Candlemas Day

Merry Candlemas! It's Time to Undeck the Halls

Candlemas is a Fitting End to the Traditional Christmas Season

Wait! Does this have something to do with Groundhog Day? Well, yes, in a way:

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter won't come again.

The original animal to stick his nose out of his den to see his shadow was the badger.

Celebrating Candlemas - School of the Seasons

BBC: Holy Days, Candlemas

Candlemas Day: The Christian Festival of Lights

Candlemas: Jesus as the Light of the World

Candlemas and Traditions

From Chambers' Book of Days:


CANDLEMASS
From a very early, indeed unknown date in the Christian history, the 2^nd of February has been held as the festival of the Purification of the Virgin, and it is still a holiday of the Church of England. From the coincidence of the time with that of the Februation or purification of the people in pagan Rome, some consider this as a Christian festival engrafted upon a heathen one, in order to take advantage of the established habits of the people; but the idea is at least open to a good deal of doubt. The popular name Candlemass is derived from the ceremony which the Church of Rome dictates to be observed on this day; namely, a blessing of candles by the clergy, and a distribution of them amongst the people, by whom they are afterwards carried lighted in solemn procession. The more important observances were of course given up in England at the Reformation; but it was still, about the close of the eighteenth century, customary in some places to light up churches with candles on this day.
At Rome, the Pope every year officiates at this festival in the beautiful chapel of the Quirinal. When he has blessed the candles, he distributes them with his own hand amongst those in the church, each of whom, going singly up to him, kneels to receive it. The cardinals go first; then follow the bishops, canons, priors, abbots, priests, &c., down to the sacristans and meanest officers of the church. According to Lady Morgan, who witnessed the ceremony in 1820:

'When the last of these has gotten his candle, the poor conservatori, the representatives of the Roman senate and people, receive theirs. This ceremony over, the candles are lighted, the Pope is mounted in his chair and carried in procession, with hymns chanting, round the ante-chapel; the throne is stripped of its splendid hangings; the Pope and cardinals take off their gold and crimson dresses, put on their usual robes, and the usual mass of the morning is sung.'

Lady Morgan mentions that similar ceremonies take place in all the parish churches of Rome on this day.
It appears that in England, in Catholic times, a meaning was attached to the size of the candles, and the manner in which they burned during the procession; that, moreover, the reserved parts of the candles were deemed to possess a strong supernatural virtue:

'This done, each man his candle lights,
    Where chiefest seemeth he,
Whose taper greatest may be seen;
    And fortunate to be,
Whose candle burneth clear and bright:
    A wondrous force and might
Both in these candles lie, which if
    At any time they light,
They sure believe that neither storm
    Nor tempest cloth abide,
Nor thunder in the skies be heard,
    Nor any devil's spide,
Nor fearful sprites that walk by night,
    Nor hurts of frost or hail,' &c.

The festival, at whatever date it took its rise, has been designed to commemorate the churching or purification of Mary; and the candle-bearing is understood to refer to what Simeon said when he took the infant Jesus in his arms, and declared that he was a light to lighten the Gentiles. Thus literally to adopt and build upon metaphorical expressions, was a characteristic procedure of the middle ages. Apparently, in consequence of the celebration of Mary's purification by candle-bearing, it became customary for women to carry candles with them, when, after recovery from child-birth, they went to be, as it was called, churched. A remarkable allusion to this custom occurs in English history. William the Conqueror, become, in his elder days, fat and unwieldy, was confined a considerable time by a sickness. 'Methinks,' said his enemy the King of France, 'the Ring of England lies long in childbed.' This being reported to William, he said, 'When I am churched, there shall be a thousand lights in France I' And he was as good as his word; for, as soon as he recovered, he made an inroad into the French territory, which he wasted wherever he went with fire and sword.
At the Reformation, the ceremonials of Candlemass day were not reduced all at once. Henry VIII proclaimed in 1539:

'On Candlemass day it shall be declared, that the bearing of candles is clone in memory of Christ, the spiritual light, whom Simeon did prophesy, as it is read in. the church that day.'

It is curious to find it noticed as a custom down to the time of Charles II, that when lights were brought in at nightfall, people would say—' God send us the light of heaven!' The amiable Herbert, who notices the custom, defends it as not superstitious. Some-what before this time, we find. Herrick alluding to the customs of Candlemass eve: it appears that the plants put up in houses at Christmas were now removed.

Down with the rosemary and bays,
    Down with the mistletoe;
Instead of holly now upraise
    The greener box for show.
The holly hitherto did sway,
    Let box now domineer,
Until the dancing Easter day
    Or Easter's eve appear.
The youthful box, which now hath grace
    Your houses to renew,
Grown old, surrender must his place
    Unto the crisped yew.
When yew is out, then birch comes in,
    And many flowers beside,
Both of a fresh and fragrant kin',
    To honour Whitsuntide.
Greeu rushes then, and sweetest bents,
    With cooler oaken boughs,
Come in for comely ornaments,
    To re-adorn the house.
Thus times do shift; each thing in turn does hold;
New things succeed, as former things grow old.'

The same poet elsewhere recommends very particular care in the thorough removal of the Christmas garnishings on this eve:

'That so the superstitious find
No one least branch left there behind;
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected there, maids, trust to me,
So many goblins you shall see.'

He also alludes to the reservation of part of the candles or torches, as calculated. to have the effect of protecting from mischief:

'Kindle the Christmas brand, and then
    Till sunset let it burn,
Which quenched, then lay it up again,
    Till Christmas next return.
Part mast be kept, wherewith to tend
    The Christmas log next year;
And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend
    Can do no mischief there.'

