Going away for Xmas? What to pack

Which countries celebrate Christmas? Christian countries, former Commonwealth countries. For example: USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.  In Europe France, Belgium, German, Spain. You will also find Christmas celebrated in other countries according to the old calendars, in January.

To avoid Christmas, you could go to Israel or one of the Moslem countries where Xmas is not a national holiday so you are sure to get meals from restaurants which are open and have normal prices. You might wish to take your own Xmas goods for private celebrations.

Problem
What to pack?
1 Red, white and green clothes for a Xmas day occasion or end of year party on a Xmas theme.
2 A cheap hat to wear to a party where you are asked to dress up. Or just to jolly up Xmas day in a hotel.
3 A Xmas card to attach to a gift. If none, just print one at home before you leave.
4 Names and numbers of family,friends,elderly people who are alone, to call on Xmas Day.
5 Sizes of shoes and socks and gloves and shirts or dresses and favourite colours of family at home for buying gifts in sales to take home.
6 Reminder to buy oranges locally to take and give for Chinese New Year in January-Feb each year (but don't take fruit into Australia).
7 Xmas wrapping paper and string.
8 Research on streetview the streets with Xmas lights.

Lights at Orchard Road in Singapore. Disney theme. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Christmas isn't over yet! Decorations, celebrations, January 6th and leftovers all year

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.

Xmas Travel tips: Packing and DIY Christmas and birthday cards, wrapping and decorations

Problems
How do you find a Xmas card in a hurry at a Xmas party when the organiser have put a Xmas card on every place? How do you find a suitable card for Christmas and Chinese New Year?

If you wrap a present, you might have to unwrap it at security or customs. You can't even travel with a big pair of scissor in your hand luggage.

In Singapore we were invited to housewarmings, engagement parties, and to dinner with people who had just had a baby. We needed cards in a hurry.

What do you do to decorate the room in a hurry when you are too busy to go shopping or the shops are closed?

Answers
Cards And Wrapping
At home I keep a stock of Christmas and birthday cards in boxes marked Christmas and Cards. I also have a section of wrapping paper.

Storage
You can store your leftover Xmas cards and wrap in a zip up bag for about £15. Or simply keep it in a tote bag with Xmas or festive patterns. Or cover a shoe box with leftover Xmas wrapping paper.

Packing
I take a couple of spare Xmas cards in my pockets to parties and when travelling over Xmas. I have also spent hours hunting inside my suitcase for the card and wrapping twine. Days later I discovered them in the suitcase outside pocket. You might add the location of small or vital items to your packing list with the location such as; jacket pocket; in handbag; in carryon bag; in outside pocket of suitcase, in lid.

Storage and Packing
Alternatively load up a picture of your suitcase. Or keep the luggage tag when you buy the item which has a picture of the suitcase. Label the outside as A and the lid pocket as B and the back inside pocket of the base of the suitcase as C. Your hand bag similarly labelled with letters. (Not numbers, since you will use those for the numbers of pairs of socks or underwear or blouses or shirts.) Alongside each item you note where you have packed it.

You can also direct a partner or friend from the bathroom or another location to find the card or wrapping in your luggage by checking the packing list stuck on the inside lid of the suitcase.

Place names
Save place names from Xmas parties and weddings for re-use on your festive table. To check the correct spelling of names, look at your emails, or inside Xmas cards from this year (or last year, if you keep them).


Stories
On one occasion I bought a card which was all in Chinese from a rack of Chinese New Year cards in Singapore. My friend laughed a lot. A week later, when I asked her to translate it, she admitted that my card had wished her Happy Birthday.

We also had a Swiss army knife confiscated. On another occasion we had a pair of scissors confiscated at Heathrow. One person had to race around the airport to find an envelope and post it home. The other was waiting half an hour airside wondering what took so long and whether a family member had been arrested.

Tips
Keep a similar lettered checklist for items which are left in the fridge (sandwiches for the plane; chocolates for the hosts you are visiting).
Attach post-it notes to the back of your front door and remove them as you leave as you check every item.

