Table Of Content

Contents Foreword Introduction 1 Planning Ahead 2 Decking the Halls 3 Advent 4 Feeding a Crowd 5 Christmas Day 6 Closing the Year Acknowledgements Foreword In recent decades, Christmas has become a little stretched out of shape, all of us pulled this way and that by the pressure to buy endless stuff and put on a perfect, sparkling performance of gifting, decorating and entertaining. At its worst, it descends into a festival of waste, of expense and ephemera, epitomised by panicky supermarket shopping trips, heaps of plastic and fractious tempers. In our hearts we all want a Christmas that’s the opposite of that. Whether you celebrate the Christian festival that anchors the season or whether its significance lies elsewhere for you, this is a time when every wise and compassionate value that underpins our society – and certainly the values that we hold so dear at River Cottage – can come to the fore. So it counts for a lot that we can find practical, dependable ways to make that happen. For me, the essence of Christmas is best expressed by bringing people together in a spirit of generosity and hospitality, and giving them just what they need to cast their cares aside and talk, laugh and eat. Some of that involves planning and doing and buying – but those activities should always be secondary to the people themselves. A quiet frosty walk with someone you love, a mince pie and a chat with an old friend, a gathering with neighbours to toast the season with a few special snacks laid on – these are the things that truly comfort and enrich us after a long, busy year. If we can frame those interactions with good food and drink, simple gifts and beautiful, natural decorations, then who needs more? Of course, it’s one thing to wax lyrical about such a warm and nourishing Christmas, quite another to deliver it. Take on too much and your festivities can be spoiled by stress. But approach it as Lucy Brazier suggests here – with a sense of kindness to yourself, as host, before you worry too much about everyone else – and the result can be a Christmas that people talk about for years to come for all the right reasons. I have worked with Lucy for a long time now and I was delighted when she established our Christmas Hamper courses at the River Cottage Cookery School, events from which students always emerge full of inspiration and glowing with good will – and possibly a tot or two of Lucy’s sloe gin. But even if we hadn’t secured her for the course, she’d still be the person I’d choose to write this book; she embodies more than anyone I know the warmth and generosity at the heart of Christmas. Lucy is also endlessly creative and imaginative, fascinated by the traditions that weave through the year and lead us to this seasonal apex, and passionate about the foraging, baking, preserving and infusing that pay such delicious dividends come December. An invitation to a solstice bonfire or Christmas Eve drinks at Lucy’s is something to covet… It’s been such a pleasure to hear in detail how Lucy does Christmas. And it’s an honour to add a few of my own insights, family traditions (and foibles). Blame me for all the bits with this rosy tint behind them – together they make up my Christmas trifle. If you want to host a large festive gathering, Lucy will show you that it’s well within your capabilities. It needn’t mean a sit-down three-course lunch for fifteen, if that’s not your thing. There are other ways to bring your dearest ones nearer and enjoy the experience. Lucy urges us not to forget the natural season within which Christmas sits because the beauty of December is all part of the joy of it, whether you breathe it in on rosy-cheeked winter rambles, or bring it inside in the form of fresh greenery. Remember the simple pleasures, she bids us – the satisfaction in sending a home-made card, the licence Christmas grants us to curl up and read a book in the daytime! And then, of course, there is the festive food, something about which Lucy and I are endlessly enthusiastic. We love sharing celebratory recipes and, again, she’s been kind enough to invite me to include some of mine in these pages. And so you’ll find a few of my favourite edible gifts, seasonal salads and meaty centrepieces dotted among Lucy’s family favourites and the River Cottage Christmas classics. I love the way Lucy demonstrates that a year of seasonal cooking, foraging and preserving – just a little here and there – can come to glorious fruition as we gather for Christmas. And I love her celebration of the many fine fresh ingredients to be had at the year’s end too. Midwinter festival it may be, but Christmas can be a time of seasonal abundance, with so much produce still in excellent condition from the farm or the market. Take home knobbly walking sticks of Brussels sprouts, purple-whorled red cabbage and vivid orange clementines. Load up on earthy-sweet nuts and intensely flavoured dried fruit; inhale the evocative scents of warm spices and evergreen herbs. If you enjoy meat, now is the time to indulge, with plump poultry and well-aged beef ready to be relished and the all-important gravy to be made. And, arguably best of all, there are the post-Christmas Day leftovers to look forward to, those low-effort meals of tossed- together bits and pieces, never precisely the same, always delicious and utterly comforting. I hope this is all starting to sound like the sort of Christmas you want to enjoy: one that is simple, natural and joyful, rooted in the season as it turns quietly through the solstice, allowing time to celebrate but also time to talk and to rest. In these few precious and special weeks, let’s put aside the concerns that drive us through the rest of the year and come together with those we hold dear, to light the candles, pour a drink and share good things. The very best of the season to you! Hugh