I, as I’m sure are other visitors to the site, am really curious to know what people have for breakfast on Christmas day. So, please consider sending me a little note or leaving a comment below, telling what you or your family have at breakfast on Christmas morning. Whether it is as simple as coffee and toast, or a festive recipe passed down the generations of your family, I’m interested to hear it! Stating your country of origin/residence would also be nice, so that we can see if there are regional differences. Any photos you’ve taken are also most welcome. I’ll post all of your replies here, so that others might be inspired to do something new for breakfast! (If you don’t want your name shown, please let me know.)

I am from Ottawa, Canada. A tradition that I had since childhood, and my wife and I still observe to date with our children is to open the Christmas stockings first, then sit down to a big Christmas breakfast. Often we sit for close to an hour, so there is a lot of excitement building as the Stocking is really a bit of a tease knowing that many more gifts await under the tree.

Usually, our breakfast is an oven omelette, bacon, hash browns, toast, muffins, coffee, and juice. The oven omelette is made from eggs, ham, onions, green peppers, and cheese.

As with all of our holiday meals, from Turkey on Christmas Eve to a buffet for Christmas dinner (meatballs, seafood, etc), Breakfast is an important part of our celebration and is centred around a social family gathering and involves lots of food (and calories).

- Jeffery Barrett

• Watch your favorite Christmas movie.
• Stroll around your local area looking at Christmas lights. Consider going with family or friends. Afterwards, invite everyone in for a hot chocolate or mulled wine.
• See a pantomime or Christmas play.
• Do some Christmas baking or make Christmas candy.
• Wrap gifts.

• Listen to Christmas music.
• Decorate your home, garden, and even your car or bicycle.
• Start making and/or writing your Christmas cards. You may want to use a Christmas card kit.
• Make a miniature Christmas garden.
• Make or buy an advent calendar and remember to get it out on the first of December. A candle advent calendar is a nice option for adults.
• Go to a Christmas carol service in a local church.
• Wear festive jewelry. For example, a Christmassy brooch/pin on your coat.
• Wear a Christmassy wrist watch. See Whimsical Christmas Watches for a lovely selection.
• If there is snow, build a snowman and/or write Christmas messages in the snow.
• If there is frozen water or an ice rink, go ice skating.
• Put bird food out to attract robins.
• Contact someone you have lost touch with. Christmas is a great time to reconnect with long lost friends and family.
• Check your local cinema program to see if there is a Christmassy film on. If so, go and see it!
• Go Christmas shopping.
• Treat yourself to a Christmas lunch or dinner out. Many restaurants have special Christmas menus in December.
• Wish people a “Merry Christmas” or, if you prefer, “Happy Holidays”.
• Go to or help at a Christmas bazaar.
• Read a Christmas story to yourself or out loud to others.
• Wear green and/or red clothes.
• Browse the Internet for Christmas-related sites. This can be done as early in the year as you like. Start by checking our links page.
• Host a Christmas party.

Some of these suggestions can of course be done simultaneously! If you can think of any others, please leave a comment here or contact me with your ideas.

The poem has a similar style to Clement Clarke Moore’s “`Twas the Night Before Christmas”.

‘Tis the week before Christmas and every night
As soon as the children are snuggled up tight
And have sleepily murmured their wishes and prayers,
Such fun as goes on in the parlour downstairs!
For Father, Big Brother, and Grandfather too,
Start in with great vigour their youth to renew.
The Grown-ups are having great fun – all is well;
And they play till it’s long past their hour for bed.

They try to solve puzzles and each one enjoys
The magical thrill of mechanical toys,
Even Mother must play with a doll that can talk,
And if you assist it, it’s able to walk.
It’s really no matter if paint may be scratched,
Or a cogwheel, a nut, or a bolt gets detached;
The grown-ups are having great fun – all is well;
The children don’t know it, and Santa won’t tell.

