Book of Days

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.

Today’s Convivio Book of Days chapter takes the prize for Longest Title Ever, but I wanted all the words there: they make me smile. These are the words of the day for Stir-Up Sunday, which is today: the last Sunday before Advent begins, and the traditional day to bake fruitcakes and get puddings started so they have time to properly age before Christmas.

The timing is just right and it just happens to coincide with the collect––the prayer after Communion in the Anglican Church, which goes 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.

Those traditional fruitcakes and steamed Christmas puddings that the Anglicans love so much require a good four weeks to age and become sufficiently brandy-soaked to reach their best depth of flavor. 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 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.

Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself. For now, let’s focus on today: Stir-Up Sunday. It is said that a good British 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. If Christmas puddings and fruitcakes are not in your repertoire, it’s also a good day to make any Christmas spice cookies that require time for flavors to develop: German Pfeffernüsse, for instance.

But maybe this is the year you should try your hand at one of these steamy puddings! To that end, here 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’ll be making this using the shortening. 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.

Speaking of prayers and collects: Would you please offer a prayer for my mom, Millie? She’s been in the hospital since Friday as a result of a UTI that came without symptoms, and severe dehydration. She is doing much better. We’re mainly trying to get her appetite back again and get her back home again as soon as possible. Thank you.

ONLINE SPECIAL in the SHOP
When it comes to small businesses, Convivio Bookworks is about as small as it gets and so the appreciation is genuine. Your purchases support real people, many of whom we know personally. In that spirit of appreciation, we’ve got a weekend of special markdowns on many items at the website, plus you can use our SLOWCHRISTMAS discount code for an additional $10 off your $85 purchase, which also gets you free domestic shipping. Basically: If there are items in our shop that you’ve been keeping an eye on, this weekend brings the best deal we’ll offer all year. You’ll find the markdowns in our Advent, Christmas, and Specialty Foods departments, and the discount code is good on everything in the shop. And if you’ve not visited in a long while, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at all you’ll find that is new. CLICK HERE to shop! The special sale was meant to end once Sunday night passed, but we’ll go ahead and keep it going for one more day, through the end of Monday, November 27.

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!

Tuesday November 28, Delray Beach
DELRAY BEACH 100′ CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING & YULETIDE STREET FAIR
We’ll be there on the grounds of Old School Square near the 100′ tree in our 10′ tent with a nice little shop of Advent candles and calendars and Christmas goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico. Tuesday November 28 from 6 to 9 PM at Old School Square, Downtown Delray Beach.

Saturday December 2, Miami
CHRISTMAS MARKET MIAMI
We’ll have a huge pop-up shop (one of our biggest ever) filled with handmade artisan goods from Germany & Sweden plus specialty foods, too, and our Advent candles and calendars. Saturday December 2 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.

Saturday December 2, Boca Raton
SANKTA LUCIA FESTIVAL & JULMARKNAD
This lovely festival is a fundraiser hosted by SWEA, the Swedish Women’s Educational Association. It will be held at the First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton at 625 NE Mizner Boulevard on Saturday December 2 from 11 AM to 3 PM. Our pop-up shop will feature traditional and contemporary Swedish Christmas items plus Advent candles and calendars, and some delicious German Christmas cookies and candies, too. (Same day as the Christmas Market in Miami, but don’t worry, we’ll be at both!)

Sunday December 3, Coral Gables
DEUTSCHER WEIHNACHTSMARKT (GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKET)
It’s the 19th Annual Deutscher Weihnachtsmarkt (or German Christmas Market) at the beautiful historic Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ, 3010 De Soto Boulevard in Coral Gables, in view of the Biltmore Hotel. We’ll have a tent outdoors on the grounds with an assortment of German handicrafts for Christmas plus specialty foods. Noon to 5 PM.

Friday December 8, 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 on Friday evening, December 8, from 7 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 9 & 10, Lake Worth
CHRISTKINDLMARKT
It’s our favorite event of the year! 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 9 from 2 to 10 PM and Sunday December 10 from 12 to 8 PM. 5111 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

Click on the pictures to make them larger! Top Image: An illustration page from a book with an even longer-winded title than today’s blog post: The Everyday Cook and Recipe Book: Containing More than Two Thousand Practical Recipes for Cooking Every Kind of Meat, Fish, Poultry, Game, Soups, Broths, Vegetables and Salads: Also for Making All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Breads, Pastries, Puddings, Cakes, Creams, Ices, Jellies, Preserves, Marmalades, Etc., Together with Various Miscellaneous Recipes for Preparation of Food and Attentions to Invalids, All Carefully Prepared and Practically Tested. Phew! That’s a mouthful. The book is by E. Neil and was published in New York by J.S. Ogilvie, 1891 [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons.