five in the morning
The seamstress who used to make up their homespun dresses had to come at this time , of course , and those were always two pleasant weeks -- when the women folk sat together and busied themselves with sewing . The cobbler , who made shoes for the entire household , sat working at the same time in the men-servants ' quarters , and one never tired of watching him as he cut the leather and soled and heeled the shoes and put eyelets in the shoestring holes . But the greatest rush came around Christmas time . Lucia Day -- when the housemaid went about dressed in white , with candles in her hair , and served coffee to everybody at five in the morning -- came as a sort of reminder that for the next two weeks they could not count on much sleep . For now they must brew the Christmas ale , steep the Christmas fish in lye , and do their Christmas baking and Christmas scouring . She was in the middle of the baking , with pans of Christmas buns and cooky platters all around her , when the driver drew in the reins at the end of the lane as she had requested . She started like one suddenly awakened from a sound sleep .