This is a post written in advance, today I will be in the kitchen cooking up a storm. To me the food is a key part of Christmas, it's what gives structure to our whole day. 
Christmas Eve is when I do all the preparation, there will be a few types of stuffing to make, pigs in blankets to wrap, bread sauce needs making, the giblets will be simmering to make stock, and there will be a couple of different deserts being made. 

All that means that on the day itself it's mostly just a case of putting trays in and out of the oven in the correct order, and turning on the hobs under the pans of vegetables. For many years we've eaten goose at Christmas, it's a real seasonal splurge, and not a meat that we eat at any other time. However last year our family gathering trebled in size, so we needed a bigger bird, and went back to Turkey. The family businesses tend to have been quite busy during November and December, so we try to put that money back towards another small business. Our turkey comes from a small family farm specialising in rare breeds, as does our ham, bacon and sausages. We also go and spend some money with our excellent local butcher.

On Christmas Day itself we will usually go for a walk with the dogs. They don't care that it is Christmas, so up the hill we go! Whilst we're out the turkey will be cooking. We get back home, change out of muddy clothes, and then sit round to open our presents. Fwen the dog loves presents and new toys, she usually manages to find and open her present several times before December 25th. Meg finds the whole thing to be far too much, and goes to hide until the food reappears. 

We usually sit down to eat at around 2pm, and the rest of the afternoon is spent in a self-indulgent style. Much drinking, squeezing in more food when possible, and much debate over what TV to watch together. 
My brother and his girlfriend alternate Christmas days with us and her parents, we get them on Boxing Day this year, so we'll be repeating much of the day all over again the following day!

I'll be going silent on the blog now for a few days. I'm not back at work until the New Year, so will be enjoying some computer-free time. I have knitting planned... this is going to become a jumper!

First up, full disclaimer, I am not Welsh, I live here, it is my home by choice, I have no direct Welsh ancestry, and my Welsh language skills are not exactly stellar...
However, one of the parts I love about living in this part of Wales is the number of old traditions that have been kept alive. I live in that funny bit of Wales that's right in the middle, there are no large towns, and even the form of Welsh they speak round here gets described as archaic by certain Welsh language speakers who I know.

The idea of a Christmas Eve service at midnight is one that's pretty  common in many parts of the Christian world. In this part of Wales they take it one step further. They hold their service between 3am and 6am, with the night before spent decorating the houses, and meeting up with friends. During the service the church is filled with candles. 
This is a description of the service in Dolgellau during the middle of the last century. 

"Now the church is in a blaze, now crammed, body, aisles, gallery, now Shon Robert, the club-footed shoemaker, and his wife, descending from the singing seat to the lower and front part of the gallery, strike up alternately, and without artificial aid of pitch pipe, the long, long carol and old favourite describing the Worship of Kings and of the Wise Men, and the Flight into Egypt, and the terrible wickedness of Herod. The crowds are wholly silent and rapt in admiration. Then the good Rector, and his curate, David Pugh, stand up, and read the Morning Service abbreviated, finishing with the prayer for All Conditions of Men, and the benediction restless and somewhat surging is the congregation during prayers the Rector obliged sometimes to stop short in his office and look direct at some part or persons, but no verbal admonishment. Prayers over, the singers begin again more carols, new singers, old carols in solos, duets, trios, choruses, then silence in the audience, broken at appropriate pauses by the suppressed hum, of delight and approval, till between eight and nine, hunger telling on the singers, the Plygain is over and the Bells strike out a round peal."

The carols are sung without musical backing, and there is a certain competitive nature to the singing. Small groups stand, sing a carol, and then another group will stand and present their carol. Within a service there will be several groups taking part, and they will each sing in turn. There is no set programme of songs, and it's a point of pride that no carol is repeated.

Plygain is no longer just a Christmas Eve tradition. Throughout the winter local churches will host their own plygain, and groups from other churches will visit and sing. The Say Something in Welsh site has a list of various Plygain services (though there will be many more happening). There is even one in London on 6th January.

The other mid-winter event that still takes place here is the Mari Lwyd. 
This is a New Year tradition, involving a man under a white sheet, holding a horses skull. Traditionally it would go around the houses in the village, and a door-to door challenge in Welsh verse would take place. That's mutated in to a trip around the pubs in our villages...

