Stir-up Sunday is Sunday, November 22, 2026, the last Sunday before Advent and the traditional day to mix your Christmas pudding. We haven’t found a ready-made Christmas pudding for sale in the five Skylands counties yet, so this guide shows you how to make one and where to buy what goes in it: beef fat for suet at Skillman Farm Market and Green Valley Farms, and brandy from Living Spirits in Hackettstown. You can also buy mincemeat pies from Pochuck Valley and TreeLicious.
The name comes from a prayer, not a spoon: “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people,” read that Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer since 1549. Cooks and schoolboys turned it into a kitchen joke, and families now take turns stirring and making a wish.
Made on November 22, a pudding has 33 days to rest before Christmas. Few American shops carry suet, treacle or mixed spice, so we’ve done the hunting and listed the swaps that work.
What you stir into a Christmas pudding
A dark steamed pudding of dried fruit, crumbs, suet, eggs and spirits. The fat is the hard part to find, so start there. Ask for fresh kidney fat, not bird suet.
Posted this seasonButcher · Skillman, Somerset
Skillman Farm Market and Butcher Shop
Beef fat at a posted price, the best local start for real suet. Suet is the firm fat from around the kidney, so ask for that cut.
“Fat $9.19/lb”
How to get it: Call ahead at (640) 230-1197 and ask for fat from around the kidney. 1932 US Highway 206, Skillman.
Posted this seasonFarm market · Wantage, Sussex
Green Valley Farms Market & Creamery
Beef fat, listed with the other cuts of its all-natural beef.
“Bones Beef Fat Beef Stix”
How to get it: Call (973) 875-5213 and ask for kidney fat before you drive over. 997 Route 23, Wantage.
Posted this seasonDistillery · Hackettstown, Warren
Living Spirits Craft Distillery
Bending Branch Peach Brandy ($58) and Rising Tide Gold Rum ($38), Skylands-made spirits for the mix and for the flame at the table.
“Bending Branch Peach Brandy (750ML Bottle) Small-batch Craft Brandy”
How to get it: Buy bottles at the distillery. 300 Valentine Street, Hackettstown.
Posted this seasonBrewery · Frankford, Sussex
Twin Soles Brewing
A maple milk stout made with syrup from Lusscroft Farms, for the many cooks who add stout to their pudding. It contains lactose.
“Sugarbush Haul Nitro Milk Stout w/ Maple syrup, 6.8% ABV”
How to get it: It’s on tap, so ask about cans or crowlers and check it’s still pouring. 555 County Road 565, Frankford.
Posted this seasonBrewery · Hillsborough, Somerset
Flounder Brewing Co.
Black Emerald Stout, when it’s pouring.
“BLACK EMERALD STOUT (varying availability)”
How to get it: Check availability with the taproom before you go. 2 Clerico Lane, Building 4, Hillsborough.
Mincemeat pies
Stir-up Sunday began as a mincemeat day, and mince pies once held real meat. The small British kind is still missing here, but these two whole pies aren’t.
Stock photo: Rob Wicks / Unsplash Posted this seasonFarm market and bakery · Glenwood, Sussex
Pochuck Valley Farms Market & Deli
A whole mincemeat pie from Diana’s Bakery at the farm market. It’s an American-style pie, not small British mince pies.
“Mince Meat $29”
How to get it: Preorder by phone: (973) 764-4732. 962 McAfee-Glenwood Road, Glenwood.
Stock photo: Dan Counsell / Unsplash Posted this seasonOrchard bakery · Hackettstown, Warren
TreeLicious Orchards and Just Made Bakery
A whole minced meat pie at $25.
“Minced Meat Pie $25.00”
How to get it: Order online and choose Just Made Bakery in Hackettstown for pickup, or call (908) 852-7191.
British puddings and holiday teas
If you’d rather someone else did the steaming, these tea rooms make the British desserts we could find.
Stock photo: Edward Howell / Unsplash Posted this seasonTea room · Flemington, Hunterdon
Teaberry’s Tea Room
Sticky toffee pudding, a date cake with salted caramel sauce, to eat in or to take home on a catering order.
“Sticky Toffee Pudding - $9 each”
How to get it: Eat in, or call (908) 788-1010 to order it to go. 171 Main Street, Flemington.
Posted this seasonEnglish tea room · Chester, Morris
Sally Lunn’s Restaurant & Tearoom
Take-out English desserts: Lemon Crunch Windsor Trifle, Apple Treacle, Bakewell tart and bread and butter pudding. The shop also sells foods imported from England, so ask whether a Christmas pudding is among them.
“over fifty flavors of loose tea and foods imported from England”
How to get it: Order take-out by phone at (908) 879-7731. Closed Mondays. The site warns that some prices are out of date. 15 Perry Street, Chester.
Stock photo: Brett Jordan / Unsplash Posted this seasonTea room and bakery · Lafayette, Sussex
Windsor House Tea Room & Bakery
Holiday Evening Teas in December: the 11th, 12th, 18th and 19th at 6:30 PM, and the 13th and 20th at 4 PM. The page gives no year, but those dates fit the 2026 calendar.
“Call or click here to place your $60 deposit to reserve your spot.”
How to get it: Reserve with a $60 deposit by phone at (973) 579-5300 or online, and ask what’s on the holiday menu. 86 Route 15, Lafayette.
A real Christmas pudding recipe
This is Mrs Beeton’s Christmas plum pudding from 1861, recipe 1328 in her Book of Household Management. It has seven ingredients, with no sugar, flour or spice. Halve it for a single basin.
