Christmas Day

Today is Christmas, but only the first day of Christmas- the start of the twelve-day festal tide adopted by the Christian Church. In 567 C.E. church leaders proclaimed the days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Now my preparations are finished, and I can relax with my family, do a puzzle, eat, drink, and generally wallow in joyful abandon. In some old traditions, this whole season was seen as a sort of Sabbath: Prepare ahead of time and then spend the Twelve Days doing as little work as possible. It's a good time to rest, reflect, and find peace within.

Agenda today:

1. Give gifts:
Celebrate the birth of Jesus by giving gifts to those I love.


2. Have a feast:

This is a day of unrestricted feasting. The table is filled with goodies- breads, cheese, apples, tangerines, nuts, chocolates, and cookies. We will snack all day long.

3. Pudding:
Tonight we will reheat the Christmas pudding I made a month ago by steaming it again for about an hour, and slide it out of the pudding basin onto a plate.

Then we will put some brandy into a metal ladle (about 1/4-cup), heat it over a candle flame until it steams a bit, set it on fire with a match, and pour the flaming brandy over the warm pudding. This is really worth the effort! We turn the lights out and the blue flame dances all over the pudding for a minute or more.