British Christmas

Like most child-less adults, I miss that excitement of Christmas I had as a child.  I miss the construction paper ring Christmas countdown thing, I miss sitting by the tree admiring all the presents and I miss trying to fall asleep at 6:00pm on Christmas Eve so that Santa would come sooner.  (Tip for any other kids  wanting to fall asleep at 6:00 - a few glasses of wine at 4:00 usually does the trick for me)

That being said, I do still love Christmas and eventhough I've had a lot of negative things to say about certain traditional British Christmas foods, there are a few things about British Christmas that I really enjoy.

Christmas Cracker

1.   Christmas crackers - I know that you can buy these in America (I believe I used to see them at Crate and Barrel), but I personally never was privy to a Christmas cracker when I lived in America and think they are great fun.  For those unfamiliar, a Christmas cracker is a hollow cylindrical paper tube with twisted ends and various items inside it.  The ends are pulled by two different people, the cracker makes a loud noise (think cap gun) as it comes apart and you can get to the things inside it.  In most mass produced ones, you will find a paper crown (see below), a toy or trinket and a (usually very bad) joke.   

Looking for better inclusions in your Christmas Crackers?  How about these ones from Fortnum and Mason?  They'll only set you back £1000(!!) for a "superb array of silver plated gifts, comprising a tea strainer and caddy, sugar dredger, mustard pot, place card holder, napkin rings and an eggcup and spoon set".  Very posh.




Family wearing paper crowns
(c.JupiterImages)

  2. Paper hat/crown - As mentioned, one of the things included in most (if not all) Christmas crackers is a paper crown which everyone is expected to wear throughout the meal.  The only history behind this I can dig up is that wearing the paper crown may have originated from twelfth-night celebrations where a King or Queen was appointed to look over the proceedings.   It's all a bit religious for me, and  I don't really know what that means, but as long as I have a reason to wear a paper hat on my head on Christmas, I'm a happy girl. 

3. Boxing Day - I was always very jealous of the Canadians who got to celebrate Boxing Day while I often had to return to work immediately after Christmas, but now, I too get to reap the benefits of this holiday.  God bless the Commonwealth.

According to Wikipedia: "The exact etymology of the term "boxing" is unclear and there are several competing theories, none of which is definitive. In the United Kingdom, it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth-century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts on the day after Christmas in return for good and reliable service throughout the year.  Another possibility is that the name derives from an old English tradition: in exchange for ensuring that wealthy landowners' Christmases ran smoothly, their servants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses (and sometimes leftover food). In addition, around the 1800s, churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to the poor.

All well and good, but to me Boxing Day is the day of one of my new favourite events - The Windlesham Pram Race!  Difficult to explain, but its basically a fancy dress (costumes, not ball gowns) pub crawl with fancy dress being optional so to me, its just a pub crawl the day after Christmas (but that sounds a bit less exciting, doesnt it?).  After spending Christmas Day with the in-laws, I'm always looking forward to it!

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Did you know...?

.... The British often say “Happy Christmas” instead of Merry Christmas.  This is supposedly because back in the day religious figures suggested that “merry” was a reference to drinking alcohol.

....The Christmas Tree was brought to England by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert from his native Germany. The famous Illustrated News etching in 1848, featuring the Royal Family gathered around a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle, popularized the tree throughout Victorian England. *

....Christmas cards developed in England when young boys practiced their writing skills by creating Christmas greetings for their parents, but it is Sir Henry Cole who is credited with creating the first real Christmas card. The first director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, Sir Henry found himself too busy in the Christmas season of 1843 to compose individual Christmas greetings for his friends. *


* Thanks to this site for these facts

British Stuff Review: Mince Pies

Thank you to CK for bringing up mince pies in a comment on my last post re: Christmas pudding.  I both like and dislike mince pies - I like them because seeing them in the shop means its coming up to Christmas time (hooray!), but dislike them because they are such a disappointment.  Lovely little pastry pies filled with a sweet-ish filling and usually served with custard poured over them should be good, but sadly aren't and the history behind them makes them even worse. Oh, I should also mention that in the UK, the word mince refers to what I have always called ground beef, but modern pies actually don't contain meat.  Let me explain... 

Modern Day Mince Pie

The mince pie can be traced back to the 13th centrury when the crusaders returned from Europe and the Middle East. Early mince pies were sometimes called mutton pie, shrid pie and Christmas pie. Original ingredients included minced meat, suet, a range of fruits, and spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. This  mixture was placed in a pie crust and covered with pastry.  The recipe apparently developed as a way of preserving meat by mixing it with fruit, spices and alcohol. Ew!  Apparently, King Henry V was a big fan of these half savory/half sweet pies and demanded they were served at his coronation. Current recipes are only cooked fruit and spices (no meat), but sometimes still are made with suet, so be careful if you are a vegetarian.


