Anyone started planning Christmas already?

I have some in the freezer and would be only too happy to contribute.?

lemongrove

Perhaps we could have a new GN rule, that anyone even mentioning C————-s will be parboiled with some sprouts and strung up with tinsel.?

Sprouts, sprouts, sprouts

On the hob.

biba70

Wish we could ask Mods to delete this thread- I just do NOT want to see the C word come up on the latest board.

But what about my sprouts?

I agree we all need to look forward to something though Christmas would be the last thing I'd choose. I'm usually glad when it's over. Correction. I'm always glad when it's over.

Such a relief to hear others who don’t go all gooey at the thought of the festive season....

Lucca every time somebody says that about Christmas, a festive elf falls off the shelf.?

I might say it again then....

You meanie! ??

Oh no!
Who will help Father Christmas make all those toys?

Meanies.

According to J R R Tolkein (The Father Christmas Letters) it’s polar bear who helps FC with the toys, and they have many problems with the bad goblins.Every festive elf is needed to repulse them.

I’d like to think we’ll be able to get together with family as usual - here or there - but who knows where we’ll be with the beastly virus by then?

So no actual planning, but I started making nice cheerful C-word things at the beginning of lockdown (I know a lot of you aren’t keen on the C-word but I still love it) so plenty down and quite a few to go.

This afternoon I sewed up the first knitted S**ta hat but need to try it on a Gdc next week to make sure it fits before starting number 2. Also made a fluffy pompom and stitched it on the end and ordered some little jingle bells to add. ?

Once we’re into September I’ll be making a load of Delia’s mincemeat, too. Whatever the virus is doing, then unless we’re stricken with it, dh and I are always a pair of ?? for the mince pies.

So that’s me boiled to a mush with the sprouts, then. But I’ll never understand why anti-C-word people ever click on C-word threads! Are you all masochists or wot?

Witzend if I don't get on with that Nativity set it will never be finished by C*******s

Carol services won’t be much if we’re not allowed to sing carols.

Witzend

So that’s me boiled to a mush with the sprouts, then. But I’ll never understand why anti-C-word people ever click on C-word threads! Are you all masochists or wot?

I never understand why anyone who disagrees with the ideas in a thread is not supposed to read it? It’s anyone’s choice whether to read it or not.
Also as it was July when this thread popped up I couldn’t actually believe it was what it said in the tile!

lemongrove

According to J R R Tolkein (The Father Christmas Letters) it’s polar bear who helps FC with the toys, and they have many problems with the bad goblins.Every festive elf is needed to repulse them.

I am officially captain of team goblin.

Christmas means sprouts - I must have them on my festive dinner.
Cooked, but still firm, sweet not tasteless, and no mucking around smashing them and frying with bacon.
We’ll probably spend 2 days with our children and partners in a hotel.
We don’t have young children in the family so it makes Christmas a bit more special for us.

This sounds a “first world” solution: should we be in lockdown we’ll do a Zoom Christmas lunch each from our own houses.

I don`t think I will do any planning this year, the dgc are all old enough for cash gifts and the AC have said no presents please. The dd I am living closest to has done christmas for the past 2 years and I was going to do it this year but naturally now everything has changed. They have booked to go away and we will have that gathering 2 weeks before christmas

Christmas will be another day, not a gloomy one on my own, I already have a project, a lovely self-contained needle felted animal. I will most definitely not get treats and drinks and chocolates this year, it is hard enough to avoid those right now and would be silly to put that weight on when I am already too heavy for my height

The first year I was widowed, I bought a kit to assemble and make a spinning wheel, it took me two weeks and is an absolute joy to use. The needle felting kit looks gorgeous and I may get one more, after all I will have a new empty oak mantle to display the finished animals

So if the dgc were small, yes I would be on the look-out for presents, if I lived in walking distance then yes I would be making puddings and mincemeat and cake for them. Each to their own for the christmas planning, some need the christmas festival so badly, no-one has any right to take the joy from them

I made an alan dart knitted nativity set once, not quite this one but it was very engrossing and turned out beautiful. If you need something to plan and like knitting then have something like this in mind
www.alandart.co.uk/product/all-patterns/nativity-set/

@Lucca, of course I didn’t mean that nobody else should read the thread. I just wondered why anyone who finds the topic tedious or irritatingly unseasonal, would bother to do so.

@Craftyone, that set is lovely. Alan Dart’s patterns are brilliant. Last year I made his Advent Calendar for Gdcs - it’s a Sirdar pattern but I don’t think it’s on his website.

Unfortunately I didn’t find it until well into September, so since it’s huge, and what with all the little pockets and inserts as well as the backing, I was knitting frantically to have it ready for 1st December.
It was certainly worth the effort, but I’d advise anyone else to start it well before September!

With lockdown being reimposed already in parts of the country, a strong fear that a second wave could be in the offing and no idea how we are going to react when bad weather hits, the flu season starts and we are once again obliged to meet indoors if at all, how can anybody plan for 4 months hence?
4 months ago did any of us have an inkling if where the country would be in July/August?
I think it is tempting fate - but by all means stash advance bought presents in the bottom of the wardrobe or start knitting a Nativity Set, however one thing Covid-19 should have taught us is to be prepared for Plans B, C or even D.

I'm in the lockdown part of the country, in the wonderful Greater Manchester. We've had great fun exchanging what sap messages about what we are "allowed" to do. My favourite is the list of places you can't catch Covid. In case you don't know, these include The Pub, The Hairdressers, B and Q, John Lewis (thank goodness) a Restaurant, a Beer Garden, a Park. Places you can catch covid - your auntie Pat's conservatory or your mums back garden.
We have already had exchanges about what to do when we get the tweet from Mr Hancock at 9.30 pm on Christmas Eve and the turkey stuffing is made a my house, the turkey at X's home and the sprouts at Y'shome. We have agreed to keep calm and carry on. Who needs all the trimmings if you have a few.

I didn't know about the polar bears lemon grove. I'd like to be on their team and keep the naughty goblins away.

the polar bear is lovely ( it’s a great book) we used to read it to our children every Christmas.Tolkein wrote a series of letters with drawings (as if from FC at the North Pole )to his children every year, and the book contains them all.A great present for anyone with young grandchildren.

Little point planning anything this year ( and possibly next year!) plans have to be kept fluid if you do make them.
I shall just make sure we have plenty of Baileys.?That’s fluid, after all.