Advent and Christmas 2021

On 1 December a few of the doll family started opening their tiny Advent Calendar which was sent to them by my elder daughter who lives in York. I didn't succeed in photographing the opening of the calendar every day as there were a multitude of other things happening during December this year. The windows on this little card are absolutely tiny and I enlisted the help of my younger daughter to open them.

What is in the golden envelope?

An Advent Calendar for the dolls!

To all the doll family,
Have an exciting Advent
and wonderful Christmas!
Enjoy opening this German calendar bought in York.

Close up of the Sasha doll sized Advent Calendar

The next time I managed to photograph them was on 18 December when they set up their Christmas tree.

Admiring the Christmas tree and doing their Advent calendar

With the pandemic still causing huge disruption, and a bout of tonsillitis (I tested regularly with negative every time and the symptoms were not the same as Covid19) in mid December, I wasn't at all sure we would be able to have the Christmas we had planned, however on 23 December, with negative lateral flow test results all round and me a lot better, we were able to make the journey north to York to visit our elder daughter. I took eight of the little Kruseling dolls with me but in the event, though two of them were carried around in my camera bag on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, they didn't make a public appearance at all.

I got my much dreamed of Christmas gift, which was to be able to attend the Nine Lessons & Carols on Christmas Eve in York Minster with our elder daughter singing in the choir and (in my case at least), three Christmas services on Christmas Day in the Minster (Matins, Eucharist and Evensong). We all enjoyed the services and the music so much. The Minster staff handled all the covid19 safety precautions very well. 

The York Minster Advent Wreath on Christmas Eve,
with the newly restored pipe organ

The York Minster Advent Wreath on Christmas Day
(the central candle is lit)

The York Minster Nativity scene

My elder daughter's Christmas tree which my younger daughter helped her decorate on Christmas Eve using all the Advent 2020 decorations we made for her including the knitted chorister for 15 December and the angel doll I made for 24 December.

A belated Merry Christmas to all my doll and craft friends.

Advent Calendar Day 24

The pocket for Day 24 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained the angel for the top of the Christmas tree. So the pocket picture of Father Christmas gave no clue.

Day 24 pocket

I made the angel from an old brown t-shirt, it has pipe cleaners in its arms and legs and between the head and body, so is somewhat posable. The dress is golden fabric (the same fabric I once used to make an ice skating dress for a Gotz doll) overlaid with tulle which is flecked with gold. The wings are made from short pieces of gold ribbon which came off crackers one year, I stitched them with golden thread onto a doubled over pipe cleaner.

The hair was black wool knitted, dampened, ironed then unravelled to make it wavy. The headband is a scrap of fabric left over from my wedding dress and both the Christening gowns of my daughters (which I made) plus some beads which came from an old hair tie my elder daughter used to wear. She recognised it immediately.

The angel Gabriel

The angel's face

Close up of the angel

The angel's wings

Back view of the angel's head

Back view of the angel

Back of the angel dress, showing the opened fastening

Back of the dress showing the wings stitched to the dress

Undressed angel, wearing the headband

She had guessed that the final pocket would contain something for the top of the tree, The package was too big to fit the pocket so was one of those which had a numbered card. She examined all the details of the angel then carefully placed it on the top of the tree.

The angel at the top of the tree

The tree was shared with her landlord and landlady, so also has some of their decorations on it, including the former Archbishops of York (++John Sentamu) and Canterbury (++Rowan Williams).

The angel at the top, above the choral scholar with the two archbishops

The fully decorated Christmas tree topped with the angel from day 24 pocket

So the Advent Calendar is empty and Christmas 2020 has arrived. This project, first planned in September 2020, has been a helpful way of getting our family through a prolonged separation in a year of turmoil and anxiety for many people whose lives have been changed and disrupted by the global pandemic. The planning and secret making of many new pleasant surprises has helped me and my younger daughter channel our anxieties and love into some tangible lasting gifts, while our nightly video calls to watch the next pocket gift be opened has helped all four of us connect, discuss, laugh, cry, and cherish our time together. 

Merry Christmas.

Advent Calendar Day 23

The pocket for Day 23 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained a scandinavian folded fabric star I had made. The picture on the pocket is a Christmas tree with stars.

Day 23 pocket

I used a YouTube video to show me how to make the star from four strips of fabric, folded (no seams).

Folded Scandinavian star decoration made of fabric

One side of the folded fabric star

The other side of the folded fabric star

The Scandinavian fabric star on her Christmas tree

She was intrigued by the star and kept saying 'how' (meaning how had I made it) before putting it on her tree.

