Stir Up Sunday

Stir Up Sunday is the beginning of the Christmas season for our household. The last Sunday before Advent is the traditional day for beginning holiday feast preparations in many UK homes. This tradition has traveled across the pond with some immigrants.

I am forever grateful for having grown up in a family still in touch with cultural traditions and I think that’s a shame that so many people are not. It’s this seasonal flow of festivals and customs that helps us to remember to take time to celebrate and enjoy life. It also helps to reduce the stress of a maker’s holiday season to prepare ahead of time.

The date was just a useful mnemonic for homemakers. I find it to be very sensible. It’s part of that very grounding seasonal rhythm that keeps me on track with household tasks. My stir-up Sunday was spent mixing up those ingredients I will need for traditional holiday baking that you can’t find in the US, including my mincemeat for pies. I also do an inventory and place grocery orders, so I have the baking supplies I need for the season. This type of planning is just one of the many things I try to do to set myself up for a less stressful holiday season.

At some point, it became customary on the last Sunday of Trinity to “stir-up” concoctions such as mincemeat, which need a good long time to sit on the shelf and develop flavor. While it seems counterintuitive to let these things sit for such a long time, there is enough alcohol in them to preserve them. The day takes its name from a verse in The Book of Common Prayer published in 1662 but seems to have taken on a much more secular meaning during the Victorian era as the following article details.

I think it’s interesting that this was written in the late 19th century, and they are still talking about mince pies and not Christmas puddings despite Dickens having popularized them in The Christmas Carol (1843). I would wager that the tradition of everyone in the family stirring the pudding is not nearly as old or as widespread as the people marketing canned puddings would have you believe.

Stir-Up Sunday is a comforting ritual that connects us to the past and provides a sense of rhythm in a hectic world. These old-fashioned traditions create moments of mindfulness that ground us which helps to sooth the nervous system. I think we all need that this time of year.

There’s something deeply reassuring about stirring ingredients that have been prepared in the same way for generations, filling the kitchen with scents remind us of better times. These rituals remind us to slow down, savor the season, and let these cozy practices provide us some solace and well-being amidst the busyness of modern life.

Since this is the proper day to stir things up, I thought I would announce my personal news that I am retiring from clinical practice to focus on this project full-time. I will be taking down the Naturally Simple website sometime at the beginning of the year. After almost 20 years I want to take it all down and start new here.