So with the north wind blowing ever stronger, the days getting shorter and the sun light dimmer, how many have you briefly thought about Christmas, which is only three months away now? Three months!
John Lewis knows how to take our minds of the rubbish English (lack of) summer and inject some excitement for the coming winter holidays. In reference to the old tradition of ‘Stir up Sunday’, the multiple retailer is reminding its lethargic customers to “make sure you have your lucky sixpence at the ready on November 23 – as well as these baking essentials”.
Stir up Sunday, the last Sunday before the christian ‘Advent’, was always traditionally the date when families would gather together in the kitchen and take turns to ‘stir up’ the Christmas pudding and get their wishes in at the same time. As most traditionalists know, the great Christmas pudding should be made a month before Christmas Day to let the strong, rich flavours grow and mature, the pudding mixture should be stirred from East to West, representing the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus, a sixpence coin should be placed in the mixture and the one that finds it receives the good luck!
