We mark the arrival of the festive season with nostalgic family recipes by Jeanette Winterson, sweet baking from the inventor of the Cronut, Dominique Ansel, and 50 great red, white and sparkling wines
Occasionally, I print out a particularly enjoyable piece of writing, fold it up and tuck it between the pages of my diary. Finding the fading text a year or two later and rereading it is one of life’s little joys. Looking back, two of these favourite pieces of food writing are by Jeanette Winterson. That those stories are now preserved permanently in the pages of her new book, Christmas Days, extracted here, makes me particularly happy, as my original copies are getting a trifle dog-eared.
I tend to remember Christmases past more clearly than almost any other date in the calendar. I am unembarrassed by being first in the street to get my tree up or to hang the wreath from the door. The day I decorate the branches of the tree with my collection of baubles, pin up the mistletoe and stuff oversized bunches of prickly holly into the fireplaces is one I look forward to more than any other. With each passing year, I love this season more and more.
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