I'm not familiar with some of those things... but a few years ago, when I was president of my ladies' reenacting group, I put out a challenge at Christmas for everyone to do something they had never done before, that their 19th-century counterpart would have done at holiday time.

I made a plum pudding from scratch, complete with hard sauce. I surprised myself at my own success. I didn't know what was going to happen.

This year will be my third plum pudding. :-)