All Stirred Up

Sunday was the day for getting all stirred up about something.  Tradition states that you are supposed to get stirred up about your Christmas pudding, filling your kitchen with wonderful fruity smells and beginning to think about Christmas for the FIRST time.  I did spend the day in the kitchen and two days later my Christmas cake and pudding are in a cool dark cupboard, quietly waiting for their moment and jars of mincemeat are hoping they will be turned into pies very soon.

It seems as though tradition has been completely lost, though and so I also spent the day getting stirred up by just how early Christmas seems to start.  I'm bored of Christmas already and it has also crept up on me, as I realise that next week is the beginning of December and the first of many Carol Concerts that I have forgotten to let the orchestra know about.  When buying my dried fruit at the weekend the shop assistant said, "Oh, you're going to be busy.  Are you actually going to make something with all that?"  When I told her it would make my Christmas cake, pudding and several jars of mincemeat she looked at me and said, "I didn't think anyone bothered with that sort of thing anymore, well not anyone who isn't ancient anyway."  Although, she could have been talking about cooking, I think she might have been talking about traditional Christmas food.  I can't be the only person who thinks the loss of seasons and traditions is a shame.  I like the fact that you can only eat pomegranates in October, strawberries are ripe in June, Christmas puddings are made the Sunday before Advent and you can get roast chestnuts from street corners in December.  It's a routine and we need routine.  

Christmas pudding hiding in a cool dark cupboard 

In our rush to throw out everything traditional people are irritable and lost.  They have decided that they need to re-invent traditions and the names of our months.  Now it's Stop-tober (time to stop smoking, Movember (time to grow a moustache).  A friend told me that January is going to be Fanuary and we are all going to encourage a growth of the lady garden and Caitlin Moran has written about Plebuary replacing February.  The world has gone crazy.  This must stop.  It's time for everyone to go and bake a Christmas cake.