- Author unknown

Portrait of Charles Dickens in 1842, by the American artist Francis Alexander. This oil painting is currently (2010) housed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Born into a relatively affluent family in Portsmouth in 1812, Charles Dickens experienced both a comfortable life style during his childhood and a most uncomfortable one after his father was punished for living beyond his means by being thrown into a debtors’ jail called Marshalsea (as in “Little Dorrit”). Charles was sent to work at a rat-infested ‘blacking’ warehouse, where he had to work long hours putting tops onto pots of black boot polish under appalling conditions. What he witnessed there, as well as on the streets of London, and when he visited the Cornish tin mines made a great impression on him and deeply influenced his writing in later years. The many vivid, and often nasty characters who appear in his stories are largely based on people he encountered during this period of his life. His experiences in England, and also in the USA during his first visit in 1842, made him determined to expose the shocking gulf between wealth and poverty and to fight, not only for an improvement in living and working standards of the poor, but also for the abolition of slavery in America.

Going back to our image of an idyllic Christmas in Britain in Charles Dickens’ time, the mid 1800s, this is definitely that of the rich. Actually, in the early 1840s, the celebration of Christmas, (which was a combination of the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, together with remnants of the Roman festival Saturnalia and a Druid ceremony marking the winter solstice) was waning in popularity. This was partly on account of Oliver Cromwell’s puritanical disapproval of the merrymaking of Christmas, and the fact that the poor had neither time nor money for it anyway! Being concerned, as he was, about the plight of the poor, Dickens must have been especially moved by the hardship of the disadvantaged at Christmas, supposedly a time to celebrate and make merry!

In 1843 Dickens wrote the first of his Christmas stories, “A Christmas Carol”. There can hardly be anyone who needs reminding of the story of Scrooge, as it is the most performed as play, musical, opera, ballet or pantomime, and the most filmed of any of Dickens’ works – IMDb.com quotes more than 25 major feature or TV films of this name, ranging from the 1910 version, to Robert Zemeckis’ latest 2009 IMAX 3D experience, animated film, with an all-star voice cast, including Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman and Colin Firth. Click on the amazon widget on the right to hear the soundtrack of the latter. IMDb.com also quotes many, many other variations on the title, including Flintstones, Barbie, Sesame Street, and Muppet Christmas Carol! If we were to include all of the amateur productions of this story (amateur dramatics groups/schools/clubs, etc., etc.) together with the countless professional ones, the numbers would run into thousands! There is a rendering of Dickens’ story to suit everybody. Reports on Zemeckis’ latest spectacle, using a highly advanced form of performance capture animation, range from how utterly amazing the visual effects are, to how very dark and sinister it is (well justifying its PG rating in Britain – scary for young ones) but all agree that it is pretty impressive!

Briefly, Ebenezer Scrooge, despite all his money, was a miserable, unhappy man and a hard, cruel boss to his clerk Bob Cratchet, who was a kind, lovable man, despite his circumstances. Scrooge begrudged him even one day free per year to celebrate Christmas, and made him work long hours in a freezing-cold office, paying him a pitence, on which medical help for his sick son, Tiny Tim, was out of the question. As the story unfolds, Scrooge is visited first by the ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley, warning him to change his miserly ways before it is too late, and later by a succession of three spirits. The first one, “The spirit of Christmas past” shows him how lucky he was as a child; then “The spirit of Christmas present” shows him what a miserable soul he has become and the circumstances of others, and “The spirit of Christmas yet to come” shows him the dire consequences unless he does something about it. Between them, they succeed in changing his heart and mind, such that he discovers the joy of giving and sharing, as well as receiving: the joy of Christmas!

Why did Dickens choose the name “A Christmas Carol”? Well he wrote his story in five ‘staves’ instead of the normal ‘chapters’ implying that he wanted it to read like a piece of music, perhaps a carol, rather than just a story. There is also a mention of a lone, brave carol-singer attempting to sing a carol to Scrooge through his keyhole on the Christmas Eve in question, and being driven away by the wielding of a threatening ruler by Scrooge. The singing of carols was definitely a community-minded activity, precisely not something for Scrooge!

Illustration by John Leech (‘Punch’ magazine cartoonist) showing Jacob Marley’s ghost visiting Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ (first edition, published by London-based Chapman & Hall in 1843).

