St. Lucy's Day in the News

The History of Santa Lucia

Christmas - Santa Lucia Sweden - YouTube

Local Scandinavian Children’s Club to Present Santa Lucia Pageant

Holiday Traditions: Santa Lucia Lights Up Season for Swedes

The Feast of St. Lucy and Violence Against Women

Tree Dreams

Getting the tree up yesterday was almost an anticlimax!

Monday night I got the glider rocker out of the way, moved James' end table over about three inches, and vacuumed the space. Why I'll never know, because once James toted the tree upstairs, there were artificial "needles" everywhere.

Yesterday was my birthday and I took the day off. After sleeping late until eight and having breakfast, Operation Tree commenced! I had been dismayed when I first plugged in the tree because, once again, part of a string of lights was out. However, as I ate breakfast, it came back on. Have no idea why.

Put on some of my Christmas cassettes and spent about an hour fluffing and refastening lights to branches. Then I unloaded the wooden box that used to be the stand for the tree when we had "Sara," who was a shorter tree. I put the boxed ornament sets on one side, the unique glass ornaments in the middle, and the plastic/cloth/resin ornaments (this includes the Hallmark and the Carleton ornaments) at the right. I started with the sets because most of them are the older ornaments. I put them to the back of the tree, facing the foyer. They glimmer as brightly, and it's hard to see from down there that they are faded. A few of the sets are new, like the four chickadee ornaments and the six bright silver holly balls, and those go at the front, along with the satin balls. Next I started putting on the larger glass ornaments, like the 1930s car with the wreath on it, the sailboat, the parrot, etc., then the medium-sized ones, like the pine cones. Each time I found a small one, I would put it aside as a filler ornament. Finally I placed the ones made of other materials than glass. Again, any small ones were set aside. The "wrapped gifts" were scattered mostly to one side, the pine cones one to either side, and others dotted around. Finally the small ornaments were fitted into small holes.

After about three cassettes I remembered that, hey, it is my birthday and I can break into the birthday gift I bought myself. On Black Friday, the Sullivan Entertainment site had the remastered, widescreen version of Anne of Green Gables and the remastered sequel on sale for half price (I wasn't interested in The Continuing Story, which Kevin Sullivan made up whole cloth—it was Anne and Gilbert's children who were young adults during World War I, not Anne and Gilbert!—nor the New Beginning, which turned Anne's backstory in the original book into a lie). Half of $30 each was certainly a good savings, although the postage nearly made my hair turn white. So I put Anne on and it was really splendid, especially the scenes of Prince Edward Island countryside! Cried in several places, stopped to eat, then girded my loins and began to tinsel. Once silver was spilling down the back of the tree, I pushed it inch by inch into the corner, then finished the front. It's like a lovely silver waterfall down the height of the tree.

I cleaned up as I went, so there was little to vacuum up, and then I set the manger down, lovingly piece by piece, between the V of branches I made at the bottom of the tree and lined with appropriate ornaments: the lion and the lamb, two different Hallmark shepherd boys, stable animals surrounding the baby, a lamb, and St. Nicholas. (St. Francis I left up near the bird ornaments.)

I was already hurting anyway, so before and after James coming home and eating supper, I finally vacuumed the rest of the main floor, since it wasn't worth vacuuming until James got the tree upstairs, and then those everlasting stairs. I also swept the downstairs hall, put the stools back in place, vacuumed out the "Christmas closet," and put the last few boxes put back, and vacuumed out the laundry room.

Before bed, to make sure Willow didn't go near the tree, I brought out all the presents and surrounded it.

Let's say my back wasn't happy when I finished, and, boy, when I had a chance for a nap today, despite it being in the 40s out, I fell asleep happily under my blanket until the alarm went off (heck, I went immediately into REM sleep, dreaming about a blackout at the house, and my rear-view mirror falling off).

Kringle, Kringle, Kringle

Woke up with aching shoulders and arms from trying to keep warm last night without flipping the comforter over me. Couldn't stop for that nonsense; had things to do and places to go. Ate breakfast, then was off to the house of "the Prim Lady," who is retiring from the business and selling off everything this weekend. There was quite a little clot of ladies there, all telling her how much they will miss her. Her husband was outside talking to some of the customers and showing off their backyard, which overlooks the Indian Hills Country Club golf course. They have a swell house: the part where she sells out of is a covered, outdoor patio and a little downstairs room with a bath, and also the garage. She was also selling off some antique furniture. Nowhere to put it, and what I wanted most was the old icebox like my grandpa had in his cellar, but that wasn't for sale anyway.

I got a few things for me, and a few things for gifts, and told her I'd miss her and showed her the picture of the little tree I got out of her bargain bin a few years ago which I have decorated with pipe-cleaner wreaths and circles, and discount ornaments, and it looks really cute at work.

Next I needed to post my Christmas cards and half of my packages (the others weren't packaged yet), but I also needed a "pit stop." Cobb County public building across the street to the rescue! Gee, if I had to go to the tag office [license plates], I'd come here. There were two people in line, instead of the line out the door at the office on South Cobb Drive.

Got through the post office pretty painlessly, although it hacks me off that you can't buy stamps in any quantity less than twenty anymore. I wanted to buy just four Hanukkah stamps, but they wouldn't let me.

Checked out a [mumble] store for a gift, then stopped by Trader Joe's to replenish chicken salad and chicken sausage, and also bought a variety of Christmas treats for desserts that should last us through December. No more almond bark, though! And no pumpkin tarts! {Tried just one of the honey mints tonight; three ingredients: mint-flavored honey centers covered in dark chocolate. Oh...my! Very subtle mint taste at first, with no grainy sugary mint feel, and a nice mint aftertaste.)

Was going to stop at a hardware store or a Walmart on the way home for replacement Christmas light bulbs, but the roads were choked with Christmas shoppers, so I ended up just stopping at Walgreens and buying a new string. The library tree has at least seven lights out, most of them blue for some strange reason!

I got home and had a bit of something for lunch, then went downstairs. In just a little while I had the silver airplane tree up and decorated, placing the heavier, larger planes on the top of the bookcase next to the tree. Then I attacked the problem of the new tree. Yes, we have a new tree. It's four feet tall, black and prelighted with white bulbs and is what we are supposed to use for our new "space" tree (fiction and fact). Except there's no space for the space tree. I toyed with putting it in the spare room, but...no.

What I did think of was doing it as a wall tree (or espalier tree, whatever). So I decanted it and moved the all the branches to one side and...you know, I could do this. I took down the Ken Jenkins print in front of the laundry room and hoisted the black tree up using two sets of tinsel cord, using the mounts for the print. Then I decorated it with all our spacecraft and space-related ornaments, the larger ones like Freedom 7 and the moon buggy first, and then the smaller ones like Spock and Robby the Robot, and finally the small ones like the spaceship miniatures that used to be on the foyer tree. Then I added the silver star "drops" I bought at Garden Ridge, added the tinsel star that is usually hung over the airplane tree (replaced the star with the small wreath that was on the laundry room door, replacing that one with an even smaller red-and-green wreath I'd bought at Garden Ridge) at the top, and then took a wide strip of some gold wrapping paper and cut icicle-like triangles at the bottom edge. This I wound around the big plastic lump at the base of the tree where the tree-stand feet would have gone, to simulate flames. I finished just as James came home and told him to come in through the garage.

I think he likes it. And he got the "flames" right away, so I did it right. :-)

China Palace had stuck a delivery menu in our mailbox, so we tried them for supper. Rather bland, I thought.

Then, with determination and the new string of lights in hand, I went downstairs and denuded the library tree of lights and applied the new. Now, on my list of things I love to do, putting lights on a Christmas tree is right down there with watching baseball and scrubbing out the shower compartment. But this pretty much went on correctly the first time. By the time James came down to keep me company, I was on my way to overloading the poor tree with all our literary-related ornaments, from the specific Hallmark (and other) ornaments like Bonnie Blue and Rhett Butler and Dorothy Gale and Harry Potter to animals and people representing books taken from bins of figures at Michaels or Richard's Variety Store: Robin Hood and Long John Silver and Merlin and Black Beauty and Lassie and Pongo, and more. Even Hazel from Watership Down. :-) Last went on the bead garlands.

