and bringing lots of toys and goodies (well, 6) on his sleigh - thanks to a tax rebate and the sale of two books.
I thought I'd miss out on next year's Random Acts Of Poshness Club, due to lack of funds and the fact that I was out at 8pm on Tuesday 6th when membership went on sale.
The Taxman and book sales took care of the first problem but I didn't get back from Singing Aloud rehersal until about 9.45pm. I didn't log on until after 10pm because places for
this year's cashmere club membership sold out in under an hour and I thought there was no point. Imagine my surprise and joy when I saw that there were still membership places for 2011's
Random 'sale'.
I chose the 'heavy weight' option which includes sock, double knit, and aran weight yarn. The 'randomness' comes from the unique colourways that will be allocated 'at random' to each of the 100 members. There will be only five skeins of each colour (20 colour schemes in total) in the bi-monthly consignment so they will feel more exclusive than the current Cashmere Club, where everyone received the same colour theme. As with this year's club, no one will know what colour they have until they open the PPP (Pink Posh Parcel). It's a Christmas present that lasts the whole year through.
The traditional Santa Claus with his reindeer pulling his sleigh became widely accepted in the early Nineteenth Century. The reindeer were first named in a poem, later accredited to Clement Clark Moore, published in the Sentinel, based in Troy, New York in 1823.
Legend has it Moore composed "
A Visit from St. Nicholas" for his family on Christmas Eve of 1822, during a sleigh-ride home from Greenwich Village. He supposedly drew inspiration for the elfin, pot-bellied St. Nick in his poem from the roly-poly Dutchman who drove his sleigh that day. But from what we know of Clement Moore, it's much more likely that he found his imagery in literary sources, most notably Washington Irving's
Knickerbocker History (1809) and a Christmas poem published in 1821 called "The Children's Friend."
