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!

No snow here either (it sleeted for a few minutes yesterday morning which was VERY unwelcome even though I was snuggly inside) but perishing cold. DS1 is raising my ire by insisting on going to 6th form in his currently preferred option of shirt, tie, and lovely woollen frock coat (... yes) which he then has to take off in class, rather than shirt and tweed jacket which he has to keep on. He's still getting over a nasty bug and I WILL superglue him into a jumper tomorrow morning!

I rarely eat the Pudding - I do quite like it but much prefer a Christmas cake, and I live in a benighted household where nobody else eats anything with dried fruit in! The one time I made my own pudding and steamed it, it was SO greasy with the suet I found it hard to eat. There are several 'serves one' puds in the kitchen cupboards from previous years, so you can see I'm not all that bothered by them!

Good memory!

Yes, they are very effective though perhaps time limited. I accidentally dip mine in the wax when it’s being stubborn because the charge is low. It doesn’t work well then 🤣

You probably need a steadier hand than with matches as you hold the spark to the wick longer than a match would need. DS isn’t keen but he’s a, had his a long time and b, unsteady of hand.

You need to charge them occasionally, but mine has leapt back into life without needing a charge, despite being unused all summer.

Loving the nun stories. My mum went to a convent school in the early 60s and speaks so fondly of the nuns and her time there. There's something about the life of a nun which is very appealing - the simplicity, the quiet, the singing... Maybe in another life...

So, I have lit my candle, opened the book (I alternate between Nigel reading to me on Audible and the physical book) and am sitting here with a glass of wine... As I lit the candle, it re-ignited an old memory of Christmas Eve, the curtains would be parted and a tall, thick red candle would be lit on a side plate, my mother would then go outside and check it could be seen from the street and go back in the kitchen to continue her prep.

Those readers who are Irish may recognise the custom, it was if the Holy Family were making the journey again they knew that they could stop at our house for a shelter and food... for us my mum said, it was for any passing stranger to know that they could find a bed and food. I have to admit there were some sleepless Christmas Eves when I worried about being topped and tailed in bed with a passing stranger... it did not happen.

When I first moved to London, I lived for 16 yrs on the 15th floor, the candle still burned in the window but I felt confident my spare bed would not be called up, but I knew I had the food covered!

I love this @LatteLady , very generous.

I used to hate dried fruit, but made puddings religiously for decades just for the love of cooking (before chronic fatigue took over) These days I do enjoy a bought in Christmas pudding with a dollop of clotted cream or Brandy Butter. I can't do it after Christmas lunch, though, as I'm always too full. I tend to indulge myself on Boxing day instead <insert MN competitive undereating or chicken lasting a week story here>

We had a date at our library with some folk we met at our last craft fair a few weeks ago this evening. They had ordered some candles and I honestly didn't expect half of them to turn up as the weather has been so atrocious, and some came from deepest Northumberland. They were all waiting there on the dot when we arrived. So lovely!

Couple more pics from our snowy day today. I'll be replacing the Autumn wreath with the winter one in a couple of days.

I always buy a pudding these days. My wonderful MIL always used to make one when she came for Christmas - I now have her pudding bowl, but I haven’t assumed her mantle. I have a candle lighter @sbplanet - one of the best gifts ever - I love it. Highly recommend.

I love that story / custom @LatteLady ❤️

Was it last year or the year before there was a HUGE controversy on mumsnet when an Irish poster mentioned wanting to put a lit candle in her window on Christmas Eve - cue post after post of YOU'LL BURN THE HOUSE DOWN ARE YOU MAD!!!

My Dublin grandmother would have been affronted.

I've never seen any puddings in shops here so I make 2 every other year. They lack the semi-spherical shape as I use Pyrex bowls, keep meaning to make myself a couple of pudding basins but never get round to it.

Voilà

I put this in my Amazon basket last night and forgot to check out (it was £23) I just went on to order it and it’s a Black Friday deal, in case anyone needs a copy.

Dang it I paid 15 quid for a second hsnd one 10 days ago grrrrrrr

Quick heads up. Up to 50% off in the St Eval BF sale from tomorrow

@leporello I missed that, my mother and her people came from Dalkey, so when her siblings were alive there would have been 12 houses burning candles... and funnily enough, no one's house went up in flames...

I'm trying to decide which (proper) advent calendar to buy off Amazon, think maybe this one...Probably NVN :D
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WGQZP3P

@leporello @LatteLady Having been a Catholic schoolgirl myself way back in the mists of time and having been taught by nuns in primary school I really enjoyed reading your posts. I remember when I was quite young asking one of the nuns (I can’t remember her name) if she knew how to play dominoes, she got a children’s set out of the cupboard and we started a game. I only knew how to play fives and threes and she asked me how I knew how to play that way. I proudly told her that “my dad taught me in The Fox and Duck” she must have told my mum because after we got home my mum told me not to tell them that I went to the pub. But I do remember that nun played very well herself, I did wonder if she learned to play in the pub too.