Then I vacuumed up the library and came upstairs. I'm going to put the woodland tree in the spare room.

But meantime I wrapped the other three gifts that needed to go out. I was remiss this year and forgot to save Amazon boxes, with the result that one of my gifts will need to be shipped in two parts. What fun. But that's all ready to go to the post awful tomorrow.

It wasn't until eleven o'clock that I sat down to do my annual December 7 viewing of The Waltons' Pearl Harbor episode, "Day of Infamy." When Grandma hears that first radio report about the attack, the hair on my arms still stands up.

We Interrupt This Decorating...

I was at work all day yesterday, so nothing much Kringly happened during the day. However, James and I brought the box with the village  upstairs last night, and I had a good time placing the houses and businesses, and then the trees and little figures.

I have some new lights this year. Previously I had four single light strings tied together on one side, and three on the other. It made quite a wad of cord behind the houses, which is why I have so many trees, to cover the cords. This year, as I bought a replacement single cord from one of the fall houses I keep on the mantelpiece the rest of the year, I noticed they had strings of three lights and of six lights using one cord, and ordered them as well.

The clips don't work as well as the plastic ones that came with the houses; I had to fiddle with them to get them to stay in the light holes. But, oh, so much better having just one cord back there! I had also planned to replace the white bulbs with the yellow ones I had bought. But to my surprise, the "white" bulbs actually have a tinge of yellow in them, so when they light up they look just like incandescent light bulbs as they would have had in buildings of the 1940s. All-in-all, very satisfactory.

Today I teleworked and was pretty busy, finalizing plans for the vaccine storage order and starting four new orders. At lunch time I did open the box with the Rudolph tree and put up the little decorations that go on the CD bookshelf: Jim Shore angels, sheep, two "new house" ornaments from 2006, and other odds and ends ornaments. Cleaned off the secretary next to Schuyler's cage (when she eats fruit she tends to toss bits of it everywhere) and put up the musical ornaments.Also decanted the box with the stuffed Rudolph toys (CVS put out a dozen of them one year and my best friend bought them all for me), which go on the hearth, and joined the new Linus piece up with the "Peanuts" wireless band, which goes in front of the television. Also put decorations up in the spare room and our Italian and Scottish decorations in our bedroom.

Started to put up the Rudolph tree itself after supper, but instead had a prolonged bathroom sojourn. Did finally have a chance to put up the bathroom decorations, though.

Christmas Blasts from the Past

Some links in honor of the 48th anniversary of the original broadcast of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Back in 1964, it was shown on a Sunday afternoon, replacing a broadcast of the General Electric panel game College Bowl, hosted by Allen Ludden (originally hosted by Robert Earle), as part of the "GE Fantasy Hour," which also presented other Rankin-Bass [then known as Videocraft] productions like The Ballad of Smokey the Bear.

Original "GE Fantasy Hour" introduction from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the commercials that were originally aired with the special (in black and white only), using the elves from the special. This includes a Christmas greeting from the cast, a commercial for GE College Bowl, which was pre-empted by the special, and a voiceover from Andy Williams advertising his upcoming show.

And here are the original Rudolph credits, which now only survive in black and white. Notice Billie Richards' (the voice of Rudolph) name is spelled properly on the packages (not toys) that the elf is dropping out of the sleigh.

And this isn't from the far past, but it's Verizon's hilarious take on the Island of Misfits from a few years back, as well as AFLAC's take on the characters.

St. Nicholas Day in the News

St. Nicholas Day: Who is St. Nicholas and why is he celebrated before Christmas?

St. Nicholas, Santa's Predecessor, Celebrated Worldwide Dec. 6

Advent Fact - December 6 is the Feast of St. Nicholas

The Real Father Christmas

Community Celebrates the Feast of St. Nicholas



Kringle, Tony Abbott
This was an appropriate book to finish in time for St. Nicholas Day!

Kringle has never known his parents. For the past twelve years he has been brought up in a hidden glen by an older woman named Morwen. His favorite tale is of the night he was born, when a fleeting sparrow dashing through Morwen's cabin caught the end of a special bell carried by Kringle's mother and the resulting sound gave Kringle his name. And it is in the midst of this story told once more that the fearsome goblins that stalk the Earth attack their home and send Kringle straight into a nightmare of adventures.

Abbott has woven an epic fantasy simple enough for children to read but grand enough for adults to enjoy in a story set in post-Roman Britain (or at a point where the Romans have almost abandoned the country), mixing pagan elements with the new religion of Christianity, and the lore of the northland (elves and goblins) with real-life historical events (the presence of rune stones, the Saxon invaders). Kringle's first thought is to help rescue Morwen, but it is clear he has been chosen for a larger journey: is it to live with the elves that save his life? rescue the runestones? Or is it to rescue the children enslaved by the goblins, who are plotting a terrifying future? Abbott also introduces items and characters that will later play a part in Christmas traditions.

My own minor quibble: Kringle talks to himself too much. (Granted, I do it myself. And I definitely wouldn't want to read about it!) Otherwise, a splendid fantasy tale with some full-page illustrations and sketched chapter headings, and, in the hardcover edition, a fabulous brightly-colored cover with Celtic overtones.

On the Second Day of Decorating...

I'm taking a little break. I was up at 7:30, and the first thing I did was iron the runner for the dining room table and finish that. I decided to put what I call "the 1910 tree" in the middle of the table. This is dicey because, while the ornaments are secure, the bead garland falls off if you breathe funny. Will just need to be careful.

Have the divider items and "Schuyler's things" and the console table in the hall packed up, the console cleaned and ready for the Rudolph tree, and the divider decorated, with the snow garland and "Bandit's angels" and the stockings hung.

I'm taking the break because I took the entry carpet out and beat it, then washed the foyer floor after I started a load of towels. It's positively tropical out and at that point it was only 10:45. Wish Florida would keep its freepin' weather to itself!

I'm feeling headachy and groggy today because it was so warm last night I had trouble falling asleep. I finally had to pull the comforter back and use the light fleece instead, and then later I got cold, but just around my shoulders. I guess after the dreams I had Sunday night about the reorganization at work—I would have preferred dreams about killer zombies; it would have been less scary—I wasn't in a hurry to fall asleep.

While the floor dries I'll glean ideas for the Christmas letter to go in the cards. They're all written out. Knock on wood, when I go to the Prim Lady's sale on Friday, if I can get the letter written and printed, I can mail the cards. But there's still the packages... ::weeps::

Probably need to change into tank top and shorts to continue the decorating, though.


The Gift of Christmas, edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Amy Newmark
Yes, as you can tell from the editors' names, it's a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book of brief, inspirational Christmas stories, the newest one.

I consider these perfect books for bedtime. You can read a story or two, or half a dozen to a dozen if you are so inclined, and fall asleep feeling good about people. Not every story has a happy ending—Mom or Dad die of cancer, life goes on with its inevitable conclusions, but people are still uplifted by faith and it's comforting. My favorite story in this volume is about the adorable little boy who wanted "soft sheets" like his Mom's; yes, his best Christmas gift that year was high-thread-count sheets! It really stood out among the children wanting more conventional gifts like dolls and trucks!

Humorous stories are mixed amongst the more sentimental fare, so the sweetness level is tempered.

If you're a "Chicken Soup" type person, you'll enjoy this.



(Later: Didn't get a whole lot more done. The library was very dusty and I would not put the shelf decorations up without dusting them first. Did get the foyer decorated and also put the lighthouse vignette up, put the lights and lighthouse in the bathroom, and ironed all the surface covers. I started to put up the library tree, but at least seven lights are out. I either need to break down and get a new set of lights or get replacement bulbs. The shelf for the village is upstairs, but it was suppertime by then and I was just too wiped out.)

Decorating, Ho!

The first day of Christmas decorating always goes by slowly because before Christmas goes up, Thanksgiving has to come down. I guess I should have started earlier, but I really felt guilty starting before Advent.

Ticked because my alarm did not sound this morning. My timer app has quit working after working perfectly last week. And I really wanted to wake up, because I was having a horrible dream about the reorganization at work.

