Upside Down Christmases…
Cold Christmases? Snow? Robins sitting on a yuletide log whilst carollers sing with lighted lanterns?
It’s such a perfect picture and one that I grew up with courtesy of books, Christmas cards and fledgling TV programmes.
I remember at primary school when we made our own Christmas cards and I couldn’t WAIT to get hold of the glitter to sprinkle around because the glitter would be the winterlight dancing off the snowflakes that I was contriving to design.
But our reality here in Australia is really so very different…
We’re in mid-summer and invariably it’s pretty warm around the nation. If there is anywhere that could be cool, it’s my own home-state, Tasmania, because we are at 40 degrees south latitude – halfway to Antarctica.
But every Christmas Day it’s blue and mild and genuinely summery and I began to tire of the faux Christmas-tide snow and the faux snowmen … everything faux, really.
I especially began to tire of the faux (or even not so faux) Christmas trees and red and gold tinsel.
Thus I started dressing our faux tree in the city with white and silver decorations (and which gave me a wonderful excuse to go shopping and to fill my decoration box all over again). My mother was not quite convinced with the end result, being very Old School. ‘But it doesn’t look like it should,’ she said.
And at the beach cottage, House, I spray painted a dead branch from a tree and hung my Twelve Days of Christmas upon it. For Mum, it wasn’t traditional enough, so the next year, I hung red balls over it.
Mum was a bit ‘Meh!’ about the finished product.
But Christmas decoration really became an issue when I asked my husband to make a driftwood tree for our little cottage by the sea.
Mum took one look, said ‘Huh!’ and lit up another cigarette.
For years I tried to persuade Mum to step aside from the accepted northern tradition for Christmas dinner and to make our own tradition – a table filled with the seasonal produce of our state. She agreed just once and we had a table loaded with fresh oysters, crayfish, fresh roasted lamb, glazed ham and salad upon salad of wonderful organic vegetables – Kipfler potato and pea salad, roast peach and feta salad, broadbean, beetroot and goats-cheese salad – oh, my mouth waters as I remember! We had a dessert of berry trifle and a pavlova groaning in fresh fruit largesse.
And whilst Mum enjoyed the fresh seafood, she went back to her own home and apparently tucked into a secret roast turkey and baked veg, because ‘it just wasn’t Christmas’ otherwise.
So from that day to this and no matter how hot it might have been, we have continued the old ‘roast turkey and trimmings’ theme because that’s what she wanted. Followed by Christmas Pudding (with real pre-decimal money in it) and brandy butter and lashings of whipped cream. Mum’s only concession to change was to eat it all at our house.
But lo! It was actually on our porch!
Outside!
My brother would cook the turkey in his Weber BBQ at his and Mum’s house, Mum would bake the veg the way she liked them. I would do an enormous platter of roast veg and beans and feta, and steamed fresh greens and carrot straws. Then my brother would load the turkey and Mum’s roast veg and gravy and the ham into the car and they would speed up the road to our place and we would serve it all onto our table.
Just the way Mum wanted it all to be.
We’d pull the most expensive Christmas crackers we could find (because it was Christmas and they would have the most useful little things inside like shoe-horns and good keyrings, magnifying glasses and screwdriver sets), put on those ridiculous tissue crowns and groan at the awful jokes.
We’d eat the pudding and hold our hands across bellies straining with good food and wonder if we could ever walk upright again. And a tiny traitorous part of me would think, please let’s have a true Aussie feast next year … that wonderful table filled with the fresh light produce of garden and sea…
But…
My Mum died five months ago.
And it’s funny now, how I cherish her tradition for what it was – her family surrounding her on the most important day of her year. Not the food, not the tree, not gifts nor faux sentiment. Just plain old-fashioned family get-togethers.
It took her passing and knowing we’d never have her with us again, to make me realise how complacent we had all become about little things like tradition.
But I do know this one thing … Christmas this year will be a little different, just till we get used to the empty chair and the unfillable hole in our lives. We might go out in the boat for the day, weather pending, with a picnic on the island adjacent to the beach cottage before coming back and sitting round on our porch and telling Mum stories and nibbling away at whatever is left from the picnic, pulling the crackers and perhaps making a new tradition.
We haven’t really talked about it much yet. I’ll let you know what we decide…
But in between times, here’s Mum’s recipe for her delicious shortbread – something she made every year for the Christmas pantry, along with truffles, Christmas Cakes and the best Christmas Pudding and brandy butter ever! Spookily, she had left a fresh batch of shortbread in the pantry, made the day before she died…
It was delicious. She’d even dipped the ends of the biscuits in melted chocolate.
