A non commericial christmas

[mrsflibble]

oooooooooooooo... i should mention we live on the top floor of a block of flats full of well-to-do commuters- heating in their flats is on full blast in winter so we get it all through the floor lol!

[red]

makes sense now....

I live in an old house with very small windows that is cold even in summer (this can be a good thing) in every room apart from the kitchen (when rayburn is on) and our front windows are right on the street..
don't get me wrong... I like naked... just I dislike cold..

[Thomzo]

Brrrrr do you guys mind. I am wrapped up here in a thick fleece absolutely determined that I am NOT under any circumstances going to put the heating on in September. You lot are just making me feel even colder.

Will have to light a fire soon as it is COLD.

Zoe

[red]

we lit the fire a couple of days ago - still stinks... will be a while before that new fire smell goes....

[Thomzo]

OK that's it. Off to get some wood in.

Zoe

[Super.Niki]

Wassail

Oh my gosh I LOVE Wassailing! Hope I can get back home and not have to work all the time this year!

As for a "green Christmas" suits me fine... I'm gonna try REALLY hard this year because firstly I don't usually ... and reading all the posts I feel guilty and secondly, wrapping presents in news paper (or pretty paper I get on things and randomly save it) and making decorations out of natural stuff (like REAL holly leaves, wreathes out of real wood as opposed to plastic, etc.) instead of buying new ones... sounds like a great idea for a student!! ... hmm might have to "borrow" some bits and pieces from the grassy areas outside halls when it comes to decorating this year!...OO I could decorate my basil plant!

OO.. actually on the idea of decorations, those lovely bag lights at BGG (brown bags wrapped at the top I think, sand in the bottom and a tea light at the bottom) looked SO lovely... I bet with a bit of "creative" crafty-ness they could make lovely lights instead of the fairy lights? Just an idea... have to pitch it to the parentals when I get home!!

[fenwoman]

I have a non commercial Xmas every year. I make things throutout the year and give as gifts to friends and family. This year people will be getting a selection of jams, chutneys, pickles, marmalades. I always make one special, like this year's 3 fruit plus brandy marmalade. Also especial oils or things like pears in brandy. The they are getting a shopping bag made from something recycled, could be an old set of velvet curtains, or an old wool jumper, I add applique, feathers, sequins, decorate with fabric paints etc to personalise. A friend's teenaged daughter will be getting one which will have 'Louise Witton' or 'Goochi' written on hers. Otherwise I will look out for things at auctions and charity shops.I never send cards and tell people not to send me one either. I rarely wrap anything or if I do I will use whatever I have to hand like reused brown paper with xmassy things felt tipped onto it, or wallpaper from part rolls I have in the shed. Friends and family also know that I prefer things to be home made or secondhand. I really dislike anything new.I've done it this way for years. I usually either rear a bird myself for xmas dinner or barter or buy from another smallholder locally. I have always had just as good a time as anyone spending hundreds of pounds and I know the recipients of my gifts are always pleased with them too since they would not be able to buy them anywhere.
If I wanted to buy gifts let's face it, on a tight budget like mine I might be able to afford around a fiver apiece and end up buying some tat from QD or the pound shop which they don't want, don't need, which thousands of other people in the country have too and which will break quickly. They enjoy my gift for months. I get the empty jars back and start it all again for the next xmas. It is very very easy to make some nice sweets like special fudge or cinder toffee. How much would you pay in Harrods for handmade hand wrapped fudge? It won't cost me more than the ingredients and my time and they will be given and accepted in the spirit they are given, with respect and affection. Anyone can spend a fiver on some tut, making things, putting together a selection to suit the friend or family member (some like ginger so they get ginger preserve or ginger and marrow jam, some don't like chutney so they get pickled shallots) required thought and effort, something which seems sadly lacking in today's commercial Xmases.

[fenwoman]

We didn't have Christmas dinner last year!!

We made a really nice casserole, fresh bread and frozen veggies from our veg box and a nice bottle of wine.

No huge turkey that you end up eating for weeks, no stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce etc

No christmas pudding (which I don't like anyway) and no crackers, special christmas table mats etc...

It was just about being with the people (and animals) that we wanted to be with without having to make a huge fuss.

But you could have had stuffing, cranberry (or some other berry) sauce and the rest of it, home made like in the olden days. You can make crackers and decorations. Non commercial doesn't have to mean spartan.

[fenwoman]

I like making a huge fuss. a winter celebration is just what you need.. in ...er... winter!
but - you can do it without the tat. we do the whole christmas dinner thing.. and we make everything pud, mince pies, stuffings, red currant jelly instead of cranberry etc.. and its fab. I enjoy the process of making it too... in fact for me the most fun of christmas is the run up with the preparation the baking cooking etc. (but each to their own)

one thing we did some years ago was agreed with large group of friends and family that we did not have to swap presents anymore, and if we did - it would be homemade. so each year now a swap of homemade icecream, pate, jam marmalade fudge, sloe gin etc goes on.. and its great.. and you really feel you have something worthwhile if it was made for you (rather than a heap of assorted junk bought from a shop and then decided who gets what later....) - the fact it is optional takes the pressure off, and makes the whole process more fun.