There is a curious custom of old standing in Scotland, in connection with Candlemass day. On that day it is, or lately was, an universal practice in that part of the island, for the children attending school to make small presents of money to their teachers. The master sits at his desk or table, exchanging for the moment his usual authoritative look for one of bland civility, and each child goes up in turn and lays his offering down before him, the sum being generally pro-portioned to the abilities of the parents. Six-pence and a shilling are the most common sums in most schools; but some give half and whole crowns, and even more. The boy and girl who give most are respectively styled King and Queen. The children, being then dismissed for a holiday, proceed along the streets in a confused procession, carrying the King and Queen in state, exalted upon that seat formed of crossed hands which, probably from this circumstance, is called the King's Chair. In some schools, it used to be customary for the teacher, on the conclusion of the offerings, to make a bowl of punch and regale each urchin with a glass to drink the King and Queen's health, and a biscuit. The latter part of the day was usually devoted to what was called the Candlemass bleeze, or blaze, namely, the conflagration of any piece of furze which might exist in their neighbourhood, or, were that wanting, of an artificial bonfire.
Another old popular custom in Scotland on Candlemass day was to hold a football match, the east end of a town against the west, the unmarried men against the married, or one parish against another. The 'Candlemass Ba', as it was called, brought the whole community out in a state of high excitement. On one occasion, not long ago, when the sport took place in Jedburgh, the contending parties, after a struggle of two hours in the streets, transferred the contention to the bed of the river Jed, and there fought it out amidst a scene of fearful splash and dabblement, to the infinite amusement of a multitude looking on from the bridge.
Considering the importance attached to Candlemass day for so many ages, it is scarcely surprising that there is a universal superstition throughout Christendom, that good weather on this day indicates a long continuance of winter and a bad crop, and that its being foul is, on the contrary, a good omen. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, quotes a Latin distich expressive of this idea:

'Si sol splendescat Maria purificante,
Major erit glacies post festum quam fait ante;

which maybe considered as well translated in the popular Scottish rhyme:

If Candlemass day be dry and fair,
The half o' winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemass day be wet and foul,
The half o' winter's gave at Yule.'

In Germany there are two proverbial expressions on this subject: 1. The shepherd would rather see the wolf cuter his stable on Candlemass day than the sun; 2. The badger peeps out of his hole on Candlemass day, and when he finds snow, walks abroad; but if he sees the sun shining, he draws back into his hole. It is not improbable that these notions, like the festival of Candlemass itself, are derived from pagan times, and have existed since the very infancy of our race. So at least we may conjecture, from a curious passage in Martin's Description of the Western Islands. On Candlemass day, according to this author, the Hebrideans observe the following curious custom:

The mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats and dress it up in women's apparel, put it in a large basket, and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call Brύd's Bed.; and then the mistress and servants cry three times, "Brύd is come; Brύd is welcome!" This they do just before going to bed, and when they rise in the morning they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Brad's club there; which, if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill omen. 

Rudolph Day - January 2016

"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.

Check out some free Christmas cross stitch patterns.

Some poetry for the day!

[little tree]
By E. E. Cummings

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see          i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid

look          the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"

Scrooge the Detective

The Humbug Murders, L.J. Oliver
Ebenezer Scrooge solves the mystery of who killed his old master, Fezziwig.

Sounds intriguing. I thought so. Bought the book.

Fezziwig comes to Scrooge as a ghost, pleading with him to help his young assistant Tom Guilfoyle, just as a young woman, Adelaide Owen, comes to the counting house to apply, to Scrooge's astonishment, for the clerking job he's advertised. When Scrooge and Adelaide go to Fezziwig's home to see if he is indeed dead, it's revealed that Tom is well known to Adelaide, and that the local constable believes Scrooge himself murdered Fezziwig. Next thing you know, Scrooge is endeavoring to clear himself, with the help of Adelaide and a young reporter named Charles Dickens, in the terrible underbelly of London's slums.

Let's say this is no cozy about Scrooge helping to find a murderer. Before chapter four is over Scrooge has been beaten up by some underworld types and been exposed to a brothel catering to wealthy men. Mixed up in Fezziwig's death is a Chinese merchant, a nobleman, an obese businessman, a well-known actress, aforesaid thugs, and a prostitute named Annie Piper. Along the way we meet a whole contingent of Dickens' characters, including Bill Sykes, the Artful Dodger, Nancy, Fagin, a gang of boy thieves, Miss Favisham, John Jasper, Mr. Crisparkle, and Mr. Pickwick, not to mention Dickens himself, and are involved in murder, mutilation, torture, sexual slavery, depravity, drug addiction...this is not a pretty book!

We all know London at the time of Dickens was like this, so the whole thing wouldn't be so bad, wading through the gore and abuse, if the book wasn't full of historical inaccuracies and Scrooge here doesn't jibe with later Scrooge—in fact, this book describes him here, in 1833, as "young Ebenezer" when ten years later in A Christmas Carol, he's suddenly "old Scrooge"—and the modernisms that creep into the text are alarming and often hilarious. The police didn't operate the way the author states, Marley is Scrooge's competitor, not partner, and four years after the first photograph was taken suddenly photos look so good that pornographic ones are being sold to toffs for £40 each. As for the modernisms: Scrooge tells a constable "Cut to the chase," which dates back only to silent movies. A page later he tells the same man, "You have a mind like a steel trap. Anything entering gets crushed and mangled"; "mind like a steel trap" goes back to 1836 but this is a direct quote from later on. On page 51 Scrooge believes he will get "hypothermia" from falling in the Thames and lose "core motor skills." Would a 19th century man have used those terms? On page 75 Dickens refers to the Chinese man as "the Asian." Really? Back then they were "Orientals" or, jocularly, "Celestials," when more crude referrals were not used.

The book is very good describing the sordid London underworld of the 1830s. There are some truly terrifying situations and passages. But as a prequel to the character of Scrooge and A Christmas Carol? I'll say it...humbug!

One More for Epiphany

Reminisce Christmas
A 2010 publication by "Reminisce" magazine, this is a follow-on to their previous compendium of memories, The Christmases We Used to Know. These aren't fictional experiences, but stories about Christmas by the people who lived them, from the 1930s to the 1960s (with a smattering of photos from the 1920s). Vintage toys, World War II military-themed Christmas cards, special pajamas or cowboy suits, family photos, faith-based stories, and vintage advertisements are pictured, paired with memories nostalgic, funny, and a few times just plain sad, some of them full stories, some just vignettes. There are even lined, blank spots every 30 pages or so where you can write down your own memories of Christmas past.

