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Blogs by Marcia Miller-Twiford
Christmas Traditions 12/6/2008 5:52:16 PM
The day before Christmas Eve many years ago my eldest child asked me, "Mama, how come we always have to have pie at Christmas time? Why can't we have cake instead?" It goes without saying that traditional pies were a must for the grown ups but a cake for the little ones we would also have. But what kind of a cake? Their favorite, chocolate with chocolate frosting, didn't seem very festive. It was something we had all the time. No, this called for some thinking on my part.
I had purchased, through a catalog, two sets of 12 holly candles just a couple of weeks before. I had no idea why I'd ordered them. Intuition? Maybe so. I've been known to be prone to such things. There were 12 candles (the 12 days of Christmas?) six green and six red in each box. I knew they would look best on a white cake and it would suit the season and occasion perfectly. I made a three-tier white cake and covered it liberally with white fluffy frosting and cocoanut. It resembled snow and bespoke of purity. Getting the candles to stick in that fluffy frosting took some ingenuity as they had a very small stick at the bottom of each to insert into a cake. I laboriously tied each candle stick to a popsicle stick and that worked great. It also helped to keep the third tier of the cake from slipping. I finished it by sprinkling red and green tinted sugar at the base of each candle.
After our Christmas Eve dinner, the table was cleared, clean forks and cake plates set out along with the traditional pies and a big bowl of whipped cream for the grown ups. Then I brought the cake to the table much to the children's delight. I dimmed the overhead lights and lit the cake candles then we all stood around the table, reached out and held hands and sang the traditional Happy Birthday song in unison ending it with, "Happy Birthday Lord Jesus, Happy Birthday to You." It's a tradition that went forth from that year on and one that my children now do for their children.
No more holly candles can be found so red and green ones are used instead and we've learned how to make leaves out of fondant. The stubs of the original ones I've kept and they're in one of my "treasure" boxes.
Me and my family wish you and yours the happiest Christmas ever.
