Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Autumn and Christmas are my favourite seasons.  Yes, I know Christmas isn't a season of nature like spring, summer, autumn and winter, but it is a Christian season rather than a Christian celebration as it lasts for twelve full days beginning on Christmas day.  Christmas has always meant a lot to me and even more now as a Christian.  But I love all aspects of Christmas tradition as we have received it. Before the Christian Era, we had the ancient mid-winter festivals and feasts and these were assimilated into the Christian calendar.  Jesus wasn't born on December 25th (or January 6th in the calendar of the Eastern Church).  We can't be sure exactly when he was born, but sometime in mid September seems to be most likely.  However, what we now call a traditional Christmas is quite a recent thing and Christmas as we know it is largely based on a Victorian view of an idealised 'old' Christmas, perhaps most famously portrayed in Charles Dickens's  A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843.  He and others were no doubt harking back to a Christmas of perhaps the 1700s and came to see it as a time for goodwill and a time for family and children and of giving gifts.  So all the things we consider as part of the traditional Christmas - our food and drink;  our traditions and Christmas trees and decorations; Father Christmas and presents - all stem from the early to mid 1800s.  It was a reinvention of the way we celebrate the season.  So yes, I love all of the things associated with Christmas as we celebrate it today, while still holding to the centrality of God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Whatever anyone else celebrates at this time of year, I celebrate Christmas.

This set was inspired by that well known Christmas song which has been covered by so many, but was made most famous by Nat King Cole.  Its title is simply The Christmas Song and is filled with images of our 'traditional' Christmas - the first line perhaps being the most famous:  "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."

This set is hand-crafted purely from polymer clay.  I don't know why, but I just love it when autumn and Christmas come round so I can indulge in making nuts and berries.  I could happily make them all year round, but who would want them?  I made some which are split open and some nearest the fire which are charred in places - because that's what chestnuts do when they are roasted.

Why roasting chestnuts in particular is associated with Christmas, I have no idea.  Yes, chestnuts are an autumnal fruit, but there are others.  However, roasting chestnuts on an open fire is such and evocative image - and practice for those who do it - especially in these days of central heating and radiators.  It conjures up images of chestnuts being roasted in snowy streets in braziers and sold for a ha'penny a bag or of the family gathered around the hearth on a cold winter's night as they share in this lovely tradition.

The set is obviously inspired by The Christmas Song, but was also inspired by a pendant I had much enjoyment in making last year, based on another of our festive food and drink traditions - that of mulled wine.  The spices used in mulled wine are again, very much associated with Christmas and I was very pleased with the outcome of the pendant, which was a joy to create.

The mulled wine pendant  has since gone to a new home, but the chestnut set is still available in my Etsy shop along with other pieces from my autumn and Christmas collections.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire