This week the Riskies have graciously allowed me lots of extra attention because of the release of Mistletoe Kisses, Harlequin Historical’s Regency Christmas anthology. See the intervew with the other authors of the anthology here.
We also have a contest, giving away THREE autographed copies of Mistletoe Kisses. All you have to do is comment on our blogs this week – from now to Saturday. Say more than, “Great blog” please; we love to hear from you. Winners will be announced next Sunday Nov 19. See contest details here.
I apologize for talking about Christmas before Thanksgiving, I really do! But the Historicals, like other Harlequins, are only on the bookshelf in stores for one month (longer at online stores and eharlequin.com) and if we waited until the “proper time” you might not be able to find Mistletoe Kisses at all.
During the Regency era Christmas had some of the same customs we still follow today. Decorating one’s house with evergreens. Hanging mistletoe and kissing under it. Even one that surprised me–roast turkey for dinner.
In my family growing up we, unfortunately, did not have a wassail bowl, nor did we have a yule log, but then in some of the houses where we lived, we didn’t have a fireplace so maybe that was a good thing. We did cut greenery from our yard and use it to adorn our mantlepiece and to create centerpieces for the table, like Elizabeth and Zach in A Twelfth Night Tale. And we always had a live tree (a later tradition than “our” time period). We decorated our tree on Christmas Eve and took it down on New Year’s Day.
My favorite tradition has always been to decorate the Christmas tree. As a child, my sisters and I loved to unwrap our tree ornaments, to find our favorites, the ones we remembered having our whole lives, the ones we made ourselves, the ones that were souvenirs from various trips. We always had a certain way to hang the ornaments, showing our favorites in the front and those dumb plain blue ones my mother bought one year to the back. In my family growing up, the annual debate was always whether we ought to have the lights blink or not. I always voted for no blinking.
With my husband and children, decorating the tree has never been quite the valued experience it was when I was growing up. Maybe it was because Christmas had become more hectic -school parties, parties for every other activity my children were in, church pageants, work parties, Christmas shopping, visiting two sets of relatives. In fact, I always thought the time between Halloween and Christmas passed like a blur. So now that my children are grown, I often decorated the tree myself, an artificial tree so the cats won’t eat it. (I do have a great memory from my childhood when our cat knocked down the tree on New Year’s Eve just as my parents were getting ready to go to a party)
Thing is, I still love it, the tree decorating. I have some of those same ornaments from my childhood and some really lovely antique ones that were given to me long ago. My tree has twinkling lights now. My tastes have evolved with the technology.
I do not like the hectic nature of the holiday still, but I love the beauty of the season. I love the decorations, the holiday music, the Christmas Story. I love Christmas movies and TV episodes that celebrate the holiday. I love that we honor the winter holidays of all faiths now, making the season a time for loving everyone.
Last Christmas I had the additional joy of writing my Christmas novella during the holiday season. It was wonderful inspiration, both enriching my holiday and inspiring my writing.
So this year it is a great joy to share the story with you. I hope you all enjoy A Twelfth Night Tale and the other novellas in Mistletoe Kisses.
This week the Riskies are going to be talking about our favorite holiday customs or other holiday related themes, so this is an opportunity to share yours with us (and earn chances to win Mistletoe Kisses)
Tell which you would vote for and why: Live tree vs Artificial; Twinkling lights vs Non-Twinkling lights. Or share any pet-related tree stories. The Riskies want to know…
(Holiday) Cheers!
Diane
Diane, this year I am attempting a more *Colonial Christmas* if there was one. Am using real evergreens to hang and I am using torn fabric for ribbons and such. Also made some wreaths from my wisteria and grape vines.
I gave most of my old decorations to my children who now have their own homes and love to decorate.
I want to get back to a simple Christmas and not feel too rushed or stressed.
It’s so difficult to do that.
Do you have recipes or meals planners for Regency Age. If so, could you ladies post them.
That would be great!
I love a live tree but we always decorate an artificial one. I do like twinkling lights. Our tree now has the lights already on it and they don’t twinkle but it is very pretty.
Last year, our cat would lie on his back under the tree and play with the ornaments. We had to chase him out when he got too frisky.
What a nice post, Diane! I always love hearing about other people’s holiday traditions. 🙂
I have a fake tree, because of allergies and also because of the cats. One of my cats also loves to lie down under the tree and bat the ornaments around, but luckily they gave up the climbing thing! One year my Pug dog actually ate part of an ornament off my parents’ tree which I had made in pre-school–decades-old gold-painted macaroni, and she ATE it! Ugh!
