My Christmas branch has gingerbread on it which I like both because it smells great when I through the door and because I can throw them away when the time comes without any guilt. I miss having a real tree but now they all appear to be around £40 it seems like a waste of money when I'm hardly home to see it. Trees are very much for sharing. Branches on the other hand are reasonably festive, considerably cheaper than a decent scented candle, and makes me feel like I'm not a completely miserable old bag. The glass decorations can sit safely tucked away in their boxes for another year.
The Christmas cakes are all iced now and just await a final decorative effort, plenty of mince pies have been consumed already (homemade mincemeat is a success, and far less inclined to bubble out of the pie welding both itself and the pastry to the pie tin than shop bought.)
I stuffed some hydrangeas into a bit of oasis to make a hydrangea ball, which if not festive is certainly decorative, my Christmas puddings are looking promising, so all that remains to do is make fudge, dip oranges in chocolate, eat a lot more mince pies and survive the next couple if weeks...
I think your tree (branch) looks great.
ReplyDeleteIt smells brilliant! I like it to look at too. A tree would be prettier but the branch us a great compromise.
DeleteI think you should bottle the scent of your flat. I used to have a branch (in a promotional Coopers pale ale beer bucket - all classy here) but my mother bought a fake tree for the benefit of my brother's small children so we're hypercoordinated and flashy now. (I prefer the branch.) ;-)
ReplyDeleteCoopers is exotic in the UK so very classy here ;) it's really nice coming home at the moment, the bit when I open the door, take a deep sniff, and realise it's warm.... Heaven.
DeleteDespite the millions of times I've seen them referred to in books, TV, and film, I have never tasted a mince pie. Since we will only be returning to our house five days before Christmas, I love to live vicariously through your holiday preparations.
ReplyDeleteMince pies ARE Christmas in my family. (That may be a slight exaggeration) if you like slightly spiced dried fruit they're the best thing in the world. Their history fascinates me too, the flavours feel like they came back with the crusades. Is it possible to buy mince pie filling easily over there?
ReplyDelete