The character Ebenezer Scrooge was very likely based on a real-life, eccentric gentleman, John Elwes, whose biography by Edward Topham published in 1790 instantly became a national bestseller. Dickens was a well-read man and would most certainly have read it. Elwes, born Meggot, assumed the name Elwes on being named heir to his bachelor uncle, Sir Hervey Elwes. He was never short of money as his father Robert Meggot was a wealthy brewer. Elwes was a patron of architects and was responsible for building half of Georgian London: the most part of St. James’s, Mayfair, Picadilly, Portland Place, Baker Street, Marylebone, and Oxford Circus. Despite being a millionaire, in later life he became a famous miser, dressing in rags and eating food full of maggots. He and the fictional Scrooge had other things in common, such as a jolly nephew and a skinny face with a pointed nose. However, there was one enormous difference: John Elwes inflicted his miserliness only on himself, always being kind, loving, and charming to others, and everybody adored him! A big difference, but still, the inspiration could have been there.

“A Christmas Carol” was not Charles Dickens greatest work. He completed it within six weeks just before Christmas 1843 to booster his faltering income from his novel “Martin Chuzzlewit”, which was being published in monthly installments. He was having big problems with his publisher, and he badly needed some ready cash as his wife was expecting their fifth child. On publication, which he ended up paying for himself, the book received a flood of criticism from powerful industrialists for being an indictment of industrial capitalism of the time. So why, despite not being his greatest masterpiece and its poor initial reception by “the people who mattered”, did “A Christmas Carol” go on to become probably his most popular book, and to even being credited with bringing back the merriment of Christmas?

Well, Christmas comes but once a year (once too often, some cynics might say), while for those of us who love Christmas, this annual event, including the build-up to, it is something very special! Of course, it is the celebration of the gift of the baby Jesus, born simply in a stable to bring hope and to lighten and brighten our world, with all its bad news. It is also the time to enjoy being with our loved ones (if at all possible), giving, sharing, eating and drinking and hopefully relaxing together, no matter how much or little money we have to spend on it. Not to forget the annual ritual: the sending of Christmas cards, which helps us reconnect with old friends and family members who we don’t get to see too often – very nice that the multitude of charity cards now help us to remember the disadvantaged at the same time. So the fact that Christmas comes round faithfully every year gives this story a head start. Like the pop stars with their Christmas hits, if Dickens were still alive he would be able to cash in on the royalties of his story each year, with all those countless performances, not to mention the book, which has apparently never been out of print! A charming children’s pop-up version of the book, illustrated by Victor G. Ambrus and published by Methuen in 1986, is certainly out of print but good second-hand copies are still available from used-book sellers.

A fun, children’s pop-up version of “A Christmas Carol”, illustrated by Victor G. Ambrus (published by Methuen in 1986).

So what can account for the allure of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”? Partly we may feel that we have to thank Dickens for re-energizing the festival which was once flagging and for giving us the nostalgic images of Christmastime in days gone by – but most especially, to my mind, the key is the opportunity given and taken to change for the better (it’s never too late) and the message of love and generosity which is embodied in the joy and wonder of Christmas.

How better to finish than with the original ending!

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

THE END.

The poem was first published in “Young People’s New Pictorial Library of Poetry and Prose”, by the Northwestern Publishing Co., in 1888. It was also included in the book “Twilight Stories”, a collection of short children’s stories by various authors, which is believed to have been first published in 1905.

The Christmas chimes are pealing high
Beneath the solemn Christmas sky,
And blowing winds their notes prolong
Like echoes from an angel’s song;
Good will and peace, peace and good will
Ring out the carols glad and gay,
Telling the heavenly message still
That Christ the Child was born to-day.

In lowly hut and palace hall
Peasant and king keep festival,
And childhood wears a fairer guise,
And tenderer shine all mother-eyes;
The aged man forgets his years,
The mirthful heart is doubly gay,
The sad are cheated of their tears,
For Christ the Lord was born to-day.

