Book of Days | from convivio bookworks

Nov 23 2025

Stir Up, We Beseech Thee

I’ve decided that I need to stop thinking it’s still September (it’s not) and just accept the fact that Hallowe’en has passed and Thanksgiving is but a few days away and we will very soon be well on our way toward Christmas. Even though I’ve spent the past two days at our pop-up shop at the Scandinavian Christmas Market in Lantana, the reality of the calendar has yet to make itself apparent in my head.

Ah, but today is Stir-Up Sunday. It is the last Sunday of ordinary time, the last Sunday before Advent begins (on November 30 this year)––Advent, of course, being our time of preparation for Christmas. I need to face reality. And, if you want to make traditional cakes and cookies for Christmas that need time to age and mellow in order to reach their best flavor (think Christmas puddings and boozy fruit cakes and even traditional German pfeffernüsse), well… this is the ideal day to make them. The timing is just right and it happens to coincide with the collect––the prayer after Communion in the Anglican Church, which today will go like this:

Stir up, we beseech thee, o Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And whilst the minister is reading those words, those of us who are prone to wandering thoughts may be hearing these words instead:

Stir up, we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot;
Stir up, we beseech thee, and keep it all hot.

Slightly irreverent, perhaps, but our intentions are good: We just want to make Christmas extra special through things of this earth that we love, and surely the Lord would grant us that at Christmastime. A good fruitcake (and I mean a good one) requires a good four weeks to age and become sufficiently brandy-soaked to reach its best depth of flavor, as do steamed Christmas puddings.

Some of us would argue that it requires the four weeks of Advent for our Christmas celebration to be the best that it can be, too: four weeks to prepare and to make our houses as fair as are able. This is a concept we here at Convivio Bookworks are all for: We call it the Slow Christmas Movement. It focuses on the idea of taking time to savor each season as it comes: the four weeks of Advent being a time of preparation for the joy of Christmas that follows… and then allowing Christmastime itself to blossom and unfold and last its full season: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and all the Twelve Days of Christmas that follow, and if you really love Christmas, you might celebrate the ancient tradition we follow each year, keeping Christmas all the way to Candlemas Eve at the start of February.

But lo! I am getting ahead of myself. For now, let’s focus on today: Stir-Up Sunday. It is said that a good Christmas pudding should contain thirteen ingredients––one for Jesus and each of his disciples––no more and no less. And when it is prepared on Stir-Up Sunday, each member of the family should give the pudding a stir, making a wish as they do. The stirring must be from east to west: the same direction the Magi traveled to visit the newborn child.

Here is a recipe I’ve shared with you before: it is Nigella Lawson’s recipe for her Ultimate Christmas Pudding. You’ll find two versions presented there: one in metric measures and one in imperial measures. The two versions have more differences than just ways of measuring ingredients: The metric includes the British name for raisins (the lovely word sultanas), but it also lists suet as an ingredient, where in the American version, the suet is replaced by vegetable shortening. I won’t be making this pudding today, as it is the final day of that Scandinavian Christmas Market I mentioned earlier, but when I do, I’ll be making it using the shortening. Today may be the best day to make your puddings and fruitcakes, but I’m all for delaying if necessary, and for me this year, a delay is necessary.

l will also soon be dusting off music for the Advent season, which I think I love as much as Christmastime itself. I am, at heart, a guy who loves anticipation. Stir-Up Sunday and Advent? These things are right up my alley.

COME SEE US!
We’ve got several pop-up markets planned these next few weeks and we’d love to see you if you’re local!

One more day (today!) of the
SCANDINAVIAN CHRISTMAS MARKET
This lovely Christmas market began on Friday and ends today, Sunday November 23. It’s open today from noon to 6 PM and at our booth you will find our Swedish Christmas decorations and other imports of ours from Sweden, Iceland, and Finland, including Finnish tea and licorice, Icelandic chocolate, and Swedish saft, ginger snaps, licorice, and candy canes made by hand in the same Swedish candy shop where candy canes were first invented. Other vendors, too, plus AMAZING Finnish baked goods made on the premises. At Annan Maja at Finnish-American Village, 1800 South Drive, Lantana, Florida. (We’ve been having the best time there since the market began on Friday!)

Shop small with us this Thanksgiving Weekend: Friday November 28 through Sunday November 30
ADVENT & CHRISTMAS MARKET at the shop
We don’t keep regular hours at the shop, but we do open for special events, and this is our next one. Festive shopping, good music, good company, and homemade Christmas cookies while you shop, with our own Löfbergs Coffee from Sweden. Friday November 28 from 11 AM to 6 PM and Saturday & Sunday, November 29 & 30, from 11 AM to 4 PM.