For example:
LAST MINUTE LEAVING CHECKLIST
Passport, tickets;
Keys (one set; second set left with neighbours / family /office;
Holiday/business address and insurance details left with family;
Food for journey, drink for journey;
Items in fridge to throw out or give to neighbours or family.
Keys of second home.
Name and phone number of person who has keys to rented accommodation.
Hotel number in case of delay.
Print-out of reservation in case reception.
Xmas cards. Birthday cards. New Home cards. Chinese New Year cards.
Gifts.
Wrapping paper. Coloured string or ribbon and bows. Sticky tape.
Gold and silver pens for writing cards.

DIY Decorations
Xmas cards you have been given can be attached to a string and hung across a wall.

Crackers
I like recycling. Saved empty Xmas crackers can be linked with a string through the middle. I remove the leftover bit which you pull to make the cracking noise because I think it is a fire risk and it blocks the centre. However, it does keep the cracker rigid.

The resulting string of colours can be used as a semi-circular string of colour and glitter along a wall or table top. Or tie the ends of the string to make a wreath to hand on a door knob.

If you have whole crackers left over, even better. You can thread them together.

Or stick them vertically on the wall for a public party, ideally using removable adhesive such as Blue-tac or White tac.


Cracker Jokes
Stick half a dozen jokes from inside crackers onto a card for the centrepiece of the table at the next festive dinner party. They could also edge a printed menu of what you are serving. Or pass the joke card around the table for amusement whilst waiting for latecomers.

DIY Menu
To decorate a DIY Xmas menu, cut the pictures of festive foods from the cover or inside of a supermarket magazine. I would not take a restaurant menu. But if it's dated with a specific day so they will not use it again, you might keep it. Or ask permission.

Keep the menu card in a souvenir book of Christmas Past memories. (Put menus on the left, Xmas photos of your Xmas party on the right).

Alternatively re-use all or part of the menu to decorate your own menu. If you cannot take away the menu, or forget, photograph the menu and use part of the cropped photo to decorate your home menu.

The magazine pictures can also be used for a mosaic seasonal greetings card. You may need to buy a cheap glue or Sellotape. That's a UK brand name. Sticky tape is what you might say in the USA.

If you are in a hotel, ask a friendly receptionist if she or he has any glue, sticky tape or a stapler. Failing all else, stick paper together by bending over corners twice, or cut a slit in one piece of card, and an arrow shape in the other.

I hope this helps you.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.
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Carrying Gift Wrapping Paper, Card, and Making Christmas Trees - Let's Craft with ModernMom - 12 Days of...

A video of making wrapping paper into conical tree table decorations is a great idea if you travel to a flat, second home or all suite hotel and want a table decoration for Christmas or New Year or a birthday. it reminds me of how I often travel with wrapping paper for gifts, because a wrapped gift has to be opened for customs and excise or security.

I travel with a roll of wrapping paper, a teeny set of paints or couple of felt tip coloured pens in different colours, and a roll of sticky tape. I have leftover wrapping paper to re-cover box files or to do craft work.

Transporting Paper Without Creases
A roll of wrapping paper can be transported flat in the base or lid pocket of a suitcase. Alternatively, use the outside pocket of a carry on bag.

Roll paper you need to keep flat (such as a certificate or birthday card or poster) either inside or outside a cardboard tube. Where do you find a tube? Use a tube from kitchen roll paper. Or make a long tube of two or three toilet paper or kitchen roll inner tubed taped together to make a longer one.

Alternatively, keep a tube from a poster which has been posted to you, or any kitchen roll. Roll up, the paper to be protected inside the stiff cardboard.

A kitchen original tube can later be cut to make a cone.

The more remote your destination, the more impressed others will be by such items as wrapping paper. For example, on a trek up Everest, one of the members had a birthday. The Sherpas (one of many mountain tribes of Nepal) cooked a cake. Friends among the trekkers had brought the cake frill and cards. On Mera Peak, in the Himalayas in Nepal in the year 2000.

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