Your celebration sounds much like mine. Loads of fun. I'm not Christian so strictly I don't celebrate Xmas. I call it yuletide. A traditional midwinter celebration to cheer everyone up.My best ever pressie off a mate were some garishly coloured thick welly boot socks.Made from oddment balls from the charity shop. Not another pair like them in the world lol.

[smile_sunshine]

Last year I asked my sister to write me a story as a gift (she was interested in becoming a writer at the time). She had so much fun writing it (tho i knew most of the plot long before christmas cos she kept phoning me to tell me it :) )

This year i plan to tell everyone well in advance to expect homemade gifts and that i'm happy with homemade/2nd hand ones (cos otherwise people will get offended that they've bought me something and i've 'only' given them something homemade )

[the.fee.fairy]

Wassail

Oh my gosh I LOVE Wassailing! Hope I can get back home and not have to work all the time this year!

As for a "green Christmas" suits me fine... I'm gonna try REALLY hard this year because firstly I don't usually ... and reading all the posts I feel guilty and secondly, wrapping presents in news paper (or pretty paper I get on things and randomly save it) and making decorations out of natural stuff (like REAL holly leaves, wreathes out of real wood as opposed to plastic, etc.) instead of buying new ones... sounds like a great idea for a student!! ...

This is why i've stayed quiet - our christmases tend to end up quite commercial

You did wrap my present in newspaper last year!!
Dad's wrapping is usually a carrier bag of some kind - maybe we're not too bad after all!

[MrsP]

My family do the whole big Christmas thing, even though we're not Christian - the way I see it, there's always been some sort of midwinter festival, only the name changes. What really matters is how you choose to celebrate.

So, we have the tree in a pot (although we killed our last one ) covered in Christmas biscuits and decorations the children have made over the years, plus the special ones I've collected one a year since I moved in with MrP, and a full-on Christmas dinner which I spend days preparing for by making the chestnut stuffing etc from scratch. This year, I may push the boat out and make crackers (silly and wasteful, but everyone loves them...)

The kids get presents, but we don't go mad and spend a fortune - I'm also fairly strict with relatives - no plastic tat, good durable toys and games or money only. Last year, Smallest had a wooden activity cube, Smaller got a wooden space shuttle (and oh how that space shuttle is loved...) and Small got a skateboard which later turned out to be a valuable classic, AFTER he'd scraped it to hell and gone *sigh*

I spend the whole year gathering up old clothes etc which will be reborn as cushions, bags and other goodies for gifts. I must admit that I've been out and bought a bundle of balls of knitting wool for the obigatory knitted items - I really should get hold of some ancient woolly jumpers and unravel them, but my knitting skills might fail when faced with wiggly wool.

My main quandry this year is how to package the boxes of homemade sweets I'll be making with the kids - I want them to be pretty but I don't want them to be utter rubbish. I was considering making some small boxes out of the cardboard boxes I get things in then refuse to throw out, then cover them with decorative paper mache (any ideas on where to find pretty recycled tissue paper?) so that they become keepsake boxes.

So, not as green as it could be, but definitely not an example of the horrors of Giftmas that I see all around us.

[Masco&Bongo]

We didn't have Christmas dinner last year!!

We made a really nice casserole, fresh bread and frozen veggies from our veg box and a nice bottle of wine.

No huge turkey that you end up eating for weeks, no stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce etc

No christmas pudding (which I don't like anyway) and no crackers, special christmas table mats etc...

It was just about being with the people (and animals) that we wanted to be with without having to make a huge fuss.

But you could have had stuffing, cranberry (or some other berry) sauce and the rest of it, home made like in the olden days. You can make crackers and decorations. Non commercial doesn't have to mean spartan.

Oh, I know we could have! But since neither of us particularly crave what I think of as "Christmas" food, we didn't bother with it!

What I was trying to get at was that you don't need specially bought "Christmas" table mats, decorations etc. You can either make them yourself (which I'm crap at!!) or buy and reuse.

We did have a tree (although not a real one) with decorations on it that we got from other people when we had our first Christmas together. I tend not to do tinsel etc, as I don't like the feel of it!

I was thinking of a family friend who buys new tree decorations every couple of years and bins her old ones. She has no need to buy new ones, since the old ones have only been used twice, but she likes to have an "accessorised christmas" and for everything to match...

[mrsflibble]

I'm currently embroidering a table runner which I hope to pass down as an heirloom. the rate I'm going though I think it'll be NEXT xmas that it gets used lol! it's made out of an old cot sheet. which in turn was made out of an old table cloth... so it's back to its original purpose I suppose. the embroidery is being done using 1970s embroidery transfers. the only thing I've actually bought for it are the threads 'cos i wanted specific shades.

[red]

I was thinking of a family friend who buys new tree decorations every couple of years and bins her old ones. She has no need to buy new ones, since the old ones have only been used twice, but she likes to have an "accessorised christmas" and for everything to match...

know what you mean! its like those magazines that tell you that this year's Christmas colours are silver and purple.. or something.. and i think huh? and look at my tree (when the time comes!) and its covered in all sorts.. old cracker toys, tatty decorations made by my son when little, some special decs OH and I bought in our first year together, some hand made ones, biscuits son and I made together a bauble with 2004 on it cos a friend gave out baubles ones year instead of cards, an awful lot of hand-me down decs that we can remember from our childhood... a real hodge podge. and I love it.