Your Letters: December 13

MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS PAST

Thinking back to my childhood and Christmas in my Grandmother's thatched cottage. We made paper chains from packets of strips which had to be made into links. Grandmother's Christmas cake and pudding were made and a wish had to be made while stirring the mixture. Alcohol was fed into small holes made with knitting needles each week into the bottom of the cake and pudding until Christmas.

The tree wasn't brought indoors and decorated until Christmas Eve, decorations were put up by my grandmother after we children had gone to bed, so getting up on Christmas Day was magical seeing the transformation.

Each year the farm next door raised turkeys to sell. My grandmother was recruited to pluck and prepare the turkeys for Christmas. Her payment was that she was allowed to choose a free turkey for our Christmas lunch. Runner beans from the garden in the summer were salted in Kilner jars, and washed off for lunch – a treat, no frozen veg in those days.

After tea, my grandmother would bring out 'indoor fireworks’ – small displays of coloured smoke and sparkling lights.