Brought up as I was with Italian Christmas customs, it was fun to see what other nationalities had "on the menu," so to speak: roast goose, lutefisk, Cajun gumbo, etc., but every turn of the page is a delight for Christmas lovers. There are tales from servicemen and -women in faraway places on Christmas Eve, stories of poor children who received special gifts in a needy time, people who received that special toy (and in the case of one child, a special gift that turned out to be a baby brother), Christmas pets, visits to Santa (and learning the truth about him), those "skinny Charlie Brown trees" from the past, and other Yuletide keepsakes.

If you like "Reminisce," nostalgia, or Christmas, this is the book for you!

Star of Wonder

On the first Christmas, Joseph and Mary and the Baby Jesus were visited not only by shepherds, but by three kings, who brought the baby gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Well, not quite. The visitors who brought these gifts are not present in Luke's gospel, which features the shepherds. The story of the visitors is from Matthew's gospel, and says, in fact, that the Holy Family were living in a house and most translations say Jesus was a child, not an infant. So it is probable that the visit took place later than the birth in the stable.

The visitors are never identified as kings, but as astrologers, men who study the stars for portends, also known as "magi," magicians. Nor are strictly three identified. No mention is made of how many magi visited, or whatever other gifts are given; only mentioned are the gold, frankincense, and myrrh (which, scholars tell us, are symbolic gifts: gold for godhood, frankincense for priesthood, myrrh, which was used on bodies of the dead, predicting His crucifixion), so tradition makes it three.

✯ Epiphany 2016

✯ Readings for Epiphany

✯ Reflections for Epiphany

✯ Epiphany at Cute Calendar

✯ Reflections on Epiphany 2016

✯ Three Kings Day

✯ King Cake

Poetry, Songs, and Annual Favorites

The Carols of Christmas, Andrew Gant
I have several books on the history of Christmas carols, so I was very pleased to see a new one in the stacks of Christmas publications. Gant's is pretty much devoted to the story of English carols, although "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Jingle Bells" make appearances, so if your favorite carol isn't here, that may be why.

This book's greatest novelty is also what might turn people off about it: it's written for people who have a knowledge of music and musical terms. If you're confused by the use of terms like "demi-quaver" and "semi-quaver" and "plainsong" or don't wish to pick your way through Latin and French verses, you might want to pick up Ace Collins' simpler Stories Behind the Most Beloved Songs of Christmas. For those who stick with Gant, you'll enjoy his puckish sense of humor as he traces some of the well-known hymns back to old folksongs sung in regional variations by the poor, some of them even rather bawdy. Then there's "Good King Wenceslas," with its words set to a French song about the spring! From Advent through Epiphany, you'll learn what "wassail" is, which carols have different melodies depending which side of the Atlantic they're on, and a theory about how the partridge, a ground bird, got up that pear tree. Great reading, especially for music lovers.

The Oxford Book of Christmas Poems, edited by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark
This is a companion book to The Oxford Book of Christmas Stories, both ostensibly for children, but as I commented in my review of the latter, definitely for older children, since you won't find cloying sweetness about puppies and Santa here. In fact, some of the poetry is definitely aimed at adults, from T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" to W.H. Auden's "Well, That is That." The poetry ranges from winter odes through Christmastide and through Epiphany and the dead of winter, some playful, some thoughtful, a few even tragic, like the grim Victorian "Christmas in the Workhouse," with a few terrifying pen-and-ink illustrations. A charming "Haiku Advent Calendar" enlivens the endpapers and a magical poem about a boy's discovery of the Nativity is told in "Journey Back to Christmas." Worth finding if you are a poetry aficionado or just wish to read some different and descriptive verse for the holiday season.

Re-read: The House Without a Christmas Tree, Gail Rock
This "novelization" of the classic Christmas special about Addie Mills has no dependence of the special itself, and indeed Rock gives the characters more background than they were able to provide in the filmed story, expanding Addie's exploration of her world and especially giving more depth to Grandma and her eccentricities. Seeing that this story is based on Rock's life, we may have gotten more insight into what the grandmother who cared for her was like. We also see more of Carla Mae's home life, and the end of the story is structured differently from the television production. The wonderful illustrations by Charles Gehm are also a plus. A must-have for an Addie Mills fan.

Re-read: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
This is the just plain funny, but ultimately touching, story of six undisciplined kids who terrify their classmates and drive their neighbors crazy. The Herdmans—Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie and Gladys—are pretty much on their own all the time; their father has vanished, their mother works two shifts to support them. They steal, blackmail their classmates, harbor a dangerous cat, and are generally a nuisance. The only place safe from them is church, until a kid named Charlie tells one of them that the minister gives out free treats.

Told in a fast and funny narration by our unnamed narrator (Charlie's sister), we follow the Herdmans as they get involved with the church Christmas pageant—first having to learn the story of the Nativity from scratch. As the chaos grows, the pageant is threatened with cancellation, but a surprise is in store for everyone.

Peppered with such delightful descriptions like "My friend Alice Wendleken was so nasty clean she had detergent hands by the time she was four years old," this is one of my annual reads which brings a smile to my face every time.

Square Dances, Turquoise, and Fireworks

Christmas in the American Southwest, from World Book
The impression you get of Christmas in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas is light: candlelight, farolitos, luminaria, and electric lights in profusion around gardens, river walks, adobe buildings, and streets. Fireworks are lit off at public celebrations and in the past, Christmas was celebrated with firecrackers and sparklers.

In this volume in World Book's "Christmas in..." series, the gamut of celebrations is chronicled, from Las Posadas to cowboy dances, from Victorian buildings decorated with pinon and tumbleweeds to warm cabins at the very bottom of the Grand Canyon covered in snow, accessible only by mules. The contributions of Germans/Poles/Czechs join Spanish- and Native-heritage celebrations, and of course the annual ranch celebrations are featured. The brilliant color photographs highlight foods, public places, and, yes, lights, lights, lights.

A bright and happy edition to add to anyone's "Christmas in..." collection.

