CHRISTMAS JOY PARADE 2025!
Fanny Craddock's Sopping Wet Omelette! The Midnight Visitors! The Mysterious Arrival of Pyewacket...
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OH HELLO!
Well, here we are - just a few days before Christmas and we begin with the image above. THE MIDNIGHT VISITORS is my Christmas card this year. Inspired by gazing out of a train window one evening at some rooftops and printed as a little poster and sent out, typically, in a mad panic at the last min.
So, how has your week been? Bonkers, I expect. Mine has. I wasn’t on a book tour this year as I usually am before the holidays, so I had visions of this December being filled with jolly Christmas activities - carol concerts, winter walks, wearing a snood on the back of a sleigh if I could find a reindeer etc. Have I done any of that? Absolutely not. I’ve been too busy with Endless Tasks..
Last weekend I DID manage to sneak in a little bit of Jaunting.
I took Friday afternoon off and met my dear pal, M, in London. I got there early and did some shopping. Perhaps wearing a roll neck sweater was ill advised - certainly in Liberty which was like a sauna, but it was FUN to be in the hustle and bustle.
I nipped into shops! I went to an exhibition (more on that below)! I bought presents AND I got myself this year’s new Christmas bauble. Here it is…
It had to be a glittery chicken, didn’t it?
Then it was time to meet M. I’m numerically dyslexic so naturally I messed up our dinner res. I realised too late that I’d accidentally booked for us to eat at 9.30 in the am instead of 19.30 in the pm. FABULOUS! Thankfully, we found a different (actually even JOLLIER) restaurant and gossiped and nattered and eavesdropped and also dealt with the FRANTIC maître d’ coming to us four times to check we had been given some Christmas crackers to pull because we hadn’t put the paper crowns on yet. I loved her.
The next day we had a walk through the strangely quiet streets stopping to look at this CAT BUILDING…
Then I had to buy some emergency sunspecs because unlike seemingly the last 4 million days - we weren’t shin-deep in overflowing drains and the sun was ACTUALLY SHINING! Bespectacled, we stood marvelling for a bit at the completely cloudless (freezing cold) sky before having brunch in a sweet cafe in Fitzrovia where (despite the tiny size) more and more staff kept appearing from the ether. Every time we looked up someone else in a pinny appeared- from the kitchen, and from the street, and from a mysterious flight of stairs that lead to JUST a toilet, and popping up from behind the counter like whack-a-mole. I have never seen anything like it.
Next up we looked in bookshops (I bought three books and had to get M to physically remove three more from my hands) then it was time to go to the theatre to drink Prosecco in the interval and try to get a view of the stage around the towering backcombed up-do of the woman in front or me. (The chignon was enormous.)
After all this it was time to walk to the station and go home. The sky was dark and the Christmas lights were glowing. WONDERFUL.
And so that’s been my last Jaunt of the year. Now we simply MUST get on with our JOY PARADE…
1. As is tradition, we will begin with some BEHOLDING! and EXCLAIMING! And it’s a good one!
The big news this week was, of course, the very EXCLAIMABLE! arrival of Pyewacket. Isn’t she gorgeous?
She arrived rather mysteriously one evening this week in the middle of (yet another) rainstorm . I heard a yowling outside so, intrigued, I opened the front door and there she was - soaked to the liberty bodice. Before I could do anything, in she promenaded like she owned the place. She stood still as I dried her off and then sat on the coffee table as I got her a bowl of tuna. (She seemed hungry and wolfed down an entire tin). After a casual yawn, a whisker wash and a quick perusal of a postcard of a Schiele nude, she hopped onto my lap for a cuddle and a purring, head-butting ear scrunch.
She only abandoned her post to supervise the delivery of a new (old) cabinet. (More on that below).
Now, obviously, Pyewacket wasn’t my cat despite appearances. I’d never seen her before and I don’t know why she decided to come to my house.
She was also not actually called Pyewacket, but I have always wanted a cat called Pyewacket and one thing you need to know about me is that I am the sort to Leap On An Opportunity When I See One.
Naturally, I wanted to keep her. I even googled “Christmas jumpers for cats”, but I knew I mustn’t. Reluctantly, I text my neighbour who knows all the local cats and within seconds he had identified her owner who came to collect her.
Apparently, Pyewacket makes a habit of this sort of thing. For her, no place ISN’T home.
Pyewacket was nonplussed about being found luxuriating on a sheepskin throw on an armchair in my house by her Actual (Current…) Owner. Neither did she respond to her actual name (Fifi) being called. In fact she looked at her owner like he’d thoroughly ruined her night.
With a heavy heart I watched Fifi Pyewacket go home and then sat thinking about her all evening.