One of my favourite parts of this whole series of blogposts has been reading about what people knit and sew for others.. I do like a homemade gift, though only certain people are deemed to be knit-worthy!
Throughout the year I'll usually have a pair of plain socks on the go. The men of my family are rather partial to a hand knit wool sock, my brother ensured his place on the knit worthy list by presenting a pair from a previous Christmas and asking for them to be mended! I tend to use commercial yarn for my socks, I like a good plain, super sturdy 75% Superwash wool, 25% nylon blend, something like Regia or Opal. They wash and wear so well, I finally admitted that my very first socks had become worn out this year, I made them in 2008, so they'd had a good innings!

Very occasionally this homemade plan does catch me out, though I've never handed over a half knitted pair! This pair for my Dad were the closest... Finished on the 23rd December

These were made 9 years ago, and the last time we were away as a family for Christmas. Mum booked us a cottage on the Isle of Mull, I arrived home from my first teaching job full of cold, that turned in to full blown flu the following morning. I was bundled in to the front of the car, wrapped in blanket, and didn't move until we arrived at the ferry... Turns out I was also carrying Noro virus that had been sweeping through the school just before Christmas, and one by one the whole family succumbed. The cottage had a delightful view over the strait to Iona, but was a, mostly unheated, pre-fab, with no TV reception... not the ideal spot to be confined to a sofa!

The following year Mum and Dad moved to Wales, which was an equally cold Christmas!
The cottage was lacking in insulation, and was rather damp as it hadn't been lived in. The wood burner that provided the heating and hot water wasn't working well. We did a lot of work out in the garden cleaning trees that year, mostly because it was the only time we got warm!

The most last minute present I've ever made was this hat for Mum...
It was the Woolly Wormhead Mystery Hat Pattern that year, but had been put aside whilst I made socks and other gifts. The day before Christmas we'd been out walking, and Mum forgot to take a hat....
Which then led to me pulling this out, realising it could be finished with a few more hours work. I cast of at around 10pm. Gave it a quick wash, then dried it over the top of the woodburner overnight. I then snuck it away and wrapped it the same morning. all without anyone realising what I was up to!

My favourite part of this time of year is the chance to cook. I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the kitchen cooking for friends that were visiting, and it was lovely. 
The main thing that I start cooking at the start of December are Mince Pies. These are little mouthfuls of Christmas, and so much better than the commercially made ones. 
I start by making a huge batch of mincemeat, and then store it in the fridge and just scoop out what I need every 4 or 5 days to make another batch. 
The recipe, like so many of the seasonal things we cook comes from Delia Smith's Christmas cookbook. A second hand copy can be yours for the princely sum of 1p on Amazon... If you don't own a copy, then you should!

Homemade Mincemeat

450g Bramley Apples chopped in to small chunks (no need to peel)
225g Shredded Suet (you can get vegetarian suet)
350g Raisins
225g Sultanas
225g Currants
225g Chopped, candied mixed peel
350g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
4 teaspoons ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Nutmeg- grated

The original includes 50g of almonds cut in to slivers, but I leave them out and don't miss them. It also has Brandy added at the end, but I'd rather drink it, and again, I don't notice it's not there!

To make-
Stir everything together in a large bowl, and leave overnight for the fruit to absorb the liquid. 
I the put the whole thing in our large slow cooker on low for several hours. You know it's cooked when the apple is no longer visible as definite chunks, and the whole thing has gone an even colour.
Delia gets you to out it in the oven on very low (Gas Mark 1/4, 225F, 120C) for 3 hours, but one year the oven thermostat failed, overheated, and turned the whole thing in a carbonised lump welded on to a pyrex bowl. 

It will look like there is far too much fat... there isn't. Give it a stir now and again as it cools, and it will all be fine.

For the mince pies... 
You need Shortcrust pastry. I make mine with half lard, half butter, but you can buy it. 
Roll out thinly, and put in to shallow cupcake tins. Add a teaspoon of mincemeat (don't get too enthusiastic, or it will flow everywhere and then it sets like concrete, making it impossible to remove from the tins). I like to put a pastry star on top, rather than a complete lid. Bake in the oven at 180C until they are done... roughly 15 minutes, but watch them, they go from not cooked, too carbon at great speed!

The perfect pie size is 2 small mouthfuls, or down in 1 if you are feeling uncouth!
Mine never look very pretty, but they are tasty!

We're in to the final stretch, and after some wonderful contributions from so many spinners we're now  going closer to home, and I've got a few days to share some of my Christmas traditions.