Grandfather Frost And New Year's Day

Ded Moroz – Grandfather Frost

Ded Moroz, the Russian Santa

Russian Life: Grandfather Frost

Why Ded Moroz is Infinitely More Badass Than Santa Claus

St. Sylvester's Day

From the Fish Eaters site: "Lucky foods" are eaten, all of which vary from place to place. In Spain, one must eat 12 grapes at midnight to fend off evil in the following year. Pea Soup is a German "lucky food," and in France it is oysters. In the United States, black-eyed peas are consumed, along with collard greens and hog jowls (typically on January 1).

"Silvestering" was an old custom of begging for food on St. Sylvester's night, but now fireworks are usually the case.

St. Sylvester I | Saint of the Day

Catholic Online - St. Sylvester

Fish Eaters: St. Sylvester

A History of New Years

Do You Know What Sylvester Is?
 

A Death in Christmas Town

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen, Vicki Delany
This is the anticipated first book in a series taking place in Rudolph, a New York town near Lake Ontario, which has fashioned itself as an all-year-round "Christmastown" after its connection to the War of 1812 ended a bit ignominiously (that's a pretty amusing story, too). Our protagonist, Merry Wilkinson (her dad is named Noel since he was born on Christmas Day) runs the high-end gift shop Mrs. Claus' Treasures, and as the story opens, her float in the town's annual Christmas parade almost doesn't make it in the queue due to its transport not working, just the first in a series of mysterious mishaps. Then, later, after a non-alcoholic post parade party, a reporter from an international travel magazine, in town to do a story on Rudolph, is found dead in the park. Initial verdict: he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie made by Merry's best friend Vicky, owner of the town bakery.

This is a middle-of-the-road cozy which I didn't love, but didn't hate. I do like the idea of a Christmas town, the main character is appealing (although I think her dog contributes nothing to the plot and it seems she's always leaving him home alone to work or do other things), and there are enough red herrings: a woman determined to oust the local mayor, a jealous boyfriend, and the citizens of Muddle Harbor, one town over, which is economically depressed and no competition for Rudolph—unless its food can't be trusted. Plus I really enjoyed some of the supporting characters, especially Merry's dad (who should be working in her shop, as he always magically seems to know what customers want) and her retired opera-singer mother (who reminded me a lot of Hilary Booth from Remember WENN). Tiresomely, however, Merry's got two gorgeous guys fighting over her, which tends to trip the story into romance fantasyland occasionally, and there seems to be the usual stock characters (nosy landlady, aggressive opponent, etc.) tossed in the mix.

However, I love Christmas, and just the idea of a Christmas town and the characters I do like will overcome what I don't like. Put me down for the next one, too.

Christine Kringle Saves the Day

Re-read: Christine Kringle, Lynn Brittney
This is a funny, funny novel with a (pun intended) novel take on Santa Claus.

How does Santa deliver all those gifts in one night? Because he isn't one gift giver, he's many! The American Santa Claus, or as he's known in this novel, Kris Kringle, is part of the Yule Dynasty, a huge family of gift givers, from Father Christmas in England to OzNick in Australia, to Babbo Natale (and La Befana) in Italy, to St. Nicholas in Holland, to the Three Wise Men in various countries, to Santa Kurohsu in Japan. Each year they have a big conference to discuss Christmas and other family concerns. This year the meeting is in Finland, where Kriss Kringle wishes to propose something never broached before: that a male gift-giver can hand his gift-giving tasks over to a female child. Although there are female gift-givers, St. Lucia, La Befana, Babushha, etc. among them, usually a female child marries and that husband becomes the new gift-giver. Kriss Kringle, however, wants his bright daughter Christine to inherit the job.

But barely can the subject be broached when an emergency occurs: a small town called Plinkbury in England is raising eyebrows and making the news by declaring Christmas illegal. And it's up to Christine and her friends Nick Christmas (son of the English Santa and allergic to gingerbread) and Little K (son of the Japanese Santa and creator of the wonderful new "Living Lights") to find out how this happened and try to stop it—with the help of Nick's ditzy but understanding and inspirational mother Zazu, and his uncle Egan, who are both "tall elves."

Brittney skewers several sacred cows on the way through the plot—the male dominated gift-givers of Christmas, Christmas collectors, stuffy parents who stifle their children's imaginations—and produces a very funny story in the process. There is a reliance on a few stereotypes on the way: Babbo Natale drives a Ferrari (a magic one, of course) and his compatriots have Mafia overtones, the son of France's Pere Noel is a fat kid who is constantly stuffing his face, the Japanese kid is the inventive genius, but these shortcomings pale against the hilarious story, which will keep you chuckling throughout. One of my favorite parts involves the Sisterhood, the female gift-givers who gang up upon their male counterparts in order for the kids to make their getaway (in the Ferrari, of course; reindeer and a sleigh would be too noticeable) to Plinkbury.

Recommended for all ages!

A Con Man in Old New York

The Santa Claus Man, Alex Palmer
John Duval Gluck was just another businessman, toiling as the head of a importing business like his father before him, rather bored with the process. He wanted to do Something Big, and he eventually did: he made children's dreams come true for a short time in the 1920s.

Before Gluck, New York City children's letters to Santa Claus ended up in the "dead letter" office at the central post office. Gluck, bypassing the usual fundraising methods, forms "the Santa Claus Association," which takes the children's letters and matches them up with wealthy or just financially well-off contributors who will buy gifts requested in those letters after Gluck's association checks out if the children are really in need.

It sounded like a wonderful idea and indeed some children did receive "a Christmas" because of it. But as always happens when human beings are involved, human corruption reared its proverbial evil head. Was the "selfless" Gluck really as portrayed, or is he profiting from the "poor kiddies"?

The best part about this book is the portrait of New York City between 1913 and the early 1930s, and the weaving in of the role New Yorkers like Washington Irving, Clement Moore, Thomas Nast, and Francis Church had in how Christmas is celebrated today, not just in NYC, but all over the United States. The most fascinating part is the lost history of a rival group to the Boy Scouts of America, the "U S Boy Scout," an organization I had never heard about, a more militaristic group which John Duval Gluck got himself involved with, and which the BSA despised. Along the way we meet Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, end up in a classic hotel and the Woolworth Building, and make the acquaintance of the man who was Gluck's downfall, Bird Coler.

