The people who make Christmas
AS PREPARATIONS FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON ARE UNDERWAY, HEAR FROM THOSE WHO WORK TO HELP BRING THE MAGIC
Meet some of the heroes of the high street – a butcher, a baker and a candle(stick) maker – plus, those delivering essential services: a trusty postie and devoted volunteer. Without them, we’d miss out on our Christmas bird, our treats, our candlelight, cards and parcels, and a generous helping of community spirit. Quite simply, the festive season would be lacking its customary sparkle. In the words of beloved yuletide character Tiny Tim: God bless them, every one.
Butcher Charlotte’s Butchery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
“I’m usually finding orders while attempting an exhaustion-fuelled comedy routine and keeping everyone’s stress levels to a minimum,” says Charlotte Mitchell, describing the hustle and bustle of her shop in the run-up to Christmas – when she can often work 4am until 9pm. Preparations begin as far back as August when Charlotte talks to her suppliers, which include a ninth-generation poultry farm, and estimates how much turkey, goose, guinea fowl, gammon and beef her customers will want on the big day.
She looks so at home in her flat cap and apron, that it’s hard not to picture Charlotte coming from a long line of butchers, but she became one quite by chance while studying theology and religious studies in York. “It was the only job I could get at the time, but I was totally hooked.”
In January 2013, aged just 23, and having trained and worked in four different butcher’s,
she opened her eponymous shop in the Gosforth area of Newcastle with the help of a start-up loan. By naming it after herself, she knew she wouldn’t have to put up with the casual sexism of folk who might otherwise ask for ‘the boss’.
Despite her tender age, it’s good old-fashioned customer service that’s been the business’s principal ingredient. “Every year, at least one person forgets to pick up their order and I end up hunting them down on Christmas Eve – occasionally contacting their colleagues, friends, even their dog walker. And, due to receiving too few turkeys, I’ve been known to give away our own bird to make sure a customer has theirs.”
Helping her serve up a feast fit for Christmas is the team she describes as amazing: her brother Jamie (“A logistics god”), Mac,
Glen, Keagan, Richard, Buddy the driver and apprentices Archie and Harry. Despite enjoying the festive frenzy, Charlotte looks forward to celebrating on 1 January, when not only Christmas orders are fulfilled but New Year ones, too. “At that point, I can relax and enjoy a glass or two of Chablis.” Let’s drink to that. charlottesbutchery.com
Baker Luminary Bakery, London
Gooey pumpkin spice chocolate brownie or cranberry and orange fudge, anyone? Yes? Then head to Luminary Bakery in east London, which entices customers in with the promise of bread, cake, coffee, confections, tea and pastries, not to mention a beautiful window display full of tempting festive treats. Grace and her all-female team of colleagues begin experimenting with new Christmas creations in October. “My favourite job is rolling the cinnamon swirls,” says the young baker. “It’s super satisfying to get the biggest spiral possible and it’s always a little bit magical when you cut it up and see what’s inside.”
Grace had been drawn to baking at an early age, making fairy cakes with her sister and treats for friends to enjoy at school break times, so after experiencing multiple disadvantages, the chance to become an apprentice at Luminary was a perfect fit. She’s shown such talent that she’s been employed here since November last year.
The Hackney-based social enterprise was founded in 2014 by Alice Williams in response to meeting homeless women in the area who were caught up in the sex industry. She saw the lack of opportunities for them and set up the bakery training programme for women who had experienced multiple disadvantages and gender-based violence. Now it has a sister premises in Camden, and this year quadrupled the number of women on its training programme.
