Week 51

The Christmas box

Hello!

This is our weekly community post in which we track the changing year in minutiae, week by week, and I tell you what I have noticed that felt particularly ‘this week in the year’ and then you tell me yours. Somehow we are at week 51!

This week I have had a whole faux mini Christmas Day, while my brother and family were down from the frozen north, so it is fair to say that I have dragged myself/been dragged out of my unchristmassy state. SO many of you were feeling the same - the weather, work, illness or money all adding up to put the Christmas spirit on hold. I hope that at some point in your near future you are handed a shot of Baileys and a mince pie, though I sense most of us are not at *that* bit of Christmas yet..

In this post I tell you my ‘one thing’ and then you tell me some of yours and at the end of the month I put them all together into a big, beautiful poem to wrap up the month, and indeed the year, on New Year’s Eve.

First, a couple of things: I know that many of you love my podcast with FFern, As the Season Turns, as well as our mini episodes half way through the month with Alice Boyd. Well for this month, Alice has interviewed…me! We visited the stone circle at Stanton Drew to talk all about midwinter and the seasons. You can find it below, or wherever else you find your podcasts.

And don’t forget, for last minute Christmas presents…The Almanac 2025! And my ‘A Year in Story & Song’ is a beauty too, and very Christmassy looking. In the linktree below you will find links for both AND for my Waterstones/Almanac competition to win a telescope for star watching in 2025.

Here’s my one thing:

The Christmas box

Entirely not feeling the spirit but very much feeling the weight of stuff to be done I threw myself at Christmas last weekend: got a tree, got a shopping in of things like gin and crackers and a Christmas pudding, bought some mince pies and got the box down from the loft. It was all done in a slightly weary, teeth gritted and determined box ticking manner and not at all like it is in the adverts BUT…it worked.

The tree I think is the main thing because once it’s up, everything else sort of follows. ‘Ooh it would be nice to have more candles out’ ‘I wonder where the nativity scene got stored away…?’ ‘maybe a little Bing Crosby wouldn’t hurt’. And before you know it it’s starting to be fun.

The loveliest part of all of this is of course getting the box of decorations down from the roof. So familiar and yet somehow surprising every year. I have now sat beneath the tree in the glow of the lights, under all of the ornaments that we have built up since the kids were little, and I am really getting there.

---

That’s it from me, and now I want to know: what have you done/seen/eaten/ baked/worn that felt very ‘this week of the year’? Please leave your comments below.