I can't say I was absolutely bowled over by Gluck's story, but I loved the historical background and all the great photographs!

An Annual Treat

Ideals Christmas, Worthy Media
May I say first how much I miss the other "Ideals" seasonal volumes? The Christmas one is the only one left. The autumn/Thanksgiving one was always breathtakingly beautiful in modern times (as opposed to the old "Ideals" up until about the 1990s, which often had terrible drawings in them which were then made worse by "colorizing" it in one color) with gorgeous photographs of autumn landscapes. The Christmas ones have snowy landscapes and cozy still life photos.

I really enjoyed the collection of essays this year; I usually like them better than the poems, which are pleasant but derivative. "The Stillness of Christmas" by John Peterson was lovely, something you don't usually see Ideals essays about. Michael Drury's "Christmas Has a Secret" was also good, and reminded me a little of Taylor Caldwell's oft anthologized "My Christmas Miracle." Dona Maxey's "A Gift of Love" about a mother's devotion was sweet as well.

I could wish for more snow photos, but...it was a good edition nevertheless.

A Christmas for Finding Oneself

The Tuckers: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel
The Tuckers series began in 1961 with the publication of the Whitman book The Wonderful House, in which they move into the big old house on Valley View Avenue. They were a typical 1960s literary family: working father, stay-at-home mother, five rambunctious kids under twelve, loving grandparents, and an assortment of friends. The kids got into usual foibles: rivalries, mistaken impressions, summer vacation adventures, arguments, but family love always wins through.

The Cottage Holiday revolves around Penny, the shy seven-year-old of the children, who catches cold easily and is always being pampered. But she doesn't revel in the attention; she inwardly resents it. She wants to play with her brothers and sisters and be part of family activities, and she wants to know what her part is in the scheme of family dynamics: Tina's domestic, Terry's clever, Merry's musical, Tom's sensible, but what is she? Then she makes an idle wish: she would like to spend Christmas at the family's lake cottage, where they could all participate on an equal footing. Surprisingly, her doctor says she's well enough to do so as long as she takes precautions, and suddenly the family is off for a winter adventure that includes a marauding cougar, a missing calf, an abandoned baby, and the sheer fun of finding a Christmas tree, making treats for one another, and playing in the snow with their lake neighbors Mel and Butch Smith.

This is of a similar domestic theme to Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, but the story is more simply told with a more limited vocabulary that often makes the dialog stilted. Yet Penny's wish to participate more fully in her family's activities shines through the story like a beacon, and the final pages will make you misty eyed. It's more introspective than the other books in the series and that serves to make the story more timeless. A yearly treat for me.

A Christmas of Dwindling

Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky
Most of my annual Christmas reads go back to my childhood, but I picked this up because I loved Lasky's Prank and her adult mysteries involving Callista Jacobs. It is one of my favorite Christmas books, even if the ending is a bit idealized.

The Swift family lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the height of the Depression in 1932; Minnie, the youngest girl, is both happy and puzzled when an orphan cousin her age comes to live with them. Willie Faye, who grew up in Dust Bowl Texas, arrives in town with nothing but an almost empty suitcase, a cherished newspaper article about better times, and a kitten named Tumbleweed. She's never seen an indoor bathroom, a movie, or peaches. But this wise-beyond-her-years child with life experiences the Swifts could not have imagined is instrumental in helping the entire family see beyond the leanness of the Depression, and helps them keep faith when the unthinkable happens.

I just love the characters in this story: Minnie, who has a gift for words; the practical Willie Faye whose artistic dreams lends them ideas for gifts and stories of faith; Ozzie, the science-crazy little brother; Lady, the unconventional sister who can take old clothes and scraps of fabric and turn them into fashionable dress; Minnie's stolid father and glamorous mother and her two more conventional sisters; and Jackie, the family's maid, who is portrayed as authentically as possible for the 1930s setting without being overtly patronizing. The realities of the Depression hits home in so many ways: the closing of the bank that supports Mr. Swift's employer, closing off rooms in the house since they can no longer afford to heat them, eating endless meals of "au gratins" and aspic to stretch what little meat they have, not using the car so they can afford a movie now and then, taking food down to a Hooverville where people are living in tar-paper shacks or even piles of tires with tin on top, the fate of a classmate's father. During all their trials little Willie Faye sustains them.

My only problem with this book is the standard "Dear America" epilogue which tells you what happened to the family. Depending on the author, these epilogues can be matter-of-fact, filled with interesting details, or even, in the case of Barry Denenberg, really depressing. <wry grin> Lasky chose the interesting details approach, but made the results rather fairy-tale-ish. It strikes me as being very sugary after a tart and rather dark narrative.

Nevertheless, Minnie and Willie Faye will keep me coming back each year.

Christmas in Vermont Revisited

Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost
The Clarks are a small farm family in late 1940s Vermont in this classic four-book children's series by Frost, a Vermont native. In the opening book, 12-year-old protagonist Toby Clark received the dapple-grey pony Windy Foot as a birthday gift and raced him in the annual county fair pony competition, where he met 12-year-old Tish Burnham, a horse breeder's daughter. At Christmas, the whole family: dad, mom, Toby, 9-year-old Betsy, 5-year-old Johnny, and farmhand Cliff (who's pretty much family) are preparing to welcome Tish and her father Jerry for a visit as well as planning a true farm Christmas with homemade decorations, gifts ordered from the mail order catalog, caroling under the town Christmas tree and shopping at the general store, and Toby taking Tish out riding in the new sleigh he refit for Windy Foot.

Fifty years after I read it for the first time, I still get as much enjoyment out of this story as I did the first time, even if Johnny's little impromptu poems still make me roll my eyes and the girls' brief talk about dolls bore me. It's an annual read, and a portrait of a vanished era: cows milked by hand and barns lit by lanterns, kids going on their own showshoeing to gather Christmas greens or going skiing without adults keeping tabs on their every move, boys renovating things on their own, the family gathered by the fire instead of each around an electronic device. There's even a marauding bear, a skiing accident, and a stolen sleigh to add a little excitement. It's very easy to be taken into the warm home-circle and feel comfortable with these characters.