- By Susan Coolidge

The nuts are normally still in their shells, and so a nutcracker is provided. An advantage of having the nuts still in their shells is that they keep fresh for ages. The nut mixture usually consists of Brazil nuts (delicious, but oh so hard to crack!), walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, and almonds. I remember having great trouble cracking nuts as a child. Each nut I ate felt like a reward for all my efforts! I now realise that a good nutcracker can make all of the difference. Please see my page on nutcrackers if you are interested in learning more about the various types that are available.

Supermarkets often stock pre-mixed bags of nuts around the holiday season. Unfortunately, supermarkets where I live (in The Netherlands) have been leaving out the Brazil nuts for the last few years. I had no idea why, until I did some research just now. Apparently, the European Union has imposed strict regulations on the import of Brazil nuts in their shells, as the shells have sometimes been found to contain high levels of aflatoxins, which may lead to liver cancer. Aflatoxins are toxins that are formed by certain molds on food, particularly nuts that are grown in warm, humid conditions. Even though we don’t eat the shells, it is feared that the toxins could pass from the shell into the nut.

TIP One way to make your bowl of nuts look and smell more festive is to add a few star anises and cinnamon sticks (not for eating).

Practicing tongue twisters at parties can be lots of fun. See who makes the fewest mistakes!

• Blitzer bobbles a billion brilliant bells.
• Bobby brings bright bells.
• Candy cane cookies keep kids coming.
• Chilly chipper children cheerfully chant.
• Comet cuddles cute Christmas kittens carefully.
• Crazy kids clamor for candy canes and Christmas cookies.
• Eleven elves licked eleven little licorice lollipops.
• Hal had happy holiday holly.
• How many deer would a reindeer reign if a reindeer could reign deer?
• Kris Kringle clapped crisply.
• Kris Kringle crunches candy canes.
• Prancer presents pumpkin pies and presents.
• Pretty packages perfectly packed in paper.
• Santa’s sack sags slightly.
• Santa secretly sips sugary syrup.
• Santa’s sleigh slides on slick snow.
• Santa stuffs Stephie’s striped stocking.
• Santa’s super sleigh slips so swiftly through the snow.
• Seven Santas sang silly songs.
• Ten tiny tin trains toot ten times.
• Ten tiny toy soldiers tinker with twenty toy trains.
• There’s chimney soot on Santa’s suit.
• Tiny Timmy trims the tall tree with tinsel.
• Two trains travel together to Toyland.

The idea and photograph were kindly provided by Karen Brooks-Hodges.

What you will need

• 39 toilet paper roll tubes: use fewer to make a tree smaller than that shown in the photo; you can use halved kitchen towel rolls instead
• 39 small Christmas baubles (you need as many baubles as toilet paper roll tubes); shatterproof baubles are safest
• Wide, festive ribbon
• Tree topper of your choice
• Sheet of cardboard or thick paper to stick the toilet paper roll tubes onto (optional)
• Suitable glue
• Scissors

What to do

1. Simply glue the cardboard rolls together in the form of a Christmas tree shape. Make sure that the “trunk” of the tree is wide enough to stop the tree from toppling over. Also, to help make the structure sturdier, you may want to use a large piece of cardboard or thick paper as a backing. You can draw the shape of tree you want to make on the cardboard before you start sticking on the rolls. If you do use a cardboard backing, remember to cut off the excess card around the tree shape.
2. Now glue a bauble inside each tube. You can really change the appearance of the decoration by changing the color scheme. Consider choosing baubles to match your bathroom.
3. Tie a wide ribbon around the entire Christmas tree shape (you may want to glue it down). A bow on the top, like that shown in the picture, looks particularly pretty.
4. Attach a tree topper to the top of the tree and you are done!

“O Holy Night” was found to be the most popular carol, while two versions of “In the Bleak Midwinter” appeared in the top five, as shown below.

Note that in the list below, carols with equal votes are listed in the same position and are separated by an = sign.

