Oct
18
Posted by dodo
My heart leaps up when I behold a reindeer in the sky.
Now the children have broken up, it’s time for a trip to Santa’s Grotto. In Stroud this year, it only cost Sop for a visit and a present, and you could have your photo taken with Santa as well.
Playing Father Christmas these days is a pretty taxing job. In department stores, Santas must never ask a child how Mummy and Daddy are, because so many parents are divorced, and long explanations hold up the queue. Instead he must ask, ‘How are the folks?’ Nor must he say ‘Yo Ho Ho’ Read the rest of this entry »
Oct
18
Posted by dodo
The fall-out in Christmas decorations is also appalling. Every year, since my children grew beyond the smash-and- grab stage, my husband, who has some sort of death wish for the decorations, has introduced a new kitten, who does the job far more thoroughly. The minute you hang the first silver bauble on the tree marks the opening of the volley-ball season, and by evening everything is being batted all over the floor and smashed to bits. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct
07
Posted by dodo
Lovers open their presents together before Christmas; the neglected open theirs when they arrive in the New Year. The Germans open theirs around six o’clock on Christmas Eve. The Royal Family, being largely of German ancestry and because they spend most of Christmas Day going to church, also open theirs on Christmas Eve. An eighty-foot-long trestle table in the Red Drawing-room is used to pile up the presents which are handed out by Prince Philip. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct
07
Posted by dodo
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue, A baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea Become a Child of earth for me?
One of the eternal debates for the noble army of churchgoers on Christmas Eve is whether to go to midnight mass, early service or matins on Christmas morning. However tired I am, I prefer the former, for the shaming reason that it gets church over with, and because, even more shamingly, if I opt for early service or matins the next day I never make it, and spend the rest of Christmas feeling guilty and somehow as though spiritually I’d gone to bed without cleaning my teeth and taking my make-up off. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct
03
Posted by dodo
Another very good game which can be scaled down to any age group is Twenty-one Aces. The party sits round a big table with a set of poker dice. The person who throws the seventh ace, suggests a drink, Bovril and Bourbon perhaps, or Horlicks and Heineken. The person who throws the fourteenth ace mixes it, usually in sherry glass quantities, and the unfortunate person who throws the twenty-first ace drinks it, to howls of mirth. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct
03
Posted by dodo
One of the best ways to stop things going flat after Christmas dinner is to play games. If you have teenage children from different families staying, who don’t know each other well, break the ice after supper on Christmas Eve by playing Consequences, which invariably gets lewder and lewder, followed by Charades. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct
01
Posted by dodo
Second only to the mega-catastrophe of the television breaking down (far worse than the collapse of the washing-up machine), the thing that makes people most ratty over Christmas is not being able to watch the programmes they want.
Were there fearful rows in the good old pre-telly days, one wonders, because the children wanted Daddy to read aloud from The Christmas Carol, and Granny insisted that Grandpapa recite ‘The Night Before Christmas‘ instead? Read the rest of this entry »
Sep
14
Posted by dodo
BABY GOWN
MATERIALS
2m (21/2yds) fine white cotton
White cotton thread, pins, needles
Lace tape, if desired
Narrow satin ribbon for back ties
Broad satin ribbon for neckline facing, if
desired
Cut the following pattern pieces
1 skirt length
1 bodice piece
2 sleeves
Neatly hem the cuff edge of the sleeve. Turn the cut sleeve piece inside out and fold in half, right sides together. Stitch along the open side, 6mm (1/4in) from the edge, to form the sleeve. Repeat to make the second sleeve. Sew a single even row of running stitch around the top of the sleeve and gather slightly so that the sleeve becomes the same size as the sleeve opening in the bodice. Read the rest of this entry »
Sep
14
Posted by dodo
Quilt-making has nearly as many traditions and patterns as there are stitches in a quilt.
There are examples of quilt-work, from cot-size to grand wedding quilts, dating back through centuries and from such diverse countries as the USA, France, Britain, India and Japan.
Currently popular and collectable are the quilts of the American Amish, a conservative religious sect which shuns adornment and does not use floral or patterned fabrics in sewing. Designs on Amish quilts are made up from the shapes of the fabric pieces and the order in which they are assembled. The quality of the handiwork is especially important, as the stitches stand out clearly on the plain fabric. Read the rest of this entry »
Sep
12
Posted by dodo
A child’s favorite doll teddy bear is very special and often becomes a memento that is kept throughout a lifetime. A number of famous bears belonging to presidents, prime ministers and royalty have crept out of the toy box and into the limelight in their owners’ adult years.
Dolls have been around since at least the time of the Greeks and Romans. From the literature and art of the time it is known that both civilizations had jointed clay dolls; rag dolls date from Roman times. Girls in Greece were expected to sacrifice their dolls to Artemis, goddess of the Hunt, once they had been outgrown. Dolls of other cultures were crudely shaped from pieces of wood or corn stalks and representative of a god or spirit rather than used as a plaything, but in the eighteenth century glass-eyed dolls of heavy wood began to appear. Read the rest of this entry »
