Xmas trees and decorations - the countries they came from

 Santa in Thailand, entrance hall at Sunwing Hotel, Kamala beach, December 2023. TUI is the low cost airline. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

It may surprise you to see real or more usually artificial Xmas trees in India, thailand and other parts of the world. Where did this custom start and when?

1 Trees in Germany/Europe in winter with candles supported on branches provided light and warmth.

2 King George's III's wife, Charlotte, brought one to the UK in.

3 An engraving, not a photo, of Queen Victoria and Albert (who was German) with their tree in 1848, makes trees popular in the UK

Later additions were glass baubles. Recent imports from Germany at Xmas time include gingerbread biscuits and stollen cake.

Christmas cards

Christmas crackers

Dickens writes about Scrooge in the Christmas Carol.

Grinch, an anti-Xmas character is created by Dr Seuss. The character is voiced by Danny Kaye and Wlter Matthau and others.

Ladybird Books

I have an ol Ladybird book (for children - but conveniently succinct for adults) which tells the story of the Xmas tree and Xmas customs.

New (to me) in 2023, the book Christmas tree.

If you have only one book, and don't mind folding the pages, you can create a tree decoration for the dining table. This makes a cone shape tree.

Useful Websites

Daily Mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12881075/The-secret-history-Christmas-tree-fairy-lights-began-West-End-stage-tinsel-emerged-Germany-17th-century-Queen-Victoria-popularised-baubles.html#reader-comments

Wikipedia

How to make a book Xmas tree

Pages taken from books (or old printed paper from your printer wastebin). Tthis makes the cone shape tree.

https://www.rokolee.com/diy-book-page-paper-trees-xmas#:~:text=Fold%20the%20first%20page%20over,to%20all%20of%20the%20pages.

https://www.instructables.com/Bibliophiles-Christmas-Tree/

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Origami-Christmas-Tree

Christmas Tree & Tree Decorations in the Lobby of the Tanglin Club, Singapore

 

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The tree is the centrepiece of the lobby. The tree is even better close up. You can admire the individual decorations. I liked the snow-capped roof and the arched windows on the model building.

Xmas tree decoration. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I wonder how many people spent how many hours decorating the tree.

The official Xmas tree light up is on Sunday, November 27th, the last weekend in November.

Legend says that Xmas trees were originally brought into homes in Germany and northern Europe in the darkest months and used as supports for candles. (A bit of a fire risk. Nowadays, for convenience and safety, we have artificial trees and electric lights with circuit breakers.)

The event will include Santa Claus posing for photos with children and families. (Judging by last year, you may have to queue - Americans say line up.) Members can also expect light refreshments and entertainment from a choir and stilt walkers. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Biscuit Sales kiosk like a giant gingerbread house. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Useful Websites

https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/

https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltagov/en/getting_around/public_transport/rail_network.html

https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/events/social-events/events-promotions/1583-christmas-tree-lighting.html

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Xmas tree recycled Xmas cake decoration with Bottle Screw Cap Stand

I was very pleased with the result.

When you rescue your decoration from the table you may have to wipe the cream off the spikes of the tree. You could wrap it in a paper napkin or a paper tissue or even toilet paper. Take it to a water tap and wash it off before putting it in your bag, ideally inside a waterproof bag and ideally in a separate food and drink bag away from any papers.

Travel writer and photographer, Angela Lansbury.

How to recycle Merry Xmas cake decorations for your cake or table decorations

I saw somebody throw Xmas cake decorations in the bin and thought, What a waste! I am keen on recycling.
I took the decorations home. In the UK, I have saved my own cake decorations from one year to the next.
This year I went to two Xmas parties in Singapore where the cake decorations were not wanted by anyone else.
I was looking at the decorations which had fallen on their sides, and at the lid of a milk carton I had just finished. It occured to me that the coloured plastic stopper from the milk carton was just the right size for a pot for a little plastic tree from a cake.

I just needed a hole for the spike.

How do you make the hole?

1 Use an electric drill.
2 Use an awl.
3 Use the sharp point of a pair of scissors - not a small pair you might break.

Go carefully. If the hole is too big, your Xmas tree will stand at an angle as if it is about to fall over. You may have to twist it around and stand it against a support.

My most successful method was with the ends of a corn on the cob pick, You have to be very careful. You don't want the hole too big, nor too small. You don't want to force the point down onto a work surface which might be scratched or pock marked or damaged, nor to risk the spike going through suddenly. But don't hold it in the air and risk it going through suddenly and scratching yourself.

I was delighted with the result. cute and colourful. I thought I could take it with me on holiday at Christmas. If the country in Asia or China or elsewhere does not celebrate Xmas, I still have my weeny Xmas decorations for Xmas in the bedroom or Xmas Day breakfast in bed.

Halloween leftover lights and bites, overtaken by Xmas cakes and Santas

Last year I bought leftovers from Halloween, a witches hat, and a broomstick, which I still have for later years.

Chocolates and biscuits with Halloween themes are now reduced in Tesco, and the Christmas items are on display in Tesco and Waitrose supermarkets.


I still have some pictures to admire.





