The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK way back in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was a civil servant (Government worker) who was very interested in the new ‘Public Post Office’ and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people.

Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas Cards with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist. They designed the first card and sold them for 1 shilling each. (That is only 5p or 8 cents today(!), but in those days it was worth much much more.) The card had three panels. The outer two panels showed people caring for the poor and in the centre panel was a family having a large Christmas dinner! Some people didn’t like the card because it showed a child being given a glass of wine! About 1000 (or it might have been less!) were printed and sold. They are now very rare and cost thousands of Pounds or Dollars to buy now!

The first postal service that ordinary people could use was started in 1840 when the first ‘Penny Post’ public postal deliveries began. Before that, only very rich people could afford to send anything in the post. The new Post Office was able to offer a Penny stamp because new railways were being built. These could carry much more post than the horse and carriage that had been used before. Also, trains could go a lot faster. Cards became even more popular in the UK when they could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one halfpenny – half the price of an ordinary letter.

As printing methods improved, Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced in large numbers from about 1860. In 1870 the cost of sending a post card, and also Christmas cards, dropped to half a penny. This meant even more people were able to send cards.

An engraved card by the artist William Egley, who illustrated some of Charles Dickens’s books, is on display in the British Museum. By the early 1900s, the custom had spread over Europe and had become especially popular in Germany.

The first cards usually had pictures of the Nativity scene on them. In late Victorian times, robins (an English bird) and snow-scenes became popular. In those times the postmen were nicknamed ‘Robin Postmen’ because of the red uniforms they wore. Snow-scenes were popular because they reminded people of the very bad winter that happened in the UK in 1836.

Christmas Cards appeared in the United States of America in the late 1840s, but were very expensive and most people couldn’t afford them. It 1875, Louis Prang, a printer who was originally from German but who had also worked on early cards in the UK, started mass producing cards so more people could afford to buy them. Mr Prang’s first cards featured flowers, plants, and children. In 1915, John C. Hall and two of his brothers created Hallmark Cards, who are still one of the biggest card makers today!

In the 1910s and 1920s, home made cards became popular. They were often unusual shapes and had things such as foil and ribbon on them. These were usually too delicate to send through the post and were given by hand.

Nowadays, cards have all sorts of pictures on them: jokes, winter pictures, Santa Claus or romantic scenes of life in past times. Charities often sell their own Christmas Cards as a way raising money at Christmas.

Charities also make money from seals or stickers used to seal the card envelopes. This custom started in Denmark in the early 1900s by a postal worker who thought it would be a good way for charities to raise money, as well as making the cards more decorative. It was a great success: over four million were sold in the first year!

Soon other countries such as Sweden and Norway adopted the custom and then it spread all over Europe and to America.

I personally send out a lot of Christmas cards to my family and pen friends I also now send out some Christmas Ecards but to be honest I prefer the traditional Christmas card over an Ecard, yes Ecards are ok and I do get a number of them but I like being able to hang my Christmas cards on the wall for all to see.

Hello everyone, me and blogging didn’t go well together for the most part of last week, I was busy doing one thing or another most of the week and every time I sat at the computer to write a post it didn’t happen because other things got in the way.

So here we are on a Monday afternoon and it’s been close to a week since I wrote anything.

Saturday was “My Blain”’s 10^th birthday damn those 10 years have gone fast he spent most of the day with his dad and came back her around 5.30pm and spent the night and all day Sunday here with his mum. He did appear to like his presents which of course makes us adults happy, although he is like his mum in that he doesn’t show a lot of excitement over presents. Sunday his mum cooked one of his favourite meals for lunch and I had bought a cake for him.

This morning I had to drive my dad to an appointment after I took Leo to school, only 2 more days of school for the year then the children are off till the end of January. I am one of those strange people who like school holidays, I have no problem with having the children home for 6 weeks although I know some who find school holidays a nightmare and can’t wait till it starts again.

Although I know some who feel they need to find ways to entertain their children when they are not at school, I don’t, no one had to entertain me when I was a child I was able to find plenty to do on my own and I think most children can do so. I rarely sent my girls to vacation care, which is run by different groups with activities for children over the school holidays. I did send the one year for a couple of days but over all nope couldn’t afford it and they managed just find, they found things to do at home that didn’t involve me.

Now I have no problem with parents who like to play games with their children but it wasn’t me, I am just not like that my parents didn’t feel the need to play games with their children we turned out ok.

There is only 1 more birthday for the year and that is Jonathon’s (Blain’s dad) his is on the 23^rd then there are more birthdays come January. Yes I buy Jono a birthday present not over the top but something have done for as long as I have know him pretty much and since Blain is now 10 you can take a stab at how long I have known him, but if you like I can tell you I think it is 12 years I am pretty sure he was only 16 when I met him.

I will try and do better at posting stuff this week but with Christmas so damn close I have other stuff I need to do like finish sorting out the presents, but first I need to buy a few more large gift bags got plenty of smaller ones but ran out of large bags. Yes I am a gift bag person, this is because I suck at wrapping presents, gift bags just makes it all so much easier and the clean up is easy as well.

