Traditions are a total hack

A Bignose & Beardy Christmas 🍎🍏

Here at BnB HQ, we like to have a few festive traditions. You can call it nostalgia if you like. 

But really, they’re like shortcuts. Traditions are a total hack at Christmastime. 

There’s a reason you like to know exactly what you’re doing, what you’re buying, where you’re going and when. It reduces “decision fatigue”. That’s why Steve Jobs always wore the same outfit. Because it freed up his brain for more important stuff.

Now, we’re not saying you need to 10X your Christmas, Supercharge your Season, or optimise the life and soul out of the party. But it sure does help with the organisation side of things if you’ve got some same-old, same-old reliable traditions to lean on.

Your shopping list is nice and predictable for a start. And if everyone knows you always sit down to eat at 1pm it helps people manage their pre-lunch snacking. It gives the chef of the household enough of a steer on when to stick the brussels on. 

If you want to reduce your decision fatigue further still, get someone else to tell you which cider to have with your cheese - try our tasting hamper. 

Who wouldn’t want to make fewer choices in an already bloody hectic time of year? Get some traditions in your arsenal.

Of course the tricky part comes when you try to deviate from those traditions, or when different households merge for the big day. “Oh but we ALWAYS open presents before breakfast!” versus “No presents until after the King’s Speech!” In the Beardy household there’s the happy medium of presents after breakfast. Civilised, see? 

Another stresspoint to navigate are the fusspots who go around with a binbag collecting all the wrapping paper versus the chaos goblins who like to leave a huge mess because it “feels more Christmassy!” Bring on the mess, we say. We draw the line at putting the Quality Street wrappers back in the tin, though. Instant jail for you. 

Here’s a couple of our existing traditions and a new one we’re trialling…

Mr & Mrs Beardy wrap the presents with Star Wars on the TV in the background. They use last year’s Christmas cards for the labels (living that eco ethos) and a bottle of fizz makes light work of the task. This year, a dash of Spirit Of Cider is going in to make a cocktail. 

Bignose has a nuttery as well as an orchard. He’s had a glut of hazelnuts, chestnuts and walnuts which will go into the Beardy family’s veggie main course. No such nutstuff for Bignose - a proper meaty household with turkey and homereared trimmings. Lovely. The chestnuts will make an appearance in the stuffing, though. 

Festivities used to start early for the Beardies (being part-German stock) when they clean and put their shoes out on 5th December for St Nicholas. 

✔️ If they’ve been good, he fills the shoes with sweets.
❌ If they’ve been naughty, he fills the shoes with sticks. 

Cue much giggling as the children came downstairs to find Beardy’s stick-filled shoes, year on year. Unfortunately, some traditions fade out as the children in the household grow older, start to resemble a prawn as they hunch over their phones, use fewer and fewer syllables, and sprout hair from new places. But there’s always the hope that one day (hopefully in the far, far future) the kids will be able to pass on those traditions to their own children.

Okay, so maybe it is about nostalgia as well as the hacks :)

Speaking of nostalgia and Old Saint Nick, Bignose & Beardy is (un)officially by royal appointment to HRH the King of Christmas, The Giftfather, Mr Santa of Claus. He said our cider made a nice change from sherry, just saying.

BN&B