Christmas in June
Dec. 7th, 2017 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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campsparkleHello, Campers!
A bit more news about next year's Camp.
Firstly—to any of you who won't be able to make it, we're sorry, and we'll miss you, but we had to go with the option that suited the most people. See you next time? (Come and visit me in Norwich instead!)
Secondly—nopseud and I have visited the house in Bath. It is a little eccentric, with lots of nooks and crannies, but it has lots of bathrooms (actually, it has no baths, but lots of rooms containing shower+basin+loo), and the kitchen, although small, contains a generous range cooker with gas hob and electric ovens, yay! No more grovelling with matches, and I for one am very happy about that.
We even ventured to get the bus into town, which worked pretty well, and we have also experimented with getting on the wrong bus (ahem) so that you don't have to. Instructions will follow nearer the time, but we're likely to recommend buying a weekly ticket, as there is loads to do in Bath (off the top of my head the Abbey, the Roman Baths and Pump Room, the Costume Museum, the Bizarre Bath tour, the many fine shops) and we anticipate that we'll just run a couple of outings further afield. On this basis we may not even need to hire a minibus, which will make things cheaper for everyone, but that will depend on who wants to come, and from where. Bath is pretty accessible via public transport, so it should be doable, but we'll see.
Thirdly, and this is the main purpose of my post today, we reckon that Christmas In June would be a fun thing to do next year. I wanted to tell you before this Christmas so that you have the chance to snap up Things Christmas Requires in the January sales.
So far our thinking is that we will designate one day as "Christmas", and amalgamate as many traditions into that day as we can. Some of you normally celebrate Christmas (or Yule) on the 24th, some on the 25th, but rather than prolong the feasting we'll fit everything in together. I suspect this probably means a gigantic festive buffet meal at some point in the late afternoon. It will, of course, be an entirely secular occasion, and if anyone has offerings of a Midwinter or Yule nature I'm sure they will be welcome.
We will have a Tree of some kind. Rather than carting fragile glass ornaments across the country, we propose to make decorations—baubles for the tree, paper chains, whatever your imagination comes up with.nopseud and I may also raid the cheap shops for oodles of red, green and gold tat, but we'll see.
As the celebration traditionally involves gifts, we really ought to do a Secret Santa. I think people should have at least a month to buy whatever it is they intend to give to their recipient, so that means you're going to have to sign up for Camp in good time! I'm toying with the idea of stockings that we can all put tiny gifts into, but I'm not sure if it's practical. Your thoughts?
So… for now, how about putting suggestions into comments? What are the Christmas traditions that you'd like to bring in to the Day? For me, that means
(a) Christmas Crackers (to pull, as we sit down to our feast); hats must be worn and ridiculous jokes must be told. It is traditional to sweep the entirely useless gifts away with the crumbs at the end of the meal
(b) roast potatoes, roast parsnips and plenty of gravy, without which a feast would be a sad and sorry thing
(c) listening to I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol as I do food prep in the morning. It will baffle those of you who have not listened to Radio 4's array of panel games, but it is nonetheless essential to my Christmas.
A bit more news about next year's Camp.
Firstly—to any of you who won't be able to make it, we're sorry, and we'll miss you, but we had to go with the option that suited the most people. See you next time? (Come and visit me in Norwich instead!)
Secondly—
nopseud and I have visited the house in Bath. It is a little eccentric, with lots of nooks and crannies, but it has lots of bathrooms (actually, it has no baths, but lots of rooms containing shower+basin+loo), and the kitchen, although small, contains a generous range cooker with gas hob and electric ovens, yay! No more grovelling with matches, and I for one am very happy about that.We even ventured to get the bus into town, which worked pretty well, and we have also experimented with getting on the wrong bus (ahem) so that you don't have to. Instructions will follow nearer the time, but we're likely to recommend buying a weekly ticket, as there is loads to do in Bath (off the top of my head the Abbey, the Roman Baths and Pump Room, the Costume Museum, the Bizarre Bath tour, the many fine shops) and we anticipate that we'll just run a couple of outings further afield. On this basis we may not even need to hire a minibus, which will make things cheaper for everyone, but that will depend on who wants to come, and from where. Bath is pretty accessible via public transport, so it should be doable, but we'll see.
Thirdly, and this is the main purpose of my post today, we reckon that Christmas In June would be a fun thing to do next year. I wanted to tell you before this Christmas so that you have the chance to snap up Things Christmas Requires in the January sales.
So far our thinking is that we will designate one day as "Christmas", and amalgamate as many traditions into that day as we can. Some of you normally celebrate Christmas (or Yule) on the 24th, some on the 25th, but rather than prolong the feasting we'll fit everything in together. I suspect this probably means a gigantic festive buffet meal at some point in the late afternoon. It will, of course, be an entirely secular occasion, and if anyone has offerings of a Midwinter or Yule nature I'm sure they will be welcome.
We will have a Tree of some kind. Rather than carting fragile glass ornaments across the country, we propose to make decorations—baubles for the tree, paper chains, whatever your imagination comes up with.
nopseud and I may also raid the cheap shops for oodles of red, green and gold tat, but we'll see.As the celebration traditionally involves gifts, we really ought to do a Secret Santa. I think people should have at least a month to buy whatever it is they intend to give to their recipient, so that means you're going to have to sign up for Camp in good time! I'm toying with the idea of stockings that we can all put tiny gifts into, but I'm not sure if it's practical. Your thoughts?
So… for now, how about putting suggestions into comments? What are the Christmas traditions that you'd like to bring in to the Day? For me, that means
(a) Christmas Crackers (to pull, as we sit down to our feast); hats must be worn and ridiculous jokes must be told. It is traditional to sweep the entirely useless gifts away with the crumbs at the end of the meal
(b) roast potatoes, roast parsnips and plenty of gravy, without which a feast would be a sad and sorry thing
(c) listening to I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol as I do food prep in the morning. It will baffle those of you who have not listened to Radio 4's array of panel games, but it is nonetheless essential to my Christmas.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-07 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-07 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-09 08:16 am (UTC)YAY Christmas in July. We don't have any specific traditions... but I'll keep my eye out for fun Christmas stuff to bring along.
ETA: I ordered some holiday banners and hanging dohickies, figuring they would be easy to pack. :-D
no subject
Date: 2017-12-10 04:53 pm (UTC)As for traditions. Sparkle deers! Or if you're not me, maybe mulled wine and an attempt to create a gingerbread house. Which would surely be wonky and collapse.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-10 08:55 pm (UTC)I'd completely forgotten about the the Bath Costume Museum! Now I know what I'm doing at least one of the days :-)
I'm planning on flying to Bristol and taking the train from there to Bath so you won't have to cart me around Britain this year.
Christmas in June sounds like a fabulous idea! Most of my Christmas must-haves are food-realed but if there's room in my suitcase I might bring along some of my vintage Christmas printed textiles. (One of them is my childhood stocking!)
I like the idea of Secret Santa too. And stockings are always fun.
I have a recipe for glutenfree gingerbread cookie dough so if someone brings along a rolling-pin and cookie cutters we could get proper Scandinavian gingerbread cookies!
I wonder how many people I could talk into trying pickled herring...
no subject
Date: 2017-12-10 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-10 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-20 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-21 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-20 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-20 06:56 pm (UTC)It's easy to get cinnamon sticks, but I suspect they aren't particularly cheap, and are usually sold in quite tiny quantities.
We can do oranges studded with cloves? Which I admit is rather remote from your suggestion!
no subject
Date: 2018-05-20 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-20 09:43 pm (UTC)