The custom of burning the Yule Log goes back to, and before, medieval times. It was originally a Nordic tradition. Yule is the name of the old Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe, such as Germany.

The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony. The largest end of the log would be placed into the fire hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room! The log would be lit from the remains of the previous year’s log which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed into the fire through the Twelve Days of Christmas. It was considered important that the re-lighting process was carried out by someone with clean hands. Nowadays, of course, most people have central heating so it is very difficult to burn a tree!

In parts of France it is traditional that the whole family helps to cut the log down and that a little bit is burnt each night. If any of the log is left after Twelfth Night, it is kept safe in the house until the next Christmas to protect against lightning! In some parts of Holland, this was also done, but the log had to be stored under a bed! In some eastern European countries, the log was cut down on Christmas Eve morning and lit that evening.

In Cornwall (in theUK), the log is called ‘The Mock’. The log is dried out and then the bark is taken off it before it comes into the house to be burnt. Also in the UK, barrel makers (or Coopers as barrel makers were traditionally called) gave their customers old logs that they could not use for making barrels for Yule logs. (My surname is Cooper, but I don’t make barrels! My Great Grandfather did own a walking stick factory though!)

The custom of the Yule Log spread all over Europe and different kids of wood are used in different countries. In England, Oak is traditional; in Scotland, it is Birch; while in France, it’s Cherry. Also, in France, the log is sprinkled with wine, before it is burnt, so that it smells nice when it is lit.

In Devon and Somerset in the UK, some people have a very large bunch of Ash twigs instead of the log. This comes from a local legend that Joseph, Mary and Jesus were very cold when the shepherds found them on Christmas Night. So the shepherds got some bunches of twigs to burn to keep them warm.

In some parts of Ireland, people have a large candle instead of a log and this is only lit on New Year’s Eve and Twelfth Night.

Different chemicals can be sprinkled on the log like wine to make the log burn with different coloured flames!

• Potassium Nitrate = Violet

• Barium Nitrate = Apple Green

• Borax = Vivid Green

• Copper Sulphate = Blue

• Table Salt = Bright Yellow

A Chocolate Yule Log or ‘bûche de Noël’ is now a popular Christmas desert or pudding. It’s traditionally eaten in France and Belgium, where they are known as ‘Kerststronk’ in Flemish.

They are made of a chocolate sponge roll layered with cream. The outside is covered with chocolate or chocolate icing and decorated to look like a bark-covered log.

One of the most visible signs of Christmas in Australia each year is the Christmas Lights displays. A very large number of families display a Christmas light of some type, lighting up their home and saying to all passers by; “Peach on earth and goodwill to all”. It might be a Christmas tree with lights showing through the window. A string of icicle lights are very popular. Possibly a Garden tree covered with a net light or a string of fairy lights.

Some families take Christmas lights to a whole new level each year adding to their collection of Christmas lights decorating their home and the most dedicated even have a collection of Christmas ornaments on display through window boxes.

Multitudes of families travel around these highly decorated homes and get out and walk up to the most interesting homes during December evenings, leading up to Christmas. These outings are fantastic, free, fun-filled outings for families with small children.

Many of the dedicated people that decorate their homes so elegantly with Christmas lighting, to entertain Australia’s children, are so generous with their time that they also collect funds for charity and/or sell raffle tickets.

So do you have Christmas lights at your place?

I do not, I would like to but Tim isn’t so keen and even though I have been asking him to set some up for me he still hasn’t done anything about it. I bought some solar powered lights so no extra high power bills. 

Hello Sunday, I didn’t go for a walk this morning just didn’t feel up to do so, the girls and Michael here for lunch, did home made pizza’s. So Jessica hadn’t turned up by 11am so Natasha rang her and she said she didn’t feel like pizza and wasn’t coming, that is ok not the end of the world but wouldn’t have hurt for her to let me know. During the week Kathy asked Michael what he would like for lunch he said home made pizza so I did home made pizza, teach him to tell me what he wants. He told Kathy bugga your mum, I say pizza, she makes pizza, now I have to go no matter how I feel.

This week I will stop talking about sorting out the Christmas presents and in fact sort them out but really have to do with when Tim isn’t around as I honestly don’t want to listen to him complain about how much I have bought for each person.

It is a very warm day but no air con this morning maybe after ever one has gone home well not Tasha as she is home, speaking of Tasha she has been cleaning the bathroom this morning the sink, toilet and bath and now she is vacuuming the house, remember she is a neat freak and we love her.

Tim this morning went to the toy run, this toy run:http://www.toyrun.org.au/index.php?page=newcastle he goes most years and this year he asked Jessica to go with him but she changed her mind this morning and didn’t feel like going. I often don’t feel like doing things I said I would do but guess what I said I would do it and generally I would do it because I said I would.

While searching for more Christmas cards I found some more decorations that I have now put up I asked Summer if she wanted to help me but she wanted them in Uncle Tasha’s room, yes she calls Aunty Tasha, Uncle Tasha.

