Advent stories

Let's make an Advent Crown....!

I returned with my purchases. This year I was going to do it correctly. No trying to bluff it with rolls of Sellotape. This year I was going to follow the instructions to the letter. I laid out all the items on the dining room table, having first covered it with a cloth, so I did not scratch the wood.

Fireproof tinsel and ribbon. A selection of glass baubles and a roll of wire. Plasticine and four tin lids from jars of chutney (which I am sure were finished with). Finally, I stole into a wardrobe and appropriated four wire coat hangers.

I tried to follow the instructions, but John and Val spoke too quickly and kept producing one they’d ‘already done’! How did they get the lids to stick to the hangers? My tinsel looked thin and weedy and my candles were too big and would not stick in the plasticine properly. Then I cracked two of the baubles trying to tie them underneath the candle holder.

It was a nightmare! Several juvenile meltdowns later I had a version ready to hang. Then the hook snapped!

Enough! I launched the whole enterprise in the bin…