I have always found it notable that in a book written in 1948, Tish's ambition is to be a surgeon or at the least a medical doctor. Toby finds that this idea of "a girl being a doctor" fills him with "awe," but also thinks that she'd make a good one. There is no attempt by Toby or any other adult to try to dissuade Tish from this goal, a surprising attitude in an era when even "career girls" were eventually expected to quit their jobs in favor of marriage and a family. Also, Betsy is given an unusual Christmas gift and no one says that a girl should not be receiving such a gift.

Frost also has a talent with picturesque descriptions that remind me of Gladys Taber.  This is a nostalgic book well worth seeking out for its approachable characters, family interactions, Christmas-cozy factor, and pacing.

Shivers for Christmas

Ghosts for Christmas, edited by Richard Dalby
There are times of the year when the veil between the known world and the unknown world is very thin, and spirits from beyond can creep into the mortal world. In our world it engendered a whole tradition of ghost stories, which is why the narrator of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" mentions them, and A Christmas Carol is one. Before television, movies and the internet, after Christmas dinner was digested and wine consumed, it was common to gather around the fire and tell tales of the supernatural.

This collection, I must admit, is a corker. While I'd read a couple of the stories, including Dickens' precursor to Scrooge in The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton, Stevenson's Markheim, "The Prescription" written during a most unusual housecall, and The Real and the Counterfeit (in which I think the protagonist paid too dearly for his error!), most of them were new to me, and well enough done that being alone reading the stories on a rainy, gloomy day gave me a real chill! Particular favorites were "Wolverden Tower," about a modern young woman invited to a house party who  makes two new friends who seem to change her perception of a reconstructed tower; "Thurlow's Christmas Story," about a man trying to write a Christmas ghost story but who cannot come up with an idea even though his job lays on the line; "The Kit-Bag," concerning an attorney who gets a guilty client off and lives to regret it; "The Snow," about a marital argument that goes all too wrong; "The Demon King," in which a substitute actor enlivens a dull pantomime; "Lucky's Grove," where cutting down a Christmas tree from the wrong place sets off a chain of frightening events; and "Gebal and Ammon and Amalek," in which an older man's dissatisfaction with his church's changing views has disastrous complications.

Plus these are all set at classic ghostly locations: English churches, country houses, deserted estates, rambling vicarages, and more! A very satisfactory and spooky Christmas collection!

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
 

A Souling, a Souling...

Roman Catholics now celebrate St. Thomas the Apostle in July.

"Thomasing," soliciting alms and foods on St. Thomas' Day, was thought to be the precursor of trick or treating on Hallowe'en.

St. Thomas' Day Recipes and the History of St. Thomas Day

German Celebrations for St. Thomas' Day

St. Thomas' Day

Have Yourself a Silent Little Christmas!

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

On the Radio and Around the Tree

Standing in the Spirit at Your Elbow, Craig Wichman
Since its publication in 1843, Dickens' A Christmas Carol has been adapted into movies, television specials, and plays. At least one book devotes itself to following all the film versions of the reformation of Ebenezer Scrooge, that "tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!" But between the time Dickens' miser appeared on film and on television, his story was heard regularly on the mass medium of the 1920s-1950s, the radio.

Wichman, an audio actor in his own right, has written this unique little book chronicling all the broadcast and recorded versions of A Christmas Carol, including that granddaddy of Christmas traditions, the performances of Lionel Barrymore as Ebenezer Scrooge. To modern audiences used to George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, and Mr. Magoo as being "traditional" in terms of the Carol, at one time the Barrymore presentation of Scrooge was just as beloved and repeated for eighteen years, only killed by the advent of television. His version was even recorded for posterity on shellac and then LP records.

Wichman was able to interview some of the performers involved with the Carol (sadly not all of the adult principals), mostly young performers like Arthur Anderson and before-he-was-a-Mouseketeer Lonnie Burr who recalled working as Tiny Tim or "the turkey boy." This gives us an even more authentic look behind the scenes at the actors and the era. Completing the book are reprints of newspaper advertisements and publicity photos and album covers, plus the author's list of known Carol radio performances.

A neat, interesting-written niche publication for fans of radio and/or of A Christmas Carol.


Round the Christmas Tree, edited by Sara and Stephen Corrin
This is a little volume of Christmas stories suitable for children, and children of all ages. Usually when you find these collections they are of well-known stories or of vintage tales where the copyrights have run out, but this one, originally published in England, contains at least half of its stories from Scandinavian sources. They range from pseudo-fairy tales like "The Big White Pussy-Cat" and "The Voyage of the Red Cap" to tales about children living their everyday lives (including "The Christmas Train" which sounds like it might have come out of The Railway Children) to absurd encounters with supernatural folk, as in the very funny "Another Mince Pie" to a Christmas story by Beatrix Potter that isn't "The Tailor of Gloucester." For the young and the young at heart.

A Lot of Christmas Magic!

A Stone Mountain Christmas, from Gilded Dragonfly Books
The stories in most anthologies are like people, some are good, some not so good, some middling. Occasionally, though, one breaks that routine.

I don't think there's a bad story in the bunch here. Now, of course these are Christmas stories, and if you don't like Christmas stories, or prefer action-adventure or serious social commentary, you may not share my opinion. However, the mix was just the right amount of sweet (but not too sugary) and spice. I'd say about half of the stories have romantic underpinnings, but they're also about real people, not the plastic mannequins that turn up in churn-'em-out romance books. A couple of the romances are peripheral to the actual storyline as well, so it's not the total focus of the story. Some are straight relationship stories, while in others a little fillip of magic adds the sparkle that makes the story special. The other stories are a nice mix of subjects: a woman getting used to her widowed father's new love (who's the complete opposite of her mother), a relationship story from the point of view of a lost dog, the story of a grandmother trying to cope with her emotionally and physically abused grandson, a newspaper editor who's about to throw in the towel until a young woman gives him a new angle on the classic story "A Gift of the Magi," an elderly man grief-stricken after the death of his wife, and even a mad, mad romp about a chicken superhero and her mouse assistant—which is not only plausible but funny.

