I'm a day late with this, because when I went to post this yesterday I found Anna's post so moving I thought it ought to stay up an extra day. And my own post felt very trite in comparison, but here goes ...
As an author, I guess
I come under the heading of “creative people”, even though I’m only making
things up in my head. But I’ve always
admired those who do some form of art or crafts, and would love to join their
ranks, at least occasionally. That must
be why, in the run-up to Christmas every year, I suddenly have the urge to be über-creative
and do things with my hands!
The itch starts at
around the end of November, when I dig out the little Christmas tablecloth I
started embroidering about four years ago (or was it five?). I was all enthusiastic to begin with – I
always am whenever I start a craft project of any kind – but as it took much
too long and wasn’t finished for that first Christmas, I lost interest and have
only added a few stitches each year since then. So I get it out again, determined that THIS
year is going to be the one when I finish it off. (Trust me, it won’t be.)
Then it’s time to
send out the Christmas cards, and I think “wouldn’t it be nice with home-made
ones, perhaps a collage with the dogs in Santa hats or something?” But as the dogs won’t sit still with anything
on top of their heads, I can’t take the photos I want and the whole idea goes
down the pan. I don’t even contemplate
any other form of card-making after that because I know it will look amateurish and I’ll
just bin the lot and head for the charity shop to buy cards.
But there’s always
the baking – my absolute favourite part of Christmas preparations (and that's a craft too, isn't it?)! Saffron buns, Swedish gingerbread cookies,
cranberry bread and sweet aniseed loaves.
Now these I do finish (although an inordinately large proportion of the
dough for at least two of those things ends up inside me before they reach the
oven). Is there anything more wonderful
and tactile than dough? And the great
thing about baking is it doesn’t have to look perfect, it just has to taste
good!
Making Christmas
candy is next, of course, another task I love.
It brings back memories of cooking with my grandmother who was ace at
anything in the kitchen. And it’s
extremely satisfying when you have boxes of Christmas treats stored neatly in
the fridge, don’t you think? Then they’re
ready for when I finally get to relax after present opening and read a book
from the pile that will (hopefully) have been brought by Santa.
Last, but not least,
there is the present wrapping. I may
have admitted to mild OCD in past blog posts, but when it comes to wrapping, it
turns into full-blown obsession. I can
spend hours selecting just the right box, paper and string for every present
and even though I know they’ll be ripped apart in two seconds flat, I don’t
care – I so enjoy making them look pretty!
None of this has
anything to do with writing really, but I think all this creativity might
unlock the author part of my brain at the same time. There’s a lot of time to think as you
sew/bake or whatever and it’s relaxing too.
So now you know what
I’m doing for the next couple of weeks – hope you’re all enjoying the
preparations too!
Please come back on Sunday to hear from Liz!
