City vs Island: A Short Series

I.  The Wonder Of Winterland Eventually Leading To A Recipe

Chancing upon, maximising and delivering on gold-spinning opportunities is a finely honed skill of Cities. Their insidious connivery knows no bounds and is never more apparent than at this time of year.  Of the many ways in which city and island life differentiate, this is the season that sets them furthest apart and secures Tiree's place on the podium. I imagine many who have not known an island life think of it being lived at a slower pace, that it’s perhaps a little less forward-thinking and somewhat behind the rest of the world.  Sometimes that’s true, in part, and what makes it so attractive.   Day-to-day reality is somewhat different but let’s not burst that bubble just yet.

Here in Edinburgh the first Christmas trees and decorations began tip-toeing into shops in October.  Not too many and not too loudly. Just enough to signal the go-ahead to the others. Before Bonfire Night had finished polluting the sky, the rest had followed suit. Suddenly, it was everywhere, the Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock elevator music and acid-tripping tinsel cascading over windows, shelves and mannequins. 

Winter Wonderland - formal title: Edinburgh’s Christmas - opened on 15^th November and goes on until 7^th January.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it’s November.  They didn’t even set off until mid December.  

This means we have at least another six weeks to enjoy the limited playlist – and unlimited joyous crooning – of Mariah Carey, Bing Crosbie and Cliff Richard, and to rejoice in the colour, sparkle and LED-blinding brightness of Santa Claus and all his accoutrements. I really do love Christmas, but… too much. It’s all tooooo much.

Just for a minute, let us focus on those who adore all this paraphernalia.  Those who revel in its early onset, who adore the glam, the glitter, and the promise of a family fall out four weeks from now.  You USED to say, "oh, I can’t WAIT for Christmas, I LOVE it!  All the sparkle and singing and shopping and wrapping.  LOVE ITTTTTT!!"  That was back in the day when nothing – not so much as a school-made paper chain – appeared before mid-December.  Where are you now with all of it?  I’ll tell you where – you’re almost up to date with your gift-buying because you started in February.  You’ve bought things you won’t find until January. Some of you are even bang up to date with the wrapping too – but not the professionals. Oh no.  The pros will wait until December to enjoy that bit. And you still cannot be arsed doing Christmas cards because you never did enjoy that. It’s okay though, you’re donating to a cause instead.  That’ll sort it.  No-one’s going to argue with charitable giving, or check.  So. You have the gifts, you have the paper, you have the time scheduled for wrapping, you have the charity kudos, and look! It’s still only November! Where to now? Ah, yes…. The Tree.  You wanted to haul this out in October when you saw M&S and John Lewis sneaking in with theirs, but no-one else was doing it and you don’t want to get grief from all the party-poopers, so you held back.  Right now you’re strolling around town quietly humming Wham’s Last Christmas to yourself while mulling over whether to get the children to help this year or do it yourself one day when they’re all out. 

The shops are begging you in.  You top up on wee extras that might come in handy – stocking-fillers you call them, others would say money-wasters.  You check the calendar - woopee! - it’s mid November, you can order the turkey.  Then, oh my, when December hits.  When that clock strikes midnight… out come the rest of you, decking everything in sight in all things not remotely related to Christmas.  The baubles, ribbons and tinsel; the Santas, reindeer and elves; the flashing signs, neon stars and lights.  It’s in rooms, hallways, banisters, windows, rooftops, driveways, and outside walls. It’s even on cars.  Yes, the latest craze is to decorate one’s car with sticky-on flashing lights all along the side. Won’t be long before we see fully decorated trees atop busses and trains. It sounds like I loathe Christmas but that’s not true. I’m just not a fan of the commercial circus that it has become.

Nowhere in any of what’s out there now lurks the true meaning of Christmas.  The closest we get to any religious message is the wonky angel on the tree.  Christmas choirs and church services won’t begin in earnest for another two or three weeks.

And that’s how Christmas plays out for us city dwellers. 

Tiree and the surrounding islands are an entirely different beast altogether. 

Yellow Hare used to feature a shopping night for Christmas shoppers. We’d link up with other businesses on the island and open for a couple of hours in the evening.  There was a short window of opportunity for this pre-Christmas event and it was fairly important to get it right.   The ‘window’ was a week and generally between 8^th and 15^th December.  Any sooner and no-one wanted to know.  Any later and it was too close to Christmas.

With the exception of the Christmas Fayre and the lighting of the Community Christmas Tree at Crossapol, there isn't a huge amount of evidence of anything Christmassy right up until the week before it happens. If you were to drive round the island at the beginning of December, you’d struggle to see much at all.  Indeed, the very mention of it bristles those eager not to think about it until they have to, and for a considerable number that’s Christmas eve.

This doesn’t mean everyone is bah-humbug about it.  Far from it.  There’s just a lot less … oh, I don’t know….fuss about it all.  There will still be the last-minute shoppers, panic-buyers and Martha Stewart full-spread table-setters, but in the main it comes together fairly seamlessly and far less aggressively than it does in the city.  People who like Christmas enjoy all that comes with it, especially when it brings visiting family and friends, and lots of people will make a trip the mainland to do a few days’ shopping, but it’s kept sane and sensible. It's Christmas when Christmas is meant to be and  I can’t imagine a time when it won’t be. 

