Back in the fifties Christmas Day was a day of feasting to be remembered all year. Everything was home made and it had to be well planned. These were the days before domestic freezers.
The first things which were made each year were the chutneys and pickles. We had a large garden and Daddy grew a lot of the vegetables to be used, for example cauliflower, onions and beans for the piccalilli. Mummy would make quite a range of pickles - plum and apple chutney, pickled onions, tomato chutney, pickled red cabbage among others - and the first jars would be opened around Christmas time although enough would have been made to last the year around. Spices, sugar and vinegar would need to be bought and this was a way of spreading the cost of Christmas.
Next would be the mincemeat. Mother would mix the dried fruit, apples, spices and suet along with a healthy glug of brandy well in advance of Christmas so it had plenty of time to mature. She had a good cold store in the garage (naturally cold, not refrigerated) and with the mincemeat, pickles and jam it would be filling up nicely.
The Christmas cake too had to be made in good time so that it could "have a drink". She would marzipan it herself and decorate it with royal icing. One year she forgot to put glycerine in the icing and the results were spectacularly hard.
But the best bit of food preparation was Christmas puddings. She used to make quite a few as gifts but the big one for our own table was very special. The fruit would be well soaked in brandy a day before the puddings were made and on pudding day she would mix all the ingredients and everyone had to stir it and make a wish. Before our own pud went into the steamer she would put silver thrupenny bits in it, These were precious coins which she would buy back from the lucky finders on Christmas Day.
Lovely memories to cherish :)
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