I would like the air conditioner on but no one else things it is needed, so I will not be having it on for a while, maybe when Kathy leaves and I sit down to do the medication and such I will turn it on.

The History of Christmas Crackers

Christmas crackers are a traditional Christmas favourite in the UK. They were first made in about 1845-1850 by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French ‘bon bon’ sweets (almonds wrapped in pretty paper). He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn’t sell very well.

However, one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested by the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be, if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half.

Crackers were originally called ‘cosaques’ and were thought to be named after the ‘Cossack’ soldiers who had a reputation for riding on their horses and firing guns into the air!

When Tom died, his expanding cracker business was taken over by his three sons, Tom, Walter and Henry. Walter introduced the hats into crackers and he also travelled around the world looking for new ideas for gifts to put in the crackers.

The company built up a big range of ‘themed’ crackers. There were ones for bachelors and spinsters (single men and women), where the gifts were things like false teeth and wedding rings! There were also crackers for Suffragettes (women who campaigned to get women the vote), war heroes and even Charlie Chaplain! Crackers were also made for special occasions like Coronations. The British Royal Family still has special crackers made for them today!

Very expensive crackers were made such as the ‘Millionaire’s Crackers’ which contained a solid silver box with a piece of gold and silver jewerly inside it!

Cracker manufacturers also made large displays, such as horse drawn carriages and sleighs, for the big shops in London.

The Christmas Crackers that are used today are short cardboard tubes wrapped in colourful paper. There is normally a Cracker next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When the crackers are pulled – with a bang! – a colourful party hat, a toy or gift and a festive joke falls out! The party hats look like crowns and it is thought that they symbolise the crowns that might have been worn by the Wise Men.

Crackers are famous for their bad jokes

The world’s longest Christmas cracker measured 63.1m (207ft) long and 4m (13ft) in diameter and was made by the parents of children at Ley Hill School and Pre-School, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, UK on 20 December 2001. Now that would be one big bang!

The biggest Christmas cracker pull was done by 1,478 people at an event organised by Honda Japan at Tochigi Proving Ground, Tochigi, Japan, on 18 October 2009. Now that would be a lot of bangs!

Good afternoon all, it getting on to 5pm and have to say I have had a exhausting day doing nothing much, I drove the boys to school this morning then went with Natasha to hand in the keys for her house, she is all moved in here now and my house is so cluttered and one can barely move. I would sort it our but Natasha has OCD and can’t handle others going through her stuff so she wants to sort it all out herself.

Natasha is one of those people who doesn’t need a lot of sleep, she gets up as early as 2am and as late as 5am she says she likes the quiet time before Blain gets up and wants her attention. Remember Natasha works nights as a cleaner, well we say nights but she starts in the afternoon and finishes anywhere between 8-12pm.

I also managed to go to the library this morning to return items and borrow more, the library is one of the best ideas around. There is no way I could afford to buy heaps of books I also borrow many recorded books, aka, books on cd which I listen to while I am driving.

Yesterday my mum gave me an early Christmas present a necklace with Scorpio on it which I really like. I also gave her a in loving memory frame for her to put a photo of her dad in and hang it on their Christmas tree, I had two and gave them both to mum but told her to give one to my brother in-law so he can put a photo of his mum in it.

I really need to sort out Christmas presents this weekend, I will be getting a layby out tomorrow and sort through it and I think I might have to return a few items as the child there were bought for is no longer interested in the item, movie, tv show that I bought the toy in, if that makes any sense if not sorry not sure how to explain what I mean.

Well I am going to post this and then go and have a relaxing bath.

The History of Christmas Trees

In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. Then glass makers made special small ornaments similar to some of the decorations used today. In 1605 an unknown German wrote: “At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc.”

At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel/fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wise men saw.

The first Christmas Trees came to Britain sometime in the 1830s. They became very popular in 1841, when Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s German husband) had a Christmas Tree set up in Windsor Castle. In 1848, drawing of “The Queen’s Christmas tree at Windsor Castle” was published in the Illustrated London News, 1848. The drawing was republished in Godey’s Lady’s Book, Philadelphia in December 1850 (but they removed the Queen’s crown and Prince Albert’s moustache to make it look ‘American’!).

The publication of the drawing helped Christmas Trees become popular in the UK and USA.

In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still widely used to decorate Christmas trees.

Tinsel was also created in Germany, were it was originally made from thin strips of beaten silver. But when plastic/man made tinsel was invented it became very popular as it was much cheaper than real silver and also lighter to go on the tree!

One legend says that the Christ Child first made tinsel by turning spider’s webs into silver after taking pity on a poor family that couldn’t afford any decorations for their Christmas Tree!

Because of the danger of fire, in 1895 Ralph Morris, an American telephonist, invented the first electric Christmas lights, similar to the ones we use today.

In 1885 a hospital in Chicago burned down because of candles on a Christmas Tree! And in 1908 insurance companies in the USA tried to get a law made that would ban candles from being used on Christmas Trees because of the many fires they had caused! So we have to say a big thank you to Ralph Morris for making Christmas safer!