'Tis the Season...

Lanterns in our hallway, with Norwegian glass nisser (elves) by Hadeland Glassverk

Well, this year's approach to Christmas has already been pretty special - because we're here in Farnham, and that makes everything nicer.

Farnham does a great job of decorating the town with Christmas lights, and all the shops and restaurants are suitably twinkly and festive. 

The cobbled Lion & Lamb Yard, with Christmas tree at the top

Locals admiring the Lion & Lamb Yard decorations

Festive window in Neal's Yard boutique, Lion & Lamb Yard

Trees on Castle Street

This gigantic, inflatable Santa was beckoning to me from a Georgian mansion on Castle Street

West Street's Christmas lights
(West Street is the street immediately parallel to ours 
- this is a 2-minute walk from our apartment)

For daytime enjoyment there are houses and cottages with jolly wreaths festooning front doors, and windows displaying poinsettias. It's not quite the full-throttle adornment of Norway, but certainly an improvement on Epsom.

However we were greatly underwhelmed by Farnham's annual Christmas Market which was, in a word, awful. It was less a Christmas market than a winter version of the autumn food fair, which was a wasted trip for us. All of the stalls, without exception, were meat-based. ALL of them. I don't remember the last time we went to a fair, or market, or festival where there weren't at least a few vegan and vegetarian stalls. 

This situation wasn't helped by the diabolically bad weather.  You had to feel for the stallholders, some of whom had their marquees blown away and goods actually lifted and smashed to the ground by strong wind gusts, not to mention the driving rain, and a temperature of about 3ºC. 

Farnham Council can't be held to account for the weather, but we had been looking forward to stalls with handmade or unusual gifts. These were few and far between. Unless you were looking for the flesh of slaughtered animals to devour on the spot, or to take home and consume later, you were out of luck.

Never fear; Surrey and Hampshire offer ample alternatives to get revellers in the festive spirit!


Winchester could certainly show Farnham a thing or two. We had fond memories of the Christmas Market and ice skating rink set in the surrounds of the Cathedral, which we visited back in 2008. So we decided to go there en route to a Christmas party at the house of a former work colleague of mine, in Waterlooville.

A gloriously sunny, crisp winter day really brought out the crowds. Winchester is such a beautiful city, particularly the historic area surrounding the city walls - charming stone houses, cosy pubs and cafés, monuments. It's only a 45-minute drive from Farnham so no doubt we'll be regular visitors. 

Crowds visiting the Christmas Market in front of Winchester Cathedral

Winchester has a plethora of dining establishments in beautiful Georgian buildings

Priory Gate, Winchester

Timbered infilled gabled building near Priory Gate, Winchester

Glühwein at Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market

Ah, the smell of roasting Italian chestnuts!

We recently visited one of our nearby National Trust properties - Hinton Ampner in Hampshire - for a bracing 'ancient tree trail' walk, and a quick tour of the lower rooms of the house (the upper rooms being closed off to the public for conservation). The ground floor reception rooms had been decorated in glorious Victorian style.

It was another sparkling winter day - the perfect conditions for being out in the fresh air, rugged up with hats, gloves and scarves.

Entry to the house at HInton Ampner

We really needed our woolies on this day - the wind was glacial

The staircase inside the house at Hinton Ampner

Inside the entry hall at Hinton Ampner

Kevin in Hinton Ampner's gardens - decorated for Christmas

All Saints Church at Hinton Ampner

We've also done our first real entertaining since we moved back to the UK 3.5 years ago. Some of you will be surprised by that, knowing how we do like to turn on a bit of a 'do' at home. However in Epsom we just didn't have a social circle in the local area, or the space to entertain more than two people at a time. We'd had visiting friends and family from Australia for whom we obviously prepared meals, and friends from up near Luton who would come for weekends, but really we hadn't hosted any dinner parties or celebrations the whole time we lived there.


