Happy Christmas!

It’s nearly Christmas. Essex is covered in snow which, as I understand, is rather unusual. There’s probably 2 inches out there. Some areas have a bit more. With all the warnings by the natives that when this much snow arrives, England grinds to a stop, Essex handled it very well! I drove to Saffron Walden the morning after the snow fell. The roads were cleared and “gritted” - our equivalent of sanded. Drivers appeared to know what to do. I was impressed. There were many school closings, but as it was the last day of the term, it was just an early start the the students’ holiday. What a wonderful sight to see scores of children of all ages on the hill in the park of Saffron Walden with sleds and whatever else they could find to slide on! It was another time I wish I had carried my camera as I made my way to a client’s home.

It’s fun to see how Essex folks decorate outdoors for Christmas. The towns have lighted decorations strung across High Streets. Home owners and renters string lights outside on their homes. Nothing over the top - think minimalist. No inflatable Christmas characters, no music blaring, no santa’s sleigh flashing on the rooftops. Just enough to hint that the season is special. Lights are either blue or white, for the most part. Father Christmas mechanical characters adorn the grocery stores to amaze the children. I have not seen any red kettle salvation army soldiers anywhere. The stores are filled with Christmas goodies - the traditional crackers that you pop open to reveal a tissue party hat, toy and perhaps, a sweet. Christmas puddings, mince pies, a vast array of chocolates fill the stores. I tried Christmas pudding at the canteen at work and did not like it. I am thinking that it may not have been the best example. Mince pies are tasty - tiny little pies filled with spiced chopped raisins, apples and sugar. My mom used to bake mince MEAT pies when I was a child - which I definitely didn’t like. They actually had beef and beef tallow in them. I read online that over time in England, as meat became more expensive, their mince pie filling slowly increased the fruit and decreased the meat until there was no longer any meat in them. Hence, “mince pie” as opposed to “mince meat pie”. The British are all about meat pies - steak and kidney pie, pork pie, chicken and leek pie...endless choices. Most a like what we would call a pot pie, but much more substantially filled and many are much larger - like the size of an apple pie in the US. You can find apple pie here, but not much in the way of other fruit or berry pies. Pumpkin pie is unheard of. The idea of pumpkin being sweet is baffling to my coworkers. They have never tried it. If any of my family reads this and wants to ship me some canned pumpkin so I can make pumpkin pie, I would appreciate it. I want to treat my colleagues to an American mystery pie.

As they say here in England, Happy Christmas!