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| Pointsettia and Advent Candle |
It used to infuriate me for some reason, when I would call to see my foster mother late on Christmas Eve afternoon and she was up a ladder "just finishing off" painting a room! As a consequence of the urge to paint and decorate hitting her late in Advent, her Christmas decorations were rarely up before 10pm on Christmas Eve!
It wasn't such a big deal really, as Christmas mornings were never early ones, even when we were children. As we were not allowed to get up before 9am on Christmas morning, the late night decorator could have a bit of a lie in. Christmas mornings at five or six o'clock, we would ask if we could get up, then at seven, only to be told no, it was too early. We were allowed to open one present however, from our stockings, whilst waiting for the grown-ups to surface.
After we grew up and left home, present opening and family gathering time, was in the evening of Christmas Day anyway, so there continued to be time for the house to be decorated, and made ready for visitors on Christmas Day!
As I lived between two families, I had the contrast of another way of doing things at Christmas, quite early on in life. My birth family put up the Christmas decorations a good two or even three weeks before Christmas and there was certainly no decorating of the other kind going on on Christmas Eve. They would be too busy spending time together, either with a Christmas Eve gathering or an outing to the Pantomime. Children were not expected to wait for anything much at all!
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| Holly |
Since I have had my own home and family, I have taken to putting up the Christmas Decorations the Sunday before Christmas. I love to bring evergreens into the house, after all this was originally a pagan festival and I want to be reminded of the natural world and the turning of the seasons, amongst all the twinkling lights and tinsel. Last year we had a frantic search to find a tree, as more and more people put up their decorations earlier. It's nice to have flowers around for Christmas too, and of course sprigs of real Holly. My Nana always had Holly around the house, and a Christmas Cactus reminds me of her too. We were given a Christmas Cactus by my Mother-in-Law a few years ago, so these beautiful plants now have two extra special women associated with them in my memory.
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| Christmas Cactus |
So to get me into the festive mood early, and to bring some Christmas colour into the house, I usually buy a Pointsettia plant once December arrives. I have to buy one every time, due to the fact that, while in my care, the poor plants never seem to survive to bloom another year. I'll have another go with the one I bought this year as I've found a new website which describes a year long "schedule of care" to follow. Wish me luck!
Oh and by the way, I am decorating my kitchen just now. Don't worry though I am sure it will be finished well before Christmas Eve. Fingers crossed!
I liked what you said about bringing in evergreens in remembrance of Christmas being a pagan festival. We have Christmas cactus but it does blossom twice a year. I found out it needs a lot of light, not too much water (1x-2x week, just a bit) and preferably even mineral water. No draught, that will kill it. Not close to windows you open often. The white and pink ones seem to blossom more easily than the red ones. And changing the earth right after it bloomed for the first time will help too. Good luck. It's really wonderful when they bloom again.
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