Top 30 carols

1. O Holy Night
2. Silent Night
3. In the Bleak Midwinter (Harold Edwin Darke version)
4. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
5. In the Bleak Midwinter (Gustav Holst version)
6. O Come All Ye Faithful
7. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
8. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
9. Once in Royal David’s City
10. O Little Town of Bethlehem
11. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
12. In Dulci Jubilo
13. Sussex Carol
14. Ding Dong! Merrily on High
15. Gabriel’s Message
16. See Amid the Winter’s Snow
17. Shepherd’s Pipe Carol
18. Away in a Manger
19. Candlelight Carol
20. Angels from the Realms of Glory
21. Good King Wenceslas
22. Coventry Carol
23. Angel’s Carol
24. What Sweeter Music = Sans Day Carol
25. The Holly and the Ivy
26. Joy to the World = Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
27. Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
28. The Three Kings
29. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night = Cherry Tree Carol = The Infant King = Nativity Carol = Carol of the Bells
30. Rocking Carol = Mary’s Lullaby

What is your favorite Christmas carol? Comments are welcome!

Christmas bazaars mainly consist of stalls that sell items such as homemade Christmas crafts and cards, homemade cakes and cookies, second-hand toys, charity Christmas cards, homemade jams/chutneys, used books, and antiques or bric-a-brac.

St. Mary’s, an English-speaking church that I am associated with in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), always has a Christmas bazaar in early November. I have helped on various stalls over the years, including the “Beautiful Britain”, second-hand toys, and gift jar raffle stalls. A stall that attracts a lot of visitors to this bazaar is the grocery stall, as it sells imported British goods that are not available in the shops in The Netherlands. Another stall that is always present due to the church’s connections is the “Mission to Seafarers” stall, whose proceeds support the charity of the same name.

The 2009 Christmas bazaar organised by St. Mary’s.

Another annual Christmas bazaar that I have visited several times is one held in a Norwegian church (de Noorse Kerk), also located in Rotterdam. There they always sell beautifully knitted woollen Norwegian winter wear, such as sweaters, scarves, hats, and gloves. Textile-based crafts and Norwegian groceries are amongst the other things you can buy there.

Christmas bazaars normally host a raffle, where through buying a ticket, you have the chance to win one of a selection of pretty valuable prizes. Prizes are often donated by the organisers or sponsors of the event. Example prizes are food hampers, electrical goods, dinner-for-two vouchers, and even pre-paid vacations! At the Norwegian church I mentioned above, the raffle prize was once a Norwegian fjord cruise for two! Raffles are normally drawn at the end of the event. Since participants give their name and phone number when buying a ticket, they do not have to be present at the draw in order to win.

A smaller scale raffle, where you can win something immediately, is known as a “tombola”. The tickets are normally cheaper and the prizes are therefore usually of lower value. It works like this: Prizes with numbers attached to them are laid out on a table. A player takes out a number from a large rotating drum. If their number matches that on one of the prizes, they win it! While normally there are numbers in the drum that have no corresponding prizes, sometimes the game is arranged in a way so that everyone wins something with each ticket that they buy. This encourages people to keep playing!

A “lucky dip” is very popular with children, and is therefore often seen at bazaars. Basically, a barrel or box is filled with sawdust or shredded/scrunched up paper. Mixed in are a few toys or sweets, normally wrapped with Christmas paper. For a small fee, the player shuts their eyes and uses one hand to find and grab a gift from the barrel.

There is often a Santa Claus at a Christmas bazaar. He might be roaming around ringing a bell or may be sat in a large seat so that he can have children on his lap. He may even be in a semi-closed off “grotto”. If you are lucky, he might give your child a piece of candy or present!

There is usually a refreshment area or as the British say a “tea room”, where you can sit and have a drink and some snacks. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cakes, biscuits, scones, and mince pies are typical at British Christmas bazaars.

There might also be some music at the bazaar. At my church’s bazaar, there are normally men playing Scottish bagpipes. They stand next to the church hall’s entrance to attract and welcome customers. There are also organ recitals inside the church itself.

I think visiting a Christmas bazaar is a perfect way to start the festive season. It is a great place to meet old friends and an ideal location to start your Christmas shopping! Maybe there is one local to you that you can visit this year! Check your local newspapers and church programmes.