12 Days of Sweetness

I’m not what you’d call a “religious” person. While I grew up in an evangelical christian household, these days I consider myself more spiritual in my approach to all things divine than ascribing to any one particular faith. And so, when it comes to celebrating the holidays, I like to mix it all up. Singing carols alongside burning (and baking) a yule log, exchanging presents right there with wassailing the apple trees.

And so, I love the idea of celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. When considering which specific 12 days to celebrate, I knew I could choose from those celebrated in the Christian tradition (December 25th to January 6th), or those that surround the solstice (December 20th-”Mother Night” to December 31st-”The  Night of the Oak King”). Instead, at least for this year, I thought I’d go with the literal 12 days proceeding Christmas, which begin today.

Inspired by an image viewed in a recent issue of Better Homes & Gardens, Glenn and I created the calendar you see here. Branches gathered from the yard were attached to each other with screws in a sort of cube. An eyelet screw was attached to the middle of the topmost branch for hanging the calendar on the wall, and stamped small muslin bags filled with either a square of chocolate or a lollipop were tied onto the branches.

Huxley had his first “taste” of the 12 days of Christmas today. Clearly it was well received, as he then proceeded to (tearily) request “just a little more chocolate” for the next 15 minutes. Here’s to 11 more days of sweetness!