S3 Ep1 CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE: Seeking slow this season

Come on in out of the wind, my friend. I am so glad you found this old cottage, hidden away as it is in a small village in the South West of England. Come on through to the kitchen, pull up a chair. There are gingerbread stars fresh out of the oven and steaming tea in the pot. How have you been, my friend? I am so glad you are here and I’ve got so much to share with you.

What a joy it is to welcome you to a third season of The Calm Christmas Podcast, timed just as autumn turns to leave and in its shadow offers us a glimpse of winter. Here on the podcast we trace the turning of the seasons in nature and in our minds and hearts, we seek out ways to be more mindful about the approaching holidays, and I offer inspiration and tips for using this time to rest and restore after another full year. This third season is all about seeking slow.

This episode includes:

·      The importance of slowing down for making the most of the holidays and for taking care of ourselves

·      Tips for slowing down

·      Allotment chit chat and our regular nature corner

·      Christmas traditions from around the world (including several shared by listeners!)

·      An autumnal crafting project

·      Two lovely autumnal recipes

·      Get ahead tips and more!

Lovely things for you:

·      GIVEAWAY - To be in with the chance of winning a copy of Rosie Steer’s gorgeous new book Slow Seasons and a personalised, signed copy of Calm Christmas by me, Beth Kempton, enter on Instagram @bethkempton (deadline 4pm UK time on Sunday 12 November)

·      CALM CHRISTMAS PLANNER – Download yours for free here (if link is broken go to dowhatyouloveforlife.com)

I hope this podcast will help you locate Christmas as an anchor in the stormy seas of winter in this world right now.

For more details of my book Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year go to bethkempton.com/christmas or buy a copy from Amazon or any good bookshop. Or why not get the audiobook and listen to one chapter a week up to and through the holiday season?

Take good care,
Beth
(@bethkempton on Instagram / bethkempton.substack.com / dowhatyouloveforlife.com)

Featured in this episode:

·      Reading from Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year: A little book of festive joy by Beth Kempton (Piatkus)p.15 / US edition here (Scribner)  

·      Research about the health benefits of bananas here

Ingredients for recipes shared can be found here.

Transcript

‘Tell me,’

The little one said

As she snuggled closer on the sofa,

‘About Christmas in the olden days.’

Her mama kissed her blond curls

And shared the thrill

Of that one gift

With her name on it.

A doll in a pram,

The blankets made by wrinkly hands

Clacking needles in the candlelight

Over many wintry nights.

She told of stirring the plum pudding

With a big wooden spoon,

Apron at her ankles, 

On a chair by her mother.

Of whispering a wish as she stirred, 

And of the wish coming true.

Now, as she looked at her own child,

Face beaming in the firelight, 

She realised she had forgotten all that,

But this little one

Was her chance

To remember.

Welcome to The Calm Christmas Podcast with me, Beth Kempton. A few words there from my book Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Please, come on in out of the wind. I am so glad you found this old cottage, hidden away as it is in a small village in the South West of England. Come on through to the kitchen, pull up a chair. There are gingerbread stars fresh out of the oven and steaming tea in the pot. How have you been, my friend? I am so glad you are here and I’ve got so much to share with you.

What a joy it is to welcome you to a third season of The Calm Christmas Podcast, timed just as autumn turns to leave and in its shadow offers us a glimpse of winter. 

If you are new to the podcast, welcome! If you are a listener from previous years, welcome back, and thank you for all your messages about previous episodes. I am delighted to be back with a whole new series this year!

Here on the podcast we trace the turning of the seasons in nature and in our minds and hearts, we seek out ways to be more mindful about the approaching holidays, and I offer inspiration and tips for using this time to rest and restore after another full year.

This season of the podcast has a particular significance for me because my lovely mum died in April, less than three weeks after a terminal cancer diagnosis. It was a huge shock, and it has only recently sunk in properly that this will be our first Christmas without her. She absolutely loved Christmas, and made this time of year so special for me and my brothers when we were growing up. Many of the traditions in my own home are borne from things she did with us or for us as children, and she taught me what a difference a sprinkling of magic can make to everything in the depths of winter.

I know there will be deep sadness in the weeks ahead, but I also know that it mattered to her that we continue to embrace Christmas, treasure it as a time with our own children who are growing up too fast, and ensure that we welcome light and joy into our homes this year as we try to do every year. I know this for sure, not just because I knew her, but because she told me before she died. 

