Christmas is coming…when do you start?

Christmas is a big deal at UmmPixies HQ.

Now that we're 2 months away from the 1st December I've started wondering if my kitchen extension will be finished in time for me to get the advent box down from the attic on time.

When the pixies were little we lived in a country where Christmas was not really celebrated in public and certainly not until Christmas week itself.  

As a result our home decorations became more and more elaborate and started earlier and earlier until we settled on 1st December as the date for all decorations (except the tree) to go up.

Our home had to create enough anticipation and excitement to make up for the lack of department store window displays, school foyer trees and high street sparkly lamp-posts. There were no chestnuts roasting in the streets, no Father Christmas grotto in the department store, no carol concerts. Every year we added more decorations to our scheme, mostly handmade - we spent many hours painstakingly cutting out reindeers and snowflakes.

We already had an advent box. When we left London it contained the advent calendar, the candlestick for the advent candle, the DVDs of the Snowman and Father Christmas, and a handful of children's books: The Jolly Christmas Postman,  The Christmas Ghost by Shirley Williams (I highly recommended this Christmas story if you don't have it already). 

Over the years that we were away the box grew and now contains Christmas plates, bowls, mugs, garlands, a lot more books and DVDs (including the excellent BBC 1984 adaption of The Box of Delights) a LOT of fairy lights and of course the festive set of aprons, tea towels and oven gloves.

How do you prepare your home for Christmas? 

Do you have an advent box I'd love to know what is stored in yours?