Twelve Drummers Drumming

The Twelve Drummers (actually one has a triangle rather than a drum) are made from clothes pegs.

The pegs are painted to give each figure black trousers with gold stripes and either a red or blue jacket. The jackets are completed with red or blue felt sleeves.  The drums are painted cork with cotton bud drum sticks (each stick is half a bud) and the triangle is wire with a pin to strike it.  The figures are pegged onto a chocolate filled drum.

The drum has been made from a plastic chocolate box, pained with craft paint and with gold thread on the outside.

Eleven Pipers Piping

Each Piper is slightly different, although all are made to the same pattern.

The figures are weighted with pearl barley and the pipes use drinking straws.

Ten Lords a-Leaping

The Ten Lords are leaping out of a Christmas cracker!

Mounted behind the sections of the pulled cracker are the two halves of a picture of the Palace of Westminster.  The leaping Lords are on curled pipe cleaners (colours: red, blue, yellow, purple and green),  There are figures representing hereditary peers, career politicians, bishops and judges.  A pulled cracker snap lies between the cracker sections and there are gold and silver curled decorative tinsel pieces laid around.

Nine Ladies Dancing

The Nine Ladies Dancing form a mobile.

They were cut from lightweight black card using as a template a fairy Christmas decoration. Simply removing the wings turned them into dancing ladies.  Each one has a belt of small white beads.  They are suspended from two tinsel wrapped circles.

Eight Maids a-Milking

The eight maids are made of felt.

One of them has slipped and is spilling her milk!

Seven Swans a-Swimming

The seven swans are swimming on a winter lake.

The origami swans are swimming on a circular mirror.  The side of the mirror are covered with flower arrangers' moss and polyester wading. The pine trees are pine cones with white painted tips and for the other trees we cut appropriately shaped twigs.

Six Geese a-Laying

Five of the geese have laid golden eggs.  The sixth has laid a jewelled egg (beads and sequins!) and is looking rather pleased with herself - note her eyes ...

Five Go-old Rings ...

The Five Gold Rings decoration was the first to be completed.

It consists of five brass curtain rings on a red velvet cushion with beaded piping.  The long tailed tassel is made with metallic threads, some of which are beaded with small red and green beads. The hanging loop is made from the same bead as are used in the piping.

Four Calling Birds

The Four Calling Birds were one of the first to be planned (the Partridge in a Pear Tree was the first). Back in June, as I was starting chemo, I stayed with my sister for the weekend and we discussed the decorations in the light of the me having less energy over the coming months.

My sister had a pattern for fabric birds and thought it could be adapted without too much difficulty.  We then had a happy time going through fabric and beads.

The location, against the patio doors into the conservatory/craft room, doesn't make for a good photo.

Each bird's body is made from three different fabrics and the beak and wings are of net.  They are suspended from the curtain rail at different heights using beaded cords.

Three French Hens

My sister made the Three French Hens in the colours of the French Tricolour.

 She used waffle-texture tea towels and felt, with beads for their eyes.

On the Second Day

Two turtle doves

These too were not made from scratch but I bought them from a bridal section in a craft shop!  They have clips on the undersides, so we have clipped them to the curtain.  The number is tied on with ribbon.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Health issues rather overtook me again this year and from the late spring I haven't really had much time to spend on preparing for Christmas.  Fortunately our Twelve Days theme had been set and some things had been started.  My sister and her younger son pitched in and between us we have made a good display.

As well as having a decoration for each Day, we also themed Saturday's family dinner and many of our Christmas cards.  My aim this year is to a daily post, one day behind real time, of each of the decorations and then follow up with a few posts looking at the other aspects of our theme.

Here to start us off is the First Day. This one (as well as the Second Day) isn't entirely made by us as the tree I had already and the partridge I bought at one of the local garden centres.

Happy Christmas!

Twelve Traditions for Twelve Days

The last trio of traditions take me from the beginning to the end of the main festivities.

10. The hall and the table are always decorated in the theme of the year, so this year it was The Holly and the Ivy.  This will include decorations, garlands, napkin rings etc.

This is one of this year's napkin rings.  My sister crocheted the holly and ivy leaves, added beads for berries and sewed on the ribbons to tie round the napkins.

11.  We watch the New Year's Day Concert broadcast from Vienna.  The music of the Strauss family has always been a part of our Christmas and New Year festivities.

