It’s been busy!  I’ve been playing Christmas music on the harp and I’ve sung carols with my choir at a concert and at the local shopping centre to raise money for the Philippines.  Music is for me one of the most important aspects of the lead-up to Christmas.  The other special things are the connection with friends and family and the memories of times past.  So I share now a window into my childhood Christmases in rural North East Scotland, quite a few years ago ….

When the nights became dark and the stars shone as we returned from school, we began to think about Christmas.  The fields would be hard with frost, and a day would come when we’d open the kitchen door and smell the rich spices of Christmas puddings; they’d be bubbling in a pan on the stove, and the windows would stream with condensation.  It was around then that my mother would begin her nativity play rehearsals.  My striped bedspread would be taken for Joseph’s robe.  The angels brought their own sheets, but we’d help my mother make the haloes by twisting tinsel round wire attached an Alice band.  The shepherds’ outfits were dressing gowns and checked tea-towels. The Hon. Mrs L, who had lived abroad, provided evening capes from the Far East for the exclusive use of the kings.  I recognised her daughter years later at a dinner dance, wearing a shimmering blue cape that my brother had once worn in his role as third king.

My father wrote the scripts for the plays; they did not stray far from the words of the King James Bible, for which he had the greatest respect.  We never had a doll for Jesus; that was regarded as inappropriate.  The baby was just said to be down there in the manger among all the straw from the nearest farm.  Everyone came to church at Christmas, even if they didn’t attend for the rest of the year.  Light shone in the darkness, and we were happy.

Enjoy Christmas day, and the memories it brings.

ECS, Early Christmas Syndrome, is alive and well and even earlier this year, it seems. I reported last month on the irritating arrival of Christmas adverts in October and November. Christmas lights have been blazing in our local towns during November. Perhaps it would be better to just call them ‘winter lights’ and hang them from November to the end of January to cheer the winter gloom. As soon as December got a foot in the door, holly wreaths and Christmas trees appeared in our street, and Christmas cards started dropping on to the mat. Which made me think – would you start celebrating your birthday three weeks before the event? Surely there must be a certain amount of tinsel fatigue by the 25th?

On what I later discovered was called Cyber Monday, when Amazon’s robots were working overtime to deal with gift orders, we headed up to the Lakes to look at nature’s December decorations. Apart from some glorious beeches which are holding on to their leaves, most of the trees are bare now, but that makes the views better. We did our favourite walk, the round from Skelwith Bridge to Little Langdale, then over to Elterwater and back to Skelwith. It starts and finishes at the lovely Chesters by the River Café and you have the option of two pubs on the way – the Three Shires in Little Langdale, and the Britannia Inn in Elterwater. We often call it the ‘visitors’ walk’ because it’s where we take friends and visitors to show them the Lake District in a nutshell – a lovely café and pubs, a lake (Elterwater), a tarn (Little Langdale Tarn), the quaint Slater Bridge in Little Langdale, a waterfall (Colwith Force) and the amazing Cathedral Cavern, a quarried out cave complete with a window. This cavern is a secret first shown to me by the Lakeland Voices singing group, whose leader David Burbidge introduced us to its wonderful acoustic. It makes any ordinary singer sound like an opera diva. Go and try it out if you can find it!

So when I walk this way, it’s like walking with friends, as I remember this is where I had a picnic with M and K, this is where F and I were lucky enough to see the Morris Dancers, and so on. I said hello to a lot of you on Monday! But I’ll still send Christmas cards … later …