Christmas Countdown Day 7

Christmas Countdown Day 7

A Christmas Carol

One of my pre-Christmas treats is to read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I am sure that everyone reading this blog knows the story well, but just in case you don't, here is a brief summary;

Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean old gentleman who makes no bones about his hatred of Christmas. He begrudgingly gives his poor (literally and figuratively!) clerk Bob Cratchit a day off for Christmas, but that is about as good as he gets. Until...

An old business partner of Scrooge's pays him a visit on the night of Christmas Eve. Said business partner, Jacob Marley, has been dead for several years, so to say that Scrooge is a little upset by this is an understatement! Marley tells Scrooge of his terrible fate after death, and he may only redeem himself of his miserly ways by being haunted again by three other spirits that night. 

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present (my favourite spirit!) and Future (the scary one!) lead Scrooge on his life's journey. I won't spoil the ending, as most of you will know it quite well enough anyway!

But it does all end on a happy note!

Dickens first published A Christmas Carol in December 1843 (the same year as the first commercial Christmas card was published!) Many people credit Dickens with creating much of the tradition we associate with Christmas. In truth he captured the spirit of the age, many Victorians had more money to spend, more free time and a willingness to celebrate at Christmas. Dickens had already written about Christmas in The Pickwick Papers, published in 1837, and published further Christmas stories between 1844 and 1848, The Chimes, The Cricket in the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man and the Ghosts Bargain. These books were not so well received by critics, and not such a great commercial success. The Chimes is a book set at New Year, another story of redemption, which I have read for the first time ever this year. 

Though Dickens was part of a general restoration of interest in the Christmas holiday, the popularity of many traditions we now include at Christmas may be attributed to his book A Christmas Carol; Turkeys for example, Scrooge chooses a turkey to give Bob Cratchit and his family not only because of its huge size, but also because of its luxury. Tradition had seen beef or goose eaten at Christmas, turkey was an unusual choice at the time, now we seem to eat almost nothing else! Charity, and a feeling for others less fortunate has strong associations at Christmas, and there was a marked increase in charitable donations in the years after the book was first published. The traditional ghost story at Christmas may also have something to do with the Spirits who visited Scrooge. Interest in Spiritualism was growing during the early Victorian era and Dickens tapped into this. 

The very image of a Victorian or Dickensian Christmas, with crinolined ladies in muffs and snow covered bow windows owes more to illustrators and movie makers than Dickens himself, but it's still all part of the Christmas tradition set up around A Christmas Carol. Perhaps the best attribute of the book was its gift to the English language; A Scrooge, a miserly old sinner, and of course Bah! Humbug! on the lips of all Scrooges the world over!

One other treat I always allow myself (there are so many I know!) is to watch A Muppets Christmas Carol I challenge anyone to watch this without having the odd tear in their eye at some point in the film!! ;o)

Christmas Countdown Day 6

Christmas Countdown Day 6

Candy Canes

Another polymer food make today, this time it's candy canes. These are a fairly recent visitor to British shores from America, though we have similar peppermint sweets and sticks of rock, these candy canes are now becoming popular at Christmas. 

To make them is fairly easy, just take two thin sausage shapes of red and white Sculpy or Fimo, and lay them next to one another on a clean, smooth, flat surface. Slowly roll the two together and they will become one long stripy stick, which you can then cut to size. Curve one end over to look like a cane. Bake in the oven as instructed. Once cooled they can be used to decorate Christmas trees, or fill stockings!

Christmas Countdown Day 5

 Christmas Countdown Day 5

My Miniature Christmas Cake

Hello Everyone, Today I thought I would show you the results of another experiment I tried. I wanted to create a Christmas cake for my pub project. I have seen plenty of miniature food items made from Fimo and Sculpy, and thought a cake would be fairly straight forward. 

I started out with a lump of brown Fimo, and shaped it into a round cake shape, then used some sand coloured Sculpy rolled out thinly to create a layer of marzipan, then smoothed this over the brown 'cake' base. 

After the marzipan layer I took some white Sculpy, and again rolled this out to create a layer of icing on the cake. I rolled out some sausage shapes in white Sculpy and stuck this to the base of the cake and another around the top of the cake and used needle pliers to crimp and texture this to look like it was piped icing. 

I then cut out a wedge to make a slice of cake and textured the exposed brown Fimo, to give it a more cake like texture. I also worked in a tiny amount of black Fimo onto the cake slice to give the appearance of currents and other dried fruit.

Looks good enough to eat!!!

Finally, I created a tiny snowman from tiny balls of Sculpy, added a tiddly little carrot nose and black hat. Then I baked the whole thing in the oven. It's not too bad for a first attempt, I am quite happy with it. It's a little larger than planned, as the marzipan and icing layers added to the overall finished cake, and I am still not sure how you can handle this stuff and not leave finger prints in it! Any ideas on that one?

BTW. the eyes on the snowman were put on later using a gel pen!

Christmas Countdown Day 4

Christmas Countdown Day 4

God Jul

Opps! I was so busy yesterday with wrapping presents and preparing for my real life Christmas, I completely forgot to post my Christmas Countdown yesterday. So I will be posting two today instead!

I have been trying to learn the words to a couple of well known Christmas carols in another language recently. Don't ask me why, it's just something I felt like doing. I ended up choosing Swedish (hence the title above) and the two carols I have been learning to sing in Swedish are;  Stilla Natt 

(Silent Night) and O Helga Natt (O Holy Night).

