Andrew Oldham rustles up some gifts and ideas for home-made joy this Christmas
There was a time when my wife Carol and I didn’t have central heating. Each winter, for three years, we huddled around an open fire, burning wood that we had chopped. We left that room with hot water bottles in hand, and our toddler slept in the same bed with us. This is not a romantic remembrance, in which I write that we were so happy, I only recall how when I went to work, I ran my hands under the hot tap willing life back into my bones and muscles.
For many, winter brings hardship, and it brings expectations and a lot of pressure that we spend money which can cause worry and stress in turn. During those cold years, and ever since, I have appreciated and enjoyed giving gifts that I have grown, baked, or preserved. We did it at the time because we were skint, but these home-made gifts are crafted with love that money simply cannot buy and it has been a traditional for us ever since.
Festive home-saved seed sharing
We regularly give chutney to friends and my favourite thing to do at this time of year is to swap seeds. It’s an excuse to get together with gardening friends over a drink, either at home or in a coffee shop or a pub, and sit before a roaring fire opening packages of goodness. Sitting and discussing how that bean they are holding up to the light, like a jewel, isn’t a borlotti bean but a runner bean that can be grown for their pods or left for their seed, which can be added to stews or soups, just like a borlotti but without the faff of trying to get them to successfully grow north of Derby, is wonderful.
For every bean, pea, or lettuce seed swap there are discussions about great spuds, terrible brassicas, and the war on slugs. An afternoon is lost in friendship, a drink or two, and a contented amble home with pockets full of seeds that no one can remember the name of. That is the real gift of Christmas, just taking our foot off the accelerator and enjoying the moment, the present.
Make your own Advent calendar
We first did this when our son was a toddler because we were sick of cheap chocolate, plastic gifts and wrapping we couldn’t recycle. Our Advent calendar was 100% recycled using old striped paper bags that Carol had in storage from her time doing jewellery design.
A decade later and the same advent calendar is still being used, though the gifts vary: one year was Lego figures that we’d collected or been given over the year, and our son was delighted. Another year was for all of us, packages full of nuts and fruit leathers from the garden, and the odd terrible joke written by me.
Getting creative with pinecones
Then there are moments of pure ‘what-the-heck-let’s-see-if-it-works’ like the year we collected autumn leaves and made a Christmas wreath for the front door. Everyone thought it was fantastic, but we thought it needed pinecones, so the following year we widened our foraging net and found a tree with pinecones.
They opened up a world of gifts to us, and we cut pine foliage, wired it together with pinecones and made Christmas decorations. We dipped pinecones in wax and paraffin to make firelighters. Carol made me some one year, and gave me a second-hand gardening book, a bottle of wine and the promise of peace. I lit the stove, opened the bottle, poured a glass, put my feet up and read the book.
Home-made beeswax polish
If you keep bees, then beeswax is my all time favourite gift, not for candles, which is laborious but for making furniture polish. I get quite excited about polishing the table for the big day on December 25, and the furniture polish is incredibly easy to make – all you need is 1 cup of grated beeswax, 2 cups of olive oil (or vegetable oil because it’s cheaper), 20 drops of any essential oil or 20 lemon balm leaves (pull them out at the end). I place everything in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, allow the wax to melt, decant into jam jars and leave to cool. I end up with enough wax to polish all year and some lovely gifts too.
Festive activity of garlic planting and winter salad growing
As the shortest day approaches in the garden, I plant garlic which is a gift that happens twice, once with the giving of the bulb and then with the harvesting of the garlic on the longest day. That is the tradition of garlic, to plant as the sun wanes and harvest as it waxes. I also chance my arm at planting up a cold greenhouse; I start my plugs of lettuce indoors, and then move them under fleece in a cold greenhouse bed.
Waste not, want not
I use old plastic pop bottles as cloches and heat sumps. For a cloche, I cut the bottom off and slide the top over the lettuce. For a heat sump, I leave the bottle whole, fill with water, and bury half of it in the bed. I need several of them, but the trick is during the day the water warms up and at night the heat is released. Doing this means we regularly have our own lettuce throughout December.
Then there is something that we should all do, plant hazel. At this time of year, you can get bare root hazel whips for next to nothing and once established, you will be cutting them back every few years to provide you with bean poles, plant supports and firewood.
True gifts are often not shop-bought
My favourite thing to receive or give at this time of year is wood, especially old wood that can be crafted into a new thing. My late father gave me his old gazebo, and though most of the wood was rotten, I used the sound wood to make greenhouse staging that has served me well for many years.
Each time I touch it, I know my dad touched it too and at this time of year I oil the wood on a sunny winter’s day, for that is the true gift of Christmas, keeping care of the things that we have been given, whether it’s a present, the love of another person, our family, friends or a total stranger who has joined our neighbourhood.
Our time, our understanding, our love for the land and the people on it and those that have gone before us are all part of the real gift of Christmas. So, each December 25 I pour a glass of whisky for my dad, I make sure that his staging is oiled, and I sit with a book in front of a fire and know that the greatest gift anyone can have is to be loved and to have loved, and that is not just for Christmas.
…………………
BIO
Andrew Oldham is a self-sufficient(ish) gardener who believes in the joy of down-to-earth growing and cooking. He lives high on the Saddleworth hills with his family at Pig Row. Find him on all social media platforms as @lifeonpigrow
Find more tips, advice and articles like this at the Amateur Gardening website. Subscribe to Amateur Gardening magazine now