- Fruit: 1½ lb raisins, ½ lb currants, ½ lb mixed candied peel
- Dry: ¾ lb fine breadcrumbs, ¾ lb suet, minced fine
- Wet: 8 eggs, well beaten, and 1 wineglass of brandy
- Halve the raisins, wash and dry the currants, and slice the peel thin.
- Mix all the dry ingredients well, then stir in the eggs and brandy. Everyone gets a turn and a wish.
- Press into a buttered mold and tie down tightly with a floured cloth.
- Boil for 5 or 6 hours, keeping the water topped up. Beeton hung the pudding to drain afterward.
- On the day, boil it again for at least 2 hours, turn it out, and top it with a sprig of holly.
- Warm a little brandy, light it and pour it over at the table, away from anything that hangs.
Beeton served hers a few days after making it. Long maturing is a later habit, and modern cooks often add dark brown sugar, a spoon of molasses, mixed spice and stout.
US swaps for British ingredients
| The recipe says | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Suet | Fresh beef kidney fat from a butcher, or the same weight of shortening, frozen overnight and coarsely grated | Suet melts slowly and leaves small air holes. Butter melts too early. |
| Black treacle | Regular molasses, one for one | Not blackstrap. Golden syrup is too light. |
| Mixed spice | Blend cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, ginger, allspice, mace and cloves | Pumpkin pie spice isn’t the same. |
| A pudding basin | Any heatproof bowl or steam mold | Beeton says it can even be boiled in a cloth. |
What most Stir-up Sunday pages get wrong
- It began as a mincemeat day. An 1823 letter calls it the start of mince pie season, and the first link to pudding that one food historian found is from 1881.
- The 13 ingredients are folklore. So is stirring east to west for the Wise Men. Neither has an early source, and Beeton’s pudding has seven ingredients.
- Parliament once asked about copper in pudding. A 1958 question cited 360 parts per million beside sixpences, against a 20 ppm limit. Silver sixpences had given way to cupronickel in 1947.
- Cromwell never banned pudding. Parliament’s 1647 ordinance abolished the Christmas feast but names no food. George I’s “Pudding King” title traces to the 1900s, not to him.
- There’s a pudding from 1969 that passed its lab tests. The University of Nottingham found no bacteria, yeast or mold, thanks to bound-up water, long boiling and a tight seal. One pudding isn’t a rule, though.
- Some American parishes keep it on a different day. The 1979 US Episcopal prayer book moved “stir up your power, O Lord” to the third Sunday of Advent, so the name can mean mid-December there.
Where these facts come from
We checked each fact above against a primary or standard source, and we’ve labeled the folklore as folklore. No source we found places Christmas pudding in colonial New Jersey, so we don’t claim it.
Still looking: know who makes these?
- A ready-made Christmas pudding. Do you make them to order, or know a shop that does?
- Small British mince pies. We found whole mincemeat pies, but no one selling individual ones.
- English Christmas cake. A rich fruit cake under marzipan and royal icing.
- Suet sold under that name. Does your butcher keep it? Tell us, and we’ll add them.
- Black treacle, golden syrup and candied peel. Which local store stocks them?
- A pudding-making class or parish stir. We found none near November 22. Is your church or kitchen holding one?
Questions
When is Stir-up Sunday 2026?
Sunday, November 22, 2026. It’s the last Sunday before Advent, which begins November 29 this year, and it always lands between November 20 and 26.
Why is it called Stir-up Sunday?
The name comes from a prayer that opens “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord,” read that Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer since 1549. It had nothing to do with spoons at first. Cooks and schoolboys later turned it into a kitchen joke.
Where can I buy Christmas pudding near me in New Jersey?
We haven’t found a ready-made Christmas pudding for sale in Sussex, Morris, Warren, Hunterdon or Somerset counties yet. Sally Lunn’s in Chester sells foods imported from England, so it’s worth calling them. The other way is to make one, and this page shows where to buy the ingredients.
Was Stir-up Sunday always about Christmas pudding?
No. Accounts from 1823 and 1830 tie it to mincemeat and mince pies, and the Oxford English Dictionary names mincemeat too. Pudding took over in the late 1800s.
Do you have to use 13 ingredients and stir east to west?
No. Both are folklore with no early source. Mrs Beeton’s 1861 pudding has seven ingredients, so stir however you like, and let everyone make a wish.
Why is there no plum in plum pudding?
“Plum” once meant raisins and other dried fruit. The name stuck after the meaning changed.
What can I use instead of suet in the US?
Ask a butcher for beef suet, and avoid the bird-feed kind. Otherwise use the same weight of vegetable shortening, frozen overnight and coarsely grated. Butter tends to melt before the pudding sets.
Can I put a coin in the pudding?
Be careful. A 1958 question in the UK Parliament cited high copper levels next to sixpences, and the minister suggested wrapping coins or adding them near serving time. The Royal Mint says to sterilize the coin and warn guests about choking.
How long does Christmas pudding keep?
Sugar and alcohol help it keep, and Nigella Lawson’s team suggests up to six weeks for her recipe, or a year frozen. A homemade pudding from 1969 passed lab tests at the University of Nottingham, but that’s one pudding, not a rule.
Every listing quotes the business or organization’s own post or page, with its date; we checked them on . Holiday plans change, so confirm before you go. Spot a mistake, or make one of these foods? Tell us.