Christmas Flowers, Poetry and Legends
Our speakers this month were Sylvia Boden and her friend Gill, giving us an insight into the traditions behind our celebrations around Christmas. Sylvia described some of the events surrounding Christmas with flower arrangements, poems and items that went into a Christmas hamper. We were all given a raffle ticket at the start of the evening and these items were the prizes. This was a very novel way of presenting the talk.

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The exact date of his birth is unknown but by the early to mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church had placed Christmas on December 25th. The celebratory customs associated with Christmas have a mix of pagan, pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, an exchange of Christmas cards, church celebrations, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe and holly.
Sylvia described the use of evergreen foliage, such as holly, mistletoe and ivy in Christmas arrangements. The heart-shaped leaves of ivy were said to symbolize the coming to earth of Jesus, while holly was seen as protection against pagans and witches, its thorns and red berries held to represent the Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus at the crucifixion and the blood he shed. She presented an arrangement composed of tiny dried apples, fragrant mahonia, green button chrysanthemum flowers, hypericum berries and choisya. This was to be the first raffle prize. Since the 19th century, the Poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas. Other holiday plants include red amaryllis, Christmas cactus, the Hellebores, and rosemary; its blue flowers representing the Virgin Mary.

Many people display an advent wreath, which is usually a horizontal evergreen wreath with four candles representing hope, peace, joy and love; and often a fifth, white candle in the centre. The circle symbolises the love of God which has no beginning and no end while the evergreens and lighted candles signify the persistence of life in the midst of winter.
Throughout Sylvia's talk, Gill was reading out Christmas poems in a very convincing Pam Ayres voice!
Most of us have a Christmas tree, usually an evergreen conifer such as spruce, pine, or fir. The tree was traditionally decorated with edibles such as apples, nuts, or other foods. In the 18th century, it began to be illuminated by candles which were ultimately replaced by Christmas lights. The custom of the Christmas tree developed in Germany and Prince Albert famously erected the first tree in Windsor Castle.
We all have early childhood memories of Christmas and Sylvia described one of hers. As a Londoner she would catch the bus, with her family, to the city and walk down Regent Street and Oxford Street judging the Christmas window displays. Apparently, Liberty's window was always judged the best. We all have precious, small, Christmas decorations made by our children or grandchildren at playgroup or nursery, that have pride of place on our own festive trees. The children's nativity is also a regular at this time of year with often very funny interpretations. Christmas crackers are also part of our Christmas celebrations. Sylvia showed us a single Fortnum and Mason cracker which she has as a reminder of her grandfather. We all take our Christmas traditions for granted, but it was lovely to hear of their origins, and also presented in such an original way.

Our Christmas party is our next meeting so final arrangements were being made for that. We ask the members to provide the desserts and what marvellous creations are provided! We were also informed that a poppy wreath had been laid at the war memorial on behalf of Yoxall WI. Our next meeting is for members only, but visitors are very welcome at our January meeting. We have Peter Shelley with a talk on 'Handful of Straw'. We meet in the Parish Hall on Wednesday 14th January at 7.30pm. Details are available from Penny Bailey through the link below.