Come Singing Christmas Cracker!
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COME SINGING CHRISTMAS CRACKER! Dear Come Singing friends, Christmas is a-coming - the strangest one that most of us can remember. We're finding ways to make it special for everyone we love, but thinking too how best to keep them -and ourselves - safe. I do hope that each of you will find a way to make the most of this very different year, and to feel happy and loved. Some may even be glad of a break from turkey leftovers day after day and all that washing up(!) and we will be able to celebrate later, when the coast is clear... It certainly hasn't stopped people trimming up, and in fact the Christmas lights seem to have been extra brilliant and creative this year. Several roads near me have decided to be living Advent calendars, with a different house adding a window display each day, and it's been lovely to admire them as they appear! John was on a mission to cheer up his close and put up his tree early - so tall that it touches the ceiling and barely fits in the picture! His decorations don't stop there and would be worth a colour supplement all to themselves! Howard and Shelly's clever friend has knitted them a Nativity scene which people can see as they pass the window. The detail is fantastic, and I especially love the sheep! We can't easily go carol singing round the neighbourhood, but Jennie has sent a quiz to get you tuned up and in festive mood... Answers as usual at the end. A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS 1. No gifts for a King, so shall I play my drum? 2. A hit for Harry Belafonte which reached number 1 in the charts in 1956. 3. All the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day in the morning. 4. A popular Christmas song sung by Cliff Richard; raise a glass of wine! 5. It was a moonlit, snowy night on the feast of Stephen. 6. Many bells are ringing in heaven, and the angels are singing. 7. 'Join the triumph of the skies' when you sing this rousing carol. 8. This carol was first heard in Austria over 200 years ago. During a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, it was sung on the battlefield. 9. These important people travelled from afar bearing gifts. 10. Nat King Cole's song mentions 'roasting chestnuts on an open fire' and ends with the words 'Merry Christmas to you'. ............................... This year may have been difficult for many of us, but Edna's memories of Anguish's Hospital show how Christmas can be magical, whatever the circumstances. Christmas in the Anguish's Children's Home In 1943 there were 56 of us. Some had been bombed out and their parents killed, some fathers were prisoners of war, mothers who were ill and couldn't look after them and I was there with three of my older sisters. My two younger sisters were in the babies home 100 Newmarket Road. My youngest brother was in the boys home because he had to move there when he was seven because our mother had died in December 1939. Several weeks before Christmas the cook would ask us to line up so we could have a stir of the Christmas puddings she was making. It was hard to stir because the mixture was quite heavy. The puddings would be put into large basins covered with muslin and then hung in the scullery until Christmas Day. A week before Christmas when we went down to breakfast we found a large Christmas tree had been put in the corner of the dining room decorated with lovely cellophane dolls with crepe paper dresses. Also there were lots of really small parcels. We would be so excited to see what we would get and we would creep down the back stairs so the staff wouldn't see or hear us. There was always a comb or bar of soap, either Palmolive, Eve or Lux. During the year we would have steel combs and bars of white carbolic unscented soap. They were the only presents we would get but the older girls would find a half crown under their pillow. Some kind woman had given us a 365 five minute tale story book. Before we ate we always had to say 'For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful'. I would then have to read the story for the day. On Christmas morning the Lord and Lady Mayoress would come and see us and I presented her with flowers. We didn't actually have a party Christmas Day but a few days later when the staff and their families came. The younger children would be put to bed as the party was always in the evening after tea. I don't remember the visitors eating with us at all. At the party we would always play 'Twilight'. We sat in a ring and someone would stand in the middle and spin an enamel plate. He or she would call out a number we had each been given and if the plate fell to the floor before we reached it, we would have to pay a forfeit. Twice I had to. One was to stand on a chair and 'touch a thousand'. I had no idea what it meant which was to touch my hair!. The other was to tap the shoulder of the 'cleanest' person in the room. I went over and touched Miss Reed, who was the head house mother of the home, and everyone clapped. One year we did a play called 'Robert & Father Christmas' and I played Robert who was in hospital with a head injury. In the play I had a Christmas tree next to my bed in the hospital and one of the other girls called Jean Parker danced like a fairy next to my bed. When she touched the tree with her wand when the music stopped all the tree lights miraculously came on (I had a button with me in the bed that I had to press at just the precise moment she touched the tree!). When I left the childrens home, the only thing I took with me was a wild animal book which I still have and was given to me because I was told I had been good. A bit battered now as the children used to scribble in it. Finally after one of the parties one of the guests - I never found out who - painted a picture of Father Christmas and the names of the 56 children were on the windows and doors in the picture. I received the original picture last year after Miss Ladbrooke, one of the staff more in charge of the boys, passed away and asked for the picture to be passed on to me some 70+ years after it had been drawn...... Reading these made wonderful reminiscences me think: could I find all the ingredients for making the Christmas pudding in the words of songs and rhymes? It's not as hard as you think, so have a go! My answers are at the end, but you might have better ideas! Jennie says: During Victorian times, puddings in large and rich houses were often cooked in fancy moulds. These were sometimes in the shape of towers or castles. Normal people just had puddings in the shape of balls. If the pudding was a bit heavy, they were called cannon balls! When you mixed your pudding on Stir-up Sunday, did you remember to make a wish? Hope your Christmas pudding is tasty, not like a cannon ball 1. Flour 6. Citrus peel 2. Sugar 7. Spices 3. Eggs 8. Cherries 4. Fat (butter, shortening) 9. Nuts 5. Dried fruit 10. A sixpenny piece It's so very different nowadays when it sometimes seems that Christmas, like Easter, has turned instead into a chocolate festival. But even that is shrinking... This very telling picture says it all! After all that sugar, how about a bit of brain exercise? If you have a pair of dice, you could play Fifty... You'll need pencil & paper for scoring, and number of people can play. A player throws both dice. If you throw a pair of 1’s, 2’s, 4’s or 5’s score 5 points. If you throw a pair of 6’s score 25 points. If you throw a pair of 3’s, you lose all your score so far - a bit like snakes and ladders but with numbers!! First to 50 wins the game. Or you could go on a virtual outing: attached is a list of museums, zoos, galleries and aquariums (aquaria?) that you might like to visit - just click the links and wait for the doors to open! Free access to the British Museum, the Louvre, Van Gogh Museum and many more! And to recover, how about a bit of baking? CHOCOLATE CHIP CHRISTMAS COOKIES (A softer texture in the American tradition) INGREDIENTS for about 30 cookies 4oz Soft butter 3oz Demerara sugar 2 ½ oz Granulated sugar Vanilla essence to taste 1 egg 7oz Plain flour ½ teasp Bicarbonate of soda Pinch of salt 5oz Chocolate chips (e.g. Dr Oetker 70%cocoa) METHOD Oven temperature Mark 4, 180°C or 350°F Cream butter, sugars, vanilla and egg until light and fluffy. Combine flour, bicarb and salt and add to wet mixture, mixing thoroughly. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture, spaced well apart, onto ungreased flat baking trays.