Saturday December 6, Miami
MIAMI CHRISTMAS MARKET
We’ll have a huge pop-up shop filled with handmade artisan goods from Germany plus specialty foods, too, and our Advent candles and calendars. Saturday December 6 from 11 AM to 8 PM, indoors and outdoors (we’ll be indoors) at the German American Social Club in Miami, which is where we spent Oktoberfest this year. 11919 SW 56th Street, Miami.

Friday December 12, Lake Worth
KRAMPUSNACHT
On the Eve of St. Nicholas’ Day, it is Krampus who accompanies the good saint to scare girls and boys into good behavior, and he gets his own celebration at the American German Club in suburban Lake Worth (a little later than St. Nicholas’ Eve) on Friday evening, December 12, from 6 to 11 PM. We’ll be there with our biggest pop-up shop ever as this night ushers in the weekend’s Christkindlmarkt. Tickets required and must be purchased in advance. 5111 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

Saturday & Sunday, December 13 & 14, Lake Worth
CHRISTKINDLMARKT
The annual Christkindlmarkt at the American German Club in suburban Lake Worth is just wonderful, and we’ll be there with our biggest pop-up shop ever, filled with German Christmas artisan goods plus more from Sweden and Mexico, as well as specialty foods and who knows what else! Tickets are required and must be purchased in advance. Usually sells out! Saturday December 13 from 1 to 9 PM and Sunday December 14 from 11 AM to 7 PM. 5111 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

Image: “Making the Empire Christmas Pudding,” illustration by FC Harrison produced for the Empire Marketing Board, circa 1926–1939. [Public domain] by The National Archives UK via Wikimedia Commons.

Nov 11 2025

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Martinmas

Martinmas, and a Shift

Hallowe’en each year ushers in a span of time known as Hollantide; we’ve been in the midst of it since, and here, with Martinmas, Hollantide comes to a close. This is the time when we traditionally remember our dead. All Hallows (All Saints Day) is what gives the span its name––Hollantide being but a corruption of the word Hallowtide. It is the time of the sacred, the time of the holy, the time of remembrance.

Martinmas celebrates St. Martin of Tours. He was a Roman military veteran (and lo, today also brings Veterans Day and Armistice Day) in the fourth century who opted to take up Christian pacifism and is known best for helping a poor, drunken man on a cold winter’s day by tearing his own cloak in two so that the poor fellow would have something to keep himself warm. St. Martin has since become a patron saint of tailors, vineyard keepers, winemakers, and drinkers. In Germany tonight, children will parade through villages carrying Martinmas lanterns that they’ve made, illuminating the night.

So, what is it that makes Martinmas the bookend to Hallowe’en? The connection may have something to do with the Celtic New Year––Samhain––which, over the centuries, melded and evolved into the Hallowe’en celebrations we know today. Samhain marks, as well, in traditional reckoning of time, the transition to winter. With all of these November days since Samhain, since Hallowe’en, our thoughts have gone deeper below the earth, just as the natural world also shifts its energy below the earth. Winter leads us there. The legend of Persephone leads us there. The trees take us there: The leaves have flown, all growth now is below, in the roots. This makes for stronger growth above ground come spring and summer: balance. As above, so below. Oh and guess what? November 11 is the old style date of Samhain. Winter, by the almanac, is still several weeks away, but by traditional reckoning of time, it is Martinmas that marks its full onset… so that by the solstice, we’ll be singing songs like “In the Bleak Midwinter.” This is the shift that comes with Martinmas.

It is, as well, the day when new young wines are tasted: it is time, for instance, for the new Beaujolais vintage to be released. All signs point toward harvest and gathering in, and in the gathering darkness, the lanterns of Martinmas brighten the early nightfall. The shift toward winter is now undeniable.

IT’S TIME FOR ADVENT CANDLES & CALENDARS!
These lovely traditions help to slow things down on the approach to Christmas and help us welcome Christmas in its own time. (This is what we mean when we talk about celebrating a Slow Christmas.) Our Advent Calendars are all made in Germany (a few are made in England) and our Advent Candles are all made in Germany, England, Sweden… and, new this year, we have handmade beeswax Advent Candles made for us by a small company in Atlanta. CLICK HERE to shop our Advent offerings.