When my mum knew what was coming, she made a point of talking to me about Christmas, and even shared some of her own ideas for this season of the podcast. I hope you sense her love and light in each episode. 

I will also be doing a special episode later in the series all about coping with sadness and grief at Christmas. If you anticipate such an arrival with the cold wind this winter, that episode is for you. It will be coming up in early December and I hope it is a real comfort.

I know that this year has been challenging for so many of you in different ways too. For those of you who have shared your stories in my community, I thank you for your bravery and openness. It help me feel less alone at a very difficult time. It is sometimes hard to fathom everything that happens in our world - war, natural disasters, all kinds of loss, major transitions and painful events witnessed in the world. Sometimes Christmas can seem trivial alongside such things, or it can seem even more poignant and precious, depending on how you approach it. 

This series of the podcast is dedicated to the spirit of Christmas – may it bring peace and goodwill to us all. 

The Calm Christmas Podcast is not just about making Christmas special, it’s very much about winter wellbeing, and finding light in the darkness of late autumn and winter. Let’s see if together we can transform the holiday season from a time of depletion, to a time of rest and rejuvenation. And bearing in mind that there is an ongoing cost of living crisis, it’s more important than ever that we find ways to create a special Christmas for less, but do it in a way which feels like so much more. 

This season of the podcast will attend to all these things. I hope it inspires you to find many ways to bring joy into your life this winter, and that it feels like blanket of calm descending like a beautiful snowfall over your November and December. And even if you are listening in from somewhere that never sees snowfall, I hope you will find comfort and joy in the podcast too.

Let me share a little more about what I have in store for you this series. We have a new episode every week from early November through to the end of the year, with a couple of bonus episodes around Christmastime itself. We will be diving into all kinds of topics, from nourishing ourselves to taking a mindful approach to gifting, from making our homes cosy for the holidays, to finding calm and stillness in the holiday rush. As always there will be inspiration from nature, Christmas traditions from around the world, crafting ideas, recipes, get ahead tips and wintery words to soothe the soul. Some extra delights for this year include a writing exercise for every episode. This is very gentle – it is often as simple as a journaling question. I hope you will make space for The Calm Christmas Podcast and let it become a regular part of your week in the run up to the holiday season. 

This year I have chosen episode titles inspired by the names of famous Christmas carols and festive songs, but please know that this is not a religious podcast at all. It is based in the belief that there is no one way to celebrate Christmas, any version of it is welcome here.

And today we begin with Episode 1: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, which is really an introduction to all I have in store for you, with a focus on seeking slow this season. 

Can I let you into a secret? I only recently learnt that Chestnuts roasting on an open fire is not actually the title of the song many of us know by that name. The tune, written by pianist Mel Torme and lyricist Bob Wells, is actually called The Christmas Song, and ‘Chestnuts roasting on an open fire’ is the first line. But what a first line it is. When I hear it I am immediately eight years old, queueing up for a paper bag full of freshly roasted chestnuts in the market town of Romsey, in Hampshire, where I have gone with my family for the Christmas lights switch on. The memory is so strong I can still smell those roasting chestnuts, hear the crinkle of the paper, and feel the heat of my treat in my small hands.

The older I get the more I realise that it is in slowing down that we imprint memories like this onto our hearts. That is just one of the reasons that I have chosen ‘slow’ as one of the themes for this season on the podcast. Another is that slowing down is a natural response to the approaching winter, however much society seems to want to push us in the other direction, and following this natural rhythm can be so good for our sense of wellbeing at the darkest time of the year.

Of course slowing down and taking a mindful approach to the season doesn’t mean that Christmas has to be any less exciting, or joyful, if that’s what you want. It means focusing on the things that really matter, not wasting energy on the things that don’t matter, and taking care of yourself through it all, so you can soak up the season with all the magic, sparkle and hope that it brings.

Late autumn is the perfect time to begin to slow down, and make early plans for the kind of holiday season we want to invite in, knowing that the way we spend the next few weeks will affect how we enter the new year, and how we feel come January.

