Packing Up Christmas

 

Bedroom - Kitchen - Living Room

It hit me this morning that a whole month has gone by since Christmas, and as I had no special plans for the day, and the Great Outdoors was not looking very inviting (just grey and cold), I decided that it might be a good day to say thanks and goodbye (for this season) to the electric candle holders and stars in my windows; and put my regular window lamps back up instead. This has always been a job that takes some time - and now at age 70, it seems to have expanded to fill "a whole day". (How on earth back in a distant past I ever managed a full time job + a fairly active social life besides all the to-do's at home has long seemed a mystery!) 

 

I'm keeping some red textiles (table runners etc) for a while longer (as it's still very much winter here); and ended up moving the big poinsettia from the living room window to the kitchen to match the red ribbons around the curtains, and kind of make up for the "loss" of the red wooden candle holder. In the living room I'm also keeping some battery candles, as it still gets dark early and the evenings are long. 

 

 

I asked Google for some quotes about "old age and time": 

 

"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. 
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." 
— Mark Twain 

 

 "It's important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle." 
— Unknown 

  

 "You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely." 
— Unknown

 

 "To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am." 
— Francis Bacon

 

 

St Knut's Day

As mentioned in my Saturday post, January 13th is the traditional day to throw out Christmas here in Sweden. Because of a question from someone in the comments to that post (why we do it a week later here than in some other countries) I ended up doing some additional research - and found out that the answer goes back as far as to 1680, when the celebration of an old saint by name Knut (Canute in English) was given a day of his own, instead of sharing with the Feast of Epiphany/Three Kings' Day. So the Feast of Saint Knut was moved forward one week here, from the 6th to the 13th. And for some reason, in Sweden (and Finland) the traditions connected with throwing out Christmas must have been more associated with St Knut, than with the Magi arriving at Bethlehem.

There is an old rhyme in Swedish that says "Tjugondag* Knut ska julen [dansas] ut." In English that might be translated "On the Feast of St Knut, Christmas is thrown out [with dancing].")  *Tjugondag = 20th day /of Christmas/.  

How far back in time that saying goes, I don't know. Perhaps even to before 1680, when the feast was still on the 13th day of Christmas? (The rhyme would function just as well with that date, in Swedish.)

Be that as it may... I kept to the tradition this year, and got the last of my Christmas things packed up and  taken down to the storage room today. And my usual all-year-round window lamps are now back on the window sills, instead of the electric candles. 

As always, I found myself missing the electric candles + window star in the kitchen window the most... So I ended up placing my two red battery candles there - for a transition period... 

Outdoors we're back to very grey weather, and now slowly thawing again. I took out a wastebag to the dustbins at the corner of the building, but decided that it was definitely a day better spent indoors than trying to "enjoy" a walk... I'm hoping the old snow and ice will melt away over the next couple of days, before it turns colder again (as sooner or later it no doubt will). 

I did not have a St Knut's Feast as such - but I did finish the last of the ginger biscuits. (I did not bake any myself this Christmas, but I bought some. Sugarfree, not to stir up too much of a craving!)

Packing Up Christmas

 

On Wednesday, between turns to the laundry room in the basement, I also got some of my boxes for Christmas ornaments from my storage room up to the flat, and got started on gradually packing up Christmas. The first thing I did was to fit this little wooden tree and its tiny ornaments back in the right compartments - which is in itself like laying a puzzle...  

Next to be packed up were all the various Santas/gnomes spread out all over the flat. All too often I forget one or two, so I left that box open for a couple of days before I finally shut the lid on it today. The ones dancing on my bathroom wall were the last to jump in this time...

(They used to belong to my mum, who used to have them in her kitchen.)

Yesterday I said goodnight to all the angels and tucked those in; and today I've packed up the Nativity scene on the shelf in my study. (Cf post from 14 December.) The normal residents on that shelf have now reclaimed their usual places. (Only leightweight objects can be put on that shelf as it's not all that securely fastened to the wall...)

The watercolour underneath was painted by me 30 years ago. I seem to recall that I copied it "freehand" (not sketching first but just painting) from a photo in a magazine - maybe an advertisment. The 1990s was a period of my life when I also participated in various water colour classes now and then. (A major reason I've not kept it up is a later injury causing longlasting shoulder/arm  problems. I turned to photography instead, which became so much easier with digital cameras and computers - and blogging...)

My other little Christmas tree, electric candleholders and window stars still remain to be taken down over the next few days. Some textiles that I see more as "winter" than just Christmas will probably stay up for a while longer, though. (Like my red/white kitchen curtains, and some table runners.) 

The "traditional" date in Sweden to "throw out" Christmas is 13th January. Nowadays it varies a lot more. Back in my childhood, when most mothers were stay-at-home moms (housewives), it was common to have special children's parties on or around that date, before throwing out the Christmas tree. The Swedish word for it is julgransplundring, which literally means "plundering the Christmas tree". Originally, I think the tradition stems from a time when the Christmas trees were primarily decorated with edible things (cookies, apples, nuts etc). Not so common any more in the 1960s; but the party might still involve eating the gingerbread house, or the last of other cookies baked for the holidays. Games were played, and if there was room enough, one might dance around the tree. And it was also still part of the tradition that each child got a goodie bag to take home with them at the end of the party. 

Below is a photo of my very first such party. I'm the one to the right, with two bows in my hair. The year is 1960, I'm 5 years old and the photo is from the kitchen table in the house I had moved into some six months earlier with my parents. The three other girls lived in neighbouring houses, one next door and the two others across the street. Two of them a year older than me I think, and one a year younger. And it looks like my mum even baked a cake for the occasion.