Come in the Christmas Smileys...You're late!

[groom]

I got excited when I saw the Christmas smileys were back 
However I then opened my advent calendar - didn't have time on the first and second and it's got chocolate bloom  not happy .......

Any sell by date on it, is it one left over from last year?

[John915]

Back again,

I got excited when I saw the Christmas smileys were back 
However I then opened my advent calendar - didn't have time on the first and second and it's got chocolate bloom  not happy .......

It still tastes the same, chocolatee. The bloom will often just wipe away as it is just on the surface.

When Ifirst joined up in 66 we used to have ration packs when out on exercises. Ten man packs with all meals for one day, that included two tins containing five bars of chocolate each plus boiled sweets to fill the spaces. The packs were dated in the early 50s because they had so many in stock and the oldest were used first.

The chocolate often had bloom on the bars sometimes they were white all through. We still ate them, they still tasted the  same, more or less, i'm still here.

John915

[Greensleeves]

Despite the smileys - thanks Sarah - I am feeling a Little Sad because I find on checking that even Thorntons, the only major 'British'  chocolate company on the lists posted, is no longer British but is 75% owned by Ferrero SpA, an Italian company.   Mondelez International (American company) owns J S Fry & Sons, Cadburys, Jacobs  and many more, and we have all known for years that Nestle is Swiss. 

However,  it will give the small British chocolate companies a boost if we all start hammering on their doors to buy their wares.  It is far better, after all, to buy goods which are produced by small companies rather than multi-nationals.  Buying locally makes a huge different to the local economy and you know your money is going direct to the producer rather than to an offshore account.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Are Whittakers chocolates still made? Must have a look next time I'm in Skipton - almost given up going there because it's so hard to find a parking space.
Christmas??? Not yet. Tree will be bought and old glass decorations brought down in the week before Christmas, and put up then. Sometimes it's been as late as Christmas Eve. Takes almost an entire afternoon to decorate, with all those old fragile glass baubles to unwrap and put in place, but I don't mind that. The bit I hate is unwinding the lights, and trying to strew them in, on and around the tree in a more or less even distribution.

[BumbleB]

Christmas tree - mine takes about 60 seconds to erect.  When we moved to Tamworth back in 1997, I bought a 3 ft collapsible one from Asda, silver tinsel - it says £14.99 on the label.  I have since wound a string of lights round it.  It fits perfectly on the shelf in my bay window, no mess, no fuss.

Just realised that it will come of age next year 

I've now discovered some yummy chocolate, but again it's not English - from Aldi.   My grouch is that when our well-known and loved English chocolate companies become part of larger groups, that individual English/British taste disappears very quickly.

Forgot about this - my family came from Halifax, and when I visited my grandmother I had the pleasure of taking in the aromas of Mackintosh's toffee, which was made not far from her house.     Another name which has disappeared. 

[ThrelfallYorky]

Yes, I recall Mackintosh Toffee being made at Halifax, saw it from the train, too.
My parents used to cherish a really old small artificial tree, pre-war, we think, made with dyed goose feathers wrapped round and round and held with really fine wire - sounds odd, but it was quite convincing ... from a distance! About 4 foot high, and I still use some of the baubles from that, and my grandmother's tree.

[John915]

Good evening,

For many years we always had a real tree but about 5 years ago we purchased an artificial one complete with tiny LEDs. OH is in charge of decorating, i'm not considered good enough for that job.

I can remember when we were living at Chiddingly in the 50s. We had a real tree, with glass baubles, loads of tinsel and real candles in little clip on holders (shock, horror). What would elf & savedy say 

John915

[KGarrad]

I will be away, as usual, for Christmas - visiting my daughters and the grandchildren.
So, I don't bother with a tree, as there's no one here to look at it!

I remember passing near to Fry's factory (later Cadbury's) at Keynsham on a regular basis.
The word "Somerdale" was picked out on the railway embankment!

We are lucky in still having a local chocolate manufacturer - Davison's - plus a couple of artisan chocolatiers.

[Top-of-the-hill]

   There is an artisan chocolate maker in Canterbury. She is French, but we don't hold it against her!