The theme for the 2021 White House holiday season is Gifts from the Heart. According to Jill Biden’s office, about 6,000ft of ribbon, more than 300 candles and more than 10,000 ornaments were used this year to decorate. There are also 41 Christmas trees throughout the White House
Continue reading...Category Archives: Christmas
Preloved and perfect! The seven essential rules for secondhand presents
For a thoughtful, less consumerist Christmas, make sure to tell the truth about your purchases, spritz musty clothes with vodka and invest in vintage wrapping paper
It’s not a pair of box-fresh Bottega Veneta boots, or cashmere spun from the wool of a rare-breed yak, that will ensure you strike gifting gold with fashion fans this Christmas: it’s the revelation that you bought their present secondhand.
Once a dirty word, secondhand is an increasingly valued quality (the global “preloved” fashion market alone is worth $130bn). A survey conducted by the online secondhand marketplace Vinted found that one in six of us are committed to giving preloved only this Christmas, and buying secondhand can also help to combat the £42m worth of unwanted Christmas gifts sent to landfill each year.
Continue reading...Brexit leaves EU-bound Christmas presents out in the cold
An increase in red tape and charges means headaches for those sending gifts to Europe
People preparing to send Christmas parcels to family and friends in Europe face being caught out by post-Brexit red tape and charges that threaten to take some of the joy out of gift-giving.
A warning has also been sounded that some of those who have sent gifts to the EU this year have encountered problems ranging from delays and unexpected charges to items going missing.
Continue reading...Our best Christmas food gifts and recipes
From our archive: from festive pickles and homemade sweets to luxury biscuits and exotic oils, a a gift you’ve made yourself can make someone’s Christmas
A trio of presents that you’ll want for Christmas dinner: a ginger nut brittle to serve as is or to blitz into a toast-topping paste, crumbly cheese biscuits and an enticingly easy fig jam
Continue reading...Another Covid Christmas: Britons urged to delay festive plans
Analysis: scientists say high transmission rates mean caution is critical if people are to stay safe
As Christmas approached in 2020, it was not a Dickensian spirit but the spectre of Covid that haunted households up and down the UK.
With cases soaring, government-approved plans to allow three households to mix for five days in England were scrapped within weeks of being made, while scientists urged families to connect over Zoom or host drinks on the pavement rather than meeting for a hug.
Continue reading...Why is Europe returning to the dark days of Covid?
The continent is now the centre of the global epidemic – again. As countries from the Baltic to the Med brace for harsher winter measures, we look at what’s driving the fourth wave
It was almost as if the pandemic had never happened. In Cologne, thousands of revellers in fancy-dress jostled side by side in a tightly packed throng as they counted down to the start of the annual carnival season at 11am on 11 November.
In Paris, the bars and clubs were open late and filled to bursting on Wednesday, with Armistice Day a national holiday. In Amsterdam, it was business as usual in the overflowing cafes and coffee shops around the Leidseplein.
Continue reading...German Christmas markets face second year of closures as Covid rates soar
Many markets have already announced they will not be going ahead amid record case numbers
Soaring coronavirus rates in Germany are threatening plans for a rollout of the country’s famous Christmas markets, due to open in about a week’s time.
There had been considerable fanfare over municipalities’ plans to stage the markets this year after they were called off a year ago.
Continue reading...Emergency visa scheme extended in major U-turn by Boris Johnson
Threat of Christmas being ruined by driver shortages forces ministers to expand range and duration of visas
Boris Johnson’s government has made a dramatic U-turn in an attempt to save Christmas – with a raft of extended emergency visas to help abate labour shortages that have led to empty shelves and petrol station queues.
New immigration measures will allow 300 fuel drivers to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March, while 100 army drivers will take to the roads from Monday, the government announced late on Friday.
Continue reading...Light brigade: the Christmas holdouts keeping their decorations up
English Heritage and Church of England back extending traditional January deadline to brighten gloom of lockdown
In other years, the threat of bad luck if you fail to take your Christmas decorations down by Twelfth Night might have meant something.
In 2021, the idea that things could get any worse seems blackly comic. And so it is that for some people, baubles, lights, and trees are staying in place this year.
Continue reading...Yotam Ottolenghi’s Boxing Day recipes for using up Christmas leftovers
Boxing Day BLT, veg samosas with cranberry sauce, and Christmas pudding eccles cakes with marzipan – stylish ways to use up excess food
The thing about Christmas day, as no one’s stomach needs reminding, is that there is always so much food. It is, however, a truth universally acknowledged that the whole point of cooking a great big bird – not to mention enough vegetables to feed twice as many people as are actually eating them – is to be able to enjoy the leftovers the day after. For all the ceremony, and the focus on the food served at the right time in the right place at the right temperature on Christmas Day, does anything, truly, beat the likes of a soft-bun sandwich filled with all the good bits? Gravy sauce for dipping into (and a sofa for sinking into) optional.
Continue reading...Happy Kwanzaa! It’s so much more than a ‘black Christmas’
I had my reservations about this celebration of African heritage. Then my father and I shared a very special moment
In 1966, the African American Maulana Karenga created the holiday of Kwanzaa to give black people an “opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history” rather than indulge in the customary traditions of a white Christmas. The celebration starts on Boxing Day and runs for seven days, each marking one of the “principles of African heritage”, which include umoja (Swahili for unity), kujichagulia (self-determination) and ujaama (cooperative work and economics).