Luckily, she’s now been allowed out again after a short period of being grounded so I saw her yesterday. She dashed over for an ear tickle before going (very importantly) up the street to supervise an Ocado deliv. at another house that very definitely isn’t hers…
2. I think these pyjamas are TERRIF and I need them. Perfect for both Christmas morning AND if you get the opportunity to sail down the Nile on a luxury boat where you find yourself involved in a complicated murder investigation.
3. Before I met M last Friday, I had chance to see the fantastic Cecil B exhib. at the NPG.
Gosh, it was gorgeous! Room after room of beautifully curated examples of his photographic and illustrative work.
I particularly liked this portrait of Cecil B and one of his sisters…
And of course dear Nancy M was there- glorious!
I was also WILD about these paper roses and ivy leaves decorating a room dedicated to portraits of his “Beauties”.
And this ruddy ENORMOUS blown up print of one of my fav photos of his from Vogue is at the entrance. LOVELY!
The exhib. is on until Jan 11th and you MUST catch it.
3. LOOK at this absolutely wonderful, hand-knitted menorah jumper.
4. I spotted this chalk graffiti near Liberty and I thought it was really beautiful and very true.
5. Now do you remember about two mins ago when I said Pyewacket supervised the delivery of a new (old) cabinet? Well, here is it!
I realised recently that I was really depriving visitors to my house the oppo. to ogle (some of!) my extensive collection of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth the ii and E the Queen M commemorative crockery and so I found this online and bought it. Did it fit in my car? LOL. Did I drive an hour through a monsoon only to discover this fact? Absolutely. Did I then have to madly find a Van Man to assist, losing my mind in the process? YOU BET!
But it’s here now and I’m thrilled with it! (So was Pyewacket).
6. I think in one of our very first JOY PARADES back in the spring I very unseasonably recommended watching the FARMHOUSE KITCHEN Christmas Special videos on YouTube. I’m recommending again now as it IS the season and really you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a woman in crimplene hacking up a smoker’s lung over some leftover Turkey doused in Sherry. TOTALLY FABULOUS.
7.And whilst you are on YouTube PLEASE watch Fanny Craddock’s guides to cooking a Christmas feast. Sopping wet mincemeat omelette anyone?
8. I’ve been reading this book and it’s glorious.
Eva I was so good at wonderfully evocative, beautifully written romantic stories, and these short, wintery tales are just perfect. Absolutely ideal feet-up-in-front-of-fire reading.
9. The Magpie by Monet. Just lovely. You can feel the chill can’t you? But also how warm that sun would feel on your face as you turn towards it with your eyes closed.
10. The Snowman… (but not the one you think…)
This coming Monday night it’s my annual Christmas work party and I’m excited for it.I’ve been doing this for years. It started because being freelance and working from home you don’t get a work Christmas 'do and it’s very easy to just slam the laptop shut for the holidays and immediately start slashing crosses in Sprout bums for Christmas din with nothing to mark the end of the working year.
And so here’s what I do. It’s the same as every year and I can’t reco it enough.
It’s v. important to NOT do anything else but watch the movie - no Christmas prep, no present wrapping, nothing. Just revel in the technicolour loveliness.
(P.S. Dare you not to cry at this bit…)
FINALLY…
Now we always finish with a song and it MUST be festive this week, but what to choose? Well, it has to be Angela Lansbury giving us We Need A Little Christmas.
“Start again, babe!”
This is our last JOY PARADE of the year and I must thank you all so much for joining in each week. It’s been so glorious to hang out with you all here. Thank you for your kindness and for indulging my nonsense.
I hope you all have a beautifully peaceful and very cosy break. In amongst the madness try to find pockets of rest. Keep your eyes peeled for joy - not necessarily in the big moments - the dinner, the gifts, the noise, but in the flicker of a candle, the glow of the tree when everyone else is in bed, the leftovers plucked from the fridge when you only went to put the kettle on.
And do look after yourselves and each other. We’ll be back together in January for a Christmas Holiday Debrief and a look ahead to the new year.
In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed this JOY PARADE I would simply adore it if you were to hit the heart button ❤️ below and do please follow me on Instagram (I’m @mralextsmith over there) and also subscribe to and share this newsletter with all your chums.
And so from me, the dogs- Poppy, Betty Lou and Elvis Potato, and the chickens -Pearl, Winifred and Margot (who have been getting through a bottle of Sherry a day, EACH!) I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
PS. Keep your eyes on here for a little something on Christmas Eve…
HEAD PIGEON.
Thank you. You have cheered me up throughout the year. I love your take on life and that you share it with us.
This was the best Christmas present of all. Merry Christmas Mr Alex, you bring great joy to the world. ( I keep hoping you will be at the Hay festival 🤞) ❤️