Now the British Christmas puddings are on display, along with iced Christmas cakes. Waitrose has Heston's orange surprise Xmas pudding. You can also get Heston lemon surprise mince pies.

If you want novelties which aren't seasonal, Waitrose sells gingerbread men biscuits all year, and iced fairy cakes decorated with pictures such as pirates for parties.


Rolling Santa Tins
Now that the novelty of dressing up for Halloween has gone, what can you do or look at for a laugh? Other novelties are the biscuit tins in the shape of rolling Santa. I saw these last year after Xmas on ebay and thought the sellers had eaten the biscuits and wanted to sell off the tins no longer needed nor appropriate after the Xmas season was over. Now I see that the tins are sold empty. (Why an empty tin? I suspect they tried including biscuits but found the tins rolled about so the biscuits ended up broken).

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Christmas is Coming: last post dates; Xmas meals; Dec 18 event: Hatch End

Put up lights in gardens, post the cards, buy and decorate trees, book dinners, lots to look at and plan.

The front gardens are getting ready.

Christmas tree outside Fellini Caffe Italian restaurant.

Get fit and healthy with your pills and prescriptions from Tanna's chemists. 

Buy and post your seasonal cards in time for Christmas. This handy reminder is in Tesco Express. Last local postal times 1st class 21st December 2015, 2nd class 19 December. 

Bookings for Christmas dinners:

The moon and Sixpence pub.

 Or Pizza Express.

Or maybe Christmas at home.

A Christmas tree for the table from Tesco, at £3.

Or something from Bella's Blooms:

If you've nothing else planned, yet, Friday December 18th, note the date in your diary, Hatch End charity Christmas street event happens in Hatch End, 4-8 pm, with a sweet cart, Santa's Grotto, a raffle and horse-drawn carriage.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Ruby's Restaurant, Bushey Heath, Xmas Dinner Party or New Year lunch

The Place

The Decor

The Food
I chose pate.

I chose turkey. The sea bass was also good.

I chose Xmas pudding, but the bread and butter pudding was even better.

Toilets are ground floor and the Ladies is nicely decorated.

Ruby's Restaurant

Bushey Heath

Autograph Hunting and The Xmas Tree Lighting In Hatch End with John Conteh, boxing champion

The tree was it by sporting hero John Conteh, British former boxing World Champion, centre. To his right are councillor Jean Lammiman and her husband, councillor John Hinkley. To John's left is Peter Jacques, former restaurant owner in Hatch End, member of Toastmasters International club HOD which meets in Harrow. To the far right of the photo is Andrea, owner of Fellini Caffe which is diagonally across the road behind them - at the heart of Hatch End. 

Incidentally, John Conteh was the light heavyweight champion, which sounds like an oxymoron. 

I asked him to sign my autograph book. He signed lots of autographs for fans and autograph collectors. My autograph book was a last minute thought. I grabbed it on the way to meet him. I must remember to take my autograph book to book signings and on holidays. I could collect chefs and restaurant owners, too. Then I will have a record in one place of all the interesting people I have met on my travels, as well as quotations.

Merry Xmas at Miller & Carter - if you follow my recommendations

The Xmas tree in the hallway is jolly and so are the gold crackers on the table. The festive menu offers two options, two courses or three. I suggest you opt for two and bypass the starter in favour of the desserts.

Yes, I'd avoid the starters. Strangely dark gravad lax looks like parma ham on a bad day. Soup with honey is filling and pleasant enough.

The main course of turkey is really good, so are the potatoes and parsnips - looks good. 

My main course was filling and original. I liked the chicken with duck and stuffing centre, the parsnips the potato and peas. Admittedly I shared my vegetables with somebody else who ordered cod. They liked the cod, which predictably they liked and I didn't, but wanted more green vegetables. 

The highlights to the meal were dessert and coffee.

Xmas pudding came adorned with mint. Plenty of pudding. 

My espresso coffee had a little round biscuit on the side, large and thin, crunchy and dipped in the coffee (when nobody was looking) without breaking, all of which really pleased me. As Shakespeare said, all's well that ends well. 

I had had a meal at another Miller & Carter in Ruislip, that time steak. The Christmas version seems to be a lunchtime special. I tried to find my previous review on my handphone but could not navigate to my review on time. On my next visit to either place I must look up my earlier review on my computer at home in advance in order to make the right choices.

Reminder - Xmas tree lighting in Hatch End today mid afternoon

Xmas tree light-up in Hatch End today Dec 4th.

Xmas trees or lights on lamp posts are already shining in Stanmore and North Harrow to brighten the last few hours of the afternoon now it's getting dark early.

Free pizza, hot drinks and jelly babies Hatch End Thursday Dec 4 2014

Free pizza, hot drinks and jelly babies at Fellini Caffe in hatch End tomorrow afternoon, Thursday Dec 4 2014, after 4 pm when the Christmas Tree lighting takes place.

Here are the workers out in their lifting device to put the decorations on the tree and around the lamp posts. Bet you wondered how it was done, as I did.

That's how you get the fairy or angel or star on the top of the tree!

I saw a team of three vans out. You can just spot the orange lifter above the trees in the distance.