So, what I got done today:
     •• The ceppo is up (drat, doesn't fit on the new shelving, so don't know what I'm going to do with the little feather tree);
     •• Santas are up, so the new shelving is decorated;
     •• Kitchen is decorated;
     •• Console leading into the dining room is done;
     •• Mantel is cleared off;
     •• Decoration on landing is done;
     •• Porch is finished;
     •• Lights are in the windows downstairs.

All Thanksgiving is put away.

And the Christmas cards are written out. I just have to put together the newsletter.

[Later: Okay, I put up the prims on the pass-through and decorated the feather tree. I'd do the table but I need to pull out the iron to press the table runner. I'm not doing that at 8:30 at night!]

Listened to First Sunday of Advent choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 today, from St. John's Chapel in Cambridge. So lovely!

 
Ruth & Skitch Henderson's Christmas in the Country, Judith Blahnick
I don't usually buy Christmas books with so many recipes in them, but this volume was picked up used and I couldn't resist the beautiful photos of the Hendersons' Hunt Hill Farm, which still exists as a trust. I remembered Henderson as Johnny Carson's bandleader; he worked with many Broadway stars and singers, a few of who are shown in photographs. But the best thing about this book are the glorious color photographs, some of the Hendersons' feasts, but most of the snowy farm in Connecticut where they founded a cooking school. There are commentaries for each Sunday of Advent and St. Nicholas Day, and even of the German customs that Ruth Henderson brought from her family, all the way through Epiphany. For the cooks in the crowd, a great variety of recipes, some from other countries, but mostly all-American treats. Most appealing to lovers of the country, cooking aficionados, and nostalgia freaks who remember The Tonight Show's orchestra leader.

Light Bulb and Broom Stick

(With apologies to Mary Norton!)

I started out this morning as La Befana. Literally. After breakfast I was out on the front porch with my broom, having moved the chairs and the glass table out to the driveway, whisking away leaves, dirt, and bits from previous decorations. It's the first Sunday of Advent, time to start Christmas preparations and sweep all the old liturgical year away. Advent is a waiting time.

James soon popped down the stairs to decant the Christmas lights from the garage. While he was putting together the Moravian star and untangling the lights, I pulled out the pruning shears and trimmed the two bushes on either side of the St. Francis statue; you could barely see him because the bushes had put out so many shoots which I never had time to prune. You can see him now, at least from the front walk (the bushes in front of him are still too high). I then started to stretch out the blue lights to go on the tops of the bushes.

Putting up the lights takes some thinking because you have to make sure all the electrical plugs face in the proper direction. Last year James put up one of the light sets upside down and the male end of the plug was at the top rather than at the bottom where it needed to be. So for a while you are just like the "linemen" who, back in the days when electric Christmas lights were invented, had to come to your house to professionally install the lighting "outfits."

This year James bought some tree wraparounds for the columns instead of our having to wind the lights around. A good thing, too, because, along with the two strings of lights where half the lights were out, we had three other strings of lights that would not work! Bizarre because they worked all of December and the beginning of January last year! Luckily I had bought two more blue strings last year and another two this year.

We had all sorts of problems, the last which almost sent us fleeing to Lowes until James' trusty mototool solved it. The most miserable one was the wretched sun. We should have been up earlier; by the time we began the sun was already swinging around toward the front of the house and was in my eyes. Clapped on a baseball cap and plodded grimly on. Finally by 1 p.m. it was all up and we were starving. Did one more thing before we left: went back to being La Befana again and swept out the garage! Drove out to Folks at Hiram for lunch and popped in quickly to Five Below, then drove to Lowes anyway to get a shorter extension cord. I bought a new timer which can supposedly be set up many different ways, and a heavy-duty triple tap to use with the old timer in case it didn't work. Also stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond to use coupons.

Miserably warm all afternoon, up to 74°F, and the sun felt like needles in my skin. Wretched weather anytime, but in December it is particularly heinous.

Oh, heavens, when we got home one of the net lights on a column had come free and was starting to fall down. James' stars, which he bought at Ikea, had also come unplugged. He had to climb up the ladder again to re-fasten them, and then I messed with the timer. I thought I set it up perfectly, but it kept turning itself off, so I finally just turned it on and will shut it off at bedtime and mess with it again tomorrow. Everything must always be complicated.

One change is definitely for the better: we always strung a set of blue lights between the columns, and they overwhelmed the lighter blue of the Moravian star. This year we set it up a bit differently, with the Ikea snowflakes (a pale white) strung between the columns. This shows up the Moravian star to better advantage. The colored columns brighten up the unrelieved blue.

Finally James got down all the Christmas boxes for me so I could at least put the candoliers in the two front windows, glowing a jolly blue.

Incidentally, so much for LED Christmas lights! Every single LED light set we had had a dozen or more light bulbs out!!! Bad enough the miniature lights are cheap Chinese crap, but the "long life LEDs" sure aren't! Not to mention that without the blue LEDs, the blue bulbs look ethereal again rather than radiation blue.

So Advent has begun, and with it Christmas preparations, when the house makes its long, long turnover from autumn to Yule.

Postponed Joy

Well, snellfrocky. Today is usually the morning I go to the Apple Annie Craft Show, but I had our extra phone batteries/chargers scheduled to come today by FedEx and a signature was necessary. I knew FedEx Guy would not be early!

First thing I did was sleep in...until 8:40! What a luxury! I'd woken up cold last night and so snuggling was so very cozy. Then I got up and had breakfast and put Christmas carols on the television. I finished my book reviews for November (surreptitiously sneaking into the bathroom to finish up Quirky QWERTY, which I started last night—it wasn't a long book). Cleaned off the front of my desk. Went downstairs and shelved all the books that have been piling up down there since before September. Have filled a box with books. James and I figure that perhaps we can just keep the books—donating them is giving us no especially bargains at tax time—and then every so often take a ride up to McKay's to trade them in. God knows there were more books I could have bought yesterday.

Once that was done, I vacuumed the stairs and then finished indexing our vacation photos, and did a backup of the entire hard drive. By this time it was nearly 1:30...and the doorbell rang! It was FedEx! I decanted the batteries posthaste, stuck them in to charge, and dressed quickly to head out to Apple Annie, stopping at Publix on the way there to get money and paper towels.

I had a nice stroll amongst the craft booths. Some really pretty stained glass in one booth! Many things I couldn't afford, but loved, like the small themed Christmas trees and the beautiful Christmas quilts (a small foot-throw was $90, but I know all the work that goes into them). The papyrus lady recognized me. I bought a pretty print of The Seasons and a gift (plus a small extra gift). The prim lady was there for the last time; she is retiring. Even though she's having a going-out-of-business sale next week, I did buy a few things, including a cute gift. I was attracted by a blue, Nordic-design winter hat made by one of the mission countries (St. Ann's is a LaSalette church), so I bought one.

My favorite part of Apple Annie day is going in the Garden of Reconciliation. At this season it is somber, with brown leaves scattering the walks. There is a small statue of St. Francis at one end and one of the Virgin at the other, plus a cross. In the middle of the area is a small waterfall with a weeping figure beside the pond, and overhanging that area is a scarlet maple. The top of the tree was "blown," but the bottom was still a brilliant red, painting a lovely picture. I stayed for a while, and then was able to walk into the sanctuary of the church. It was dark and quiet, and I said some prayers and felt so peaceful.

Came home just before James did, so decided to take the fall/Thanksgiving items off the porch. Right now I can only replace it with the Christmas wreath and the St. Nicholas banner, but it's a start. :-)

Spotlight on Holiday Classics: "Merry Gentlemen"

Year: 1978
Network: BBC
Stars: Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, Peter Davison, Carol Drinkwater

The BBC's well-loved adaptation of James Herriot's hit bestseller about his 1930s veterinary days, All Creatures Great and Small, was into its second season when this warm and loving little Christmas story was presented. Each episode usually presented at least three of Herriot's literary stories combined in a cohesive tale—and not necessarily taking place when Herriot set them. The three stories used in this episode, for instance, did not take place at Christmas (and a later episode featured a story that was set at Christmas in print, but not on television) and were slightly changed to fit the Christmas theme. In the first subplot, the vets try to save a donkey foal, the pet of a little gypsy girl, that has caught tetanus, and in the second, the pampered Pekinese dog "Tricki Woo" has come down with jaundice due to an inappropriate diet supplied by his doting owner, Mrs. Pumphrey.

