Feast

N.B. All of the following 12 blogs are because I am reading ‘Do Nothing, Christmas Is Coming’ by Stephen Cottrell, ‘an advent calendar with a difference.’

It is very interesting how we celebrate Jesus’ birth of simplicity by spending weeks and weeks stuffing our lives full of mass amounts of everything. I’m not a humbug, at least not anymore. I have had my fair share of amazing Christmas’, and even a few rotten ones, but I can no longer partake in the season of gluttony that has overtaken this time of year. No, I don’t have a chocolate calendar – I eat enough chocolate as it is, without needing a daily dose of it for the month before Christmas. I have not stocked up my cupboards with masses of food that I probably won’t eat.

An important part of Christmas is the great feast – dinner with all the trimmings and extras on Christmas Day that is shared with family or perhaps friends. But does not the feast taste better if it has not been preceded by days and days of stuffing your face? I eat many a meal over the year with my young people – but the one I enjoy the most is nearly always the one after the 24 hour famine. It is when we go without that we truly learn to appreciate what we have. It is the same with stuff. Those who go without learn much more how to treasure the little they are blessed with – while those who have everything often appreciate nothing.

DNCIC recommendations for today:

·        Buy what you need.

·        Buy ethically reared poultry. Spend a bit more and eat a bit less.

·        Prepare for the feast with the simplicity of the fast.

·        And do a bit more of the cooking yourself. There is always one vital ingredient missing in pre-packaged food – the love that only you can stir in.

“Christmas has its critics and, if we are honest, I’m sure each of us has, at some time, wished we could quietly quit the planet and come back when it is over. On the other hand, at what other time of the year can we turn our minds to the sheer joy of feasting? The sharing of fine food and wines with family and friends is a deeply ingrained human (as well as religious) activity, without which our lives would surely be diminished.” Delia Smith