One of the stories, "Christmas Rose," was familiar to me. This was adapted into an Atlanta Radio Theatre Company audio drama for their annual "Atlanta Christmas" show. I always have enjoyed the radio story, but I absolutely loved its source material, since we learn more about the protagonist and her friend, and about what led to her attitude at the beginning of the tale and what happened afterward.

If you love Christmas, this one comes highly recommended.


Christmas in My Heart #6 and #12, Joe Wheeler
Wheeler began these books many years ago by "rescuing" old Christmas stories from older magazines, sentimental pieces about orphans finding a home, couples finding each other, lost souls finding a home or God, poor people who are rich in spirit as compared to the wealthy with soulds of ice. Each of the volumes are illustrated with vintage etchings and woodcuts. The final story is always by Wheeler himself, usually a tale of a relationship gone sour and how it is redeemed by faith and love.

These days more modern stories and memoirs mix in with the vintage material. I confess I enjoy the vintage material more and wish the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" type stories had not intruded. It's possible Wheeler's mining in the last few issues has come up lacking. I recommend reading these for the marvelous old stories which illustrate not only the romance and feelings of the past, but the way people lived and believed. Favorites in volume #6 include "Small Things," about a tired doctor who says the wrong thing to his fiancee and then has cause to regret it and "Bid the Tapers Twinkle" about an elderly woman who lives for her children coming home for Christmas and has a big disappointment coming. Favorites in #12: "Van Valkenburg's Christmas Gift," the story of a longtime bachelor and a small orphan child and "Santa Claus is Kindness," the story of a young woman grown flippant in her teens, dismaying her longtime intended.

A Very British Christmas

The Great British Christmas, compiled by Maria Hubert
Once many years ago at a book sale or used book store I found a volume called A Worcestershire Christmas, an anthology of poetry, prose, and illustration written by authors from or taking place in Worcestershire, England. I really enjoyed the collection of nostalgic prose, and was surprised some years afterward to find a similar volume, A Sussex Christmas. A little research revealed that the publisher, Sutton, apparently has done books for each of the English shires, plus included other locations (A London Christmas) and also books from certain eras (A Victorian Christmas, A Georgian Christmas, etc.)

This book is a collection of prose and illustration about what makes a British Christmas a British Christmas, from the history of the Sword in the Stone (which was raised by the future King Arthur during Christmastide) and the story of how the Puritans banned Christmas to the introduction of the Christmas tree to the celebrations by Prince Albert (the original decoration was an arrangement of hoops and holly called a Kissing Bough) and the Christmas cracker. Sprinkled between are Hogmanay and Twelfth Night, Christmas pageants, vintage village celebrations that toasted apple trees, and excerpts from diarists like Samuel Pepys. Included in its entirety is Dickens' classic essay "The Christmas Tree," which usually ends after the author describes "the new German toy," as he waxes on about his childish Christmas fantasies of yore.

If I could collect all these books, I certainly would!

Vintage Holiday Music

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Nope, we're not talking Duran Duran. These are really vintage...

from 1900-1910

from 1920-1930

from 1930-1940

And here's a playlist of 160 vintage songs; start it up and let it play in the background. 1930s-1950s.

Happy Lucia!

St. Lucia Day in Sweden (video)

Santa Lucia in Sweden (video)

Swedish Lucia for Dummies (video)

Christmas in Sweden

Santa Lucia Day in Italy

With Love and Laughter

Lighthouse Christmas, Toni Buzzeo with illustrations by Nancy Carpenter
This is a darling picture book for a child or the child in all of us about Frances and Peter, two children who wonder if they will have a Christmas now that their widowed father has taken over caretaker duties at Ledge Light, a remote lighthouse. Will Santa Claus even know where they are? They try to make their own Christmas and consider spending the holiday with their aunt, but everything changes when a storm comes up and their father must rescue a stranded fisherman. Will they still have Christmas? And will Papa ever accept that one-eared cat?

It's a sweet story about the hard life of a lighthouse keeper's family, a subject I've been fascinated by since I read "Maudie Tom, Jockey," way back when, and about making the best of what you have. The pen-and-ink crayon (?) illustrations are so evocative of another era. A great read for Christmas Eve.

Laughter: the Best Medicine Holidays
It's a collection of "Reader's Digest" short humor, from Thanksgiving turkeys to New Year's Day and winter. Some of the jokes are perennials, like kids who get Christmas song lyrics incorrect, but there are also some real giggles throughout. A great "bathroom book" or guest room book for the Christmas season.
 

Let's Celebrate!

Christmas Worldwide, Cathy C. Tucker
I have several "Christmas Around the World" books, but this is my first that was written in a year not beginning with "19." In fact, all of them (except for the individual "World Book" "Christmas in..." books) are from the 1940s/1950s, and it's reading this one that clearly illustrates how Christmas celebrations have changed over the years, not just in the United States, but all over the globe.

For instance, one change I noticed first in Rick Steves' European Christmas, where they show the Swiss Christmas gift-giver as "Samichlaus." In all the older books I have, the Christkindl delivers the gifts in Switzerland. In just fifty years, the Santa Claus celebration has transferred itself to yet another country. It's interesting—yet sad—to see how Americanized holiday celebrations have become around the world, overwhelming local customs. Also, many of the author's sources have now come from web pages rather than totally from books as in my older volumes.

This is not the most lyrically written book I've ever read. Most of the facts are presented in a cut-and-dried manner in short, precise sentences. Due to that, it lacks the warmth that some other Christmas books contain. However, it's still an intriguing trip around the world from Antigua to Wales, from the tales of unusual Christmas meals in Australia to celebrations of St. Thomas' Day before Christmas in Belgium to how Canadian festivities changed from customs particular to the frontier to celebrations similar to those in Great Britain, from tropical Christmases in Cuba to freezing ones in Denmark, Christmas in countries with long histories of Christmas customs and in countries like Somalia where Christmas is celebrated by only a tiny minority. Its also interesting to see which countries share similar celebrations, like Germany/Holland/Switzerland/Hungary's St. Nicholas Day festivities.