COME SEE US!
We enter into a very busy time of year for us, and here’s a listing of the in-shop events and pop-up markets we currently have on our calendar:

Our first Advent & Christmas Market of the season is happening this weekend at the shop: Saturday November 15 & Sunday November 16 from 11 to 4. Enjoy homemade Christmas cookies and our own Löfbergs Swedish Coffee while you shop. (Our second Advent & Christmas Market is planned for Thanksgiving Weekend: Friday November 28, Saturday November 29, and Sunday November 30.) The shop is at 1110 North G Street in Lake Worth Beach, Florida.

Find us on Friday November 21, Saturday November 22, and Sunday November 23 at the Scandinavian Christmas Market in Lantana; then on Saturday December 6 at Christmas Market Miami at the German American Social Club in Miami (that’s us and our pop-up shop in the photo!); and at Krampusnacht on Friday night December 12 and Christkindlmarkt on Saturday December 13 and Sunday December 14, all at the American German Club in Lake Worth. And we’ll reopen the shop again for our Solstice Market on Saturday & Sunday, December 20 & 21.

Image: “Martinmas in Düsseldorf ” (Das Martinsfest in Düsseldorf) by Otto von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld. Engraving, 1863 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons].

Nov 05 2025

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Autumn, Book of Days Calendar

Autumn Afternoon, or Your November Book of Days

Last month was dominated by Oktoberfest Miami, and then we went to Maine for a quick visit to see Seth’s family, and when we got back it was Hallowe’en, and then the local Dia de Los Muertos festival… anyway, I have finally gotten around to publishing your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for November. We delve deeper into autumn now.

The calendar is a printable PDF, as usual. I do hope you had a mysterious Hallowe’en and a lovely All Souls Night. Though I did not write to you here, we did celebrate all these nights, and you’ll find pictures at our Instagram page (@conviviobookworks) of our Hallowtide so far. These days of remembrance continue through Martinmas on the 11th of November. In this house we are still basking in the glow of orange lights each night in the company of pumpkins, and we’ve just finished the last of the Butternut Soup from Hallowe’en and the cinnamon and anise scented Pan de Muertos my sister made for Dia de Los Muertos. She made other sweets, as well. (I, meanwhile, have an appointment on Thursday for bloodwork for my 6-month physical… I don’t think “A candy apple a day keeps the doctor away” is quite how the old adage goes, and yet, this is the current state of things.)

We enter into a very busy time of year for us, and here’s a listing of the in-shop events and pop-up markets we currently have on our calendar:

We’re planning an Advent & Christmas Market at the shop the weekend of Saturday November 15 & Sunday November 16, and another Advent & Christmas Market on Thanksgiving Weekend: Friday November 28, Saturday November 29, and Sunday November 30. The shop is at 1110 North G Street in Lake Worth Beach, Florida.

Find us on Friday November 21, Saturday November 22, and Sunday November 23 at the Scandinavian Christmas Market in Lantana; then on Saturday December 6 at Christmas Market Miami at the German American Social Club in Miami; and at Krampusnacht on Friday night December 13 and Christkindlmarkt on Saturday & Sunday December 14 & 15, all at the American German Club in Lake Worth. And we’ll reopen the shop again for our Solstice Market on Friday December 19, Saturday December 20, and Sunday December 21.

And here’s a really nice story about Convivio Bookworks that was written by Amancio Paradela. It came out in the October 29 edition of OutSFL. I think it’s the best thing that was ever written about us; I feel like Amancio really understands what we’re trying to do at Convivio Bookworks. Thank you, Amancio!

Finally, I imagine most of you who read the Convivio Book of Days must also subscribe to our more popular mailing list for the Convivio Dispatch from Lake Worth… but who knows, maybe I’m wrong. If you did not receive last week’s Convivio Dispatch for Hallowe’en, well… here’s a link to that Dispatch. Though All Hallow’s Eve has passed, it’s a pleasantly mysterious read, no matter what time of year. And since we are still in the midst of Hallowtide, reading it now is actually just right.

That’s all for now. I would promise to be better about writing this month, but let’s face it: Look at all those dates we have scheduled! The writing is most likely going to have to wait. I will, however, be sure to write during momentary lapses of good judgement. Have a wonderful month, and we’d love to see you, if you’re local, at one or more of our events or pop-up markets this holiday season!

Image: “Autumn Afternoon” by László Mednyánsky. Oil on canvas, circa 1900 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

P.S. There are three open seats still in this Sunday’s pasta making workshop at the shop! My family will be teaching you how to make Cavatelli. It’ll be an absolutely delicious day!