Читать книгу Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook - Regula Ysewijn - Страница 32
Оглавление49
|
Part of the charm of Christmas is all the preparations: selecting the proper gifts, decorating with
evergreens and flowers, putting up a tree, planning the menu and the entertainment. Then, come
Christmas Eve, everything is perfect. Nowadays, many of us begin decorating the house a week or two
before Christmas, with some perhaps beginning as early as Advent Sunday (the fourth Sunday before
Christmas Day). In the Edwardian period and into the 1920s, decorating would start on December 24.
Of course, much would need to be prepared ahead of this day so everything was ready to go.
To transform your dining room into a Christmas of yesteryear, begin with greenery. Arrange an
abundance of winter greens down the middle of the dining table, on side tables, and even in a fireplace
that will remain unlit. Fashion a garland of evergreens and drape it on and around the mantelpiece. You
can be extravagant with these decorations, as there’s no such thing as “less is more” with evergreens
at holiday time. Even though Downton Abbey had electricity, candles were always on the table for the
Christmas feast, bathing both the food and the diners in a warm, inviting glow that people still welcome
today. Taper candles are a good choice. Choose unscented ones, preferably of beeswax, which has a
nearly undetectable naturally sweet scent and burns both slowly and cleanly.
The Christmas tree at Downton is set up in the great hall, but putting your tree in the dining room
or in the area where you will be serving drinks before the meal would add to the festive ambience of
your holiday dinner. Either of these two places is also where people in the Downton era not living on a
splendid English estate would have most often placed it and where many people today set it up.
CREATING DECORATIONS
Gather your evergreens, such as holly, ivy, bay or laurel, fir branches, and/or rosemary, a few days
ahead of Christmas. Pine cones are a great addition, as are branches of Ilex verticillata (winterberry
holly), with their bright (inedible) red berries. If you live in a city, you can find beautiful winter greens at
florist shops during the Christmas season, or you can head to your local park and, if permitted, collect
some windfall leaves and small branches and maybe a pine cone or two. Walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts,
apples, and pears are also nice additions. So, too, are oranges spiked with cloves, which give off a
wonderful festive scent.