For me, December starts properly with my final guild meeting of the year. We spend the morning having our AGM and sorting out all the official business, and then spend the afternoon sharing our favourite projects from the year and eating a wonderful communal buffet. Everyone brings along a plate of something, and somehow we always end up with  a wonderful mixture of very stays foods. 

Every couple of years we're also asked to decorate a Christmas tree for the Christmas tree festival held in a local church. Lots of community groups are invited to decorate a tree, and they're all on display in the church for a weekend at the start of December. 

Two years ago we used some toy wheel drop spindles, and made some simple fairies. You can find the instructions for making them in last years advent blogposts. 
​This year we still used wool, but turned them in to some beautiful birds. 

The instructions for these are a little bit haphazard...
This is the version we mostly followed, though I think it's a translation, so the instructions don't always make complete sense.  This version uses leftover yarn, and makes more sense, and is basically translatable in to wool top.
Once you get the hang of them they're incredibly simple and quick to make. 

Once our tree is decorated I love walking around and looking at the trees that other groups  and local businesses have created.

Decorating the house is one of my favourite parts of Christmas. I own too many spinning wheels to have space for a Christmas tree, but every year I decorate a branch with a huge collection of sparkly birds. I try to buy a couple more for the collection each year. 

​Welcome to  day 18 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. 
We're counting down the darkest days by  exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! 
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

Todays Spinner is Amanda from North Wales.

Welcome to  day 18 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. 
We're counting down the darkest days by  exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! 
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

Todays spinner comes from Sussex, New Brunswick , Canada

I am a homeschool mom, and I just recently got back into spinning now that my son is getting a bit older and I have some more free time. I am hoping to do more with our wool this coming year then I have in the past. I love spinning, I have been trying knitting but I'm not in love with it, I really have to work at it. I am interested in trying a heddle loom, that seems to be more appealing to me then knitting . My husband and I are sheep leaders for our local 4H club, the kids in our project show most of our lambs, some have their own sheep. We also go to a couple local fairs to show our flock. When we aren't busy with the sheep or cows we try to get some horse riding in. We have a foal that was born in July so we have been working with her a lot.

I have just started getting back into spinning. Our wool mainly goes to Briggs and Little Woolen mill. So this year when we took our wool to sell, I got back a 5lb bag of washed and carded wool to work with. I have been working on long draw spinning some of it. So far I have 2 skeins of 2 ply yarn that my niece helped me kettle dye.
This year I made boot cuff's for my sister in law. I'm left handed and my mother has been teaching me to knit (she's right handed), so that was quite a trial. I made them with yarn I had spun myself.

Our family is Christian, so the focus of Christmas for us, is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We farm for a living, so we don't venture too far during Christmas. Usually Christmas Eve we head to our local church if there is a service. We milk 100 cows ,plus have a flock of 60 ewes (Polled Dorset, Hampshire and North Country Cheviots), guard donkey, 2 really spoiled goats, 4 horses, and some chickens. Christmas day in ways is like most other days, however we aren't in as much of a rush. We wake up , start the wood fire, then head out to the barn. My husband gets up at 4:30 am and travels up the road to the main farm where he milks the cows with his father, and our hired man . We live 3 km away on a small farm where we have 2 barns, one is for our sheep and horses, the other is for our dairy heifers, and my son's laying hens. Usually Christmas morning my son opens his stocking before we head out to do barn chores, We really enjoy Christmas ,sometimes we are lucky and have newborn lambs. I love when the sheep are all fed and you can just stop and listen to them eat their hay, it's just a happy sound. Once the barn chores are done we head to the house for breakfast. When breakfast is over we read the first part of Luke chapter 2 from the Bible. then we open presents. Usually there is lots of phone calls , my family all live in Nova Scotia - 8 hours away. Nearing dinner time we head up to the main farm to enjoy Christmas dinner with my husband's family- grandparents, aunts, and cousins. The farm has been in the family for over 100 years. My husband's grandfather was born in the farm house and even though he lives off the farm, he still comes to dinner, this year will be his 93rd Christmas Dinner in the house. Everyone pitches in to help with the meal. We have turkey, vegetables, and my mother in law's dressing- it is soo good. For dessert we have trifle, some pies, and a birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday. Once dinner is finished it's usually time to head out to the barn. My brother in law, nephews, my son, and myself usually help out with the cow chores and milking so our hired help doesn't have to come in the afternoon. Once the cow chores are done we head down the road to our barn to feed the sheep. In the evening we head back up to the main farm to visit and warm up some leftovers if you have room.