Advent Calendar Day 22

The pocket for Day 22 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained a wooden reindeer which I had bought at the York Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop when visiting there with my daughter at the end of September. She had liked it at the time, so when she wasn't looking it went in my shopping basket. 

Day 22 pocket

Furry side of the wooden reindeer

Back of the wooden reindeer

When she unwrapped it she couldn't stop stroking it as the furry side of the reindeer is very soft.

The reindeer on the tree

Advent Calendar Day 21

The pocket for Day 21 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained a cherubic angel playing the violin, so the pocket picture didn't really give a clue about its contents as it showed a Nutcracker. The decoration came from our family Christmas tree and as we had two of the heavenly violinist, and both daughters are string players, it made sense for this angel to fly to a new Christmas tree to be with our elder daughter.

Day 21 pocket

The cherubic violin playing angel decoration

She instantly recognised the decoration as soon as she unwrapped it and went to find a place for it on the tree.

The cherubic violin angel on the tree

Advent Calendar Day 20

The pocket for Day 20 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained a miniature shweshwe fabric Christmas tree. The picture on the front, of mistletoe, was a sort of clue to its contents as mistletoe is found in trees.

Day 20 pocket

I used a left over piece of two shweshwe fabrics which were already sewn together from making a red and green Sasha doll dress in 2019 for Theresa. I cut the left over strip in half and stitched it together to make four parallel bands then cut two triangles for the tree shape so the bands came out on the diagonal - a nod to tinsel or lights wrapped around some trees. Once it was stuffed and the trunk added, I stitched on some glass beads for baubles and stars at either side of the top.

Shweshwe Christmas tree shaped decoration

One side of the Shweshwe Christmas tree

The other side of the Shweshwe Christmas tree

She was very pleased with the miniature tree, to complement the little elephant from day 18, and it soon found a place to hang on the full sized Christmas tree.

The Shweshwe fabric Christmas tree decoration hanging
with three of the other decorations on the real tree

Advent Calendar Day 19

The pocket for Day 19 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained another reference to her musical occupation, well at least in my view it did! The picture is a robin, which sings, and the gift inside was another cross stitch picture made by her sister. I saw them as mice carol singing, she saw them as mice carrying gifts.

Day 19 pocket

The mice cross stitch and 'oh bring us a figgy pudding'

Front view of the mice asking / singing for figgy pudding!

Back of the mice Christmas decoration - starry fabric and figgy puddings

She had always wondered about figgy pudding and whether it was another name for Christmas pudding (which she likes). I had made a Christmas cake and a Christmas pudding which we posted to her along with her gifts and some lights for her Christmas tree.

Day 19 was also the day we decorated our Christmas trees so the pockets of the Advent calendar, which had been holding the unwrapped items until the tree was ready, started to be emptied. Two days earlier she and her landlady went out to a Christmas tree farm and bought a beautiful Nordman fir tree. 

The Advent Calendar just before her tree decoration activities began

Day 19 cross stitch hanging on the tree, with a Day 6 snowflake and Day 2 star in the background

She has sent me photos of the tree as she gradually added the decorations from her Advent Calendar and her landlady added the collection of decorations her family have used over the years. 

At home, for the first time our younger daughter had the job of putting the lights on our tree, a role her elder sister has usually done in recent years when at home, otherwise I have done the lights.

Advent Calendar Day 18

The pocket for Day 18 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained a fabric animal. Although the pocket picture was a polar bear in a Christmas outfit, I wrote on the note inside the wrapping "Why have a polar bear when you can have an elephant", a comment which made her laugh.

Day 18 pocket

The little elephant was made with two different small print shweshwe fabrics, its ears were sewn right side out with an overlock stitch edging, which gives it a rustic appearance. Its tail is gold thread - a nod to Christmas.

Shweshwe elephant Christmas decoration

Shweshwe elephant close up

Shweshwe elephant with a sparse gold thread tail

She was highly amused by his tail and loved his curled trunk.

Advent Calendar Day 17

The pocket for Day 17 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained another cross stitch item stitched by her younger sister and assembled by me. The picture on the pocket was connected to the contents by its shape and a joke as it is a round figgy pudding and the cross stitch picture was a very round Father Christmas who had been indulging in too much figgy pudding after all that sleigh riding! 

Day 17 pocket

Father Christmas cross stitch decoration
with ribbon trim depicting his Christmas eve travels

Front of the Father Christmas cross stitch decoration

Back of the Father Christmas cross stitch decoration

My elder daughter laughed a lot when she saw the decoration - I think Father Christmas's sticking out hands made her giggle the most.