#157: A Cumbrian Christmas Cracker – December 2025
- dave7057
- Dec 19, 2025
- 2 min read
...in which we select the best bits from our second Cumbrian Christmas Cracker, a celebration of all things festive in the historic counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire north-of-the-Sands.
In the company of historian and author Alan Cleaver; broadcaster and food historian John Crouch; journalist and historian Sue Allan; and musicians Carolyn Francis (fiddle and vocals) and Mike Willoughby (vocals, bouzouki and melodeon), we enjoy a miscellany of nostalgic readings, letters, poems, music and dialect – all recorded live at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.
Join Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley skating on Derwent Water; 'Hunsup through the wood' with the Christmas waits; take a gastronomic journey through Cumbrian culinary history starting with the Romans and their winter Satarnalia; and enter the weird world of wholesome lectures and gymnastics (no rice! no sugar!) at Blennerhasset.
Advancing in time, we hear letters from the 1914 Christmas Truce; attempt to make a turkey from breadcrumbs; head 'Down t'Lonnin'' with Sue; then descend on Keswick for the Old Folk's Christmas Do before playing out with the raucous 'Bleckel' Merry Neet'.
...All this and more in the penultimate Countrystride of 2025, before Mark signs off revealing the toys of his childhood, and why Santa won't be downing any bitter this year.
Mark and Dave extend to all listeners a very Happy Christmas.
If you'd like to be kept informed about future events, simply sign up to our newsletter midway down this page: ountrystride.co.uk
You can buy Alan's A Lake District Christmas, which includes various of the readings and poems from the Cumbrian Christmas Cracker – including 'Down't Lonning' here.
Sue's book on The Cumberland Bard – Robert Anderson of Carlisle can be found here.
Mike and Carolyn play in Striding Edge. More from them can be found here.
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