And my lights don’t twinkle, but only because the pre-lit tree came that way! And one of my favorite things to do is buy ornaments whenever I travel, so every year when I decorate the tree (which I love to do!) I’m reminded of great places I’ve visited. Like my Pavilion ornament from Brighton!
Janie, I have a great book called “A Williamsburg Christmas” that talks about the history of Colonial Christmases and gives some great tips on decorating in that style. I highly recommend it! 🙂
Oh I love Christmas and thanks for sharing your take on the holiday.
I love the smell of pine from a real tree but use an artificial one these years. I, too, have many ornaments that hold a sentimental value, ones made by my Mom who is now deceased.
Twinkling lights are okay for a little while but then I like the steady lights to really look at the tree and see the beauty.
What a lovely post. Any crafter will tell you that if you haven’t started your projects in July, they won’t be done in time for Christmas.
I prefer a live tree because I love the smell, but I have an artificial tree because I can put it up after Thanksgiving and leave it up until New Year’s! I’ve collected unique ornaments, and I too have the pretty ones in front and the less interesting in the back; gives folks passing the window something to look at!
My lights do a variety of things, but the one I like best is when they cycle slowly through the colors. I have a strand of white lights that wrap around the inner pole, then the colored lights on the outer branches. I love the pretty lights.
My favorite pet Christmas story is about my dear Black Beauty (she was an Australian Shepherd/Black Lab). I decided it would be nice if she had a few presents under the tree, rubber balls and treats. I put them out Christmas Eve before bed. In our house, we would open gifts one at a time, each of us taking a turn, youngest to oldest, until all the gifts are opened. That way you get to see what everyone else is getting. I also liked giving gifts to others so mine would last longer. LOL! Anyway, my folks and I and MissB went out to the tree and she sniffed around and found her gifts. It was a delight. Imagine my horror the next year. I had been busy and forgotten anything special for my dear dog. I mean, she got treats on a regular basis. It wasn’t as if she’d know the difference from one day to the next. She left the tree alone all month long. Christmas morning, we went out to the tree and she immediately began sniffing around for her gifts!! Horrors! I found some toys I’d rotated out of her playtime and some treats and put them under the tree. She was thrilled! I never forgot again. Even the years we didn’t have a tree because I couldn’t put it up, she didn’t seem to notice the gifts in the corner until Christmas morning and then she searched for hers!
Thanks for letting me remember.
~~ Judy T
Twinkling lights annoy me. I like them steady, and these days prefer all one color of white or blue.
I feel guilty about killing a tree just for decoration. I used to bring a live tree in the living room and decorate it, and plant it in March. (why yes, you can decorate trees for birthdays, V-day, and Easter!). However, with the dogs and cats all thinking decorations = pet toys, we don’t bother any more. We just string lights all over the downstairs and leave them on.
Last year, I gave our dog her present wrapped. She was very good about opening it gently too. I’ll probably do something that way again this year. 🙂
Diane,
I have Christmas the way my family always had done for generations much like yours. I do do it very Medeival though. I did find that Christmas was very much the same back then. They did have trees, yule log, mistletoe ect- just no lights (nowdays with electric I add lights-lots)I had read it in an old diary from an Medieval ancestour: they would decorate , tree and all on Dec 1st and would hold a Mass 2days before Christmas, back then it was called Christ-Mass decorated with candles and greens in the church or in ones own home. I skip the Mass lately but not the tradition of decor. I very much enjoy real greens and lights. For christmas boxes for gifts we decorate the same as my Medieval ancestours did by wrapping gifts in plaid fabrics not paper and tie bows onto them.(one year a cat peed on them, wasn’t a lovely sight!);)And stories was told around the fireplace. I had kept even now the old ‘Medieval Cristmass’ tradition going in the family and is great also to get to celabrate ones own history at the same time 🙂
I loved hearing about your family Christmases , they sound lovely!
Janie,
Here is a Festive Rice Pudding recipe that comes from Martha Lloyd’s recipe book and is quoted in Jane Austen’s Christmas by Maria Hubert.
6 oz of rice flour
1 qt cream.
Mix it well together and boil it; put it to half a pound of butter and half a pound of sugar and one nutmeg grated and then take it off (the heat). When cold beat 6 egg whites and all and put it to it: butter your dish before you put it in. Bake it quick and you may paste your dish if you please
Not sure what all that means…
Crytalg, we have a whole bunch of unbreakable ornaments that go on the bottom of the tree so if the cats play with them, no harm is done!