Naturally, December is particularly busy with extra seasonal demand from customers for takeaway and in the bakery cafés (fingers crossed) as well as individual deliveries. To say that the bakery’s atmosphere is supportive, even in the festive frenzy, is an understatement: “Everyone has everyone else’s back and we have lots of fun doing so,” Grace says with typical exuberance. She also credits Luminary for equipping her with the ability to “remain calm under pressure.” Handy in all manner of ways at Christmas, right? luminarybakery.com; Insta: @luminarybakery
“I’ve been known to give away our own bird to make sure a customer has theirs”
“The Christmas tree candles are made using a mould that Richard was given when he was 12”
Candle(stick) maker The Recycled Candle Company, Exeter
Richard Hills-Ingyon has been practising his craft since he was eight years old when his mother presented him with a kit one rainy day. “There’s no better feeling than taking a candle out of its mould,” says the founder of The Recycled Candle Company. The fact that Richard and his business partner, Sargon Latchin, collect a tonne of waste wax every month from London hotels and restaurants and turn it into beautiful new designs only serves to boost the feelgood factor. The idea came to Richard while he was working as a waiter and would often return to his flat with semi-burned candles that he’d melt down in a corner of his bedroom. “Now, we use Bertha, a 90-litre drum, which looks like a giant tea urn,” says Richard, in the workshop of his Exeter premises. “The wax pours out of a tap, a filter having removed the wicks.” It’s refined further to remove any impurities, before being brought up to temperature in a giant saucepan on the catering-scale induction hob ready for the addition of a fragrance and, on occasion, colour.
From August to December, Richard makes batches (for the shop and mail order) of his festive candles in traditional red and green using a Christmas tree mould that he was given when he was 12. Customers coming into the shop enjoy the subtle aroma of winter spice – think cinnamon and cloves – and the fact that Richard pops out from the back to serve them, often authentically covered in wax. “In a bid to keep up with demand, I’ll sometimes pull an all-nighter, just grabbing the odd power nap in between sessions,” he says.
Richard finishes work on Christmas Eve and, not being one to switch off for any length of time, is back in the studio by Boxing Day, doing what he does best. Then in the new year, people bring in the candles they’ve half-burned during the festivities and the cycle begins again. therecycledcandlecompany.co.uk;
Insta: @recycledcandles
Volunteer Llamau, Cardiff
“It’s all very well passing a homeless person and throwing them your small change, but they’re lonely and need someone to talk to,” says
Gina Hurley, who regularly sits with Cardiff’s rough sleepers to listen to their stories, and has done so since the 70s when her parents would take her into the city in late December with essentials such as clothing, toiletries and food. “This was our Christmas routine. For me it’s about giving time, having a human connection.”
Five years ago, the IT worker found the ideal charity for which to volunteer: Cardiff-based Llamau, which aims to eradicate homelessness and to provide education and training for young people and vulnerable women.
Drawing on her contacts in the music industry – she used to do social media and content management for record labels – Gina stages an annual soft rock gig at Christmas with an auction of memorabilia she has squirrelled away over the years. Spreading the word through Twitter and Facebook, she raises more than £5,000. The proceeds have been spent on getting people into the project houses, the Learning 4 Life programme, and gifting basic items. A regular on Just Giving, Gina also takes part in the yearly Sleep Out event when she spends a night on the streets in all weathers, and she organises the Sock it to Homelessness campaign in her place of work, City Hall, where people are encouraged to wear, not Christmas jumpers, but…you guessed it, festive footwear. llamau.org.uk
Postman Noel McCurdy, Rathlin Island
We all know that nail-biting wait for lastminute Christmas gifts to arrive in the post, but imagine it’s 23 December, you live on Northern Ireland’s most remote island and the ferry bearing your children’s presents has not been able to leave the mainland due to the weather. Tense. “There are a lot of worried people at times like these,” says Noel McCurdy, postman on six mile-long Rathlin. “One year, the boat didn’t make it over until Christmas Eve.
Usually there are three or four bags to deliver every day in December – that day it was ten.”
Noel meets the ferry in his van to collect the mail and to organise any outgoing post. In December, he doesn’t want snow as it can stop him travelling up steep roads. “It’s a case of catching people when they’re down from the hills and passing them their post,” he says.
Noel, who turns 71 this month, has been serving Rathlin’s households for 20 years, so knows everyone on the island and prizes the sense of community: “If someone needs a pint of milk or a loaf of bread and can’t get to the shop, then I’ll fetch it for them.”
At around 3pm on 24 December, Noel can relax, in the knowledge that he has delivered Christmas to the island. Then it’s all about family for him and his wife Teresa as they welcome their five sons and two grandchildren, all of whom are also residents of Rathlin. He’s back to work on the 27th, but for Noel that’s no hardship: “I live near the East Lighthouse across from the Mull of Kintyre and, although I see it all the time, I still think the views are beautiful.” royalmail.com