wfh I’m trying to get out for an early walk (again rain dependent) and I find it really sets me up for the day - I’m loving building in these little rituals in between all the busyness and I think Nigel is in part to thank for the idea, his life just seems so civilised!

I’m still on November in the audio book but hopefully I’ll catch up soon. Enjoying seeing everyone’s crafts and hearing about all the festive baking, reading this thread is another very comforting thing to do!

@RainbowZebraWarrior sorry to hear you hurt yourself, how are you feeling now? I did love your story about your mum calling you from the garden ☺️

Morning all. Sorry I'm a bit late today. No CC entry today. Will catch up with thread later.

I get sad when there's no entry. I really enjoy reading them.

I am catching up today. I have recovered from the flu thankfully as we had an all day hospital visit on Tue. My adult DS had his final blood test after his cancer treatment last month and his tumour markers are elevated again. We are now waiting for the results on Friday , so don't feel too Christmassy.
I am loving the St Eval Advent calendar, the tea lights are very long lasting with a great fragrance throw.
Very dull and drizzly here, I have a ball of cashmere to pick up from the local yarn shop today to knit a Sophie scarf, other than that I am not doing much!

Just having a catch up on break from a very wet morning at work. Broke the back of my trimming yesterday but still haven’t tackled the tree.
Lovely tree pics all :)

Thinking of you and your son @IlovetoKnitandRead and hoping for good news.

I have a couple of days of CC to catch up on, but it's the perfect rainy day for that (trying to think positive - it's a horrible, dark rainy day). Might also wrap some of the presents I need to post. Also, napping, I suspect.