A Highgate flower shop is reclaiming Christmas from the patriarchy with a candlelit 'Mother Christmas' parade.
The Electric Daisy Flower Farm, a female led, eco-friendly outfit in Somerset with a store in Swain's Lane, is inviting women to the shop at 6pm on December 13 dressed in white.
They will be given an evergreen crown to wear for the parade across Hampstead Heath, which is inspired by a mix of solstice celebrations, Scandinavian festivals, and Saint Lucia, whose feast day is on the 13th.
The farm's founder Fiona Haser Bizony felt that after the pandemic, when mothers often had to shoulder the burden of home schooling and domestic work, it was time to give undervalued motherhood a boost.
"We are a female led farm, I'm a single mother and I know who makes Christmas happen," said Haser Bizony, who will follow the parade with late night opening and mulled wine.
"All traditions begin somewhere, so why not invent a Christmas one appropriate to our times? Let’s give mothers the credit they’re owed and teach our children that ‘Mother Christmas’ does exist. It will be a lovely thing."
With two children, and four grandchildren she jokes she should be "grandmother Christmas".
"My birthday is on 13th so we've adopted St Lucia as our winter muse. In Scandinavia they have a candlelit headdress procession on her feast day with girls which I've appropriated."
She adds: "My parents were atheists but I love Christmas. The tradition of decorating the house with evergreens goes back a long way. It's what the pagans did in the dark times, bring the outside in. Our ancestors wouldn't have seen much light in winter, so a parade with candles would have brought light to the darkness."
The Electric Daisy Flower Farm aims to bring seasonality back to floristry. They stop harvesting fresh cut flowers in November and use evergreens and dried flowers which are stored during the summer in winter wreaths and displays.
"We grow everything seasonally and organically on our farm," says Haser Bizony. "With COP 26, consumers are becoming more aware that our flowers don't cost the earth. We weren't allowed to open during the pandemic, but the supermarkets were selling flowers that were probably grown in countries where people aren't being paid properly and flown around the world with a high carbon footprint."
Electric Daisy Flower Farm is at 3, Swain's Lane and is holding two hour wreath-making workshops with dates in November 24 and December 1, 8 and 15. Price £80.
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