On the Seventh Day of Christmas... How to Have a British Christmas by Anglophenia

Here is a fantastic video by Anglophenia explaining some of the British Christmas traditions. 

On the Sixth day of Christmas.... The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens

Everyone knows about Charles Dickens' Christmas stories like A Christmas Carol (doesn't mean I won't talk about it another day!) but I don't know if everyone knows about this book. 

The Life of Our Lord was a book written by Charles Dickens for his children telling them the story of Jesus Christ from his birth through his resurrection. 

It was written during 1846-1849. 

He read it with his children every Christmas. 

I bought it a couple of years ago and have it stashed with my Christmas books but this year I took it out to read it again and realized this is a book I will now be leaving out all year long since it covers so much more than just the Christmas story. 

He doesn't embellish the story or add his own commentary. It is very straightforward and by the book. 

I think that his tradition of reading this to his family each year at Christmas could be a wonderful tradition that many families might really enjoy. 

This particular edition is absolutely beautiful. 

The cover has a really great texture to it. 

And this is what the first few inside pages look like...

 

The layout of the entire book is gorgeous with illustrations by Simon Dewey. 

 

This is a really quick read. I sat down with it on Sunday afternoon and had it finished in just over an hour. I think that it is a great addition to any bookshelf and would make a wonderful Christmas gift to any religious person on your list!

On the fifth day of Christmas... Christmas Crackers

The tradition of Christmas Crackers has been something that I have always loved.
They were something that I found to be so much fun that in our little family we have had them as a tradition for Christmas day dinner and New Years Eve ever since the kids were born. And they feature in my blog name, of course.

Christmas crackers were first created in around 1845-1850 by Tom Smith, a candy maker in London. He was inspired by the French bon bon sweets that were wrapped in pretty paper. He tried to sell his sweets the same way but also inserted a riddle. They did not sell as successfully as he had hoped.
It is said that one night he was sitting in front of his log fire and was inspired by the sparks in the fire. He thought it would be fun if his sweets and toys could open with a crack like that fire when they were pulled in half.
He originally called them Cosaques.

This began to do well. When he died, his sons took over his business. His son Walter came up with including the hats in the crackers.
They began to make themed crackers and crackers for special occasions like Coronations.
Business was good.

Today Christmas Crackers are cardboard tubes wrapped in colorful paper. It is a tradition to put a Cracker next to each Christmas dinner plate. You pull them, they let out a bang and a spark and you find your paper crown hat, a toy of some kind (usually something cheap) and a piece of paper with a corny joke.

Pay attention in any modern British Christmas production and you will usually see or hear about them. 

Remember this scene in Harry Potter....

As you can see there are some purple Crackers on the table and Arthur Weasley already has on a crown hat! 

Overall it is a really fun tradition that we love doing and look forward to each year. 

This year I have the Union Jack decorated Crackers for us to use as well as some really cute tiny ones I picked up at Target for a few dollars. 

I am really glad we started and continue this tradition. 

*Do you do Christmas Crackers?