Yum!
Claire’s Shortbread:
250 grams softened butter
½ cup caster sugar
1 and 2/3 cups of plain flour
2/3 cup rice flour
Method: Cream butter and sugar.
Add flours slowly until all blended.
Place in a lined slab tin. Fork all over with pattern of your choice.
Cook at 150 degrees fan-forced for 40 minutes until pale golden on top.
Cool and then cut into lady-fingers. Dip ends into melted chocolate if you wish.
Happy Christmas to all readers, reviewers and writers involved directly and indirectly with Indie B.R.A.G.
And a big thanks to the Indie B.R.A.G team for the stirling work of publicising the excellent writing from independent writers across the globe!
May your 2016 be a wonderful one!
The next Hopper after me on the Christmas Blog Hop on December 22 is
It will be a different Christmas Prue, filled with lots of memories whichever way you do it. You’ll remember Christmases past with laughter and maybe a few tears, and I;m sure parts of the tradition will remain. Hugs and love my friend on this first difficult Christmas with out your Lovely mum
Prue, this touches my heart. Beautifully (yes, and mouthwateringly) expressed, as always. Your mum will be with you in the one place she will never leave. This is a hard year, but you are moving forward as she would want. xo
You are so right, Rebecca. She called this her healing place and i think she meant it for all of us as much as herself. In any case, she’s here with us and so’s Dad, so it won’t be too lonely. I know you have your own ‘absence’ to deal with as well and I shall be thinking of you through your festive time.
It is difficult to make new traditions especially because you want to honour your dear mother. An Aussie Christmas sounds wonderful! I hope I get to experience one some day.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks so much, Phylly. I hope you get to experience an Australian Christmas one day – it IS vastly different and slightly odd experience for those unaccustomed to heat.
Hey, Prue!
I adore your Christmas tree decor and table settings! Beautiful!
Making homemade cards is so much fun and more special than the store bought kind. How neat!
What a great idea to cook the turkey on the BBQ!
Your mother’s shortbread looks so good! I think I will be making it in the near future! Thank you for sharing your Christmas traditions with us, Prue! Merry Christmas!
Steph
Thanks so much, Stephanie. I enjoyed putting the post together for Indie BRAG. it inspired some funny memories of my much loved Mum. The shortbread is delicious. I made my own batch for our Christmas pantry. Best wishes.
So sorry for the loss of your mother. May you find joy in the remembrance of her spirit, as you celebrate the Christmas holiday.
Joe, thank you so much for your kind thoughts. Christmas is tough without her, this being our first. It’s amazing how many memories are surfacing and all so wonderfully good. Happy Christmas to you and yours.
I am soooo…going to make that shortbread this Christmas. Well, actually, I’ll talk my wife into the head chef role on this project while I play Sous Chef.
What a wonderful Mum you had! And still do. She is there with you, every time you make that shortbread. Beautiful post, Prue. Thank you.
I heard that the power is with the sous-chef! 😉
You are right, I did have a wonderful Mum and her memory is very very strong. She was a wonderful role model for her whole family and greatly loved and respected by all who knew her. Thank you so much, G.EgorePitir, for your lovely words.
Wonderful, poignant Christmas memories, Prue. It’s always tough to celebrate that first one without a beloved family member. My thoughts are with you.
Thank you for the great pictures, the sharing of traditions, and especially for that mouth-watering shortbread recipe. I once worked at a catering company where their version of dipped shortbread was a speciality; your Mom’s recipe sounds like it just might trump theirs, so thank you! 🙂
All the best to you and yours for a wonderful, touching holiday.
Thanks so much, Lorraine. It’s been an odd day – tough but wonderful memories and the idea that Mum was an astonishingly strong woman with enormous courage.
In respect of the shortbread, we are eating the last of our Christmas batch now. Yum!
All the best to you and to yours.
Prue, Thank you for sharing your touching, meaningful story. And for sharing your mum’s recipe. I have made shortbread for all my family this year, and I like the differences your recipe brings. I will use it next time! I enjoyed hearing of your Christmas “Down Under,” too, as a good friend of mine recently went back to Melbourne after twenty-some years here in the U.S. where I am. May you have peace in this coming New Year.
Cheri, thank you so much. Do hope you like the shortbread – it’s not as sweet as some, but we prefer that. ‘Specially with a wonderful cup of tea.
Do have a wonderful 2016 and thanks for visiting.