Amanda! I remember you buying the ornament from the Royal Pavilion!! (we went to England together that year)
Robin, many of my old family ornaments were ones my mother, also now gone, bought–besides the ugly blue ones!
Judy T, I LOVED that story about Miss B! What a very smart dog she was! You can bet she will be sniffing around those presents this Christmas as well. Hugs.
Georg, I love the tradition of a live tree that you can plant in the Spring. I’ve never done this bc of the cats but it is a wonderful tradition! Expensive, though, I’d think.
Mallory, did they really decorate trees? I did not find that in my research! Is it a Scottish tradition? I love everything about your Medieval Christmas, especially the plaid wrapping. Maybe not the cat pee, though.
Tell which you would vote for and why: Live tree vs Artificial
I confess I worry about all the tree death and landfill using-upness that happens because of the holidays, so I’m reluctantly an artificial girl, gorgeous pine-scent notwithstanding. Though to tell the truth, I’ve always lived in such small places that I just have one of those one-foot-tall fake trees that you get for ten bucks, with those cute tiny little ornaments!
Twinkling lights vs Non-Twinkling lights.
I just love twinkling ones. Don’t know why, but I do. Lights in general are great…I love the restaurants that have little lights too!
Cara
(who just can’t bring herself to live like an adult)
Diane, I know the Germans did trees before the English did — the story I heard was that Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree in England. (I don’t know about anyone besides the Germans and English, though!)
I forgot one cute pet story — we have little bells that ring to hang on our mini tree — and our cat used to like to bat at them so they rang. Very cute. 🙂
Cara
I love live trees with twinkling lights. We don’t put up a tree though anymore…just don’t have room.
Diane, it was the Scottland tradition, sometimes family tartens or an aray of plaids used as garlands to wrapp about the tree as well as ribbons & bows, the same for fireplaces along with greens. Red candles would be lit through the home, but not on the trees. For Christmas ornaments they were hand blown from the same places that did stained glass windows for the Cathedrials as well as glass beads. Iron or steel Saints or round flat disc painted over with family crest and Celtic designs were made by the Blacksmith to hang on the tree. And often they used plain old clay for ornaments. The Diary of Medieval family member dated 11th century and also told of the traditions before her time. I need to put up an webpage one day of Medieval Collections.
I also enjoyed reading everyones traditions as well.
For about a decade when I was growing up, my dad and brother ran a small Christmas tree farm. We lived in the country just outside Birmingham, AL, and people would drive down from the suburbs to pick out their tree. I remember having to over and over again convince people that their tree was taller than they thought:
Buyer: That’s perfect!
Susan: Didn’t you say y’all have 8-foot ceilings?
Buyer: Yes.
Susan: That tree’s at least ten feet.
Buyer: It can’t be!
Susan: (standing next to the tree) I’m 5’6″. It’s nearly twice my height.
Buyer: (look of dawning comprehension)
Susan: There’s a nice 7-footer over here.
It was fun, except for that one clueless not-from-around-here couple who came to buy a tree during the Alabama-Auburn game. My mom made me go sell them one. I rushed them.
Anyway, now we’re in a tiny, crowded house, so we’ve been doing a table-top artificial, along with a wreath on the door, stockings by the chimney, a nativity set on the mantel, etc. But I have a box of assorted decorations from childhood awaiting our move to more expansive quarters, which will hopefully happen within the year!
Oh, I definitely love live trees. Just not the vacuuming. 🙂
And when I was a kid, I loooooooooved colored lights. Had to have them. Now, I can’t stand them. LOL But alas, the colored ones we have still work, so why get new ones. LOL 🙂
Twinking, yeah, I like them, but not on a tree. Other places are good.
Yeah, I have a kitty as you may remember from her hogging my George IV book (LOL which I did get from her since then) but she isn’t in the same area of the house when we have the tree. We’ll bring her out briefly but she’s more interested in getting back to her area. But I’m sure she’d play and swat and snack to her heart’s content if we’d let her. 🙂
Lois
Dear Diane, God is very lucky this year; my baby is spending Christmas with Him. I can’t bear the thought of a tree or presents this year. But there’s really only me here, so it doesn’t matter. Maybe next year. 🙂
Living tree. Non-twinkling lights (white only).
Pet story: One year our first born dog, a Siberian husky, knocked over the Christmas tree. It was an accident. After that, we devised a system to anchor very well, with no further problems.