So it was with great anticipation that we hosted Christmas drinks last Friday night. Most of you will know when I say 'we', I'm mainly referring to myself, because I do all the planning, inviting, shopping, cooking and decorating for these things. Kevin usually floats in about 30 minutes before the guests are due to arrive, clears the recycling bins ready for the evening's empties, pours ice into tubs and generally makes a nuisance of himself by picking at the food I've painstakingly and symmetrically placed on platters, and by disturbing my beautiful decorative arrangements. On this occasion I met him at the front door as he arrived home, and issued a stern 'Don't touch ANYTHING!'

However Kevin does correct the imbalance somewhat throughout the event, refreshing drinks and handing around food, and he's pretty good at clean-up too, as long as the single malt whisky hasn't been cracked open before the guests depart. 

Our living room at Crownwood Gate - waiting for guests to arrive

Canapés, crudités, sloe gin and other goodies awaiting hungry guests

I'd had a bit of a surreal moment in the car driving home from work the evening before, when suddenly Chris Rea's Driving Home for Christmas came on the radio. It gets well and truly dark here by about 3.30pm these days, and so for the first time I had a real appreciation of these lines as thousands of vehicles' tail lights stretched ahead of me on the M25:

Top to toe in tail-backs

Oh, I've got red lights on the run...

Hearing this song was particularly noteworthy because just that morning the news had been full of a story about Chris having suffered a stroke onstage during a performance, the night before. Fingers crossed for a speedy and full recovery. I have loved that man's gravelly voice since I first saw him on Countdown in 1978, performing Fool If You Think It's Over.

Our entry hall, featuring Christmas lights and my Norwegian grandmother's
hand-woven rag rugs, now more than 50 years old and still looking fab

That little star-shaped Santa Claus is a treasured possession 
- it was hand-painted by my Mum a few years before she passed away

It was also nice to festively decorate the house for the first time in many years. As we are always in Norway for Christmas, there's little point in bothering with our own place - I usually just have a couple of token lights and candles. It was a joy to bring out the special Norwegian / Scandinavian pieces, and I indulged in some very expensive genuine lichen/moss from Finland to nestle around candles, as well as the purchase of a very handsome hammered copper champagne trug, from Tesco, you will be surprised to know (for those of you unfamiliar with UK supermarkets, Tesco is one of the biggest chains but also at the more budget end).

Tasmanian premium sparkling rosé, Austrian veltliner, Welsh sparkling water
Italian & Chilean red wine, English ale...
all set for a convivial evening at home with friends & neighbours!

It really started feeling like Christmas after that first social event for the season, which has been followed in rapid succession by numerous work and other gatherings. We've even had to decline some invitations due to lack of space in our social calendar!

Unusually, Britain has had pre-Christmas snow over most of the country, and this of course has accelerated the festive mood. I drove to work last Monday with sleet and snow falling the whole way to Tadworth, and it continued to fall all day. Fearing the state of the roads I decided to head back to Farnham at lunchtime and worked from home the rest of the day and all of the following one as well.

Sadly the snow was gone within a day or so but it's always a thrill, despite the inconvenience it causes to daily life in this country.

View from the office at about 7.30am;
by lunchtime there was a solid blanket of snow

Thus the countdown begins for another Norwegian Christmas. This year we return to Tingvoll, after spending last year in far north (arctic) Norway. We are so glad the family made the decision to hold last Christmas up in Finnmark. The reason was that we expected it would probably be my aunt's final Christmas, and indeed it was - sadly, she passed away in October.

Marion and Erik finished building their new house in the summer, and we look forward to seeing it although we will miss their old home just a few minutes' walk away, where we have spent so many wonderful holidays in all seasons over the past 20 years or so. And of course we will very much be missing my aunt Rigmor (Marion's mother).

Some of you - for whom I have actual postal addresses - will have received Christmas cards from us by now. For the rest of you, best wishes for a wonderfully happy Christmas.

Until next time,
- Maree xo