Two humorous tales intertwining with the two animal dramas are Siegfried's tasting of Mrs. Hewison's Christmas cake and his efforts to keep brother Tristan from finding out what is kept in the long-locked dining room at Skeldale House, all connected by their efforts to have a "real Yorkshire Christmas with all the trimmings."

This episode just reeks nostalgia, from the Skeldale house set with its "homely" wallpapers and shabby furniture that so reminded me of some of my older relatives' homes, and an atmospheric scene with James and Tristan in the kitchen where the wind "wuthers" around the house along with an opening scene with carolers. Later the men of the household go out to the woods to gather holly and cut down a Christmas tree—not the shaved perfect trees of today, but a natural fir eventually decorated with the old-style Christmas bulbs, baubles, and tinsel. Robert Hardy is especially effective as the often manic Siegfried and James and Helen's romance always seems fresh and appealing. Donkeys, dogs, secret rooms and Christmas cake combine for a lovely Yuletide bauble of its own.

Spotlight on Holiday Classics: "Silly, But It's Fun"

Year: 1977
Network: BBC
Stars: Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith, Paul Eddington

In this Christmas edition of one of Britain's best-known comedy series, The Good Life, shown here "across the pond" as Good Neighbors, Tom and Barbara Good, who several years before scandalized their conformist suburban neighborhood—especially their social-climbing next door neighbor Margo Leadbetter and her executive husband Jerry (the Goods' best friends)—when Tom chucked his job and the two began to practice self-sufficiency in their sizable back garden, complete with a goat, pigs and chickens along with their vegetables. Plots revolved around the Goods' efforts to survive, whether growing veg for their larder or bartering for goods.

By the time this Christmas special aired, the Goods were well involved in their lifestyle, making simple holiday preparations like newspaper paper chains, a "bonsai Christmas tree" made of a discarded top of a larger tree, a Yule log centerpiece, and Tom's home-made Christmas crackers, wrought with newspaper and a framework of toilet paper rolls. Meanwhile, Margo gets in "high dudgeon" when the Christmas tree she orders is six and one-quarter inches too short and therefore sends back the van with her entire supply of festive supplies: tree, decorations, food and all. When the company won't deliver the correct order on Christmas Day, Margo and Jerry face a bleak day—until the Goods arrive.

Especially if you have seen the series and are invested in the characters, this is a funny and charming story of the two mismatched couples and their holiday preparations and celebration. There's a hilarious exchange with a deliveryman, the dispatching of Jerry's "political chickenpox," the party games (Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington play so well off each other, as do Richard Briers and Penelope Keith), and the final scene is the perfect capper. The Goods illustrate handily what Christmas should be, not expensive doo-dads and perfunctory parties, but the sharing of good fellowship. A warm and cozy story wrapped up in homemade holiday glow.

Lift a glass of "peapod burgundy" and enjoy!

"Stir Up" Your Sunday

With nothing to do with horses and stirrups!

In Great Britain, the final Sunday of the Liturgical year, the Sunday before Advent begins, is "Stir-Up Sunday," taken from the Collect for the day from the Book of Common Prayer:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Since a good Christmas "pud" needs to rest for some weeks before Christmas, it was traditional to bake the pudding on Stir-Up Sunday and then put it in a cool dry place until the holiday.

Stir-up_Sunday

Stir Up Sunday and Christmas Pudding Traditions

Stir-Up Sunday and Christmas Pudding

John Lewis: Stir-Up Sunday

Over the River And Through the Woods (and the Stores)

It's been an eventful two days!

We usually spend Thanksgiving with our "friends who have become family," but this year my mother-in-law and sister-in-law invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them. Accordingly, we were up at eight o'clock to get dressed and walk and feed Willow. I shouldn't have done it, but I gave Schuyler a break on her medicine this morning. I figured she needed something to be thankful for, too. We left the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on for her and commenced to traveling.

Before leaving, we stopped at the new Race Trac gas station on Spring Road. This is a huge gas station that has just been opened for a few months. It's not quite as big as the "travel stations" on the freeway and  has no showers, but it's got a huge selection of food. I was Bad with a Capital B: got a pack of Hostess chocolate cupcakes for breakfast. I haven't had them in, literally, years! Also got a big container of sliced Granny Smith apples to share with James, and both papers, the Atlanta and the Marietta, and perused the sales ads for tomorrow for about half the ride down to Warner Robins, when I took over driving.

We hit town about 11:30. Wow, the city limit is almost to the freeway now. The city already had their Christmas decorations up, and when we drove past the stores at the edge of town, we saw people camping out for Black Friday (and "Grey Thursday," as they are calling the Thanksgiving night openings) in front of Best Buy even there!

Finally got to bring Mom her birthday and Mother's Day gift, as we hadn't been there since last Christmas: James was either working over the weekend or something else came up or we were away or they were busy. I made this with grapevine wreath with yellow forsythia wound in it with a hint of purple flowers, with a purple ribbon and some purple butterflies for trim.

We had a nice relaxing afternoon. The end of the parade was just scrolling by and we watched the National Dog Show and then football. We had dinner about 2:30 or so. Sadly, Sabra and her fiance were unable to join us as she wasn't feeling well. And, like my dad before me, I dozed off on the sofa. :-) Later we had dessert, but my stupid digestion picked that time to be a brat, even though I ate only a very small portion of turkey breast, James' biscuit stuffing, and some more olives along with some milk. I could barely eat a sliver of pumpkin pie and apple pie.

With a beautiful sunset on the horizon, we left for home. Neither of us slept well, and James was getting so fatigued on the way up that I took over driving at Locust Grove. I had sorted out the sale papers when we got to the house, and now I cut out the things I wanted to look into today and placed the name of the store and the opening hour on them. I cut a couple of Wally World and Best Buy items, even though both stores were opening tonight and I didn't expect to find the items left over.

James was off today and when I first asked him if he wanted to go with me he demurred in favor of sleeping late; however, he was awake when my alarm rang and was close after me. I gulped down some yogurt as James walked the dog and then I grabbed two Atkins bars, one for each of us.

I was headed for Sam's Club, which had Brave on Blu-Ray for $10. (Almost thirty regular price!) We were early, so we stopped at Walmart, which also was selling the same Blu-Ray. We couldn't find it, but we did find Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. It wasn't on sale anymore, though, but it was still pretty cheap for a Blu-Ray, so I bought it. It was a fortuitous stop, because James' One-Touch diabetes testing gadget was throwing error messages, and Walmart had one for $10.

BTW, this Walmart was nearly empty! Opening last night sure cut down on the crowd this morning. I don't think there were a dozen cars there.

So we got in line at Sam's, where people were turning back in droves because they were out of cell phones and large-screen televisions. We did get Brave and I picked up something else that I can't mention because it will hint at another gift. I also picked up James' Christmas gift.

Just for the heck of it, we did go down to Best Buy, and, again, because it opened last night, there was hardly anyone there at 7:30. To our surprise, they had season five of The Big Bang Theory still in stock, only for $9 (they wanted $30 at Sam's and $35 full price at Best Buy!), and I found Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows on Blu-Ray in a bargain bin for $4! So I bought it anyway and later took the Walmart copy back.

Meanwhile, we went across the street to Office Depot. James was looking into getting a new laser printer. His printer, the color one, messed up some time ago when he was trying to print out some decals. They stuck to the roller and made a god-awful stink and it hasn't printed well since, plus ink doesn't stick to labels (yes, laser labels!). I've dreamed of printing Christmas labels on it, but it just flakes off them. Then we discovered that by the time he bought color cartridges for it, he would have spent enough to buy a new printer. So he found a nice Brother, but it wasn't in stock; we're having it shipped to the store.

I got another gift, a spare wireless mouse, some Christmas labels, and a desk blotter for work.

