Daughter of Claus: Reflections

Madness and merriment

First things first: the answers to the Christmas-themed quiz questions shared on the 29th of December 2023 are now available in this post, here. How did you do?!

Back on the 1st of November, when I announced the theme for my December notebook, I said, “Life has been Happening at quite the speed this last month.” It was true. But, if I thought October had been a tad mad, things were only going to get busier. The day after my post, on the 2nd of November, we went to view a house. We put an offer in the next week. We moved out of our little bungalow just before Christmas, and are looking forward to a mid-January date of entry to our new home. So, this last month has been a tad manic. As a result, with a Christmas season which featured packing boxes as much as it did tinsel, it was really wonderful being able to share festive words with you all over the last month, to tether myself to the season.

This notebook was always going to be close to my heart, and I am glad that I feel I have done the subject matter justice, and conveyed part of that sense of magic and joy I enjoy most about Christmas. I also love the four guest posts (from my sisters Virginia and Diff, my brother Alexander, and my mother Susan), and how they weaved in perfectly with what I had written about or intended to write about.

It was really important to me to capture details of my memories and experiences of Christmas. With two fast-growing girls, things will continue to change in the years that follow (in the best possible way), and I wanted to make sure I had a record of this moment in time, looking back, looking around me now, and looking to the future.

These notebooks are meant to be just that: scribbles of something that could become bigger, should I choose to revisit and refine them. Daughter of Claus certainly provides me with a great starting point should I wish to pick this up again in future.

In general, looking back over the last two notebooks (Leaves of Poetry as well as Daughter of Claus), I am pleased that this method of monthly bursts of activity is working as I had hoped: at a point in my life when scraping together a few moments for coherent creative thought is increasingly difficult, Scribbles and Sketches provides me with a manageable aim. It also gives me the opportunity to run with ideas that otherwise might languish forever in scribbled paper notebooks or forgotten digital documents, to dip a toe in a little without long-term commitment, to see if I want to take any of the ideas further.

Thank you for following along with Daughter of Claus. I’ve really enjoyed sharing my memories and traditions with you all, and I have particularly enjoyed all your comments and contributions.

I’ll be back on the first day of February with an update on the theme for my next seasonal notebook, which will run throughout March.

Lydia Crow
Orton, Cumbria