So, interesting, but don't expect sparkling prose.

Happy St Nicholas' Day!

§ St Nicholas' Day: Dark secrets behind the myth of Santa Claus

§ St. Nicholas in Canterbury

§ St. Nicholas: The German Way

§ St. Nicholas and Your Shoes

§ The Art of Simple: St. Nicholas

§ Why are Boots Placed Outside the Front Door on St. Nicholas Day?

§ St. Nicholas to Santa: The Surprising Origins

Unusual Christmas Videos

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Christmas in Space: Apollo 8

The Pagan Origins of Christmas

Tony Robinson's "The Worst Jobs in History: Christmas"

Traditional Carols and Songs



The Story of the Christmas Truce

Och, Aye, It's St. Andrew's Day

For many years St. Andrew's Day opened the Advent season in Scotland.

St Andrew's Day: 14 Scottish Phrases You've Probably Never Heard 

Five Things You Didn't Know about St. Andrew (could one of them be "he wasn't Scottish"?)

St. Andrew's Day in Scotland

St Andrew’s Day 2015: Why Even the Scots Couldn’t Care Less (I had no idea the poor sod Scots now had Black Friday, too)

Brown Pants for Christmas and Other Stories

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Merry Christmas!, edited by Amy Newmark
So what better place to start Christmas reading than here, 101 (like the Dalmatians) of short, inspirational stories for the holidays (and I mean both, since Hanukkah features many times in this edition, while other Christmas stories have Jewish protagonists participating in the festivities).

What's really to say about these stories? Some are funny, like the one about the woman determined to make the perfect dinner, even though she's not much of a cook, who has the unexpected happen with her Christmas turkey. Others are about people discovering the joys of giving (my favorite part of the holiday!) rather than getting, or about getting through Christmas after a beloved relative or friend has passed on or because they are alone. We learn about a Christmas tree full of heart ornaments, and another in which for a long time all the decorations were simple love notes from a husband to wife and vice versa. There are stories taking place in sunny Arizona, in snowy mountains, on a cruise ship and on a boat. Along the way a dog comments on Christmas cookies, people look at gifts a whole new way, a few marriages change, others cope with a whole new way of life, grandchildren grow and carry on traditions, with the common factor being the Christmas spirit. You can have it with no decorations, or a twig hung with the most unexpected of ornaments, or a tree that won't fit in the space properly, because that's really all that is needed: not gifts, expensive china, turkey dinners or snow.

It's sentimental. Gruff "I hate sentiment" folks are warned. Buy something else that you love to read. But if you want a nice warm fuzzy throw of love, hot cocoa in print, this one will do it for you.

Christmas Nostalgia in Photography

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Vintage Christmas Photographs: 1920s

Vintage Christmas Photographs: pre-1920s

Vintage Christmas Photographs: 1930s

Vintage Christmas Photographs: World War II era

Vintage Photographs of Christmas in Boston, mostly 1950s era

Vintage Christmastime in the City

Wartime Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving!

Read a Thanksgiving Story!

Read the story in book form at Archive.org, the first story in this volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.

L.M. Montgomery's "The Genesis of the Doughnut Club," a different kind of Thanksgiving story.

A poor but honest boy gets a reward in "Bert's Thanksgiving."

Read The Children's Book of Thanksgiving Stories online or download it to your e-reader.
 

Vintage Thanksgiving Photographs

Over the years, Thanksgiving celebrations have changed. If you've read Betty Smith's classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you may remember Francie and Neely going out playing "ragamuffin" on Thanksgiving. Here are photos of the real thing:

Thanksgiving Masquers in 1911

Additional Photos of Thanksgiving Masquers

In the 1920s, the Macy's parade began:

Vintage Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Photos

More Macy's Parade Photos

Amusing Photos of Macy's Parade Balloons

More black-and-white Thanksgiving photographs:

Little Girl and Thanksgiving Turkeys

Smithsonian Vintage Thanksgiving Photos

Classic Black-and-White Thanksgiving

This holiday was originally called "Armistice Day" to commemorate the ending of World War I, originally the Great War, which officially ended at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918 ("the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"). My parents, who were born in that decade, still called it that even after the name was changed after World War II.

In "my day" (that sounds so pretentious!), this poem was heard at school assemblies every November. We all learned it by heart:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

It's probably the one World War I poem everyone knows. The author was John McCrae, a Canadian, who did not survive the war.

More World War I Poetry

All Hallows

All Saints Day

Solemnity of All Saints

Activities for All Saints Day

EWTN's All Saints Day Page

Autumn Reveries

Fall scenes set to beautiful music!

Autumn Animals!

 

Hedgehog from Centerparc's blog:

Red squirrel from BoredPanda.com

West Highland White in the leaves from Animalfair.com

White horse in autumn by Brian Jannsen:

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost (1923)

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

God’s World
Edna St. Vincent Millay (from Renascence and Other Poems, 1917)

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
     Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
     Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Long have I known a glory in it all,
     But never knew I this;
     Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart,—Lord, I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me,—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

Rudolph Day, October 2015

Truman Capote's enduring classic:

"A Christmas Memory"

"Why I Reread 'A Christmas Memory'"

"October Gave a Party..."

October's Party
George Cooper

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;
All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;
The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,
The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.
Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;
And then the party ended
In jolly "hands around."

Welcome to Fall!

I know the equinox was in September, but it really doesn't feel like fall until October is here.

How'd you like to walk down this path right now?

Rudolph Day September 2015

How about the stories behind some Christmas carols, told in film and prose:

Story of "The Huron Carol"

Story of "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

Story of "Silent Night", also told in this Coronet film

Rudolph Day August 2015

Some reading on the religious side of the Christmas holiday:

Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, Francis X. Weiser

Editions of "The Catholic World" from 1860s to 1920s