By this time, we were ravenous and went to the IHOP for breakfast (another place that wasn't crowded). James can now eat off the senior menu, too, so he had the sampler and I had the senior French toast. The drinks (his cola, my milk, and the two orange juices) nearly cost as much as the meals! Played on the wifi while there.

Then we headed for Cost Plus World Market. This year they are giving away Life of Pi tiger ornaments—and more free movie tickets! Also got something to finish up a gift basket.

By now it was going on time to head for the hobby shop. Today and tomorrow are the last two days they will be open (ironically they're going out of business on Small Business Saturday). (On the way we stopped at MicroCenter and I was able to pick up another gift.) The shop was very crowded (gee, if the crowd had been this big when they were doing regular business, they wouldn't be going out of business) and I sat and read as always as James made his last purchases.

If you thought it was time to head for home, well, not quite yet. We went back to Sam's to check on something, and while we were there I got more Chex and James some chips for his lunchbox, and James got me a copy of Call the Midwife for Christmas, then we bought gasoline for the car, and returned the DVD to Walmart. On the way home we stopped at Publix to get some lunch and picked up some turkey wings for dinner (that's all they had in dark meat). Even after all that turkey yesterday, we were still in the mood for more today!

James wondered if I felt like going out again. You see, we've both been having problems with our cell phones. Mine has had trouble getting a GPS signal and the speakerphone is not working properly on James'. He had an interview a month or so ago that I think was negatively impacted by the fact that the speakerphone did not work properly. So we went to the Verizon store, casting covetous eyes on the new Galaxy S III. But those were $200 each, so we went instead with the Galaxy Nexus instead, which had a complete price rebate. Of course we had to give up our unlimited data plan to get new phones, but we rarely go much over 2GB a month, so we could get a very small plan. It took a while because their (Windows) computers were working improperly, but everything was eventually transferred over and we could come home.

So now it's just a matter of re-downloading everything.and setting things up. Fortunately, these units also come with changeable batteries! I was hoping not to have to get a phone without that feature, remembering all the people at DragonCon scurrying to plug their iPhones in at every meeting room I was in! And the 4G is mighty quick; in fact, it's faster than the T1 line at work!

Exhausted when we got home, but did cook up the turkey wings—really the "drumettes" from two turkey wings—which we had with gravy and James' leftover stuffing, and a thin slice of Entemann's chocolate loaf cake each for dessert. Watched the news and Jeopardy and the repeat of the dog show, and I finally put on a couple of Lassie Christmas episodes to relax to.

Spotlight on Holiday Classics: The Thanksgiving Treasure

Year: 1973
Network: CBS
Stars: Lisa Lucas, Jason Robards, Mildred Natwick, Barnard Hughes, Franny Michel

This was the first of three sequels to the Emmy Award winning The House Without a Christmas Tree, which first aired in 1972. The story is set in the fall of 1947 where young Addie Mills, now eleven years old, is "horse crazy," initially in ecstasy over an autographed photograph of Roy Rogers and Trigger ("Smartest horse in the movies!" declares the photo) she brings home from the post office. She hitches a ride with her dad when he embarks on errands and meets crabby Walter Rhenquist, a reclusive farmer who, in the past, asked her father to dig a pond on his property. When the pond didn't hold water, Rhenquist didn't finish paying James Mills, and the two men have been feuding ever since.

Addie cannot help but remember Rhenquist when her class has a lesson about Thanksgiving and making strangers into friends, so, when she can't talk her friend Cora Sue into inviting Rhenquist to her aunt's home for dinner, she devises a way to secrete food away and bring the old codger a Thanksgiving dinner. From this small beginning a friendship is born, set alight by a pinto horse named Treasure.

This is a "slice of life" nostalgic story on the level of Capote's A Christmas Memory. Filmed cheaply on videotape like other specials of the era, it nevertheless evokes strong memories of the past, from the radio play the schoolchildren put on to the traditional Thanksgiving mural at the back of the classroom, the old-fashioned Thanksgiving meal side dishes one rarely sees today (creamed onions, chestnut-flavored dressing) to the vintage clothing, and even the grimy, tattered interior of Rhenquist's house, which reflects his depression since the death of his wife, and the rural Canadian countryside that stands in for 1940s Nebraska so perfectly that you feel you are back in the postwar era. Indeed, one of these scenes features Addie and Cora Sue trading corny old riddles during a bike ride as real 1940s kids might have done.

The key word is "real." The nice thing about the protagonists is they do not dissolve into sloppy platitudes, even at the end of the story: Addie's gruff father shows his "softer side" only in tentative bits, a thawing Rhenquist fights his growing affection for Addie, Addie herself is neither a "girly girl" who overdoses on pink or a brainless idiot; a fine scholar, she's also an often prickly heroine who is bossy and who criticizes her best friend with words like "dodo." The one sweet character, Grandma Mills, still has the backbone to take the brunt of her son's exasperation with his daughter and is not a person who allows herself to be bullied. She is also tender but honest: in a moving scene, she talks to Addie about her husband's death and how she nearly gave in to despair, until someone read her the following passage: "When people leave on a boat, everybody says 'There they go,' but on the other side of the horizon, they're saying 'Here they come.'" She concludes, "I thought it must be something like that, and then I could let your grandpa go." Cora Sue is more shy and introverted than Addie, a perfect Diana Barry to Addie's Anne Shirley.

Only The House Without A Christmas Tree is available on DVD, but you can find this special on VHS tape under the title The Holiday Treasure (so that CBS could sell it with the Christmas videos). Both are well worth your time if you like thoughtful drama.

Thanksgiving Video

•  Bewitched: "Samantha's Thanksgiving to Remember"

•  The Burns and Allen Show: "Thanksgiving" (from 1951)

•  A rarity: Calvin and the Colonel: "Thanksgiving" (this is an animated television series from 1962 that was created by Freeman Godsen and Charles Correll, the same folks that gave the radio and later the television world the famous but controversial Amos and Andy; this time the leads are a scheming fox and a dimwitted bear)

•  A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (this is considered a classic, but, personally, it aggravates me—Peppermint Patty is such a bully in this; Charlie Brown shows a real spirit of Thanksgiving for putting up with her, and his grandmother is very gracious!)

•  The History Channel's The Real Story of Thanksgiving

•  "The Pilgrims," a 1955 Educational Film

•  Hanna-Barbera'sThe Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't

Martinmas

November 11 is also the feast day of St. Martin of Tours. A soldier in the Roman army, Martin is most famous for his act of kindness to a half-clad beggar during a snowstorm. Despite the jeers from his fellow soldiers, Martin took his sword and cut his huge cloak into two pieces so that the man might have half. Later it was revealed that the beggar was Jesus Christ in disguise.

Martin took holy vows soon after, and became so well known for his piety that he was sought out to be a bishop. He did not want the honor and intended to hide from those seeking him. He finally hid himself inside a pen with a flock of geese. However, the geese made such noises of alarm at the human hiding in their pen that the men seeking to make Martin a bishop found him easily. Goose is a traditional dish for St. Martin's Day.

"According to old Czech weather lore, it is the first day on which we can expect snowfall because Martin may arrive on a white horse." In some Northern climes St. Martin's Day was considered the first day of winter.

Back when Advent was forty days in length, like Lent, four days after St. Martin's Day would be the beginning of Advent.

Celebrating St. Martin's Day in Germany

St. Martin's Day

Martinmas

By the Light of the Bonfire

The folks in Great Britain now celebrate Hallowe'en in the manner of the United States, with costumes and trick-or-treating children. However, the older autumn celebration for the British has been Guy Fawkes Day. Fawkes, a member of a group which wished to restore a Catholic king to the throne of England by means of violence, was captured and convicted of treason. November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, commemmorates this thwarting of "The Gunpowder Plot."

The classic rhyme which accompanies this holiday is as follows:

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November, 
The Gunpowder treason and plot; 
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason 
Should ever be forgot! 
Guy Fawkes and his companions 
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive. 
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England's overthrow. 
But, by God's providence, him they catch, 
With a dark lantern, lighting a match! 
A stick and a stake 
For King James's sake!
If you won't give me one, 
I'll take two, 
The better for me, 
And the worse for you. 
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, 
A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, 
A pint of beer to wash it down, 
And a jolly good fire to burn him. 
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! 
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! 
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

A Brief History of Guy Fawkes Day

Guy Fawkes: A Biography

Those who read about the history of Christmas in the United States will know that Guy Fawkes Day was also celebrated in the British colonies, where it was known as Popes Day. As in England, effigies were paraded in the street, but these were effigies of the Pope, not of Guy Fawkes.