We anticipate crazy tree stuff with our newest family member, Ruth the Border Collie. She’s interested in everything.
I grew up in a household with very old-fashioned Christmas traditions, mostly English. Yule log decorated with holly–I remember how the berries popped when then got hot. Real wax candles on the tree (we only had them lighted for a little while, but it was very pretty during that while). My grandmother always cooked a goose on Christmas Eve. Either she or my mother would sometimes make a buche de Noel. We were acccustomed to syllabubs (yes, the kids got the same whisky-infused syllabub as the adults!) and floating islands and other eggy things. A kissing ball with ribbons streaming down.
It always seemed odd and oldy-worldy to me, compared to the traditions my friends families kept. But when I wrote Regencies, and sometimes needed to incorporate seasonal touches, I was grateful.
I’ve kept some, but not all of these habits alive in my own household. For example, I still attach the wax candles in their pretty silver holders on our tree, but am too nervous to ever light them!
I’m spending my first christmas as a married woman, so I feel the need to start some household traditions – I think it’s time for mistletoe to come back! That tradition seems to have disappeared over time, which is such a shame. Nice to hear that it was enjoyed during the Regency!
Mallory, did you ever think of transribing your ancestor’s diary and seeing if it could get published? It sounds like a treasure of immense value! I’m copying what you said about Christmas trees for the next Christmas story I write.
Susan, I love your Christmas tree selling story! I do understand the sacredness of the Alabama-Auburn football game. I once lived in Alabama.
Poor Cara and Jennifer! Not to have a big tree!!
Lois, I must admit that I’m happy not to have to vacuum up pine needles with my artificial tree.
Margaret! How nice of you to stop by. I think I would be terrified of candles on a tree. I worry about normal candles. Good luck with your border collie.
Judy T. HUGGGGGSSSSS.
Yes, Judy, {{{{{hugs}}}}} for you. You have my sincere sympathy. I’m so sorry.
Cara
Diane, your welcome to use the info on Christmas trees and history! I’ll be looking forward to a new Christmas story of yours! 🙂 I have been thinking on doing a website on Medeival History from my family, and feature things like the diary for others to see. I have been planning it along with a few others for awhile now. I may have things ready by December to actaully do so. 🙂
Diane, I loved the lady’s goofy green hat and the pleased smile on her face.
Amanda, we, too, are big into collecting Christimas ornaments on our travels. It’s so much fun to remember the various places you’ve been and to recount the funny stories as you unwrap each ornament every year.
For the past two years, we’ve been buying fresh trees, the itty-bitty four-foot ones, because our little daughter loves to go out and pick one to bring home. I’m always all for it, because the smell of fresh pine is so good.
My compromise on the light vs. no lights, twinkling vs. non, was to get a santa with twinkling lights that slowly change colors. He stands up in the front window by himself and is no danger to the tree further away in the room.
I love to “acquire” Christmas traditions, because I just love this time of year. So if you have any suggestions to add to our following list, do write: We do santa pictures, annual holiday pictures, cookies, gingerbread houses, english fruit-n-nut bread (note all the sweet treats), christmas stories, light shows, parades, carols, and music CDs. I would like to go back to the mass and choral concerts, perhaps when the wee one is a little older.
One departure from the norm is the lack of presents under the tree. <gasp> I know, I know. Christmas without gifts? So far, we’ve been able to get away with it, because our daughter hasn’t asked. Once she is a little older, and all her “friends” talk about it, we’ll have to follow suit.
What I miss most of all is the snow on the ground. I’m from Wisconsin, and it just doesn’t feel like it is Christmas unless everything in sight is covered with the fluffy white stuff. Pattering rain, just doesn’t cut it.
Diane, a couple bites of that “Festive Rice Pudding,” and I’ll be on the elliptical from Boxing Day till New Year’s Eve. What a yummy recipe!
JudyT, you reminded me that I love handmaking cards for a select few people and also one photo ornament.
MargaretEP, it was fun reading about your English traditions. Giving kids already tanked on sugar alcohol-infused syllabub—wow, your grandmother was one brave woman.
Amanda, thanks for the idea of a crafty kiddie ornament. <Project!> (Can you hear my husband groan? 🙂
We cut down our own tree from a local farm. It’s always a balsam fir. Even though they are a bit more expensive nothing beats the smell and they have shorter needles than the pines, which is better for some of our ornaments.
