Growing up, Christmas always felt an exciting time. My mum would start baking her Christmas cake weeks in advance and nearer the time the Christmas decorations would go up. My mum liked floral art so she would spend some time making up various seasonal arrangements, even using a paste of washing powder to create snowy scenes. The decorative paper chains would be hung around the room - thankfully that is not a tradition anymore! But some 'habits' are passed on and they become tradition just over a couple of generations. One of those habits comes down from my dad. It was my dad who decorated the Christmas tree. He would spend what seemed like hours checking the fairy light bulbs. In those old sets if one bulb went, then the whole set wouldn't light up, so each bulb had to be checked one by one - and what if there were more than one dud bulb?? After the light check was completed, then they had to go on the tree. This process took what seemed like forever too - and I wasn'...
My ancestors, their stories and my genealogical journey