Today the British still celebrate "Bonfire Night" with fireworks and bonfires.

The Feast of All Hallows

Catholic.org - All Saints' Day

The Church Year - All Saints Day

Time and Date: All Saints' Day

About.com - All Saints Day

All Saints and All Souls

All Saints' Day in Sweden

Pumpkin Grinch

We didn't do trick or treat this year.

My initial reaction was like Dark Willow: "Bored now."

Really. Even in costume it's no fun sitting on the stairs for two hours waiting to give out candy while the rest of the household is in comfy chairs upstairs getting to watch a real television while I'm stuck with bits and pieces on a laptop. (The only place I'm comfy in costume is at science fiction conventions.) This delayed end of Daylight Wasting Time has made it even worse. On Eastern Standard Time it's dark by six o'clock, and you're done with everything by eight. Now it doesn't get dark until 6:45. Who was the wretched idiot in DC who thought up this nonsense? (Oh, wait. Wretched idiot. Washington, DC. That describes 98.2 percent of the population.)

I love seeing the little kids come by. They are always adorable. I love the ones who are too little or too awed to speak, especially at the lady with the spider in her hair (me, last year). I like even the larger ones, in costume. Too many "Scream" masks for my taste, but at least they make the effort.

What I don't like is what my mom used to call "the big horses," the older kids and teens who slouch around, no costume, with a grocery store bag for treats. If you want a treat, at least work a little for it, okay? Put on a leisure suit from granddad's closet or even a basic set of Groucho glasses. And, really, if you're six feet tall, trick or treating? Really?

What I don't like is when you run out of candy, shut the lights, and people continue to ring the doorbell. Last year we had kids pounding on the door at 9:30! Heck, some of our older neighbors go to bed at 9:30.

So this year I said the hell with it. I had things to do at work right until we left on vacation and no time to decorate for Hallowe'en at lunchtime (I didn't even take lunch the day before we left; I had a Microslop Word document that was scarier than any zombie out there). I wasn't going to decorate Sunday or Monday while coping with three loads of laundry and airing out suitcases. And by yesterday, who cared? Not to mention that I was unable to leave work early today like I wanted to—traffic is alway horrendous on Hallowe'en—and it took me nearly 90 minutes to get home.

I turned out every light at the front of the house when I got there, including Mom's horse lamp in the foyer, which is always on, and we had only one light on in the living room besides the television, and I never turned on the lights on the porch. Despite that, half a dozen doorbells rang, including one going off when I wasn't three mouthfuls into my supper.

To you who had big yard displays, dressed in costume, took your kids out door to door, I hope you had a blast! For the first time since 1995 I had a nice Hallowe'en: I spent the evening with my husband, our bird, and our dog. I didn't have to gulp my dinner and get indigestion afterwards. I sat happily watching Jeopardy and then It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; the For Better or For Worse Hallowe'en special "The Good-for-Nothing," and the remarkably cheesy television movie from the 1970s, Midnight Offerings, with "sweet little Mary Ingalls of Little House on the Prairie," Melissa Sue Anderson, as a bitch of a teenage witch (her innocent counterpart was Mary Beth McDonough, Erin of The Waltons).

In the spirit of the evening, then, Happy Hallowe'en!

Hallowe'en Shorts

Disney's Haunted Halloween — an educational short with bits from Disney cartoons and the Haunted Mansion.

Skeleton Frolic — a cartoon directed by Disney's former partner Ub Iwerks.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — narrated by Bing Crosby.

"I'd Like to Eat Color, and Drink It, and Sleep in It..."

Fall always reminds me of one of my favorite passages from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:

It was a glorious Indian summer day, which suggested nothing of Thanksgiving, near at hand as it was. It was a rustly day, a scarlet and buff, yellow and carmine, bronze and crimson day. There were still many leaves on the oaks and maples, making a goodly show of red and brown and gold. The air was like sparkling cider, and every field had its heaps of yellow and russet good things to eat, all ready for the barns, the mills, and the markets. The horse forgot his twenty years, sniffed the sweet bright air, and trotted like a colt; Nokomis Mountain looked blue and clear in the distance...

A gorgeous leaf blew into the wagon.

"Does color make you sort of dizzy?" asked Rebecca.

"No," answered Emma Jane after a long pause; "no, it don't; not a mite."

"Perhaps dizzy isn't just the right word, but it's nearest. I'd like to eat color, and drink it, and sleep in it. If you could be a tree, which one would you choose?"

Emma Jane had enjoyed considerable experience of this kind, and Rebecca had succeeded in unstopping her ears, ungluing her eyes, and loosening her tongue, so that she could "play the game" after a fashion.

"I'd rather be an apple-tree in blossom,--that one that blooms pink, by our pig-pen."

Rebecca laughed. There was always something unexpected in Emma Jane's replies. "I'd choose to be that scarlet maple just on the edge of the pond there,"--and she pointed with the whip. "Then I could see so much more than your pink apple-tree by the pig-pen. I could look at all the rest of the woods, see my scarlet dress in my beautiful looking-glass, and watch all the yellow and brown trees growing upside down in the water. When I'm old enough to earn money, I'm going to have a dress like this leaf, all ruby color--thin, you know, with a sweeping train and ruffly, curly edges; then I think I'll have a brown sash like the trunk of the tree, and where could I be green? Do they have green petticoats, I wonder? I'd like a green petticoat coming out now and then underneath to show what my leaves were like before I was a scarlet maple."

A Much-Belated Decorating Project

I saw a similar idea to this once in a crafting magazine and said "What a cute idea!" So I began to assemble the parts. During post-fall sales I bought a packet of artificial leaves. At Walmart I bought little crafting clothespins.

Do you know how much trouble I had finding string? I mean, garden variety string! You used to be able to walk into any grocery store and find string, which would be used for tying up roasts. Italian moms used to tie up bragioles with them (a kind of meat roll with a thin-sliced steak for an exterior with all sorts of goodies inside: cheese, garlic cloves, chopped up lunchmeats, etc.). Or you could get it in Woolworth's or any five-and-ten, in the hardware section.

By the time I found the string (really a brown twine), I'd misplaced the leaves and the clothespins!

So a month or so back I bought more clothespins. And today I bought more leaves.

And "viola!" as Snagglepuss used to say:

The little tabs you see are "fall phrases":

"Gingerbread weather," "Fall forever!" "Pumpkin pie," and "Wonder-FALL!" above.

"Fresh crisp apples," "Autumn blessings," "Bright fall colors," and "Falling leaves" below.

And that's it, all clipped to the twine.

The Autumnal Equinox

Happy, happy fall!

Here, feast your eyes on all these beautiful autumn images!

Who doesn't want to walk down this road? Maybe it's chilly enough to be wearing sweats and a light jacket. The air is crisp, with the delightful scent of autumn leaves.

Welcome, Fall!

I'm not waiting for the equinox; it's been too long in coming. Meteorological autumn began September 1, and I'm hanging my hat on that!

The following link was posted in one of my Christmas groups a week or two ago, and if you grew up in the middle of the last century as I did, you'll recognize many of these items. It's quite a smorgasbord!

Vintage Christmas Images

(Note: For some reason I couldn't get this to open in Firefox. YMMV. It works fine in Chrome. Warning! There are a lot of pictures to load!)

Rudolph Day, August 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Visits to Santa, Christmas trees, sugar cookies covered in icing, stockings, copious gifts, visits to relatives—all parts of an American Christmas. But what about those of other cultures? Do they have any counterparts in our culture?

Masked players called "mummers" once were very popular in Great Britain. Today in the United States we still have the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia.

Christians in the United States often have a "manger scene" or nativity set on a table or cabinet, or even under the Christmas tree. The French have the same, but of more figures than the Holy Family, the Magi, and shepherds—a complete village, in fact! Read about santons in Provence.

