Neighbours in London, England, celebrating with mistletoe. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. (From their life story which I edited and printed for them from their reminiscences, entitled: Soup and Sympathy.)
It's New Year and the Christmas decorations look so limply last year. Should I clear Santa's red hats and the green plastic tree and the Christmas crackers with Santa in a red nose ready for New Year's gold and glitter?
Answer
We had a debate on this. We could have put away the plastic green tree and replaced it with the white one. Then we decided that we would celebrate the traditional 12 days of Christmas to get our moneys-worth from the money spent and more time value from the time spent.
You may think differently, clear up fast, if you go back to work on January 2nd, or even January 1st. Who goes back to work so early?
1 Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and admin staff.
2 Fire and police.
3 Shop owners and staff, especially those running sales on clothes, household goods, electricals.
4 Teachers at schools or running holiday classes for those still on holiday.
5 People working for themselves, in offices and from home.
6 Retired people writing their novel or running on-line businesses.
7 Lawyers and solicitors and court staff.
8 People working in transport, buses, trains, planes, car hire.
9 Restaurants and fast food and supermarkets and corner stores (convenience stores).
10 Bloggers.
January Celebrations In Spain And Europe
European countries following a different calendar celebrate the magi or three wise men. In Spain when my late parents lived there in the winter, (renting out their flat in summer) we used to watch the parade in nearby villages such as Estepona, where costumed figures on horseback would throw sweets to the excited children.
If you want to go to Spain or a European country where they celebrate on January 5th, or 6th, there's still time to book.
Leftover Food To Buy
In the UK we can buy Christmas puddings, Christmas cakes and mince pies left over from Christmas at bargain prices. The same goes for wrapping paper and Christmas cards if you want to stock up for next year, and Santa outfits.
Saving Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cake
In theory you can keep a Christmas pudding or Christmas cake in a cool dark place for several days or weeks (check packaging). The paper packaging is a help. A tin is even better, especially one with a good seal. Or a plastic box such as Tupperware. Check the packaging and the item you have bought if separate.
Preservatives include alcohol such as brandy in the pudding. Alcohol, a wine expert tells me, discourages mould. (Alcohol is an antiseptic).
Christmas Pudding
We indulged in Waitrose's Christmas pudding by chef Heston.
I asked the family, "Have we finished our Heston's Chrismas pudding?"
"Nowhere near. Maybe half way."
To my astonishment, the date on the packet says, end by 2019! So it would keep until next year - if we didn't finish it throughout this holiday season Christmas 2017-New Year 2018.
Icing
Icing is supposed to stop a cake from drying out. How? The icing is sealing the contents, from air, holding the moisture in.
Reading cookery books, you get the impression that icing is designed for the cake maker rather than the cake eater. I originally thought the purpose of icing was simply when making cake you could write visibly with chocolate or piping.
The hard icing on wedding cakes helps support the top tier. On Christas cakes the firm icing, as it dries and hardens all the better, will support little plastic trees which might otherwise fall over. Icing has many uses, not just smoothly concealing bumps in lumpy cake!
Apart from Christmas cakes, what other post-Christmas bargains can you find in the supermarket?
French Yule Logs
In France, they have yule log cakes, which are now sold in the UK. Brexit won't stop this. Supermarkets have customers from all over the world, and we have all got accustomed to buying a variety of international goods and goodies.
The French yule logs, German Stollen, and Italian Panettone are also likely to be reduced in price after Christmas and in January, especially if they are in Xmas themed packaging. Yule comes from the old pagan festival celebrating trees, hence our Christmas trees, traditionally with the fairy on top. The fairy can be converted to an angel if you prefer symbols you can associate with Christmas.
Italian restaurants and coffee shops, with a little help from supermarkets such as Waitrose and Tesco, have introduced panettone to a wider public.
The spelling of panettone used to challenge me. It is not tonne. You may have tons of panettone. Single N like the British word ton. However, double t. It's like a panet with tone. Panet-tone. Remove the imaginary hyphen. Double T. Panettone.
Preserving Panettone
After last Christmas, I kept panettone in a tin for months. My Italian cake progressively dried out and lost flavour. However, it could be dunked in coffee.
If it's dry, why not just throw it away. It depends how desperate you are to save money and save the planet from waste. Waste not, want not, the English saying goes.
When the panettone was too dry for dunking in coffee, that last of it could be used as a base for bread pudding, spiced up with sultanas, soaked in run if you like. Alternatively, you could use if to for trifle.
We went on a diet so I kept quiet about it. Eventually I forgot I still had it.
Then every now and then it came in handy. It was an emergency food when outside looked cold or dark and I didn't want to go out shopping. I'd be thinking, "I wish I had piece of cake. Please God - ah a piece of panettone - thank you!"
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
