Christmas, like so many of our festivals, has its roots in pre-Christian times, but it has become one of the most important occasions in the Christian church – and just as important for different reasons in the secular part of our society.

Here are some interesting snippets about Christmas ;

• In England, Christmastide was a 12-day holiday, leading to the old Celtic New Year, hence the “Twelve Days of Christmas” and in some rural Scottish corners, the old new year is still celebrated.
• Mince pies have been standard Christmas fare from Elizabethan times, but they started out being made with chopped or shredded meat mixed with suet, dried fruit, orange and lemon peel and sugar.
• Christmas mince can be made well in advance of Christmas but don’t forget some brandy to help keep it fresh and moist.
• The Christmas Pudding as we know it today dates only from the mid-19^th century. The Plum Pudding developed from a meat pottage or soup, thickened with bread and egg, flavoured with spices and dried fruit and coloured bright red. In late Tudor times, dried plums – prunes to us – were first added to boiled mixtures, hence they became “plum” pottage. By the time dried fruits and sugar were cheap enough to make plum pottage festive fare, even for the poor, it had also become more solid and changed its name again to plum or Christmas porridge.
• Originally cloth-boiled puddings didn’t have alcohol, but on George I’s first Christmas Day in England, he was served a rich plum pudding which, by then, had lost the meat – still with suet as today – but gained a decent slosh of brandy!
• By the early 1800s, a rich plum pudding with brandy had become a feature of many festive occasions, including Christmas.
• Christmas Cake was originally served on the old Twelfth Night and Twelfth Day and, again, it evolved over the centuries to the rich fruit cake we know today and which you should be making around now, to ensure it is at its peak for Christmas Day.
• When you have made the cake, wrap it well in foil or cling film and store in an airtight container. Check it from time to time, and if it shows any sign of mould, scrape it off and pour over some more brandy before wrapping again.

Get the family involved in the mixing of the Christmas pud or cake – it can be good fun, if everyone has a go. You could also revive the old tradition of lucky tokens in the pudding…it used to be silver threepenny pieces and some people put in a tiny porcelain baby and other little silver favours. However, these days, wrap the coins in greaseproof paper since we no longer have pure silver threepenny pieces, unless Grandma has some hidden somewhere!