Stir Up Sunday - November 25th

It was tradition in our house that whilst Dad prepared the bonfire on Bonfire Night; Mum, with my sister and I, would make the Christmas Puddings.

The pudding mixture was of course already made by mum but we would give it a final stir and insert the silver charm, on which Grandpa would almost certainly break a tooth six weeks later, and pour the whole lot into the basins. It seems that with this family tradition, devised I suspect to distract us kids whilst Dad assembled his state of the art pyre, we were a little ahead of ourselves.

The last Sunday of the Church Year, or the Sunday before Advent, this year November 25th is termed 'Stir-up Sunday'. The name “Stir Up Sunday” comes from the opening words of the Church of England’s post communion prayer for this Sunday:

"Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may of thee be plenteously rewarded …..”

On Stir-up Sunday families returned from Church and gave the pudding its traditional final lucky stir, everyone in the family to take a turn at stirring the Christmas pudding, whilst making a wish.

Children chanted his rhyme:
Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot;
And when we get home
We'll eat the lot.

A proper Christmas pudding is always stirred from East to West in honour of the three Wise Men.

A coin was traditionally added to the ingredients and cooked in the pudding.

It was supposed to bring wealth to whoever found it in their pudding on Christmas Day.

In our case it just bought more wealth to the dentist.
Log onto our site at www.roullierwhite.com to print off a copy of

Mrs White's Traditional With a Twist Christmas Pudding Recipe.

If you live locally, or want a fun day out, pop into our East Dulwich Store,

Roullier White,

125 Lordship Lane,

London SE22 8HU

to pick up a free copy.