In Mexico, the nativity sets come alive! Read about Las Posadas.

Shopping before Christmas? The most famous places to shop for Christmas things in Germany are the Christkindl markets, especially in the city of Nuremberg.

Where is a New Year's Eve party still a bigger event than Christmas? Journey to Scotland to learn about Hogmanay.

A new Christmas custom is "the Elf on the Shelf." An old Christmas custom in Norway are the nisse, or barn elves. Versions exist all over Scandinavia. Feed them some rice pudding on Christmas Eve or you'll be sorry!


A Christmas Companion, Maria Robbins and Jim Charlton

This is first and foremost a recipe book, with interruptions of North American and European Christmas customs (Africa, Australia, South America, and anything east of Greece and Eastern Europe is missing in action, except for Russia). The authors briefly discuss Christmas customs in Britain, France, Germany and Austria, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Central and Eastern Europe, Canada, Russia and the Ukraine, Scandinavia, Spain and Portugal, and finally in the United States, with special chapters about Santa Claus and Christmas traditions. Each chapter then lists receipes specific to that country or region, and the Santa chapter is all cookie recipes, of course.

This is a simple book to provide you with basic Christmas customs and would be a good book to introduce a child to Christmas in many lands. The recipes range from simple to complicated, and give a good summary of holiday foods—you can make your own "seven fishes," like the Italians, or discover what "figgy pudding" is, and even sample some colonial dishes. The illustrations are black-and-white vintage illustrations on the Dover clip-art level. Best found, as I did, at a library book sale, but still of value.

Rudolph Day - July 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

It's Happy Christmas in July! Perhaps you watched QVC's famous "Christmas in July" sales over the past weekend. Or perhaps like some folks, especially people in the Southern Hemisphere, you celebrate a chilly Christmas in July with all the traditional foods.

Perhaps it's stereotypical, but thoughts of Christmas preparations bring to mind Santa Claus' most beloved helpmeet, his wife. His story has certainly pre-dated hers, but when did she first appear? Wikipedia sums it up quite nicely:

Mrs. Santa Claus

One of the most famous representations of Mrs. Claus is Katharine Lee Bates' "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh-Ride."

Here's a neat discussion about a side of "Goody Claus" you might have never thought of.

And a bit more about Mrs. Claus' American origins.

How about Mrs. Claus astrologically?


The Guideposts Christmas Treasury
This is a little gem of a book with short essays, stories, and poetry devoted to the spiritual aspects of Christmas, published, of course, by the Guideposts folks. This particular volume is from 1972 and reeks 1970s with its opening fonts and illustrations of clean-cut guys with the "dry look." However, many old standards are here, from Dorothy Canfield Fisher to Pearl Buck to Taylor Caldwell, to short inspirational pieces and poems taken from "Guideposts" magazine. This is a perfect book for bedside reading during Advent and Christmastide.

Hallmark Ornament Premiere

We had things to do today, so we got to the Hallmark Ornament Premiere late in the afternoon, and we didn't go out to our usual store, but just went to the mall. Several of the ornaments I was interested in, like the "Two Turtle Doves" and "Up on the Housetop," plus the quirky "Santa's Rooftop Racer" that James was interested in, were already sold out there. Perhaps it was my mood because of work, but I didn't see a lot that really interested me. I bought the miniature cloisonne blue jay and the "Peanuts" Thanksgiving ornament (how often do you see Thanksgiving ornaments? the rest were all stinky Hallowe'en), and James got this year's airplane.

I did, however, join the ornament club, even though I wasn't that crazy about the three ornaments offered, just to have access to one of the ornament club-only ornaments, this:

It's "Mrs. Claus' Cupboard"—and, to quote Daisy Dalrymple, "Isn't it spiffing?" They offered it in white last year and I really didn't like it, but in brown it is absolutely lovely. If  you were in a tiny, tiny apartment, you could put a couple of Christmasy bottle-brush trees on either side of it and have a complete Christmas in microcosm.

Will probably go back in the upcoming weeks to see if they've restocked.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Rudolph Day, June 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

The year is halfway around in its course, and it is now six months until Christmas. That means it's also "Leon Day" (Leon being "Noel" spelt backwards.) Since the "main man" of the secular Christmas is Santa Claus, let's see what he's up to on the web:

Santa Claus Loves Christmas

Santa Claus' Home

Santa Claus' Village in Lapland

Santa Claus' Favorite Christmas Music

The History Behind Santa Claus: Saint Nicholas

 
Seven Books to Read Every Christmas
Please note most of these are out of print. If you're interested, hit bookfinder.com, Amazon Marketplace, or e-Bay. And, why yes, some of them are children's books. Some of the best books ever are children's books, and you don't need to be a child to read them.

 A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
You've probably seen this as a movie or a television special. The story was done as a silent film as far back as the turn of the century. The first animated television Christmas special was about Dickens' Carol, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol to be specific. And perhaps a Dickens novel is not what you want to tackle; after all, isn't he voluble?

Fear not, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in seven weeks, as a message to more fortunate Londoners to help the poor. For its brevity, it's full of memorable descriptions and even more memorable characters—who even marginally familiar with English literature doesn't know who Ebenezer Scrooge is? Dickens' descriptions of London at Christmas both good—the lovely Christmas market, the love exuded by the Cratchits—and the bad—the realities of poverty in 19th century England—make vivid pictures that remain in your mind long after you finish reading. An even better reason to read the tale: even the longest film adaptation of the story doesn't contain all the aspects of the novel. Did you know on his travels with the Spirit of Christmas Present Scrooge visited a lighthouse? a coal mining village?

 The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel
The Tuckers series of children's books was published in the 1960s by Whitman: father, mother, five rambunctious children, a big shaggy dog and a cat. Most of the novels are typical children's adventures (befriending the new neighbors, spending a summer at the beach or with relatives, participating in sports). But this Christmas story is a little gem.

Seven-year-old Penny is often sick and wonders about her place among her healthier, boisterous siblings (sixth-grader Tina, aspiring cook; twins Terry and Merry; and younger brother Tom). After being ill before Christmas and unable to participate with her siblings in a school Christmas program, she wishes the family might spend the holidays at their cottage at the lake. To her delight her doctor declares her well enough, and the family arrives prepared for nonstop fun for the holiday. Instead, the children are propelled into an adventure involving a marauding cougar and the danger it brings to a stranded woman. The kids play in the snow, find a Christmas tree, bake pies, and do other fun activities that don't involve staring at a screen or manipulating a game controller. But the heart and soul of this book is Penny's search for her own special talent, something that will serve her while she "sits still and takes pills," and it gives the novel a sweet, timeless quality with an ending that will leave tears in your eyes.

 Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost
This is one of a series of four books about a Vermont farm family, the Clarks, in the late 1940s that vividly brings life on a small family property alive. The Clarks raise much of their own food, as well as supply milk to the local dairy and sugar off in the spring, and their bountifully old-fashioned Christmas is like a greeting card come to life: the children snowshoe in the woods to find natural decorations for the house, eldest Toby rebuilds a sleigh to use behind Windy Foot, his dapple-grey pony, and also helps defend the stock when a bear prowls the neighborhood while waiting for mail-order gifts to arrive, the family goes into town for shopping at a delectable general store and caroling; there is snow, skiing, ample food from the farm, and even an unexpected, special gift for Toby's younger sister. In addition, there's excitement involving a marauding bear and a sports accident. The best part is the family warmth and love which encircles one like a blanket and you're sorry when the final page turns and you have to leave the Clarks on Christmas evening.

 Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky
As the Depression deepens, Minnie Swift and her family are feeling the pinch more and more. They are closing down rooms in their home to save coal, eating an endless series of almost meatless meals seasoned with quantities of cheese, and noticing with reluctance that their father comes home from work earlier every day and locks himself in the attic with his typewriter.

And then a distant cousin comes to stay with them, Willy Faye, a girl raised in the Dust Bowl and now an orphan. Minnie discovers she's never seen a movie, never heard of Buck Rogers, never eaten a peach. So she figures that Willie Faye will have a lot to learn from her family. She doesn't realize what the family will learn from Willie Faye.

