When I was a child, one of our neighbours, the doughty matriarch of an Irish clan, revealed her more soft-hearted side by giving my sister and me Christmas gifts for several years, despite the many grandchildren she had to buy for. Alongside these small trinkets, she presented us each with an envelope containing a silver sixpence and a cheery handwritten limerick. Love and luck enveloped in brown paper.
While the festive season is syncopated with feasting and revelry, it is the quiet moments steeped in tradition that I enjoy the most: an evening spent by the fire wrapping presents; family members gathering to watch the King’s speech; bracing winter walks.
One of my favourite stories in this issue is a 300-year-old Swedish house surrounded by lakes and pristine forest, which is infused with a feeling of timelessness. Brought back to life by talented Stockholm-based duo Studio Ramson, it has a fairy-tale quality when decorated for Christmas, thanks in part to its unique setting (note the carpet of pine branches lining the front steps). But there’s plenty of inspiration for more humble dwellings, too – though I wouldn’t recommend festooning a tree with real candles.
The mantra ‘buy less, buy better’ seems very apt this year, and House & Garden’s decoration editor Rémy Mishon has compiled a selection of gift suggestions that are sure to delight now and be cherished in the future – with the exception of the delicious epicurean presents.
Something with a longer shelf life is Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems. By turns amusing and thought provoking, her selection spans some 13 centuries and reveals that the English have long had a nostalgic yearning for a better past, and also a rambunctious sense of humour. An extract from Crumble-Hall, penned in the 1740s by Mary Leapor, a labouring-class woman, comically captures the life of a great house, including a cook whipping up ‘sweet tarts’.
The Turin apartment of the cookbook writer Mimi Thorisson is filled with food and family (she has eight children and two dogs!) in unerringly elegant style. And for our contributing editor Anne Hardy, the festive season is a time of both tradition and renewal. Her charming home in New England is garlanded with greenery and layered with decorations her family has collected over several decades. The effect is low key and sophisticated in an era of excess, but she still relishes putting it all away again, because she savours the feeling of ‘coming home again’. And there’s no better feeling than that.
MAY WE SUGGEST: Mimi Thorisson's menu for a rustic and delicious Christmas feast
