Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Crafts

I come from a family of crafters on my mother's side, so I grew up encouraged to make little gifts for relations and followed  this through with my own daughter and now my  granddaughter. it began with making Christmas cards (be prepared for glitter all over the place!)  and then went onto calendars, bookmarks and decorated felt mats.

Above is one of my mother's creations, brought out at Christmas time.

When my daughter was little (and money was short),  I made felt or knitted toys (such as the Bronwie below),  collage nursery pictures for her bedroom and rooms out of shoeboxes to create a doll's house. 

 

 

 

Last  year our  granddaughter wanted a bed for her favourite "White Ted" (no longer very white!) so  Santa brought a home made  crochet blanket and a pillow & quilt.  

 

One of my early efforts were simple patchwork stockings which we still use today.   

 

 

Then I became a cross stitch enthusiast  - so here are some tree decorations.

 

 

To mark my daughter starting at the High School, I made a new stocking of various cross stitch motifs (not the easiest task to  work out the spacing)  with Christmas greetings in different languages - plus a tartan ribbon to reflect our Scottish connection.  This still comes down from  the loft every year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For birthdays and Christmases I  always made my parents a cross stitch card.   Following their deaths, I discovered that they had kept them all, which I now have compiled into a scrapbook collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding a little something little to add to stockings was always a challenge, and home made bookmarks filled this gap beautifully.

When I was working full time, a gift to me of home baking was a much valued present. In turn my daughter appreciated a hamper of home made soup, crumbles, cottage pie and lasagne for the freezer when she was just home with a new December baby.    

 

The gift of time and tasks is also  one full of pleasure - my daughter has taken me on shopping trips to places I could not get to easily and I have done household tasks for her. The fun comes in composing a gift voucher for the task, so there is at least something of a surprise  to open on Christmas Day.  
 

 

For me, Christmas would not be Christmas without the enjoyment that comes from making something.   I recommends it! 

 

 

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! 

Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.” 

 

 

Copyright © 2013 · Susan Donaldson. All Rights Reserved

 

The Book of Me - Snowy Tales

This  post was prompted by Julie at Anglers Rest  and  her  series " Book of Me - Written by You", where she asks us here to describe our snowy memories.

I have no winter photographs of my childhood - cameras must have been reserved for summer and I  can't say I have any memorable weather memories from my childhood either.  I was too young to recollect the notorious winter of 1947.



Winter 2013 in the woods
near Earlston,  Scottish Borders

I grew up in north-west England where winters were relatively mild, but this was the days before tights and girls then did not wear trousers. A Liberty bodice, skirt with short socks (short trousers for my brother), home knitted jumpers and pixie hood, wellington boots, gloves kept safe on string through my sleeves, plus a long scarf criss-crossed over my chest and tied at the back - this was the ritual dress for going out in winter in my early 1950's childhood.

I hated wearing  a Liberty Bodice - the rubber buttons were difficult to do and undo, and if the day got warmer you ended up all sticky inside it.    To those of you new to this bit of childhood underwear, a  liberty bodice was  simply-shaped and made of a warm, fleecy white fabric, with cotton tapes and rubber buttons.  It was noatlgic item for children growing up in the 1950's, but   went out of production in the mid 1960's.


At home in the 1950's,   there was no such things as central heating, so we huddled around the fire in the living room and kept the inner person warm with simple, hearty comfort food - roast meat on a Sunday, cottage pie on a Monday, sausages and mash, corned beef hash,  and steamed puddings, such as spotted dick with custard  or golden syrup sauce, and rice pudding (ugh!), with the weekend treat fruit pies or crumbles and chocolate cake.

Getting a cold, meant my chest being rubbed with Vick and a hot drink of lemon and honey - my mother's medicinal remedy for anything.

By 1963  (another  notoriously bad winter) we were in Edinburgh and I recall my moother worried at the non-arrival of my father from a business trip to London (before the days of mobile phones and instant communication).  He was stranded overnight on a train stuck in the Border hills, with an engine sent to rescue it also trapped..

In the late 1960's I was very proud of my fur hood, the winter fashion statement of the times,  with echoes of the  Dr. Zhvago film.

I  spent a wonderful  year 1965-66  working in Cambridge, Massachussets near Boston and this photograph brings back memories of the kind of winter I had not experienced before.

A picturesque image of  Harvard Chapel, Camridge, Mass.

From 1971 I have lived in the Scottish Borders. My daughter was born in January so an unfortunate time for planning parties. it was always  a question,   will relations  and friends travel  for  her party?  (I know the snow we get is nothing compared to outher coutnries, but this is Britain where the excuse is we do not get bad winters often enough to deal with them efficiently.  Still we went through the ritual of a birthday photograph

1975 - and Gillian not looking too happy for a birthday girl! 

