Culture Team Christmas Traditions

There are some cracking events here in Exeter to get you counting down to Christmas: whether you’ve been cleaning out the mince pie stalls at the Exeter Christmas market or hogging the mulled wine mix at the Soul Choir Christmas Concert, interspersing late nights at the library with ticking off the Best ways to Countdown to Christmas in true student style, we’re all feeling festive. But HCX knows home Christmas traditions are just as special as our student ones. As Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas will be the soundtrack to your life in a week’s time the HCX Culture team have compiled their Christmas Culture Chart hit list of home traditions and Christmas plans when they’ve exited Exe. Send us yours, whether it’s careful Christmas tree selection, your Mum’s outrageous cooking skills or hitting the Selfridges sales on Boxing Day, HCX wants to hear what you’ve got planned!

Laura’s Christmas Tree Traditions

Amongst the mulled wine and mince pies, it’s easy to forget that the festive period can bring your parents stress levels through the roof. But, for those who don’t have the time (or money, after working their way through their little one’s extensive wish list), there is a failsafe Christmas tradition that, in my household, takes centre stage.  Christmas wouldn’t be the same without a Christmas tree.

If your mum is anything like mine she will stand there looking very smug when visitors compliment her on her chic decorations, and secretly be saying “I told you so” to the rest of the household, who rolled their eyes when she announced this years “theme” for the tree’s decorations, (a very big no to tinsel!). 

For me the real fun is choosing the tree, in the busy lead up to Christmas, it’s one of the few times that the family can get together and really embrace the build-up to the holiday. Being a city girl, any chance to pull on my wellies and attempt to “be at one with nature” is brilliant! Whilst opportunities may seem scarce to do this in the capital, Richmond park’s Christmas Forest proves to be the perfect festive idle to choose a tree. To me, the smell of fir trees is as much a signal of Christmas approaching as the coca cola advert finally appearing on our television screen, and while the lights of Oxford and Regent’s Street are unquestionably a spectacle, the grand switch on of the Christmas tree in the “Brassett household” is in a league of its own. However, that being said the best part of the whole Christmas tree saga is, without a doubt, the drama that surrounds choosing that perfect tree. The gender divide that occurs in this process is comical. Whilst the men strut around, searching for a tree as big as their ego, and certainly too big for the ceilings in our humble semi-detached house, me and mum seem to always take pity on a weed that is masquerading as a Christmas tree, and feel the weird maternal need to nurse it back to strength. The men peacock “their great eye for a sturdy tree trunk”, as us girls mourn the “quaint little tree that would have look adorable in the hall way” and Christmas is complete: at least one family domestic is a requirement!

Georgia’s Winter Walks

A personal highlight of the Christmas period for me is the family walk along West Wittering’s Beach on the South Coast. I’m very lucky to be just a 10 minute drive from this beautiful beach, and the weather is always kind to us on the first day of the New Year, with clear blue skies and the sun shining. After a very heavy night the night before, rising at 11am to bacon rolls and steaming coffee is the perfect cure, followed by pulling on some woolly socks and wellies, and a very warm winter coat, hat and scarf, not forgetting the dog lead! There is usually still masses of turkey and stuffing left over from Christmas  Day, so my Mum will make copious amounts of turkey and stuffing sandwiches, wrap them in tin foil, and shove them in a bag ready for everyone to tuck into once comfortably perched on the sand dunes at lunchtime (around 3pm in my holiday routine…). There is no better way to see in the New Year than breathing in the fresh sea air with your family, and then returning home to hot chocolate and yet more mince pies, as the festive season is NOT over until term starts!

Katie’s Roma Retreat

Christmas holidays for me mean returning to my hometown in Italy, the beautiful Roma. So while I never look forward to the stress of that easy jet flight from Bristol airport, full of other hopefuls looking forward to celebrating Natale in true Italian style, upon landing I instantly calmed by what this beautiful city has to offer at Christmas…

Being the centre of the Catholic Church, Christmas Italian style is a traditional and religious affair. This does not mean however that we miss out on all the cheer, when walking through the beautiful streets they are still filled with festive lights and everyone has a smile plastered on their face.

Apart from the infamous Nativity scene in St Peter’s Square here are a few places to visit, purely for their “charisma-when-lit”: Via Del Corso (Rome’s equivalent of Oxford Street) is full of shops boasting lavish and festive displays, while also round the corner is the huge tree at the Spanish Steps that never disappoints in the decoration department. Then to top off this festive visit I would recommend a detour round Piazza Navona’s Christmas market, complete with a traditional merry-go-round surrounded by stalls with food, sweets and presents.

While Christmas abroad means waving goodbye to turkey, mince pies and the prospect of snow, who could resist spending one year seeing the Eternal City under fairy lights?

Kate’s Christmas Market in Bath

As we edge closer to the holidays there is nothing that pleases me more than losing myself in Bath’s breathtaking Christmas market. Situated behind Bath Abbey, the warm glow of fairy lights and the enriching smells of gluhwien and hog roasts emanating from the small wooden stalls will leave even the most unenthusiastic Christmas shopper whistling a Christmas carol or two. Having been seduced many a time by the enchanting array of goods on offer it is a rarity that I will come home empty handed. Once the hustle and bustle of Christmas dies down however, I find there is nothing I enjoy more then taking a leisurely Boxing Day stroll down the Kennet-on-Avon canal. On an especially frosty day, the vibrant barges lapping gently against the sides of the canal banks present the perfect winter backdrop for a family photo shoot. As you slowly edge down the frozen path, stopping along the way for a warm drink or two, the heavy feeling of consuming that enormous Christmas dinner will slowly start to melt away…’

Lauren’s Festive Cooking

Festive cooking has to be one of the best things about the Christmas season! After my (already failed) attempt at eating healthily before SSB, it becomes seriously socially acceptable to gorge on all the yummy treats that are around at this time of year.  It would be a mistake to think that you can only enjoy these festive treats on Christmas day – oh no, you’re missing out here girls! In my family, Christmas Eve dinner is a big deal; even though there are only three of us, mum and I (okay, I try to help, I’m not sure how much use I really am!) make roast duck with cherry sauce and potatoes roasted with goose fat. One word: incredible. 

It’s a major tradition in our house to make (and this time I really do help!) a gingerbread house – complete with a gingerbread family and white icing snow, of course! Try making that for hours and then not being able to eat it… It makes an amazing Christmas Eve feast – especially in front of The Santa Clause, Miracle on 34th Street or another equally amazing Christmas film with a warm mug of hot chocolate!