As this month’s edition of the gorgeous magazine The Simple Things shares, “November is an apt moment in which to check our stores and provisions are in order [stringing up strings of onions and the like]. Not only for food stuffs, but also supplies for anything we fancy making or doing over the coming season. [It’s] a good time to check if our emotional store cupboards need replenishing too.”    (p. 55)

This is such a lovely way of putting it. It’s perhaps a time we have to more actively seek out connection with others, gathering around bonfires, taking home made cakes round to neighbours’ homes, calling up old friends, and starting to think about who will be on our Christmas card list this year. 

Slowing down can mean different things to different people, but here are five ways you can do it straight away, today:

-       Cut one thing from your calendar this week.

-       Move one project to next year.

-       Go for a walk, or a run, meditate or do yoga, even if you think you don’t have time. The Dalai Lama once said, Meditate for an hour a day. If you are busy, meditate for two.’ The busier we are, the more important it becomes.

-       Have at least one real conversation in the next twenty four hours, where you show up fully, with eye contact, really listening, regardless of what else is going on around you.

-       Take your journal and write a few notes about how you want this upcoming holiday season to feel, and decide what one thing you can do today to make that possible.

It’s also a time for reconnection with ourselves. Over the coming weeks we might want to think about celebrating the harvest of our efforts this year, offering gratitude for all we have been blessed with, and begin to transform our homes into cosy spaces – all of that is coming up in the next few episodes.

But right now let’s turn our attention to the season waiting for us outside the window – autumn is such a beautiful time of year. Nature is glorious, its colours and scents drawing us outside for long walks crunching over leaves, the scent of woodsmoke in the air. 

Here in Devon, I just got an allotment. I had been on the waiting list for a while, and apparently this autumn it became my turn. I have a little garden at home, but it does not get much sun and is not well suited for growing much food, so I am so grateful for this chance.

According to the National Allotment Society (https://www.nsalg.org.uk/allotment-info/brief-history-of-allotments/) allotments have been in existence for centuries but the system we recognise today has its roots in the Nineteenth Century, when land was given over to the labouring population for the provision of food growing. ]

These days anyone can rent an allotments from their local council here in Britain, subject to availability, although the waiting lists are often many years long. The main stipulation is that you can only use it to grow food and flowers for personal use, and for the enjoyment of it. It actually says ‘for enjoyment’ on the tenancy agreement, which I thought was just lovely.

 Allotments are a wonderful. They come in all shapes and sizes. Mine is lovely long thin strip of ground full of earthworms and promise, with a view over distant hills. Rental prices are a hangover from earlier days – my plot very small compared to some of them, but even so it is staggeringly cheap at less than ten pounds (about $12 USD) a year, and it makes me feel connected to the land and all the allotment holders who went before me in a way it’s hard to explain. I have been spending quiet moments snuggled in my favourite armchair reading up on what to do first. Fertilise. Plant things that grow above the ground rather than root crops. Apparently it’s a good time for sowing broad beans, but I am not a huge fan of broad beans – if anyone has a delicious broad bean recipe please do send it in! 

Around my little empty plot everyone else’s plots are flourishing – kale, pumpkins and squashes, cabbages, celeriac and potatoes aplenty. 

Meanwhile me and my children are dreaming of a little shed that we could cover in solar powered fairy lights and turn into a little Santa’s grotto. We thought we could plant some little Christmas trees in pots, and serve hot chocolate to all the allotment holders on cold days. My husband Mr K thinks we should focus on vegetables, but I like our plan!

At this point in the year we don’t have anything left in our cottage garden which is fit for human consumption, apart from a few shriveled pears I left on the tree in case the birds were interested. The exception is rose hips, of which we have many. I recently learnt these are richer in vitamin C than citrus fruit and also contain vitamin B and carotene. A warning though, although rose hips can be used in delicious things like tea, syrup, jam, marmalade and pies, apparently the hairs inside the fruit are used in itching powder, so should be avoided!

Why not take a walk where you live today, and see what is thriving at this time of year?

Each episode I am going to dive into some of our favourite Christmas traditions. In some cases I will explore the origins of things we take for granted as symbols of Christmas, but today I simply want to relay some of the hundreds of traditions shared with me by those of you who follow me on Instagram @bethkempton, when I did a call out recently. Some of them had me in tears, and I will be sharing some of these beautiful ideas in each episode, so listen out in case I share yours!