A brochure was delivered to nearby houses informing them of the tree lighting ceremony. Usually carol singers, a VIP, a collection for charity, free food given away by several shops. For example, mince pies at estate agents. In a previous year the tree lighting was done by Barry Cryer. This year it's a sporting hero.

See next post for pictures of Christmas cakes, Christmas trees and other shop window decorations and temptations.

Update on Xmas/Hanukah/Halloween cookie cutters

Christmas/Hanukah cookie cutters
Getting ready for Christmas, I just bought two copies of Essentials magazine number Xmas issue (£2.99 each copy) from a Tesco Express in order to get the metal cookie cutters.

One set consists of a Christmas tree, six pointed wiggly edge star, and bell.

The other set has a five pointed straight sided star, an angel (I thought it was a gingerbread man until I looked closer) and a J shape candy cane.

A six point star was on a mince tart at the end of the set meal at the Civil Service Club Xmas dinner.
Lots of mince tarts which are sold in supermarkets are decorated with stars. I think it's something to do with the symbolism of the three magi (wise men) following the stars to the town of Bethlehem to the stable where Jesus was said to be born. However, a six point star does very nicely for a talk or topic (impromptu speech, originally a topic taken from the table) about Hanukah at a Toastmasters Xmas/winter party. (The hanukah symbol is the 9 branch candlestick, but if you want a symbol on the food a six point star does nicely.)

The Xmas cutter will do for cutting biscuits or sandwiches. I plan to use if for icing shapes to stand up or lie flat on a fruit cake with a white icing top.

More Cutters From Morrisons
Morrisons, like Tesco, sells the Essentials Magazine with the 'free' cookie cutters, at £2.99.

However, for only £1 in Morrisons  you can get three larger cookie cutters with a seasonal theme in red plastic. The designs I saw were for three: Xmas tree, star, and another.

Nesting Stars On Ebay
A set of ten nesting stars on ebay can be stacked to make a Xmas tree.

Hanukah Cookie Cutters
I did a search for hanukah cookie cutters. This is the sort of thing which is hard to find in a hurry overseas. For example, one year I was travelling to Singapore and needed some symbols them to give a talk to Friends of The Museum on Hanukah for a multi-cultural winter workshop and holiday party. In the UK I see the work Hanukah but US sites spell it Chanukah. They sell cookie cutters in sets of three, usually including a six point star and a dreidl (spinning top).

Halloween
You can also buy sets of nesting Halloween cookie cutters.

Nesting sets of hearts are handy for wedding anniversaries, birthdays and Valentine's day. I also liked the rolling pins which roll out a line of hearts or stars, for decorating ribbons of pastry or icing for cakes.

If you want only one cutter, for £1.19 including postage, try ebay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Christmas-Cookie-Biscuit-Pastry-Cutters-Angel-Bell-Xmas-Tree-Star-Star-Boot-/181532105254?pt=UK_Home_Baking_Accessories&var=


www.essentialsmagazine.com
www.tesco.com
www.tesco.com/direct
www.morrisons.com

Christmas Lights & Free Food in Hatch End

My red rheindeer hat cost me only £1 in Tesco Express. That was my contribution to the evening celebrations when the Xmas lights were turned on alongside the street Xmas tree, with carols and free food.
Free food!

Where in the world do you get free food? In the USA back in the Sixties you could get free food in summer in the park in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, California - bread dyed pink? With food colouring. We hoped.

Later in several cities
we lined up for pancakes and syrup, sometimes sausages or meat. We had free breakfast in summer at towns with rodeos.

Nowadays in the UK NW London in a leafy lane near Watford a Hindu Hare krishna temple serves a free rice and curried vegetable lunch regularly. It is sponsored by a family with a celebration that week.

Nearer the shopping centres, you can get free food and drink two or three times a year in Hatch End, Pinner, Middlesex. This summer we had a street party for the Jubilee and then Royal wedding. We always look for an excuse to attract visitors in summer and winter.

So we had comedian Barry Cryer, a local resident, to speak when the Xmas lights were switched on December 6th. Then several shops in tiny Hatch End high street started serving food and drinks. Hatch end main street is the Uxbridge Road. One restaurant facade boasts a plaque to Mrs Beeton, the pioneer cookery writer, ('first kill your chicken … take a dozen eggs').

I started with a juice outside Fellinis. Then chocolates at Tanna the chemist. Chuck had a great display of lights, moving reindeer.

On to a glass of bubbly, olives and chicken canapés on sticks in the upmarket furniture store opposite Chaplins, where I met the staff who do renovations of furniture in their Stanmore workshop. They said it would cost me £100-£150 to cover a headboard. they are very proud of their covering a sofa for Mr Ross. (See the plaque about this under the Xmas tree across the road.)

On the Xmas tree side of the road a tried a free chocolate at the newly opened (late 2013) chocolate shop, Rainbeau. the Genuine Cakes shop gave me a delicious piece of vanilla cake. Then up to B and K Salt Beef bar for a slice of turkey and a small latke (potato cake). Luckily we had small portions everywhere. I still had room for a mince pie over at Robertson and Philips estate agent.
A couple of last photos of windows - the antique shop had a chef holding a bottle of wine.