 She is following my childhood trend of having gloves on a string1  

 

1977

1979

 

 

Then came all the talk of global warming, mild and wet winters (umbrellas the essential accessory) and the near decimation of the Scottish sking industry.  2001 was a blip with some of  the worst snow for years, and Hawick where we then lived  was cut off for three days and I could not get to work, with no buses running outside the town.  I resorted to creative  cookery from what was in my store cupboard and for the first occasion in years had time to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.    

Winter 2001

The pleasures of having a dog in winter

We had to wait nearly ten years for real winters to strike again, coinciding with the first two years of my granddaughter's life.   

 

She is enjoying it ( I think!)

 

 

Trudging home from nursery school - February 2013





Winter 2010 - the frozen River Teviot at Hawick, Scottish Borders

 



February 2012 and the postman adding a splash of colour

I have now reached the stage of rather favouring winter hibernation! to escape snows, unlike this heron - a familiar site on the River Slitrig in Hawic.  

 

Adapted from an earlier post of 2011.  

 

Copyright © 2013 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

 



Advrnt Calendar of Christmas Memories 6 - Santa Claus' Many Faces

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! 

Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.” 

 

 

 I came across this little verse in a church magazine and it made me smile.  No source or acknowledgement was given,  so here it is:   

The Four Lives of Santa Claus

I believe in Santa Claus

I don't believe in Santa Claus

I am Santa Claus

I look like Santa Claus!

 

The modern term "Santa Claus came from the Dutch figure of Sinterklass, which in turn stemmed from the legend of St. Nicholas, a bishop and giver of gifts.

In ancient times, people faced hardship in winter and looked to the forces of nature to be benevolent to them.  A figure such as “Old Winter” or "Father Christmas" dressed up and visited houses, wishing goodwill on the house.  It was a time of feasting and drinking in the hope that these symbolic acts would influence the nature.

The traditional image of Santa Claus we owe to the American post Clement Clark Moore in his famous  poem  of 1822 "T'was the night before Christmas" which introduced the elements of chimney and reindeer;  to the artist Thomas Nast whose drawing appeared in 1861, and to the Coca Cola advertising campaign of 1931 which gave us the red costumed chubby, cheery figure we know today.  Father Christmas and Sand Claus became one.   

 

T'was the night before Christmas

Wen all through the house

Not a creature was stirring,

Not even a mouse................

 

 

My mother made this Santa Claus (below) many years ago for my daughter - just one of  many soft toys she sewed or knitted.  Santa is now looking rather tired, having also been passed onto my little granddaughter.  But he is still a lovely seasonal memory of my talented mother.

 

  

 

Sepia Saturday - Bobs, Waves and Rolls

Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories  through photographs.

 

This week's main theme was Aprons.  My mother  was a great apron wearer and maker - from the wrap-around overall for wash day, and the pocket apron for carrying dusters and polish  up and down stairs to the butcher's apron style for baking to the dainty frilled waist pinny for serving tea. She made them all herself and was a stalwart sewer for any local fete or Christmas fair. But I have no photographs of her in her work-a-day wear.  

 So, looking at the lady on the left here,  I have focussed instead on hairstyles of the 1920's. 30's and 40's

 

The impact on the First World War on the changing role of  women saw an abandonment of the  traditional long hair styles of the Victorian period to the new short styles of the bob, finger-wave, Marvel wave, shingle and Eton crop, with their popularity continuing well into the 1930's.

 

 An elegant unidentified portrait in my husband's collection -

thought to be a relation of his great aunt Annette.  

 

 

 

My great aunt Jennie Danson  who sacrificed her long plait for the new look.

 



My mother Kathleen Danson -Jennie's niece,
though there was only 11 years difference in their ages.  

My mother again - with more waves this time



My mother's second cousins Elsie Oldham - "Elise" c. 1920's

I have told the story of Elsie before on my blog,  but it fits this theme so beautifully I could not help but repeat it.

 

 

Bobbing, Shingling, Marcel Waving and Perming", was the promise of my mother's second cousin Elsie Oldham in  this lovely evocative 1920's advertising  blotter.

Perhaps the French adaptation of her name to Elise was regarded as more appropriate for a hairdresser.   The business was conducted from the rather less glamorous setting of her home (below) with the large adverts  in the windows and on the pole outside  

 



The Oldham home in Blackpool, Lancashire
with the adverts in the window & on the garden pole.





In the 1930''s and 1940's  a  softer look crept in, with curls and waves all the rage, and during the war the "roll" was the defining style.  This was the age of trying to emulate  Hollywood glamour, despite the realities  of life during the  depression and war. 
                                  



My mother again - Kathleen Danson

My aunt - Edith Danson

Another new look for my mother who seems to have adopted an Austrian style, with what looks like  braids over  her head.  She was always very proud of her distinctive widow's peak.