@veronicafunk said “I grew up near the Churchill River in the boreal forest in northern Manitoba, Canada. Mu parents had emigrated from South America so we had no family nearby. Because the community was so isolated and small, a pot luck was hosted at the town hall and everyone celebrated by bringing their favourite goods: Cree bannock, Hungarian sausage, Ukranian perogies, Paraguayan empanadas… sharing delicious food and family stories together.”

@puravidavalentina said “I grew up in Bulgaria during communism so we had no Santa Clause and too much noise at Christmas. But we still had our family traditions, and used to bake Christmas bread with a coin in it. We still do it every Christmas.”

@wildflorawellbeing shared “When I was little my dad and I crafted paper chains out of crepe paper – he’d always let me choose the colours, I’d snip the lengths, then we’d fold them carefully weaving them together by the fire each night until they were finished and we’d hang them in garlands, spiralling out across the ceiling.”

@dysfunctionalplannersgarden said “My dad was a soldier and often away for Christmas. Often we would go two or three Christmasses without him, but when we were together it was all about the food. My dad, who is from the Seychelles, was obsessed with British food and Christmas was his favourite. 

@daisymayandtigger shared “My Dad is Dutch and my Mum is English so we’ve always combined traditions from Sinterklaas and Father Christmas. When we were younger we knew they spoke to each other so they wouldn’t get us the same gifts, and we’d get half on 5th December in hessian sacks and half on the 25th under the tree. Now we’re grown up we combine a family trip to a Christmas market with putting our shoes out at the start of December, always receiving a chocolate letter in each of our shoes.”

@quiet_the_hive loves an advent candle. 

@odetoslowness in Arkansas, USA said “My favorite holiday tradition is meeting up halfway with the rest of my extended family who lives more than four hours away.”

Bianca in the Netherlands and her husband do a 12 days of Christmas, with Christmas puzzles, movies, practice Christmas dinner and so on!” 

@natalie_lock loves a Christmas walk, wandering the local area looking out for Christmas lights, with a pocket full of chocolate coins and something in the slow cooker for when they get home

It’s interesting how so many of these are in the run up to Christmas, rather than on Christmas itself. There is so much joy and magic to be found in the anticipation.

Tell me, what are YOUR favourite holiday traditions, either from childhood, or brought in as you grew older? Perhaps pick one and turn it into a poem, short story or a little vignette this week?

And now it’s time for this week’s recipe. Actually, today I’m sharing two easy recipes for autumn. The first is my own banana bread recipe. This might seem a little random, but it is my children’s favourite thing to eat at this time of year. It’s easy to make, delicious and it is perfect for a special breakfast, as an energy-boosting snack (which helps get little ones out on a long walk), and as a tasty dessert. At a stretch you could even ice it to make a birthday cake! Not to mention the fact it uses up overripe bananas, and those bananas are high in vitamin B6 which keeps your immune system functioning properly. Apparently they can even help protect you against the flu.

This particular recipe started life as a Leith’s Cookery School one (from their brilliant bible) which included walnuts and nutmeg, but I adapted it to suit my children’s tastes. You can get the full recipe from the shownotes.

You need:

85g butter

225g plain flour

2 eggs, beaten

3 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Large pinch of salt

2 large well ripe bananas

110g caster sugar

100g bar milk or dark chocolate (not cooking chocolate), chopped into small pieces

-       Grease a 20 x 10cm loaf tin, or two smaller ones, and line with greaseproof paper or baking parchment.

-       Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C /385 degrees farenheit, gas mark 5.

-       Melt the butter in a small saucepan and allow it to cool

-       In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. This is where you would add ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg if you were using it.

-       In a separate mixing bowl, mash the bananas (a great job for little ones). Stir in the melted butter, sugar and eggs. I do it in that order to stop the melted butter scrambling the eggs. 

-       Then add the flour mixture and stir, and add in the chocolate and stir again.

-       Turn it into the prepared tin(s) and bake for around 50 minutes until a skewer poked into the top comes out clean. You can use the same recipe to make muffins but they only need about 45 minutes. 

-       When you take them out of the oven, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes so it keeps its shape, and only then remove, and slice. This stores well wrapped in foil for about 3-4 days although it never lasts that long in our house 

And then given the title of this episode I just had to find one for roast chestnuts, but having only ever bought them from a roasted chestnut seller, I had to look it up. BBCgoodfood.com offered a very simple one - 

-       Roasted chestnuts https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/roast-chestnuts 

You need:

Around 16 large shiny chestnuts

STEP 1

Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put each chestnut flat-side down on a chopping board. Hold the chestnut carefully and, using a sharp knife, cut a long slit or a cross in the top. Make sure you cut through the shell but not the nut inside. The shell is tough and flexible like a skin rather than rock hard like other nut shells, so a small kitchen knife works well. 

