Day 18: Take a step into the imaginary world

Christmas is the time of the year, that takes me (and many others) back to those childhood days. And as any memory, one tends to forget all the bad memories and cherish the good ones. I am sure, not all my childhood Christmases were just great, of course normal life has been going on and there must have been lots of disappointments too. 

I do remember not liking all the traditional Christmas dishes and lutefisk was on the top of the list of my dislikes. And there were others too… but still I remember most the taste and smell of cinnamon and ginger.

My earliest Christmas memory is from the time I must have been three or four years, I think. My hometown during the first years of 1960’s was small and quiet and most likely little poor too. I do remember that there was a toy shop when I was growing up, but I don’t know if it was already there in 1963 or 64. Anyway, my parents used to drive over the border to the much richer Sweden to do Christmas shopping.

Somehow my brother had heard my parents talking or he had seen something that he should not have, because he was small too, three years my senior, but he had gained information that I was going to get a doll and a baby carriage for the doll and he felt compelled to share this information with me. I vividly remember us sitting in the back seat of our car (can you believe, those times no one used seat belts!!), I don’t know where we were going, but he whispered to me that you are going to get a doll and a baby carriage for the doll. I loved dolls, so this of course made me very happy.

There are few movies that I want to see every Christmas and few stories that belong to Christmas time.

One of the stories is by Betrix Potter and it is the tale of “A tailor in Gloucester”.

I did not know this story when I was a kid, I only knew of Peter Rabbit, but when my girls were growing up, I came across more of Betrix Potter’s work and we even had a chance to visit Lake District and her house. This tale is my very favorite of all of her tales. Here is the plot from Wikipedia.

"A tailor in Gloucester sends his cat Simpkin to buy food and a twist of cherry-colored silk to complete a waistcoat commissioned by the mayor for his wedding on Christmas morning. Whilst Simpkin is gone, the tailor finds mice the cat has imprisoned under teacups. The mice are released and scamper away. When Simpkin returns and finds his mice gone, he hides the twist in anger.
The tailor falls ill and is unable to complete the waistcoat, but upon returning to his shop, he is surprised to find the waistcoat finished. The work has been done by the grateful mice. However, one buttonhole remains unfinished because there was "no more twist!" Simpkin gives the tailor the twist to complete the work and the success of the waistcoat makes the tailor's fortune."

When ever I try to make tiny stitches, I think of these little mice that made such a lovely job on mayor’s waistcoat.

I love to make toys, they must be my happiest makes, but sometimes it is hard to be inspired. Is there any sense to try to keep the inspiration if it vanishes? There are times, when I let it go, and that is fine, but around Christmas time, there are so many magical things, the air is rich with scents, music, stories, tastes, glow of candles or fairy lights, that it is easy to step over the threshold into the imaginary world.

If you have a small elf on the mantel piece, can’t you almost hear him talk. Or if there is a small house, don’t you want to open the little door and see what is inside the house. And instead of reading the same news for the fifth time, don’t you just want to pick up an old book and bury yourself in an old familiar story.

Wool with you,
Lene