To Do List for Christmas

In my previous blog post I mentioned that Christmas preparations started on Antti's day. But what kind of tasks

Vilkuna only passingly mentions that on Antti it's time to start preparing foods and drinks. The small booklet about Christmas, Joulupilke, includes an almanac for Christmas errands. It's apparently gathered from Christmas magazines from 1920's to 1950's. The tasks show clearly how central role food and drink have played in Christmas.

Christmas ham. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Salting the ham, making lutefisk, and preparing Christmas beer need to be started early for them to be ready for the celebrations. There was other tasks to complete already in early December as well. It's good to start washing and shopping in time. Joulupilke says (freely translated by me): "Even those who are eagerly using the modern tools for washing should still at least couple of times a year, in spring and for Christmas, wash their clothes, if we may say so, with old honest way in wood ash lye."

Looking at modern day instructions for Christmas preparations, it's clear that food and drink are still very important. Not many people salt their ham themselves and lutefisk isn't very common on Christmas tables anymore, the preparations are still started early on. This can be seen in both magazines and lifestyle blogs. On the other hand there's also plenty of more relaxed attitude to be seen. There are instructions on how to make Christmas in the most stress-free way possible, and many bloggers say they concentrate mostly on relaxing on Christmas. I wonder if this is a new phenomenon, or if there has always been those who proudly take it easy with Christmas preparations.

I have had the luxury to enjoy a ready meal on most Christmases. Big, warm thank you to my mother for that! I must admit we don't wash our clothes with lye either, so we have much easier Christmas preparation time than our ancestors did.

What belongs to your Christmas preparations?