Poetry for Christmas: "The Shortest Day"

Happy Winter Solstice!

by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome, Yule!

Winter Solstice — Happy Yule!

THE SHORTEST DAY

Copyright Susan Cooper 1974

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen,
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing, behind us — listen!
All the long echoes sing the same delight
This shortest day
As promise wakens in the sleeping land.
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, and hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year, and every year.
Welcome Yule!


Winter Solstice 2019: A Short Day That's Long on Ancient Traditions 

Farmer's Almanac: Winter Solstice 2019

EarthSky: Everything You Need to Know About the December Solstice

Susan Cooper's Classic "The Shortest Day" Made Into a Book

Vintage Christmas Books and Stories

We have found these various quaint vintage Christmas books online:

A Night With St. Nicholas

The Book of St. Nicholas (translated from the Dutch)

A Christmas Book: Origin of the Christmas Tree, the Mistletoe, the Yule Log and St. Nicholas

Some Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott:

"Tessa's Surprises"

"Tilly's Christmas"

"Rosa's Tale"

"How It All Happened" ("What Love Can Do")

"A Christmas Dream and How It Came True"

"Patty's Place" ("The Quiet Little Woman") (in an issue of St. Nicholas magazine)

Not properly a Christmas story, but takes place in the winter:

"How They Camped Out" ("Gwen's Adventures in the Snow")

The Longest Night

Everything You Need to Know About the Winter Solstice

Five Strange Facts about the Winter Solstice

Something for Everyone: A Solstice, Tonight!

Winter Solstice Arrives, and Here’s What It Means

The Shortest Day
"And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
to keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.”
                                            -- Susan Cooper
 

Books for Christmas!

Some reviews for the second Sunday of Advent:


The Old Magic of Christmas, Linda Raedisch
I had this on my Amazon wishlist, so was chuffed when I found a copy, brand new, in with the Christmas books at the Friends of the Library Book Sale. I think it probably surprised someone who took a look at the subject matter and disposed of it posthaste.

This is not a book about Victorian Christmases or charming olde world Christmas celebrations: this volume goes back, way back to the pagan era, and the different gods, little people (elves, kobolds, boggarts, etc.), mythic figures, and dark creatures hiding in the winter nights that so frightened and awed the population which fought a never-ending battle against cold and hunger. In its pages we meet witches, the Wild Hunt, dark St. Nicholases dressed in fur and smutched with soot, the Yule Buck and other animals long ago associated with the winter solstice; characters from Nordic legend and German tales, goddesses who later became associated with the Christian story of Christmas (St. Lucy, La Befana), the Yule Lads  who commit mischief and the Kallikantzari who are more sinister. Plants associated with Christmas are also discussed.

I have several books of pagan Christmas lore, and Raedisch still surprised me with Yule tales I hadn't heard. She also sneaks sly, humorous references to present media in the text, which keeps it from being a dry recitation of old legends. A must for those interested in the ancestral antecedents of the modern Christmas celebrations.

A Christmas Story Treasury, Tyler Schwartz
This is a thin but oversized gift book tribute to the now-classic 1980 film that did terribly at the box office (because it was pulled five weeks after release and wasn't available for Christmas) and became a tradition—and a hit—via cable TV. (I saw it for the first time on HBO; by the time I went to the theatre, it was gone.) It's chock-full of color stills from the film, tidbits about the origin of the story and its filming, and eight nifty buttons at the side that you can press to hear actual dialog from the movie. But wait, Red Ryder aficionados, there's more: an envelope in the back that contains goodies like Ralphie's Radio Orphan Annie membership card, a reproduction of the original movie poster, and more.

This book originally sold for $25, but these days you can get it for a more reasonable $10 on the remainder stacks at Barnes & Noble. At that price it's perfect for reliving your memories of Scut Farkas, not putting your arms down, Christmas themes, Chinese turkey, and shooting your eye out!