The average diary of events on Tiree in the lead up to Christmas goes something like this…

12^th December : one of the island’s most-looked forward to events, a big bash organised by the parties committee for anyone over 60.

13^th December : the children’s Christmas party, also organised by the island’s Parties Committee.

19^th December : Christmas greetings to customers and friends are published in the Island’s newsletter.

There’s no Christmas music played in shops, be it Carey or choir, nor trees or decorations in houses before early December, and mostly much later – but when the houses do begin to light up, they do it really, really well and pretty damn tastefully.  Some are truly gorgeous, especially at night. The Christmas Fayre in the town hall is possibly the only exception, being held in mid-November.  Other than that it’s business as usual until, well, Christmas.

In many ways, celebrating the festive season on Tiree still feels like the Christmas of yesteryear, harking back to a time of restraint and decorum, when the only time we went over the top was with food and drink. 

There is one area of the festive season, however, which meets the criteria for several week’s preparation and I submit to it willingly because I adore it. Even when Princes Street threatens to make my ears bleed.  I stir and blend and mix and pour.  I feed and wrap and hide until the day I get to decorate, set alight and eat. Yes, it’s that bit which perfectly blends the spirit of Christmas with the joy of preparation. This, laddies and lassies, is Christmas Pudding Recipe Day!

I knew merely sharing the recipe would take no time at all, so I’ve been looking at online blogging recipes and I could see they frequently rattle on with a long-winded story no-one wants to read before getting to the recipe, so I adopted that model.

Today is Stir Up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, its name taken from the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer, which begins with the words, "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord...", which has become associated with the custom of making the pudding.  Despite the importance of this religious affiliation, I’m having to change it to Stir Up Monday because I’ve spent so much time wittering on about Christmas decorations, but let’s not quibble over semantics. What’s a day between friends and tradition?  There’s still time. A day will not alter the deliciousness one iota.  Besides, let’s not pretend you were all going to rush off to the cupboard or shop to retrieve ingredients and do this immediately.  It may become Stir Up Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday. Choose a day – it will not be catastrophic to delay by up to a week. I’m not beyond imagining many of you will go so far as to slot this away for consideration next year and that’s fine. There shall be no pudding shaming here.

THE RECIPE

This is soooo easy and very, very worthwhile.  I know I say this and many of you roll your eyes and claim I always say this when it’s not true… It is true.  This is SO easy.

I learned a few years ago to make ingredients work with me in a way that I decided was less wasteful.  I adapt recipes with obscure things that I’m unlikely to need more than once or twice a year.  For example, this recipe required blanched almonds and nutmeg, which I seldom use.  The original recipe suggested ¾ of a whole nutmeg, but I only use half and make two puddings from one nutmeg, and I substitute the blanched almonds for chopped purely because chopped almonds are easier to get hold of and I use them more often in other recipes. Neither of these changes alters the flavour.

It is a deliciously rich, moist and flavoursome pudding which gets made in one go before being cooled, wrapped and hidden in a dark room until needed. 

UTENSILS: All you will need is a large baking bowl, a 2-pint pudding bowl or pudding tin, a large grater and a pan large enough to allow it to float. 

TIME: 5 hours.  There is no baking. You will need half an hour to prepare the mixture and four-and-a-half-hours to let it simmer.

INGREDIENTS: Everything here is available in any supermarket (those on Tiree may have to order whole nutmeg online).

METHOD:

1. Using a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together except the butter, which is grated in gradually.  Grate a quarter of the butter into the mix and stir it all in, then grate the next quarter and stir it in. Keep doing this until all the butter is used and it’s all stirred in.   This is the trickiest bit – try to keep the butter cool otherwise it will become slippery and difficult to grate if it begins to warm in your hand.

2. Once it’s all mixed, pack it into a pudding bowl – this can be a shop bought enamel-type pudding bowl or a ceramic bowl.  Cover with a creased sheet of tin foil and tie with string (see photo) – the crease is important as the foil will swell in the heat.  String should be tied in a way that allows it to untie easily afterwards.   

3. Sit the pudding in a pan of water large enough to allow it to float without touching the bottom. Simmer for FIVE HOURS.  Read a book, watch tv, have a snooze. Do whatever it takes to pass the time. Once it’s been boiling for almost five hours, remove from the heat, cool completely and leave in the fridge overnight.

4. To store it, you can either leave the pudding in the bowl or remove it – both will work. Wrap it or cover it with a large sheet of parchment paper and then cover the parchment paper with tin foil (you are basically making it tamper-proof) and leave it in a dark cupboard until Christmas.

When you are ready to share it, float it in a pan of simmering water for two hours, turn out onto a plate, sit it on the table and douse with a healthy splash of brandy or whisky before setting it alight. The flame only lasts a few seconds but it’s tradition and it looks good.

I particularly like this recipe because there are no nuts in it and it’s very easy to make a gluten-free version if that’s what you’d like.

NEXT UP:  CHRISTMAS CAKE, BRANDY BUTTER, MINCE PIES

Kate MacLeod November 2025