  STEP 2

Tip the nuts onto a baking sheet or into a roasting tin and arrange them cut-side up. Roast for 30 mins. The cuts should open up and the shell will start to peel back.

  STEP 3

Leave the nuts in the tin to cool down to warm – they will be very hot inside. Put a board on top of the tin while they cool to trap the steam and make them easier to peel. Serve as they are for people to peel, or peel them yourself to use in a recipe. 

STEP 4

If you peel them, you may want to remove the inner, slightly fluffy, membrane as well. If the membrane is difficult to get off (it shouldn’t be if you steam them as they cool), you can soak the nuts in boiling water for a minute to loosen. Drain and peel.

Why not put them in paper bags decorated with Christmas symbols and hand them out to your neighbours??

Each week I will share a simple but lovely crafting idea. This week is Autumn felt bunting. I found a few pieces of felt in autumnal colours – mustard, shades of green, brown and so on, as well as red and white, and spent a couple of lovely hours with my children cutting out simple autumnal shapes like leaves, acorns, and mushrooms, which we then stitched onto ribbon and strung up. I got the idea from a lovely café in Glastonbury a couple of years ago, and finally got around to trying it this year. It looks lovely alongside the fairy lights I leave up around the fireplace all year round.

Each episode I share some get ahead tips

·      Book tickets: Carol services, illuminations, Father Christmas meetings, Christmas dinner.

·      Order a seed catalogue and look forward to a cosy afternoon planning your garden for next year, or warm yourself up by tidying the garden ahead of winter. 

·      Start thinking about your budget for Christmas spending. I know lots of people don’t like that word, but it’s the first step towards more mindful spending, so why not pick a figure you would be happy to spend.

·      Now is also a great time to mark your calendar with self-care ideas, keeping your attention on your own experience, and perhaps signing up to a gentle free exercise programme like Couch to 5k, which is a brilliant app that can help you get running over a number of weeks. There are so many apps out there these days. I adore Insight Timer and the Calm app for meditation and stories, and Yoga with Adriene on Youtube for movement. Be sure to come back next week and listen to episode 2 all about ideas for nourishing mind, body and soul this winter.
 
 

We also have a giveaway each week in the run up to Christmas. Our first is a personalized, signed copy of my book Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year, along with a copy of Rosie Steer’s gorgeous new book Slow Seasons. You might know Rosie from her stunning Instagram account @everythinglooksrosie. Head to my Instagram @bethkempton to enter.

-       Calm Christmas + Slow Seasons x 1 (go live Tues 7 Nov until Sunday 12 Nov)

Download my Calm Christmas planner from dowhatyouloveforlife.com to map out the weeks ahead and ensure a stress-free, cosy season.

Also, this year I am going to be offering my Winter Writing Sanctuary once again. It’s a gorgeous short writing course, which begins just after Christmas in what I call ‘The Hush’ and runs across New Year. Given the ongoing cost of living crisis I am offering this for FREE. If you’d like to join in, go to dowhatyouloveforlife.com to sign up before everything gets busy and you forget! Then you’ll get an email reminder just before class begins in late December. ‘The Hush’ is one of my favourite times of year for writing, and the Winter Writing Sanctuary is always a highlight in the darkest season. 

So there we are for this first episode of season 3. I hope this has given you lots of ideas about how to look ahead to Christmas with less expectation and more intention this year. I promise it will serve you well. Coming up, Episode 2 CANDLELIGHT CAROL is all about nourishing mind, body and soul, about aloneness and the power of retreating. I hope you will join me.

You have been listening to The Calm Christmas Podcast with me, Beth Kempton, produced by Untapped Talent. 

If you have enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe and tell all your friends. And by the way, you might just love my book Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year: A Little Book of Festive Joy, which is available now from all good bookshops.

 For a peek into my own perfectly imperfect Christmas preparations, come and find me on Instagram @bethkempton. I’d love to hear from you there.

Until next time, take good care and stay well my friend.