We go mostly hand-made with our ornaments: blown glass, crocheted snowflakes, cute things my kids make with pipe cleaners and beads and such, and spice cookies we bake each year. And lots of tinsel. Not that traditional but so much fun and it goes everywhere with you, even into bed.
As for lights, ours don’t twinkle. I’d actually be OK with a slow twinkle but find anything that blinks stress-inducing!
We have an artificial tree because of allergies in the family. The boys like to decorate with ornaments from all the years my husband and I have been together and with the different ornaments I received while teaching school. After everyone is in bed, I love to sit in the darkened living room and watch the twinkling lights.
We try to make Yule logs (a cake decorated like the log) for friends and family. Used to be our traditional sharing when we went to holiday gatherings. We don’t make quite as many as before but still try to bake a couple.
Cara wrote:
Though to tell the truth, I’ve always lived in such small places that I just have one of those one-foot-tall fake trees that you get for ten bucks, with those cute tiny little ornaments!
Hmm, must be inflation over time. I remember it costing only one buck! (Or was it a pound? How long have we had that little tree, anyway?)
In California we believe in the whole wassail thing. It helps hide the fact that it’s eighty degrees outside.
Todd-who-likes-to-tune-the-television-to-an-empty-channel-in-order-to-see-snow
Yeah, you’re probably right, Todd, we wouldn’t have spent ten dollars on that tiny tree! 🙂
BTW, everyone, I used to be mad coupon woman. I’d go into the supermarket and save 68 percent on my shopping bill. No ten-dollar trees for me, nosiree! 🙂
Cara (who is now mad smiley woman)
Hey Diane, I’m with you on the rushed hectic holiday season. This is my favorite time of the year– the excitement of giving and receiving gifts, the songs, the story of Jesus’ birth, family reuniting– I love it all. If only we could take a break from our kids’ extracurriculars and devote our weekends to holiday preparations. Trying to fit in all the fun activities (cookie and gingerbread houses, wrapping gifts, decorating the tree, driving through neighborhoods enjoying the decorations while we sing songs in the car), in the midst of our regular activities is daunting. But I try! 🙂
Let’s see:
We prefer real to artificial trees. When we were in Okinawa, we had to use artificial, so I used to hide pine scented potpourri in the branches. As for blinking or not, I think ours blink. Usually we have to decide between colored or white lights. That’s our big decision. 🙂
Traditions:
We bake gingerbread houses/sometimes villages, and make homemade salsa to give to neighbors, teachers, friends, etc.
Christmas Eve we attend mass, then head home to read the story of baby Jesus’ birth, followed by Twas’ the Night Before Christmas. We sing a few songs, open one gift, then hit the sack.
Christmas morning is always a blur of fun, food and family. But it doesn’t all end there. Our tree stays up until Jan. 6th when we celebrate Epiphany, the visit by the Three Kings. Just like we do for Santa, we leave out snacks for the kings, including carrots and water for their camels, and they in turn leave a few gifts for the kids. When the girls were younger we celebrated with a pinata and another big meal. I’m Latina, we like to eat and have fun. 🙂
My one request this holiday? For time to slow down, or me to be able to find more pockets of time to sit back, take a deep breath and enjoy my blessings.
Happy Holidays!
Pris
I like artificial trees. Some of them look almost natural and are gorgeous.
I like both blinking and not blinking lights. The ones I have now, have several functions and you can let them fixed, or blinking at different patterns or (my favorite) fading and changing very slowly, this one looks beautiful, and very paceful with all the lights off at night.
Hasn’t Christmas become so commercialized and hurried? To me one of the nicest Christmas moments, are the days leading up to Christmas, and even the ones afterwards, as you sit in the warm glow of the twinkling, golden and colored lights, in a darkened room. I love a real tree—the smell of it and the shape. Even though you use the same ornaments on it, each real tree has its own personality and its own distinct look. Sitting near the tree with hot chocolate or tea, with the lights low and candles flickering….is just the most happy and calming thing to me. If its snowing outside, or even very cold and windy, it makes it that much more perfect.
Cara said…
Yeah, you’re probably right, Todd, we wouldn’t have spent ten dollars on that tiny tree!
Ahhhhhh. I finally get it. After months of lurking and posting here on RR, I finally catch on to the fact that Cara and Todd know each other rather, um, well and might even possibly be living in the same town and, um, same house.
Keira-who’s-a-plodder-these-days
Ooh, you caught us, Keira! 🙂
Cara
Keira,
Actually, she keeps me locked up in the attic. But fortunately the wireless internet still works up here.
Todd-who-is-mad-mad-I-tell-you