What a lovely custom @LatteLadyand some lovely snowy pics!
we have had a few flakes of snow this evening at last, and it’s extremely cold.
I have packed for Krakow and just getting into bed with some Night Nurse as we must leave at 5am and I’m stuffy with cold still. Ugh. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow..
Good tip on the Good Friday st Eval sale-that will kill some time at the airport!

@LatteLady that is a lovely story. As my mum ages, connections with the past are ever-more important to me too.

I buy a pudding as I’m the only one who likes dried fruit and can eat gluten. Dh is allergic to a lot of stuff and tho I can usually bake around it there’s nothing quite like “full leaded” food sometimes.

It’s been lovely hearing your nun stories. We had quite the tales from local friends who attended the convent school.

Have a marvellous time in Krakow, @piscofrisco

I’m off to see my youngest brother and his wife this weekend. We’ve met twice in a year and a half, at family funerals, due to my cancer treatment. I’m looking forward to getting on with a more normal family life.

Earlier today, I had a taste of radio stardom (tongue in cheek!), as I was interviewed on a national broadcast channel about my habit of listening to music whilst I swim. Listening to it, I realise I definitely have a “phone voice”!

I'm enjoying the snowy pictures. Just been very cold and bright here today. I was away with work yesterday and managed a little wander round another Christmas market (Manchester) - the longest queue was for the stall selling tiramisu!

I've also been looking at advent calendars @sbplanet - I'd like a traditional one (or, to be honest, the Candy Kittens sweets one because I love a sour sugary thing).

I'm saving my pudding-making until the end of the month as I've got family visiting then and I thought it'd be nice to do together. Also going to a wreath making workshop that weekend so will definitely be stepping up the festiveness as we go into December.

Good evening!

It's been a stupidly long day, but I've made it!
Full teaching day, then 4 hours of Parents' Evening, and then my usual Thursday night Olio/anti-food waste collection and distribution.

I knew I was going to resent spending all day inside, as it has been gloriously cold and clear, with blue skies. So, I got up at 5:30 and went for a 5k run, with frost underfoot, and sky of stars. Could see Jupiter as well.

My Christmas pudding was made last year for this year, and I'll cook another probably next week for 2026. I pop mine into the slow cooker for 12 hours on low (or overnight), and then just reheat on the day in the microwave.

Just going to finish off the chapter, and then toddle off to bed with my hot water bottles!

Oh, and yesterday the snow just about laid on the hills opposite us. And I made medlar jelly, with the help of Crabby (a purchase from the Christmas bargain threads!)

I'm also enjoying the nun reminiscences and the candle-in-the-window! I'm not religious but it's a village tradition that a little set of model Holy Family figures gets passed around from house to house as a Posada - they end up in the church on Christmas Eve, and on their journey you're meant to put them in a window and give them a snack and light a candle. We're set back from the road (and that isn't anywhere near as exclusive as it might sound!) so passers-by can't look into any of our windows (well apart from next door, whose kitchen looks right into ours, must stop cooking semi-clad). But all the same I thought I'd offer a window this year, and I hope I get a slot. It's a lovely tradition.

Having been swayed by the M&S Beauty advent calendar thanks to S&B on here for the last 3 years, I came to the conclusion that a) I'm not really a Pampering Person, and b) it's an awful lot of plastic. I didn't get one this year. I felt very abstemious - then went and got the Bonne Maman jams and spreads calendar for DH and I to share... We also have semi-posh chocolates in a sort of textile calendar. I'd love a German glittery one but I can't find them locally any more, and DS2 would almost certainly find it and tear all the flaps off.

21 November

Fairies and Flammkuchen

Nine in the morning, church bells ringing, feet scurrying over the frosty cobbles. I'm warm with toasted rybebread and cherry jam, with bircher muesli and sweet apple pastries, and have set out looking for decent coffee. The Christmas markets open at ten. Markets with canopies of twinkling lights and rows of starlit trees, stalls of painted wooden toys, nougat and Flammkuchen and later, much later, mugs of Glühwein to warm hands and souls.

Enjoy Krakow. I have very happy memories of going with my mum before DD was born.

Note, St Eval sale doesn't kick off until 10am I've just noticed.

DDs birthday today. 14! Crikey, where does the time go? It's IngenTings birthday today too but she's not landed on the thread yet.

Well I'm going to take a tentative peek outside as from what I can see on my Ring camera, it looks very icy. Glad I gritted the paths and driveway last night.