Kathryn Lasky based the characters in this book on her own grandparents and aunts and uncles, and one of the sisters' boyfriends on her father, and her affection for all of them shows. Minnie's family includes a precocious only brother who builds radio sets at the same time he makes childish jokes and a fashion-designer-in-the-making sister who can make stunning, novel outfits from scraps of fabric and old clothing. The story rings with hardship, or the family associates with those dealing with hardship (several chapters take place in a Hooverville), and yet they manage to rise above it.

If there's one problem with the story, it's the slightly fanciful epilog (all the "Dear America" books have one, which chronicles the later lives of the characters). I would have been pleased if the future turned out well, but having it turn out wildly successful for everyone was a bit much. Still, the main tale itself is magic.

 The House Without a Christmas Tree, Gail Rock
Based on the 1970s Christmas special by the same name, this is the story of 10-year-old Addie Mills, a smart, spunky fifth grader in the small town of Clear River, Nebraska, who is being raised by her laconic, introverted father and loving grandmother. Addie has wanted a Christmas tree during the holiday season for years, but her father has always refused on the grounds that it's a waste of money because they have Christmas at a relative's home. It's only when Addie wins a tree in a school contest that the real truths come to the fore.

This is a lovely short novel about an intelligent girl and a father who could have been labeled "mean" or "cruel." Instead, we slowly find out some family secrets. The story also paints a simpler time when kids shopped at drugstores for a beloved teacher's gift, homemade decorations sufficed on a Christmas tree, and the big treat for an afternoon was baking gingerbread men.

(I don't usually push DVDs with my books, but the DVD of this story is well worth finding. Lisa Lucas is perfect as slightly bossy Addie, Mildred Natwick properly motherly as her grandma, but Jason Robards shines as the withdrawn father with a secret heartache.)

 The Homecoming, Earl Hamner Jr.
This short novel formed the basis for a television movie of the same name, which became the pilot film for the long-running Depression-set series The Waltons, about a Virginia backwoods family poor in material goods but rich in love. If you've seen the film, you will still find in the book points of interest, as not only were most of the characters' names changed for the movie, but some of them were slightly softened for 1970s television: for instance, in the book the father character is a bit of a gambler and drinker (although not to his family's detriment!) and the "John-Boy" of the book smokes a cigarette while hunting for a Christmas tree on his own. While the movie is much more rough-hewn than the series was, the book is even more realistic, giving a truer portrait of the harshness of the times.

 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
This is a deserved Christmas classic about a family of six undisciplined (literally), half-wild children who are growing up with little supervision and who are the terrors of their elementary school. The Herdman children's divorced mother works double shifts at a factory to support them, and they receive little love and much fear from their classmates. Then the whole kit'n'caboodle of them get involved with the local church's Nativity play.

This is a very funny novel, not just from what happens when the kids join the Christmas pageant, but from some pointed commentary from the narrator, an unnamed child whose mother is in charge of producing the pageant. Her quirky descriptions of her friends (including one little girl she describes as "so squeaky-clean that she had dishpan hands by the time she was four years old"), events at home (I particularly love her father's attitude), and the pageant preparations are sharp and funny. This is a feel-good book with a message that is handled humorously and in a non-heavy-handed manner.

To Those Who Died in Normandy

Some D-Day links for the day:

D-Day - June 6, 1944 - the United States Army

American Experience'sD-Day episode page with links to memorabilia and enrichment.

An overview of the invasion.

How to plan a tour of D-Day sites. This would be an extraordinary thing to do. You could also visit the Imperial War Museum in England.

Dick Winters, one of the "Band of Brothers," is honored in Normandy.

102-Year-Old War Veteran Recalls Seeing D-Day

Rudolph Day, May 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Do you like to look at other homeowners' Christmas decorations to get inspiration for your own? Or just like to look at Christmas decorations period? Well, here's a feast for you:

2011 Christmas Tour of Homes

684 homes are linked in this blog post. Pick a home, any home...

 
Christmas 1945: The Story of the Greatest Celebration in American History, Matthew Litt
It was a unique Christmas in the history of the United States: for the first time in five years, they were not at war. Servicemen were returning home, toys and luxury goods were starting to trickle back into the market, and the lights were back on, all over the world—even if some of those lights revealed ravaged buildings and ravaged lives.

Bookended by chapters about President Truman and family celebrating their first peacetime holiday, Litt uses personal stories and newspaper records to capture the elation and thankfulness of the American public at Christmas 1945. The book first describes wartime Christmases of rationed food, curtailed travel, nonstop war work, and, worst of all, sons and daughters, fathers, uncles, boyfriends and girlfriends, under fire on both sides of the Earth. The subsequent chapters chronicle Christmas among the servicemen still left on duty or hospitalized, in the cities and in the towns, even, in a curious little chapter, in the nation's prisons. News articles combine with true-life stories of servicemen trying to get home, children surprised with gifts, and feasts at home and overseas.

This is a great summary of the post-war feelings of joy, relief, and celebration following the end of World War II. One might hope for a few more personal stories and fewer newspaper accounts, but the volume was never expected to be comprehensive, and it is a great overview of nationwide celebrations. Sadly, only a few pages address the feelings of American Jews following the events of the Holocaust, and African-American disappointments of returning home to a society that was still, for them, unequal in freedoms after their having fought for those same rights. Recommended for a serious look at postwar Christmas spirit.

The Hallmark Dream Book is Out!

2012 Interactive Dream Book Keepsake Ornament Catalog | Hallmark Cards

Rudolph Day, April 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Ever watch HGTV and their over-the-top Christmas decorating shows? Here are more reasonable ideas:
Readers Digest Tips

Budget Decorating for Your Home

Homemade Christmas Decorations

Cheap Christmas Decorations (I love the snowflake curtain idea! You can keep it up for winter.)



Paper Bag Christmas, Kevin Alan Milne
I am at a loss at what to say about this book. At the conclusion, it will definitely make you tear up.On the other hand, it is deliberately manipulative. You may think that yes, many Christmas books (and movies for that matter) are, but this one seems excessively so.

The story is a simple one: Molar Alan and his brother Aaran are taken to see an unusual Santa Claus, who is saddened by their chock-full Christmas lists. In an effort to teach them there is something more to Christmas than gifts, their Santa, really an amputee oncologist at a children's cancer unit, has them help out with the sick children during the Christmas season, especially with two difficult patients, an Indian boy who does not understand Christmas and a reclusive little girl who wears a paper bag on her head. As the story progresses, Aaron and, especially, Mo learn that Christmas is more than material gifts.

I suppose what I question is why Aaron and Mo needed to learn this lesson. All the other children in line submit Christmas lists, which "Santa" accepts graciously. Yes, both Aaron and Mo completely fill up the paper they are given to write down what they want for Christmas, but I took it from the narrative that Mo, at least, ended up filling up the paper simply because they waited two hours in line and he felt he had to. At no point are we told these kids are selfish or greedy. So why, of all the children, were they the ones chosen? I would have understood more had the story opened with them in a house full of toys, quarreling with each other and treating their parents badly, and grabbing at the empty Christmas list paper to hurriedly write down line after line of toys. These kids simply aren't that selfish. Madhu, the boy from India, is a sweet character, but he also embodies the oft-used trope of "outsider who understands what the people who should know better do not." I also rolled my eyes at the stereotypical "Bible Belt" Southern nurse who is merely a caricature and the pat epilogue. And I know children have a variety of names, some very unusual. But how am I to take seriously a boy named "Molar" because his dad was taking his dental exams? Even "Egbert" or "Llewellyn" would have been better than "Molar."

This is a pity because parts of this book are quite affecting, especially the situations involving Katrina, the little girl whom Mo is supposed to help. The description of cancer's effects on the child are quite heartrending, as it resembled what happened to my mother. But I spent too much of this book saying, "Aw, come on!" despite the fact that I love sentimental Christmas stories.

Your mileage may vary—and in a way, I hope it does, because I feel guilty not liking this book for Katrina's sake. She is the most well-developed character in the story, and her raw emotions and sorrows are the linchpin that holds the story together.

An Addie Mills Easter

Here's a newspaper article reviewing the Addie Mills story The Easter Promise back when it premiered in 1975.