Now, I won't offend your ears by recording myself singing, I have found some beautiful examples of these songs, sung in Swedish, on You Tube, and have posted them below. I hope you enjoy them. 

O Helga Natt sung by Jussi Bjorling

Stilla Natt sung by Sissel

Christmas Countdown Day 3

Christmas Countdown Day 3

Micro Christmas Trees

I have seen some great little micro Christmas village buildings appearing on a few blogs in recent weeks, and the idea of micro Christmas miniatures caught my imagination. I wanted some very small decorations for part of the Christmas makeover of The Swan Inn, but nothing too complex. I looked at the tiny villages and thought what they could do with were some tiny trees, and then I thought of tiny Christmas trees! So, lacking the skill to create tiny model buildings, here is my humble offering to you; the Micro Christmas Tree!

It really couldn't be simpler! Take a suitably coloured pipe cleaner, I think they are called something else these days, but I'll stick to what I know from Blue Peter! gently trim the pipe cleaner all around at one end, shaping it into a little point, taking care not to trim too much off! Once you have the desired size and shape, carefully snip off the amount of the pipe cleaner you need. carefully remove any lose fluff from the bottom end, and using a suitably sized bead, gently fit the bottom of the pipe cleaner into the hole in the bead. You can glue it if you wish to.

And here are some I made earlier!! I have put them on top of a doll's house book shelf so you get a sense of the scale. You could add a small star shaped sequin if you have them (mine's a little large!) or maybe use a little white paint to add a snow effect. You can see they really are very easy to make and are quite effective too. If you don't have beads, why not use some rolled up coloured paper, or Fimo/Sculpy? If you have them you could even use tiny micro beads to decorate the trees!

I hope you have fun making some!! ;o)

Christmas Countdown Day 2

Christmas Countdown Day 2

Holly

Who knows how far back in history it was that holly was first used to decorate homes, or adorn the body. We know very little about the Early Pagans and what they used to worship, but it seems likely that holly along with other evergreens such as ivy and mistletoe may have been thought to have a certain magical quality when most other trees and plants had shed their leaves for the winter. Perhaps evergreens had the power to ward off evil spirits, or bring good fortune.

The Romans were certainly fond of this prickly plant, it was used for offerings during the feast of Saturnalia, to the god Saturn, whose festival fell soon after the winter solstice, and is probably the origin of the Christmas Day festivities we know today.

Early Christians used cryptic symbols to display their faith, and it may well have been from them that Holly became associated with the blood of Christ and it's prickles, perhaps, with the crown of thorns. That there was an abundance of holly around during the holy Christmastide in Northern Europe meant that it soon became a part of the festival. The carol The Holly and the Ivy uses various parts of the holly plant to tell the story of Christ. 

Holly was certainly used at Christmas time from the medieval period right through until the modern age. It has been somewhat upstaged by the fancy Christmas tree, but its glossy green leaves and bright red berries still add great cheer during the festive season.

As part of my Christmas Project at The Swan Inn I wanted to make some miniature holly. I was lucky to find a decorative paper cutter with small holly leaves, usually used in card making. The leaves were roughly about the right size. As you can see in the picture above, I stuck the leaves to small wires, just as I had done when making the wisteria earlier this year. I then made tiny red berries from Sculpy and baked them, before adding to the holly branches using Tacky Glue.

If you would like a touch of holly in your dolls house, and don't have the time to make your own, this delightful little holly wreath is available from Bluebellminiatures.co.uk for £5.00.

Happy Holly-days everyone!!! ;o)

Christmas Countdown!!!

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to this year's Christmas Countdown.

Actually, strictly speaking it is a count up! but that just sounds silly!!! Throughout December, up until Christmas I shall be posting little tit-bits for your delectation and delight, and hopefully spreading a little Christmas cheer along the way! Yes, my special Christmas Project at The Swan Inn does form part of the Christmas Countdown, so do keep a look out for future posts!

Christmas Post Number One

The Christmas Card

Small home made tokens of love had been sent at Christmas time for many years, but the first commercial Christmas card appeared in London in 1843. Sir Henry Cole is best known for his help in creating the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington after the Great Exhibition in 1851, however, he was a busy man long before this. In 1843 he felt he hadn't the time to write individual Christmas letters to his friends, and thought of having a Christmas greeting printed instead. He called on an artist friend of his, John Callcott Horsley, to create a suitable image to print with a simple Christmas greeting, which he would then be able to post.

The result can be seen above; a traditional British family enjoying a Christmas feast, and getting very 'merry' indeed in the central image, flanked on each side by ideals of charity, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.  1000 of these lithograph cards were printed, and each then hand tinted. The cards were put on sale in London at a price of one shilling each (which was quite a sum of money!).

The idea caught on and soon Christmas cards were being mass produced, and became much more affordable; this, along with a cheaper postal rate introduced in Victoria's reign meant that soon almost everyone was able to send a small Christmas greeting during the festive season.

The designs on Christmas cards soon became sentimentalised to suit Victorian taste and sensibilities.  Children and animals became very popular, along with religious images and depictions of Father Christmas.

I love this Victorian card above, which captures the Victorian sentimentality and feeling for charity at Christmas. The Kindly Robin, generously gives the Beggar Bird and his wife a red berry in the spirit of Christmas, while the Kindly Robin's wife looks on with 'charitable' concern.