I have a complicated relationship with the holiday. I have always been suspicious of Karenga, the self-styled “master teacher” who seems more cult leader than black revolutionary, peddling a highly patriarchal message of African spirituality as some kind of salvation. It is undeniable that this festival, which takes its name from the Swahili for “first fruits”, but is set in the dead of winter, draws heavily on Christmas, yet Kwanzaa is extremely popular in black communities. I once recited a poem during a Kwanzaa celebration at Harvard, defending it as more than a “bootleg black Christmas”. And if a questionable origin story was a reason not to celebrate a cultural event, then we would all be at work on 25 December.
Continue reading...Australia live news: NSW records seven local Covid cases after 70,000 tests as Christmas Day celebrations continue
Gladys Berejiklian discourages Sydneysiders from Boxing Day shopping; experts fear Christmas could turn into a superspreading event as ‘Avalon cluster’ rises to 108 and spreads. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
It has been a whole year since the skies parted and the almighty delivered this gift - Barnaby Joyce’s memorable Christmas message for the ages.
In the video, the Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister declared “I just don’t want the government anymore in my life”.
Merry Christmas pic.twitter.com/QGYPv51pTN
One of the Australian government-facilitated repatriation flights to bring home Australians from India has been cancelled, as about 39,000 Australians remain stranded overseas for Christmas.
The flight from New Delhi to Brisbane was scheduled to depart on Sunday 27 December, operated by Qantas.
Continue reading...‘Santa’s staying safe’: St Nick turns to Zoom for visits during pandemic Christmas
Performers use Zoom and augmented reality to meet with children – with some surprise perks
It’s going to be a unique Christmas this year, and Santa Claus is adjusting accordingly.
Professional Santas across the United States have shifted their holiday work season to accommodate the Covid-19 restrictions that have held 2020 in their grip. Some still greet children in stores, from behind plexiglass or in an enclosed snow globe.
Continue reading...Ontario announces hard lockdown after Covid cases surge
Premier of Canadian province says restrictions will last for up to a month and should save thousands of lives
Canada’s most populous province is to enter a “hard lockdown” as Ontario experiences an alarming rate of new coronavirus cases before the Christmas holidays.
“Thousands of lives are at stake now,” said Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, on Monday, as he announced a slate of new restrictions that go into effect on Boxing Day. “If we fail to take action now, the consequences could be catastrophic.
Continue reading...Prepare stories and invite a dog: eight tips for surviving a Zoom Christmas
Instead of gathering around the holiday table, we’ll be gathering around our laptops for awkward silences and Zoom fatigue
Your laptop screen will be a window into your soul this holiday season, so take advantage of the opportunity to make your life appear under control. An upside to any global pandemic is that you don’t have to clean up for guests. When it comes to messes, it’s “out of screen, out of mind”. Meanwhile, you can create an idealized – and/or completely false – vision of your home life: fill the area behind you with thick volumes of poetry, or hardcore exercise equipment, or the only plant you have ever managed to keep alive for more than a week.
Continue reading...Frosty mornings but no white Christmas for UK, forecasters say
Met Office predicts a ‘seasonal feel’ to the weather after a rainy start to the week
Those dreaming of a white Christmas will be left further disappointed this year after the Met Office forecast no more than frosty conditions for the UK.
Temperatures across most of the country will stay in mid-single figures on Thursday and Friday, and no snow was expected to settle.
Continue reading...Seasonal makeover: from couch potato to festive diva
Lockdown has not been kind to our beautiful selves, but now it is time to shape up. Emma Beddington gets to work on her pre-Christmas, full-body makeover. But where to begin?
How do you look at the moment? It’s a loaded question, I know. “Asking me to choose one physical feature I feel bad about is like asking me to choose my least-favourite family member since lockdown,” says my friend F. An unscientific poll of friends and acquaintances reveals a tally of 2020 woes: worry wrinkles, “maskne”, “Zoomface”, “presidential” hair and Covid kilos. “Weird grief seeps out of me and my eyes are tired,” read one extremely relatable response.
Eating more, exercising less, sleeping badly, scrolling and worrying constantly… barring some boastful Instagram blowhards, we are all looking and feeling suboptimal as 2020 draws to a distinctly unfestive close. My own tally is standard but dismal: I look like a parboiled potato, in both face and body.
Continue reading...My perfect Christmas playlist, by Michael Kiwanuka, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Tim Burgess
Pop stars who lit up 2020 talk about their Christmas routines and share the tracks they turn to on the big day – scroll down to hear their choices
2020 Mercury prize winner and associate of mysterious band of the year Sault
Continue reading...‘It’s 2020 being 2020’: Sydney Covid outbreak disrupts Christmas plans across Australia
A week ago, Australia was shaping up to celebrate. Now state and territory borders are slamming shut to NSW and many are planning ‘a quiet Christmas’
- Sydney restrictions explained
- Covid hotspots NSW
- Border restrictions: new state and territory rules for NSW travellers
Just one week ago, things were looking rosy. There were no known active locally acquired coronavirus cases in Australia. State borders were mostly open. Christmas hams had been ordered. While many other countries were facing extended lockdowns, the festive season in Australia was in full swing.
But things never stay good for long in 2020.
Continue reading...Strict Christmas travel ban for Scotland as Wales enters early lockdown
Scotland and Wales also reduce five-day festive window for indoor mixing to one day
There will be a strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK throughout the festive period, and the five-day Christmas window for indoor mixing will be reduced to just Christmas Day, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
In Wales, first minister Mark Drakeford likewise scrapped festive relaxation plans for all but Christmas Day and brought forward the country’s lockdown which will now start from midnight on Saturday.
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