There’s a tradition that at the December meeting of Norwich Writing Teachers  there will be stollen and glitter, paper-folding and gold pens, terrible jokes and, probably, Father Christmas: the Truth. Stollen is tricky at an on-line meeting and some people haven neither glitter nor a gold pen, but we can still get into paper folding. I am amazed and impressed by teachers’ capacity to look at me waving bits of paper around on screen and translate it into their own books and wordy decorations. We do try and create some writing-based fripperies each year and these can often fill a corner in the last week of the Autumn Term.

Last week we made garlands from wintery, Christmassy words which I had road tested with four and five years olds -a great success. This week we made simple shaped single pamphlets with rather fancy pop-up inserts and a folded box that can house a tableau and has flaps for accompanying writing. I stuck with the nativity and then got carried away with the idea of a series of boxes charting Father Christmas’s journey across the world on various forms of transport. The idea was inspired by John Burningham’s picture book, Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present and, of course Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas.

Finally, we folded origami envelopes that can be hung on a tree and contain good wishes of all kinds. We learned how to make the envelope from The Travelling Bookbinder https://www.thetravellingbookbinder.com/2021/12/folded-pocket-decoration/  [worth signing up for her newsletters]. Of course, we missed the festive snacks, the chaos and bustle of the last writing group of the year, but it remains a pleasure to welcome people from across the country to our on-line meeting. (Contact us if you would like to join) Last night I was reminded of the companionship of writing together, the great pleasure to be found in frippery, and how much we learn from each other.