Lighting the Tree, Fearing the Plum Pudding Will be a Failure

A Christmas tradition unfolds with the help of Charles Dickens.

Every year it’s the same. With intense concentration, my husband labors over the precise placement of 1000 tiny lights on a tall, bushy Christmas tree while listening to a CD of Jim Dale reciting A Christmas Carol. He used to take our old, frayed copy of the book down from our shelves, gather our children about, and, over several days, read the story to them. This lasted until their surly pre-teen years intruded. They will tell you now that they intend to repeat their father’s tradition to their children.

I have never revealed this to anyone but A Christmas Carol is far up the list on why life without my husband, despite all his eccentricities, would be a dismal affair. You could also point out that I will miss his tree lighting obsession. I’m okay with that one. It’s impossible, though, to imagine Christmas without his love of A Christmas Carol.

We’re on the second day now, half the tree to go and at the part of Stave III where the Ghost of Christmas Present and Ebenezer Scrooge peek into the windows of his clerk’s impoverished house. The Cratchit family are seated at their table and Mrs. Cratchit is in a tizzy over her plum pudding.

Let’s peek in, as well….

---

Christmas Pudding

This recipe is one of three I found in the 1930 edition of a very English cookbook, A Year’s Dinners, 365 Seasonal Dinners with Instructions for Cooking. A Handy Guide-Book for Worried Housekeepers by May Little. She is listed under the title as the “Late Staff Teacher at the National Society’s Training School of Cookery, London.” One recipe contains flour, another potatoes. This one is, as a proper plum pudding should be, a sweet and dense delight! It will serve at least 10 family members.

1 pound raisins
1 pound currants
1/2 pound sultanas
1 pound suet
3/4 pounds mixed peel
1 small nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 pound almonds
1/2 pound sugar
10 eggs
1 pint milk
1 gill brandy
1/2 teacup treacle
pinch of salt

Prepare all the ingredients carefully, mix well together, put into buttered basins, cover with greased paper, tie on cloths. Boil from nine to twelve hours.