Christmas 2020!

 You might be thinking, Christmas, its August! Yes indeed it is but every year I say ill do so many things and by the time it gets around to November I just don't have time for any of it. Being as we are likely to still be in some form of lockdown in December (here in Australia we have a few rules mostly about not crossing into other states) I am planning ahead for a Christmas at home. Lets face it, several Christmases because we all have partners, kids and live in different states now. I always struggle with what to do, a theme if you will because we live in Australia but I love the traditional British Christmas too.  

The decorations in Australia tend towards white and gold and very minimalist. Alot of people here do a cold spread for lunch, cold ham, prawns, salmon. But frankly its not Christmas without roast turkey, roast potatoes and pudding or pavlova for desert. I would love to have the twinkling lights and candles with the deep burgundy decorations and Victorian decals but considering is about 30degrees and light until about 9pm its hard to achieve. 

This year im in a position to spend a little more on updating my decorations and giving a bit more effort to it. Which is why im starting now. I love to hand make presents and decorations and frankly have always wanted to make Christmas pudding months in advance like my Grandmother used to do (she was British). I still remember her cupboard being full of about 20 puddings of various sizes made months in advance. She had one massive one in a big orange Tupperware bowl that could feed about 20 for Christmas day. Then several smaller ones in what ever containers she could find for all the various parties she would have or attend in December. I'm being restrained and aiming for three 5-6 person puddings and have just ordered the bowls to steam them in. Traditionally they were called plum puddings by the Victorians where a plum was basically any dried fruit, rather than the plum we know today. They were also sometimes called August puddings because making them in advance makes the flavours merge and deepen. 

Cant wait for decorations to hit the stores. I keep forgetting about Halloween between now and then haha.