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The inspiration behind A Very Lucky Christmas
A Very Lucky Christmas was inspired by my childhood memories of my gran putting a sixpence in the Christmas pudding she used to make every year. Although I didn’t much like Chrissy pud when I was a nipper, I used to eat it purely in the hope that I’d be the one who was lucky enough to find the sixpence in my bowl. I think it was just a sneaky way of my parents trying to get me to eat some fruit.
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I invariably didn’t find one, until one time when I did and I almost swallowed it. Needless to say, Gran stopped putting sixpences into puds after that.
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But later in life, when I began writing romcoms, I remembered what happened, and I thought, what if someone swallowed a sixpence (they are quite small)… Which led me to writing A Very Lucky Christmas. And I had a blast doing it!
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The tradition of including a silver sixpence in the Christmas pudding goes back to Victorian Britain.
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Sixpence coins were widely used when Gran was alive and held symbolic value, representing prosperity and good luck. It was believed that finding a sixpence in your Christmas pudding would bring wealth and good fortune in the coming year.
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However, even before sixpences, people put charms or small objects in puddings. In medieval England, it was common to insert items like a ring, a thimble, or a coin into the pudding mixture. Finding the ring was said to symbolize a forthcoming marriage or romance. The person who discovered the thimble was believed to have a year of thriftiness ahead, and the coin represented wealth and financial prosperity.
Over time, these charms evolved into the more commonly used sixpence, which held the promise of monetary success and well-being.
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The Sunday before Advent, traditionally known as ‘Stir-Up Sunday,’ was the day when families used to make their Christmas pudding and each person took a turn to stir the pudding mix, from east to west, while making a wish. As part of this festive tradition, the sixpence is added to the mixture. I can remember my gran getting me to stir the pudding mixture before she put the sixpence in, and it marked the start of the Christmas season, as far as I was concerned.
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Here's a traditional Christmas pudding recipe. If you wish to download it (pdf), just click here.
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