Bah Humbug - It's December again! 14 days to go!

Sunday 11th December.

The second Sunday in Advent. Shouldn't I have stirred the Christmas pudding by now?

For an insight into Christmas Pudding, here's something I wrote earlier.

Incidentally, I have not seen any Christmas puddings in the supermarket this year. Maybe no-one wants to eat pudding. Luckily, I know somewhere that will sell them. But, I am not venturing there on a Sunday.

Unlike many European cities and the UK, Singapore is a thriving centre of commerce on a Sunday. It is the day when everyone practises the national sport - window shopping. Not window-shopping in a purposeful manner. Not window-shopping at a pace that allows me to either overtake or, at least, remain at a safe distance.

No, this is window shopping where I trip over everyone around me, in my attempt to conclude my actual shopping.

Sadly for me, this Sunday necessitated a venture into the super expensive expat shopping mall to purchase some printer toner. It was convenient. I was on the way home from tutoring, and the expensive mall was sitting there, beckoning me in all its consumeristic glitz.

Only hiccup - the shop didn't have the toner in stock. Silly me, I should have resorted to ordering online - free next day delivery.

While I was there, I made an attempt to avoid the fairy lights that require a second mortgage to purchase, I avoided the French bakery that even a Parisian would baulk at. I pretty much avoided everything that involved spending money.

But then, I became distracted. I tried to walk past the pop up Christmas shop. But like the kids that followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin, I was lured, lured into a cavernous area of Christmas tut. Tut that King Tut would have no doubt rejected, looking at the price tags. Really?

And for those of you, unfamiliar with the Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Robert Browning ...

I know we have an obligation to pay more, so that workers making these pagan baubles earn a decent wage. But, I have to ask myself, how much of this really goes to them, and how much is lining the pockets of purveyors of this artificial finery?

Goodness, day 11 of December and I am developing extreme Bah Humbugedness.

Now, where are the Christmas puddings?

Bah Humbug! It's December, again - 5 more days to go

Only 5 days to go? And the last Sunday of Advent ...

Bah and double Bah Humbug. Now we are down to the last five days. I need a Christmas pudding to feed more than one person and will have to plan what I am to do about vegetables. Do I buy them now and risk them going floppy, or do I risk not finding them in the market or supermarket when I go shopping the day before?

Whatever, this whole Christmas lunch thingummy-whatsit, is turning my brain into a vegetable.

As the last Sunday before Christmas, the question on many consumers' minds will be - church, shopping or having a quiet afternoon in. Living in Singapore, the shops always seem to be open, and weekends are especially painful as everyone goes shopping, or shopping to look around.

Will the shops be open in the UK? most probably, since not everyone panicked yesterday on Panic Saturday.

So, now we have adopted Black Friday - which really always makes me think of something evil - which it is, because it is a demonstration of sheer greed and consumerism. We have Panic Saturday - the first time I have heard that term - BBC where do you find these things?

And, today, is the last Sunday before Christmas, the fourth Sunday in Advent. Which, for those celebrating Christmas in the true spirit of it's Christian (rather than pagan) intentions, it is time to light the fourth Advent candle. The one for St John the Baptist.

The fifth and final candle, located in the middle of the Advent crown, is lit on Christmas Day, to represent Jesus. Although, if you live in Germany, you'll be lighting that one on Christmas Eve.

Advent is a month of reflection, leading up to Christmas Day and was first followed in Spain around 380AD. Advent then moved to France as a pre-Christmas fast and by the end of 6th Century is was widespread throughout Europe. Another man-made celebration of faith.

But, whatever your religion or faith, whatever your belief, Christmas is the culmination of the year past. It is a time of reflection, giving and being kind to others.

Bah Humbug.

DOWN THE CHIMNEY ©

Mum shook her head, ‘With Santa stuck,

A huge lunch would surely suck,

‘I thought we’d have a healthy day,

Without the tooth decay.’

‘But, Mum,’ I gave a heartfelt sob,

‘Some fruit will never do the job.

‘Besides I asked for a new robot,

He can’t have just forgot?’

