What do I love about Christmas? How about everything! J When Emily offered me the opportunity to explain further, I wasn’t sure what to write about as there are so many things I enjoy about the holiday. But as I thought, I realised they all have one thing in common – a sense of ritual. From the peeling of approximately twenty million potatoes on Christmas Eve to the warming of mince pies at 11am on Christmas Day ready for the return of the church-goers, they’re things that have been a constant since my childhood, even while we’ve welcomed new family members and, more sadly, bidden farewell to others.
Exhausted
after a day of rooting through presents
One
of my favourite rituals is decorating my tree.
I used to have a very tasteful set of matching ornaments, bought from
one of the big stores But about ten years
ago a friend gave me a tree decoration of a ship in a bottle, knowing my love
of Age of Sail (nothing at all to do with uniforms and breeches, of course). That started me on a different path.
My tree is now a very long
way from elegant, hosting an eclectic range of ornaments, but each one of them
holds a good memory, be it a gold-dipped aspen leaf from a holiday in Colorado,
a brass biplane from a trip to Bruges, or the wooden rocking horse from a local
shop bought on a day out with friends. And
then there’s the rather extraordinary tree-topper angel that my sister brought
back for me from a trip to Finland.
So
each year, ten days before Christmas Day, I warm myself a mince pie, pour a
glass of sherry, and decorate the tree.
I buy a new ornament every year so that it remains a living tradition. This
year, I’m on the hunt for a wolf ornament to commemorate the year I’ve spent writing
my Strength of the Pack series.
To celebrate the series nearing its conclusion (there is one last book to come), I’m offering an ebook from the series to a randomly drawn commenter on this post. It’s the winner’s choice as to which book, and details of each book are on my website here.
And
if you’d like to share what rituals you enjoy over the holiday period – or have
any suggestions about how to keep a Labrador out of the piles of presents under
the tree – I’d love to hear them!
Author Bio:
Joy Lynn Fielding is a sucker for happy endings.
She believes, however, that if characters don’t suffer along the way, they
won’t fully appreciate being happy. Not all of her characters thank her for
this viewpoint, but what do they know?
Joy lives in a small English market town, and also
inhabits a number of fictional worlds at any one time, reflecting what she’s
writing and what she’s reading. She has a tendency to share the latest
fascinating facts she’s stumbled across in her research for books with anyone
who will listen. Thankfully she has a very patient Labrador who has a gift for
looking as though he’s interested in what she’s saying while he waits for the
food to arrive.
Great post! I love all the Christmas pictures. ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I had a lot of fun choosing them. :)
DeleteLove the blog post... I love this series....
ReplyDeleteDogs and presents don't mix... LOL
Every Christmas Eve me and my daughters sit down and watch Harry Potter Movies. We have every year since the 1st movie was released.
I'm really enjoying hearing about everyone's holidays, too, and I love the idea of a ritual Harry Potter watch. Those are such good, fun movies. Sadly, I have to agree with you about the dog / present issue...
DeleteYour ornaments have so many special memories for you as you look at them and must be fun to remember. Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! Happy holidays to you, too. :)
DeleteWe are much like you with the ornament tradition. My Mom started that with my daughter when she was born and I have continued on with it. Last year she finally decided that we didn't have to put all the school time ornaments on the back of the tree so maybe it will be a little more of a grown up tree this year!
ReplyDeleteI guess there comes a point with this particular tradition when there are simply too many ornaments to use them all. What a lovely tradition to have linked to your daughter. :)
DeleteReally liked the post. In the first few years of our marriage my husband and i would go and buy new Christmas balls. Over the years we stopped using them. We moved into a basement apartment 1 year ago and downsized. Both my daughters are in their early 20's. We told them to split the ornaments. They each got 10 boxes with 6 balls each. We never realized we collected so many. Now my tree is 2.5 ft and has homemade wooden painted ornaments. Easier with the dogs and cat
ReplyDeleteThat's a *lot* of balls, Denise! I hear horror stories about cats and Christmas decorations and the destruction that usually follows, so I'm glad you've found an option that avoids all that. There's something lovely about homemade ornaments.
DeleteThat sounds like my tree! It gets a little more special every single year. MY husband and I have been together for almost 9 years, married for almost 5, and our tree has gone from balls and lights, to something incredibly special. I love getting the boxes down, and seeing all of our special ornaments for the first time in a year. It is incredibly special to me. Man, I LOVE It when I read or hear about another person loving Christmas as much as I do!
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean, Jaime - that feeling of unpacking the ornaments each year is like nothing else. I hope you have a lovely Christmas!
DeleteHi Joy, there is no way you can stop a Labrador from checking out your presents my brother has two of them and they see at as there job to inspect everything, mostly to find out if any food has been hidden. Dudley, one of the labs, once opened a tin of chocolates and ate them all, still in their wrappers! My challenge is too keep the tree standing once the Parkour cats in training find its being put up!
ReplyDelete