Some typical 1940's looks from my mother and Aunt Peggy

My aunt Peggy Danson 

 



 

   

Copyright © 2013 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

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Advent Calendar of Christmas Menories 3 - Carols Galore

From:  www.classroomclipart.com

To me Christmas means singing. One of my earliest memories is taking part in a primary school (girls only) nativity play, singing solo the first verse of "We Three Kings of Orient Are" and wearing a cardboard crown with jewels made from fancy sweetie papers. I have never wanted to sing solo since.

 In another Christmas concerts, my role was to play the triangle in the percussion band - a bit of a come down from the most desired instrument that everyone longed to get - the sleigh bells.

One family get-together, after the meal, we children did our party pieces, with mine on the piano. My little brother decided to plough his way through all 12 verses of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". He developed hiccups and his long socks kept falling down - this was the days of lads in short trousers, despite the weather.   But he was determined to finish singing the carol, kept pulling his socks up and by the end, we were all falling about laughing and we never allowed him to forget this occasion.


At secondary school we always had a carol service where the tradition was to sing some carols in foreign languages - so for French "It est ne le divin enfant" or "Qui est cette odour agreeable", German was "O Tannenbaum", "Es ist ein Rose entsprungen" or "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" and Latin always "Adeste Fideles".

My father sang in the church choir and my mother in the Townswomen's Guild Choir and being a choir member myself has been one of my key interests. In autumn, out came the orange, green and blue books of "Carols for Choirs" (Oxford University Press) as we prepared for our Christmas concerts, looking for a mixture of old favourites and newer arrangements and trying to come up with slightly different themes e.g. Carols from Around the World, Carols Down the Centuries, Carols for All Ages etc. (I know, not exactly original, but then Christmas is a time for tradition). 


My own favourite carols  have not changed much over the years "Silent Night", "In the Bleak Mid Winter", "Three Kings from Distant Lands Afar" and "O Holy Night". I like the simple unadorned arrangements best - nothing too fancy, but the descants of the standard choral classics such as "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", I find it so uplifting as the sopranos soar up to the high notes. We always ended the concert with a lively rendition of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" followed by the serving of mince pies and mulled wine to complete one of my "must do" Christmas activities - a great start to the Christmas Spirit.

It is much the same with that other staple Christmas music - Handel's "Messiah" which I have sung many times and it never palls. An unforgettable, wonderful experience was singing in the Royal Albert Hall in London in a "Come and Sing" Messiah in a choir of 1000, with orchestra, organ and a packed audience. Singers came from all over Britain and Europe to take part, so there was a great buzz and camaraderie as we found our seats. It was altogether marvellous, moving and exhilarating, and at the end, I walked out on a high!

Classic FM is my favourite radio station and come December 1st we know we are in for a feast of carols and Christmas music. On Christmas Eve, it is time to watch on TV the beautiful candlelight carol service from Kings College Chapel, Cambridge.

So for me, Christmas would not be Christmas

without the enjoyment of seasonal music!

 

Adapted from a posting of 2012, but I hope it will be of interest to my new readers.

“The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”

 

 

 

 

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2 - Card Collection

 

 

This lovely German Christmas card came from the my husband's collection.  His uncle Mattie married a German girl in the 1950's.     

 

 

Christmas Card Scrapbooks

One of my favourite post Christmas occupations is to create a Christmas Scrapbook. It seems such a shame to bin so many lovely images that I have come up with my own way of retaining the cards for future pleasure.

I began doing this years ago when my daughter was small, with "Gillian's Christmas Scrapbook" (right) a way of conveying the Christmas story, message and traditions in a strong visual way and displaying cards that had been spent especially sent to her. I hand-wrote the words as this was long before the days of computers. The scrapbook came out of the cupboard every Christmas to look through and reminiscence over and it became part of our family tradition which now includes our little granddaughter.

More years down the line, I had a growing collection of cards that I had refused to throw out, so I created something similar in a more adult version calling it "Christmas Kaleidoscope"- (above left) annotated this time by the computer, which of course made a huge difference to the style of presentation.

By then I had the bug, so the next year it was "A Christmas Anthology", (left) using the cards to illustrate poems, songs and literature relating to Christmas.

Last year the theme was "Christmas A-Z" (right) focusing on a wide range of aspects of the Christmas story. What would I do without the internet to help with history and definitions?

I do mean to stop - but already my mind is on a new theme - perhaps looking at the stories behind Christmas carols.

Since I began, scrapbooking has become a sophisticated hobby, but I have kept to a very simple style with the focus on the illustrations.

So to anyone who sends me a card, it continues to give pleasure long after the 12 days of Christmas have past.

 

 

Adapted from a posting of 2012, but I hope it will be of interest to my new readers.  

 

Copyright © 2013 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

 

“The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! 

Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”