12. Twelfth Night.  While we don't always celebrate it on the actual day, we usually have a family gathering to put away decorations and celebrate my mother's birthday (8th January).  This mirrors our gathering together just before Christmas. The meal is a simple buffet and we use all the year's themed elements, which first made their appearance at our pre-Christmas get together, for one last time.

So - Twelve Traditions for Twelve Days!

Christmas Greens

The next three of my family Christmas traditions involve the use of greenery.   Over the years from my childhood onwards, various parts of the family have lived in houses with easy access to good holly, ivy and other greenery and we've usually had access to mistletoe too. This has made decorating our houses with seasonal foliage very easy.

7. An Advent wreath.  Many years ago I bought a simple metal Advent wreath form with 4 candle holders mounted on it and I can wrap greenery round the form.

8. We always have holly wreaths on our doors.  I now buy mine as making one takes me a long time and I find working in the gloves I need to protect my hands too difficult.  However, my mother always made hers until a stroke and loss of much of her sight meant she too now buys one.

9. Holly.  We always have holly (with berries) over the mantelpieces and on, near or over the front doors.   Some years we remember to put net around some of the holly to ensure that the birds leave us some with berries, but even when we forget there is usually enough!

Customs Old and New

Some of my Christmas traditions are ones I've 'inherited' while others are my own.  The next 3 traditions contain both.

4. A pineapple as a centre-piece for the sideboard and cut a couple of days after Christmas has been part of our family Christmas for as long as I can remember.

5. Afternoon tea. Years ago we would have a Christmas Day tea but as everyone grew older and Christmas dinner went on for much longer, tea was abandoned as there just wasn't time!  What we now do is to have one day over the festive period when a full afternoon tea is the main meal of the day.

6. Salmon for New Year's Day.  This is my recent addition to tradition and I've been doing it for about 5 years now.  Before that, New Year's Day dinner was always roast meat.  I particularly like fish so was keen to have a day dedicated to it.  Actually, it doesn't have to be salmon; it just has to be a festive fish meal.

Twelve Christmas Traditions

Our theme of The Holly and the Ivy has worked extremely well and I'll post some more about it with some pictures.  However, during the 12 days of Christmas I will post 12 of my family's Christmas traditions.  It is a busy time this year, so posting every day isn't going to work - we're on day 3 already! I'll group them together and post every few days.



Here are the first three…

1. Christmas starts for me on the afternoon or early evening of Christmas Eve when we settle down with a glass of Madiera and a slice of panettone.  At that point I know that any advance preparations that haven't been done will now be left undone!

2. One of those advance preparations is the decoration of an old candelabrum with Christmas greenery from the garden.  This is my final christmas Eve task before the panettone.

3. Another advance preparation is the poinsettia.  My sister always brings this to the family gathering we have the Saturday before Christmas.

Two Months to Go

With two months until Christmas, my preparations are forging ahead.  Various lists have been made and items are now being ticked off.

The theme for this year is The Holly and The Ivy, so lots of scope there!

At the weekend I made a start on my cards and this year we have a die cutting and embossing machine to add to our craft tools.

Choices, choices ...

We are making good progress towards the Christmas 2016 theme.  We shortlisted half a dozen and have four of them running neck and neck.

Over the next week we will be reviewing all our craft materials ready to make a final choice after 2nd February, when Christmas 2015 really will be over.

Watch this space ...

Packing away

With my mother's birthday duly celebrated, the Christmas greenery is now down and the decorations packed away.

The Christmas village (complete with 'snow') is safely stored away in the large hat box in which it lives for most of the year.  My St Lucy embroidery is still up, of course, and she remains in place until the real end to Christmas on 2nd February.

Other than that, thoughts are turning to next year's theme and we are going to the various sales of Christmas goods to see if a theme emerges; it usually does sooner or later.  With Easter early this year, I am thinking about that too ...

Number 12

My final item is another good all year round one

Not being all that tall, this small step is invaluable at any and every time of the year but really does come into its own when there are decorations to go up or come down.  The fact that it folds flat makes it even more useful as it can be stored away but remain readily available.

So we have reached the point where most people's decorations are down and the towns and villages no longer sparkle with Christmas lights.  As we packed away the office decorations, we ate the mince pies baked and sent in to us by the mother of one of our team.

It can feel a bit flat at this point but happily we have my mother's birthday celebrations to come at the weekend and, of course, I will be stringing Christmas out until 2nd February anyway!