My favourite food at this time of year- Besides my mother in law's dressing , I love my grandmother's gumdrop cake.
3 1/2 cups gumdrops- cut up and put them in 1 cup of flour
3 cups flour (reserve 1 cup for the cut up gumdrops)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup of milk
1 tsp lemon and/ or vanilla flavoring
​Mix butter, sugar, eggs, flavoring together. Sift flour from gumdrops. Add flour from gumdrops and the other 2 cups flour and milk (alternating). The fold in gumdrops by hand. Place in a greased and floured cake pan ( I usually use a bundt pan). Cook at 350F for aprox 1 hr-1.5 or until cake tester comes out clean .

Welcome to  day 17 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. 
We're counting down the darkest days by  exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! 
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

.Todays spinner is Filigarne, she's French but was born and grew up in Germany, and now lives in the Auvergne region in the center of France near Clermont-Ferrand.

I love all kinds of fibers (except cotton, too hard to spin). I spin mainly for knitting.

​I celebrate Noël (Christmas) on 24th and 25th December. We spend the 24th with good friends, and the 25th with family.
On the 25th, we have lunch together which may last until the late afternoon. There are lots of good things to eat, good wine, champaign...  
In France, Christmas equals eating... there are too many things to eat to have just one favourite: bûche de Noël (Christmas cake), coquilles St Jacques (scallops), smoked salmon, vin chaud (hot spiced wine), papillotes ( Christmas sweeties)
Since I'm not sure that my kitchen English is good enough to make sure you get what you should, I better play it safe with an easy recipe for hot spicy wine:
Ingredients :
- 1 bottle of fruity red wine (no Bordeaux!)
- 1 star of star anise
- 1 untreated orange (whole peel and a quarter of the fruit cut into small cubes )
 80 g of sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 10 grains of pepper
- ½ teaspoon of ginger powder
2 steps for preparation :
1. Brew the star anise in the wine at 80°C for 9 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients and heat to 90°. Keep at temperature for 20 minutes (don't boil! ) Let cool down to drinking temperature and enjoy!

My most ambitious crafting gift was a fully furnished doll house for my daughter when she was 4. This year over the holidays I'll be spinning my "Adventskalender" , a German tradition where you have a calendar with 24 surprises for the 24 days between 1st and 24th December. 24 people exchange 24 small portions of fiber and a sweetie for each day and a small Christmas gift for 25th December. My yarn's for a shawl. And I have a lot to destash - for instance the Hilltop Cloud TdF fiber 2016...

Thanks Filigarne. Tomorrow there will be another spinner, from another part of the world.

Welcome to  day 16 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. 
We're counting down the darkest days by  exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! 
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

Today spinner is Jo...

I live on the Isle of Wight. Or more accurately my stuff lives on the Island and I go and visit it once in a while. I'm a freelance stage manager so I move from town to town with work.
I celebrate Christmas, normally I spend the day with my dad and my brother. But it really depends upon how far away I'm working and what time my shows are on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. This Christmas will be my first at home in 4 years. Last Christmas I stayed in a hotel and spent my entire Christmas Day in my PJs spinning. It was lovely.

Our day usually goes a little something like this...
​Once we've had breakfast we prep the lunch and get it cooking. Then we might get a present opened before it's back into the kitchen for more cooking duties. We aim to sit down for lunch around 1. After we've eaten our main course we open the rest of the presents while we wait for lunch to go down a bit so we can do the Christmas Pudding justice! Then it's washing up time and a walk if the weather is nice followed by finding something to ignore on the telly whilst we play Scrabble or do the jigsaw. My brother buys us a new jigsaw every year. Tea is a sandwich and trifle. My brother and I do the lunch cooking and my dad does the boiled bacon and trifle for tea. I don't think we'll have this kind of Christmas for a while. I've a feeling that everything will start a little earlier this year as my brother has gained a wife and a three and half year old since I last made it home for Christmas.
My favourite seasonal food are Brussel Sprouts. We always cook plenty so that we lots left over to go into the bubble and squeak on Boxing Day. My brother always make the stuffing recipe from Jamie Oliver's book Cook.

