Advent Sunday 2019 - 1st December 2019

Stir up Sunday or the first Sunday in Advent is a tradition that I have followed on and off for years, being the day that the Christmas pudding was traditionally made. Some of my earliest memories centre around the memory of my mum making the puddings and cooking them in the gas copper that was located in the kitchen both at the cottage and at the house in Uppingham.  We were always encouraged with both the pudding and the cake to have a stir of the mixture and make a wish.  Other customs were that my Nan always used to slip in some silver threepenny bits into the pudding mix and the recipient used to supposedly have good luck all year round.  You never got to keep the threepenny bit (they were out of use by then) and Nan used to reclaim them for the next year.  We never did find her stash of silver threepenny bits after she passed, but I think the custom passed out of practice because of concerns of the metal being exposed to the sweet sticky pudding mix and concerns that it would cause food poisoning.

As this year has raced along so quickly this year I thought I had better get a rough idea of when this fell this year and it is the Sunday 1st December 2019 (well that is what the Internet told me when I looked) which is also the first Sunday in Advent.  If you have an Advent Wreath with candles on this is also the first time to light the first candle.

This year because of my new work commitments I will be making my puddings well before and my cakes so that I can deal with other things as I need to and to maximise my time.  However, really I do like doing the Christmas pudding on "Stir up Sunday".  So far I have four Christmas puddings and four Christmas cakes to make.

There is also the Christingle Service.  The first ever Christingle Service I went to was with Thorpe Junior School when I was about seven years old and it was held in the Cathedral by candlelight and it was magical.  For more information on Christingle see the link here https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-you-can-do/fundraising-and-events/celebrate-christingle

We were handed the Christingles at the Cathedral then but now I believe that the children make their own at school.  A visual magical feast for the littlies surrounded in tradition and custom but which brings benefit elsewhere.

Time to make the most of the time that we have before Christmas to get all those special bits and bobs made and foodie bits.  Time to make the best of what we have.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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