Christmas ala M4d and The Beard

A little bit after the event I know, but I've been really busy eating and drinking and have only just found the time to sort out all the photos that I/we took!

Finally though, I would like to present to you: Christmas. Or bits of it anyway. I didn't photograph our regular Christmas dinner as turkey with the usual trimmings isn't anything out of the ordinary!


Our decorations at home:

Julbord preparations:

Let me explain. The Beard is Swedish. Seeing as it is our last Christmas in the UK and we don't get to go to Sweden either, I thought we'd bring Sweden to Cornwall. Much to the bemusement of my lovely family, but thankfully they all thoroughly enjoyed the meal we prepared!


Swedish Christmas is celebrated on Dec 24th, much like the rest of Europe. The tradition is to have a Julbord, which is basically a Christmas buffet. Typical foods include baked ham, meatballs, gravdlax, crispbread, Jansson's Frestelse (a potato gratin with onions and anchovies), beetroot salad and cheeses. I also threw in some red cabbage done Austrian style as I had one in our veg box and in honour of our destination in 2012.

Another feature of a Swedish Christmas is a gingerbread house. It is quite easy to make the gingerbread, but we weren't satisfied with just a house... no. We decided to build a gingerbread castle!!

Making sure we don't forget anything....

The finished Julbord chez Mum and Dad:

So, on Christmas Day we had the traditional turkey with trimmings (I say traditional, its a modern tradition really, but certainly one that has stuck in our house despite trying the alternatives occasionally). As I said, it wasn't that remarkable other than being absolutely delicious because NOONE makes a roast like my Mum! But I have to share our other Christmas Day tradition, the lighting of the pudding.

This year we chose to have a Heston for Waitrose Hidden Orange Pudding, after all the fuss about them last year.

Served with Cointreau Butter and dried orange zest sprinkles. Pretty tasty, but not the best pudding I've ever had, if I'm honest!

Boxing Day for us means a walk when the weather is fine. Which it was this year. So we headed out to the Penrose estate and Loe Bar near Helston (via Tescos for some cherries which we couldn't get), and a walk along through the woods and along the cliffs to Porthleven.

Our stop in Porthleven involved a trip to the pub where I had tea, but the other non drivers had cider and beer. Then a short walk back to the car. It is one of my favourite walks in Cornwall, because despite being a South coast destination, the waves are always spectacular and the sea always a beautiful shade of turquoise.

After we returned home we ate leftovers from the Julbord and Christmas dinner, washed down with beer and gin.

So that was our Christmas! Hope you all had a good holiday, full of food and indulgence, and if you didn't last week, that you will do at some point!

For now, we're still eating leftovers that we came home with - risotto tonight. Next stop, New Year.