If you'd like to try a mince pie, you may want to seek the advice of the Mince Pie Club, who say their mission is to find the best mince pie available in stores. They taste all the pies they can get their hands on and offer reviews on their website.  They are still tasting this season's pies, but last year decided that Morrison's The Best Baked Deep Filled Mince Pies were the cream of the crop.  For reference, Waitrose All Butter Mince Pie came a close second.   


Alternatively, for a fast food mince pie experience, you can visit McDonalds (only in the UK) who are now serving Festive Pies, which are like the McDonald's apple pies you are probably familiar with, but filled with mince pie filling and custard... I think I'll pass, thanks.

McDonald's Festive pie
(photo courtesy of The Diary)

British Stuff Rating:  1/5 Paddington Bears

British Stuff Review: Christmas Pudding

My kind of pudding!

I had my first Christmas in England before I officially moved here, when new things even if the were gross were still cool because they were "foreign".   I had a traditional Christmas dinner (lunch) with my soon-to-be husband and his parents which was concluded with a dessert called Christmas pudding.

Now, I knew that pudding is not what I think pudding should be (think Bill Cosby Jello Pudding), but was surprised by what was served to me.

Christmas Pudding

My now mother-in-law brought out a round topped dense cake-ish thing, poured brandy on the top and lit it on fire!  Fun enough, but what was this thing?  Recipes vary greatly by family, but most Christmas puddings are made up of flour, breadcrumbs, nuts, mixed dried fruit, treacle or brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange and lemon zest, apple and sometimes suet (animal fat).  You mix all that together in a bowl and if you want to be very traditional, you are supposed to let all the family members stir it and make a wish. To cook, you need to steam the pudding - grease a glass bowl with butter  and pack the mixture inside this bowl and cover the bowl with parchment paper.  Then boil a large pot of water and set the glass bowl inside the water making sure the water does not get into the bowl (apparently this is called a ban-marie?).  Set on simmer for about four hours, then tip the bowl upside down on a plate and you have a Christmas pudding (usually served with either  brandy butter or brandy sauce poured over the top).

People in England have been enjoying Christmas pudding since the middle ages and the recipe has evolved through the years, growing in popularity in the 1800's when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert spoke of their love of the dish.

Do be careful when eating a Christmas pudding as you may find some purposely placed inedible items inside your portion. It is traditional to stir silver coins (for wealth), tiny wishbones (for good luck), a silver thimble (for thrift), a ring (for marriage), or an anchor (for safe harbor) into the mixture, and whoever gets the the "lucky" serving, would be able to keep the charm and the good wishes that go along with it.  When silver coins were not as readily available, this tradition lapsed because people feared putting alloy coins in their pudding. Today small token coins and other objects are made just for this use.

Yes I hear you:  "Interesting enough, but get to the point -  what does it taste like?"  Now that I am living in England, the novelty of this uniquely British food has well and truly worn off and I am no longer afraid of offending my mother-in-law by admitting that I absolutely hate Christmas pudding.  It tastes kind of like warm, soggy fruitcake and will never again pass my lips!

British Stuffs Rating: 0/5 Paddington Bears!

Ideal Christmas Gift for the New UK Driver

When I was learning to drive on the "wrong" side of the road and the "wrong" side of the car, I developed a hate-hate (trust me, there was no love there) relationship with roundabouts.   Approaching a roundabout made me tense up and forget to breathe, watching other driver's consistantly misuse (or not use at all) of turn signals/indicators on roundabouts made me furious, and listening to my husband tell me how much better a roundabout is compared to a four-way stop in America almost made me a commit acts of domestic violence.  It took me far longer than it should to be able to manouver around a roundabout without coming to a complete stop before entering it and I still prefer a friendly four-way stop, but our relationship has improved with time and hopefully will continue to grow stronger with time.

I know I am not the only one who has roundabout anxiety, so if you have anyone in your life who is struggling to understand and appreciate the great British roundabout, perhaps they would enjoy the Best of British Roundabouts 2011 calendar, the latest offering from the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society  (honestly... I cant make this stuff up.)

While we're on the subject of roundabouts - how happy are you that you don't live in Swindon?   What's wrong with Swindon, you ask?  THIS is what's wrong with Swindon.  (Warning: images contained in the aforementioned link may not be appropriate for roundabout-fearing new drivers)