In terms of crafting for gifts, I'm not very good at deadlines it makes everything seem like a job then. So I do make things for others but they tend to get given 'just because' or very occasionally set aside for Christmas. I have spun yarn for my aunt for Christmas this year. We went to Unravel together this year and one of the fibres on the John Arbon stall caught her eye. Hopefully she'll like it. My wheel is at home at the moment. I will just be taking my knitting with me for Christmas Day. I don't think there will be much time for crafting with a toddler charging about the place.
I'm a bit of a craftaholic. I knit. I mostly make shawls, socks and baby clothes. Socks and baby clothes are good ones for doing at work as I have to sit in one place and can knit on simple things during quiet spells. I'm currently making Polwarth by Ysolda but need to rip out some as I've done my usual trick of not reading all of the words in the pattern. If I could do this and count I'd get alot more finished! I also crochet a bit but am still very much a beginner. 14 years ago I bought a sewing machine with my panto overtime and use it to make clothes and quilts. I have a cricket loom which I have with me at the moment. I've only made a couple of scarves and have brought it away with me to try and get a good chunk of practice in as I still struggle to get an even selvage. Spinning is still fairly new. Having gained an interest in spinning because it kept popping up in various knitting blogs that I read I bought a drop spindle kit at Yarndale 2015. I really enjoyed it and by March last year I had bought myself an Ashford Traveller. I found a bargain on eBay. A wheel that someone had been gifted in the mid 1980s but had never been assembled. The box hadn't even been opened. I was very lucky as there were no problems with the wheel and I find it really comfortable to spin with. I'm still at the stage of spinning everything. Trying lots of different stuff to see what I like and trying to get an even yarn. I'm getting fairly consistent now and finer! The wheel has been with me on a couple of jobs where my digs room is large enough to accommodate it. I turned up to digs in the summer the landlady took one look at me and said 'where's your wheel?' My dad put it together for me and is absolutely fascinated by the mechanics of it. He even went and bought some fibre so he could have a go once he'd built it.

Thanks to Jo for taking the time to share her Christmas with us. Come back tomorrow, for another spinner!

Welcome to  day 15 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. 
We're counting down the darkest days by  exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! 
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

Todays spinner is Anna from Hungary. 

My hometown is actually closer to Vienna or Bratislava than our capital Budapest, so our traditions were influenced by Slovaks and Austrians.
We celebrate St. Nicholas day on 6th December. Actually the children are given a "mikulás csomag" which could be translated as Nicholas's packet. A bright red cloured sachet full of sweets, chocolate Nicholases, nuts and "szaloncukor"
We also celebrate Christmas Eve with our family. It is a must to visit grandparents the same evening to wish merry christmas. There is a nativity play at our Catholic church at around three o'clock and the angels bring the decorated christmas tree after we have attended the service. Parents ( me and my husband) usually decorate the tree in the morning or around noon secretly and as I have mentioned the angel or angels bring the tree, and the wrapped presents to the family. A small giftcard reveals the name who it is meant to.
I will do some socialising, visiting and treating relatives. I have already admired the Kristkindl Market in Vienna and it was admittedly cold. I will favour to stay inside the house.

To make your own Poppy-seed or walnut roll.
Ingredients for the dough:
600 g plain flour,
25g fresh yeast,
a pinch of salt,
a teaspoon granulated sugar,
350 ml lukewarm milk,
100g butter or margarine.

Combine milk, sugar and yeast first, add salt to the flour, then the margarine. Knead together and leave it to rise, app half an hour.
For the filling you need 250g ground poppy-seed or ground walnut and 100g sugar cinnamon powder, lemon zest, scald it with 1dl hot water.
​It has to be creamy but not running. You can add sweet biscuit crumbs if it is running. Divide the dough and roll out separately into a rectangle, 30 cm by 40 cm. Spread half of the filling evenly and roll up. Brush with an egg yolk. Leave it to rest another 31 minutes, then brush again. Pinch 3 or 4 holes with a stick through the rolls to let the steam out and it will not break that way. Bake in preheated oven at 150 degrees celsius for about 30 minutes. Leave it to cool and slice it with a sharp knife. It is served slightly dusted with powder sugar.

I am addicted to handspinning and I also like to knit. I like lace patterns. My other hobbies are related to sports, biking, swimming, fitness. The most ambitious gift I've ever made is a knitted pullover to my teenage son. This year I have lots of spinning to do: the time traveller club fibers are waiting for me since august.

Thank you Anna for writing todays post. Come back tomorrow for another spinner.