Bah Humbug. It's December again - 17 Days until Christmas

Bah Humbug, it's 8th December. The start of the second week of Advent, the start of a working week, (and I can hardly open my eyes), seven pieces of chocolate have been consumed - and probably a lot more that had little to do with Advent calendars.

A whole week of Advent, and I have not eaten a mince pie yet. I did make pizza and pizza dough balls for dinner last night, but that doesn't count. That's an Italian tradition. Maybe I should make some pastry later on and finally open the jar of mincemeat that has been sitting in the cupboard?

Mincemeat with no meat. 

That always confused me when I was young. 

Mince pies. Mince pies denote pies made with mince, as in meat that has been put through one of those funny old contraptions with a funnel on the top and a handle that you turn so that the meat going in comes out in stringy munched up chunks. An early version of processed meat.

The mince pies today are not filled with meat. 

They were originally. 

Crusaders brought them back from the Middle East in 13th Century. Pies filled with chopped meat, fruit and spices. And that is how they were eaten for a long time at Christmas, normally containing 13 different ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 disciples.

As usual, we have the Victorians to blame with their strange eating habits for the sweet version, (they sort of invented jelly, but that isn't Christmassy so I shall not be writing about it here). They made the pies smaller and sweeter and the meat sort of disappeared. The ingredients were prepared months in advance (they planned things out, just like preparing the Christmas pudding), and stored it in jars, ready for the December pies. 

I'm not Victorian, well, at least I don't think I am, but I remember as a child waiting excitedly for the first mince pies of the season. Now you can buy mince meat and mince pies just about all year round, rather like Hot Cross Buns (that's another tradition that I could write about, but shall not as it has nothing to do with Christmas - that's Easter).

There are many stories about it being illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day. I don't think that's true as I have eaten many in my time. If it is, then I am probably living on borrowed time. Rather I think, we should make it illegal to throw away so many of these little treats that make a wonderful mid-morning snack with a cup of tea or an espresso. Unilever claimed in 2012 that 74 million pies are thrown away every year. That is a lot of landfill!

On that note, I shall leave you with a wonderful article that appeared yesterday in the British newspaper: The Independent, Sweet delight: A brief history of the mince pie

I suppose the Brits really do love their pies.

BAH HUMBUG

Now where is that jar of mince meat?

No More Days to Christmas - Bah Humbug

Bah Humbug, it's 25th December - that means it really is Christmas Day. It also means it is the FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS.

Yes, Christmas Day is the first day of the 12 days of Christmas that lead up to Epiphany. Everything leading up to Christmas was ADVENT - hello! That's why we have advent calendars, although, most parents and children seem to have forgotten what they are really for and just want the chocolate and unrelated picture inside.

If you go back to my earlier post on buying reduce-priced advent calendars you'll know what I mean! The twenty-first day before Christmas

"So this is Christmas," to coin a phrase from John Lennon. And while war is not over, sadly, there was also another war going on in my poor head - sleep and risk forgetting or just get up and do it now?

The good job was that Santa-Mum had an inbuilt - gosh I nearly forgot - alarm clock. It woke me up at 2am so that I did not leave the big gift in the store-room! 

Now I positively, absolutely, ridiculously need to get some more sleep. I look more like Halloween than Christmas ;)

It's only 7 o'clock, 

please, please go back to sleep. 

I just want one more hour, 

They're gifts, go have a peep,

I get up very early

On any other day,

I know I have to cook 

The lunch and stuff today,

But one more little hour,

And then I'll have my shower.

Whoops, it's the turkey, not the day you stuff 

Bah Humbug - I've been tricked of my sleep - which reminds me, mint humbugs (which incidentally, have nothing to do with the real meaning of humbug), are the most disgusting sweet ever and although it pains me that their sales are in decline, I am not pining. - Ha, ha, pining, pine tree - ah never mind, Bah Humbug.

And for those of you fed up with turkey, sausages, hams and whatever else you stuffed your faces with, now for:

THE 12 VEG OF CHRISTMAS

The first veg of Christmas, my true love sent to me,

A parsnip in a pear tree.