Fairy Lights In The Hibernaculum
December Newsletter
And so it is that winter arrives with a smattering of snow and a heavy dose of fairy lights. We’ve had solar panels fitted on the roof of our abode just in time for the sun to dissapear below the horizon for the darkest days of the year, but they will sit patiently and wait its return.
I am a child of winter and I love the months where the home becomes the hibernaculum and we feast on the work of summer. Pickled leeks, cheese boards, fruited goods and this year what looks to be a very fine jar of black truffle honey from White Horse Honey. I like to try and support local makers at this time of year and White Horse Honey promises to be very good whilst giving a nod in the direction of one of my favourite features of the English landscape.
December is a busy month again and by the time you have read this I will already have told stories for my first event of the month with Slake Sprtitis in an evening of yuletide folktales and cocktails.
Later in the month I am at Redhouse Museum in Christchurch, Butser Anicent Farm in Hampshire and The Weald & Downland Living Musuem in Sussex. You can find links to all of these yuletide family storytelling sessions below. There will be some old favourites told and some new tales in the repertoire this year with, Cat On The Dovrefjell, The Twelve Months, The Winter Dragon, The Fairy Baker and Jack And The Dancing Trees.
If you’re looking for somehting a little darker, Jason Buck and I are back for a New Year online storytelling show to frighten the last rements of 2023 into the shadows. We'll be bringing the best of the dark half of the year, the boggarts and boggles, the banshees and trolls straight to your living room and you can book tickets with the link in the events list below.
As previously mentioned, the podcast will be back in the New Year, but the Christmas epsiode of ‘WIll I Vike It’, a fabulous podcast by Craig Brooks, aka Saxon Forager, feature your’s truly and will be available on the 24th December.
I may also have a little story for you later in month. Plans are afoot for filming that one and I will be sure to let you know if and when it comes to fruition.
Coming up this month on Substack for paid subscribers is an episode of Hearth’s & Halls and this month we are travelling back in time to the Roman feast of Saturnalia.
There will be the usual, book review and updates along the way too. I hope you all have a magical festive season full of helpful hobs, troll busting polar bears and dancing trees.
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December's Track:
Every year we watch ‘A Muppet Christmas Carol’ on Christmas Eve in our house. It’s compulsory and this is our favourite song.
Upcoming Events For December/January:
1st December - Yuletide Folktales - Slake Spirits, Worthing - Book Here
9th & 16th December - Family Fun Days - Red House Museum - Book Here
18th December - Kings Of The Winter Woodland - Butser Ancient Farm - Book Here
19th, 20th, 21st December - Yuletide Folklore & Stories - Weald & Downland - Free with museum entry ticket. Book your ticket here
31st December - New Year’s Eve Storytelling with Jason Buck- Halfway Through The Dark - Book Here
9th January - Workshop - Reviving Folktales - Brighton Metropolitan College - Private Event
19th January - Lady Of The Wassail - Butser Ancient Farm - More info here
For more information visit my events page using the button below.
March 2024:
‘Stories Of The Sun’, is now available to pre-order! This one is due to be published next March by The History Press and you can pre-order via most bookshops but if you click on the book cover below it will take you to bookshop.org where you can pre-order a copy and support independent bookshops at the same time.
November’s Paid Subscriber Content. Available In The Archive:
Yellow Is The Colour - Read Here
One For The Rook, Audio Book - Listen Here
Thank you for supporting this newsletter through November. Supporting my work in this way allows me to continue to write freely and authentically and I thank you from the bottom of my storytelling heart.
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December’s Read:
This is another one of those books that has been sat on the to be read bookshelf beside my bed for a year now. Yes that’s right, I received this one for Christmas last year. I’ll have a few days off over Chiristmas and so this will be my fireside read.
Very intrigued over the Winter Dragon and the cat on the dovrefell! 😍