Thinking about Santa in spring might make your skin crawl – but festive fanatic Jane Malyon has a heartwarming reason for keeping her Christmas tree up all year round.
Christmas enthusiast Jane, 67, who lives in one of The Rodings in Essex, has her tree up, lights on and other little festive touches around the house, 365 days a year.
The mum-of-two also has a turkey in the freezer, a box of crackers on standby, and stockings at the ready – all in case her two children come home to visit.
Jane is ready to host Christmas for them at the drop of a (Santa) hat at any time of year – whether that be April or November – or multiple times. Her now grown-up children, George, 35, and Edward, 40, both live abroad, and rather than feeling the heartache of them not being there at Christmas, they have started a new tradition – which involves having Christmas whenever they walk through the front door.
Jane, who owns a small business called The English Cream Tea Company with her husband Roger, 67, says they are a very “Christmassy family”, but as circus-man George is often travelling for work and Edward lives in Canada, they aren’t often able to come home in December.
She told The Mirror: “We gradually got to the situation where I realised our tradition of having everybody round for Christmas and doing all the things we had done before, in that way, had evaporated. Those days had gone and I really tried very hard not to be sad about things.
“For example, my son Edward, who is in Canada, I don’t want to be sad that he’s far from me. I want to be thrilled that he’s leading a life he loves to live and that is more important than me wishing my boys were by my side. And so we just came to the realisation that we needed to celebrate Christmas whenever we could, any time at all throughout the year if we were together.
“So what I’ve lost in the way of a traditional, December, the normal thing that other families have, I’ve gained Christmas throughout the whole year.”
Instead of going through the pain of having taking their fake tree up and down, Jane and Roger decided they might as well leave it up – and it’s had pride and place by the piano for six years now. Every room has “little touches” and “nods” to Christmas. “It might be a doormat that’s got reindeers on it,” said Jane. “Every room has a little something. If you looked for it, you’d find it.”
For their family, the Christmas tree is a “symbol of family togetherness at a moment’s notice” and having it up all year round is a constant reminder of that.
Because they don’t often get notice when the boys are visiting, the couple have to be at the ready to create Christmas at a moment’s notice so she doesn’t lose “precious time” with their boys. When “free spirit” George lived in China, Jane says he “caught a plane, a coach, two trains and a bus to get to us” – and didn’t even mention he was coming home. “I can’t be wasting a quarter of a day of George time putting a tree up. I want it to be at the ready,” the mum said.
With “turkey and cranberry sauce on standby”, and after reading between the lines of her messages from George, she’s “just placed an order for two shirts” in case he turns up. “And I’ve been buying up Christmas stocking presents for him, so we will be ready if he appears.” If George does arrive, she will try to get Edward on Zoom so they can still feel like they are having Christmas together.
The family will open presents, eat Christmas dinner, sing carols, and Jane even has her Jingle Bells sound effects at the ready. “We’re quite musical and we will play together round the piano. Except my husband, who does not enjoy music at all, poor thing. He goes and makes that tea. And we’ll just make a racket and have fun. We’re not aiming to be the Von Trapp family, we’re just having a blast.”
While Roger doesn’t join in around the piano, he has his own incredible tradition which the whole village are invested in. In the stocking he creates for Jane, which he goes to the supermarket to fill up, he hides a £50 pound note. Jane explained: “But I mean, hidden with a capital H, like cocaine smuggling level hiding. So it’s been inside the banana, but he has superglued the banana shut, it’s been inside a satsuma, it’s been inside a walnut whip.”
According to Jane, who also shared her sweet tradition on her @afternoonteajane TikTok account, some trolls have cruelly branded her “lazy” her not taking her tree down – but most of the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Over 223k people have seen her viral Christmas tree video so far, with some saying it’s the “sweetest and loveliest” video they’ve seen and others saying it’s a “beautiful idea”. Another commenter simply wrote: “This warms by heart”.
In fact, after realising the lengths the teatime expert goes to, many people have begged Jane to adopt them. One person recently wrote: “Would you like a daughter? I would love a mum, especially a mum like you.”
“That has been the most interesting side effect of TikTok,” Jane explained. “The number of people that feel their inner child is not nurtured. And I would adopt everybody. I should open an orphanage for adults.”
While Jane puts a lot of effort into keeping the magic alive for her family, she says her children do the same to her. “George, who at one point didn’t earn very much money, would always think, what can he do for us,” Jane explained. “And he banned me from our living room on our so-called Christmas Day, and I was allowed in after an hour, and he’d lit 16 candles round the room, and he put on a Frank Sinatra record, he’d cleared the furniture, he’d dressed in a dinner jacket and he had his arms out, ready to dance. It’s just so darling. They are so sweet back to us. I didn’t know if they would get the bug of doing kindnesses for each other, but they so have. I live on these memories.”
Remembering a time where George left a message in one of her puzzle books wishing her a ‘happy Christmas once again,’ she continued: “I’m blown away by it. And so any sadnesses I would have about not being within the rest of the time. I’ve got these fantastic, memories in my heart of, either what we’re able to do for them or they could do for us.
“I think I’m the luckiest girl, really. I celebrate Christmas all year round and at a moment’s notice, we’re ready.”
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