"It's So Tinsel!"

Finally, it was time! I slept until 8:30, ate breakfast and walked the dog, and commenced to tree assembly and then decoration. Snowy played supervisor as I stacked the tiers of the tree and plugged each in, sighed in relief when each lighted, snaked an extension cord down the "trunk" of the tree so I could plug in the star, and then started to apply decorations, old in the back, large everywhere first, to be filled in with smaller ones. This year I did not put the Hallmark "twelve days of Christmas" ornaments on the tree. We have half of them now, and I bought the metal display tree a couple of years back. We have one more bird to go, the swans a'swimming, and then I will note with interest when we leave the birds and start with the humans. This set has made the number five not "rings" as in the kind you wear on your fingers but as ringneck pheasants; this is a theory about the song is that the "five golden rings" were golden ringneck pheasants, which were known as "rings" in the era the song was conceived. (It's not, as some people say, about the Bible. It's a song to be sung at a game, back from the days when that was part of the Christmas celebration, not watching football on TV or playing on your iPad.)

The tinsel, as always, took the longest. I always want to get that perfect waterfall effect, like ice flowing down the tree. It's made harder by the fine icicles that they make today. The version through the late 60s (when they replaced lead foil tinsel with the mylar stuff) through the 1990s was thick enough that I could remove it after Christmas and keep about three quarters of it. The new stuff is almost as fine as angel hair, and if you remember that awful stuff, you also remember how it was prone to static electricity. At least it was cold today! The temperature was down in the 20s this morning. Last year it was so warm when I decorated the tree that I had to wear a glove to hold the tinsel because it was sodden with perspiration from my hand.

Once the manger figures were under the tree, I was done! "It's so tinsel!" as Lanny and Wayne the Christmas elves would say. I changed clothes quickly and took four of the five packages we need to mail (one has a missing part) to the post office to get them off. Remarkably, this only took about fifteen minutes. I'm going to quit going to the PO when it opens!

I'd only eaten oatmeal, yogurt, a piece of bread and three glasses of milk all day, so Uncle Maddio's Pizza was a welcome supper! Then we went to Sprouts and then to Publix. We just need milk and eggs and "plastic cheese"—which we can get at Costco tomorrow.

So nice to blog by the glow of the tree...

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

 The Story of Santa Klaus, from 1909, attempts to bring the threads of the origins of Santa Claus together.

Nine Things to Know About St. Nicholas

What Has St. Nicholas To Do With Ireland?

St. Nicholas Day is celebrated most famously in the Netherlands, where he arrives on a ship from Spain accompanied by his servant, "Zwart Piet," Black Peter. Not long ago Peter was an ominous figure to Dutch children: parents would tell their children that if they didn't behave, they would be stuffed in Peter's sack and taken away. (Other Germanic cultures have a similar character, like Pelznichol—"Nicholas in Furs"—or the dreaded Krampus, who looks like a devil with a long red tongue.) Today Black Peter is controversial because he is often still played by people of non-African descent in blackface makeup, and portrayed on wrapping paper in stereotypical fashion with large lips and big rolling eyes. Most illustrators today are like the one above who makes Peter look like a real person rather than a hurtful clown and books like Santa and Pete have reworked the Black Peter character to present him in a positive manner as St. Nicholas' full partner. The modern Peter carries candy, not a sack, and gives out sweets to the children.

1940s Christmas in Rhode Island

Christmas in Providence, RI 1940: Westminster Street, with Shepard's Department Store at right

Christmas in Providence, RI 1940: The Outlet Company department store in the snow

Christmas in Providence, RI 1940: Children's Books for Christmas gifts

Christmas in Providence, RI 1940: Christmas trees for sale at gas station north of Providence

Christmas in Providence RI 1930s: Christmas Tree Seller

Winter in Providence, RI 1946: Westminster Street

Winter in Providence RI About 1940s: Westminster Street Trolley Street Sweeper

Winter in Providence RI Circa 1940s: Trolley Street Sweeper on Washington Street

Second Sunday of Advent

We stopped by Big Lots after completing our errands at Costco and some "us" time at Barnes & Noble. A year or two ago, the lights on the little pre-lighted silver tree we used for James' airplane tree died. We used it that year sans lights, and James bought a blue tree the year after, but it was not pre-lighted. We tried a candle, but there was no way to light up that tree and it sat sad in the dark unless the hall light was on. I'd been searching rather haphazardly for a new tree; really, a three-foot tree would have been perfect, but apparently they don't make three-foot trees anymore. So I changed my search to 4-foot. It's amazing how much some sites wanted for a 4-foot tree, but of course some of them came in big planters. Guys, just want a silver, pre-lighted Christmas tree.

Lowes, Home Depot, Michaels had only green trees. I guess I could have gone looking at Walmart, but...Walmart...before Christmas...oh, dear. That's suitable only for emergencies, and I couldn't find any small silver trees on their website anyway. So Big Lots was the only place I could find a 4-foot silver tree with white lights that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Once I decanted it, I knew why it was cheap, too. I've seen twister seals with more tensile strength than the branches of this tree; if you can't hold a plastic Hallmark airplane without drooping, what's the chance it will hold a glass ornament? Poor thing was as "homely as two toads," as Aunt Emily used to say to Lucinda in Roller Skates, when I took it from the box. I've perked it up a bit, but it took a lot of fluffing, plus I had to bend some of the branches up to offset the weight of the ornaments. The stand is so wide and the stand downstairs so narrow that only two of the three feet are actually on the top; I had to shim the third leg. In the end, it came out looking okay, and I could finally use the red, green, and gold garland I bought for it originally, with the red and the green corresponding to landing lights.

Earlier in the afternoon we watched Maryellen 1955: Extraordinary Christmas based on the Maryellen series of "American Girl" books. Maryellen's adventures were released just recently and she was not one of my favorites; she's just too frivolous for me, and her little sister the ballerina is freaking annoying. I like her bookworm sister the best. Surprisingly, the film pulled the storyline together much better. Instead of Maryellen painting the front door red to welcome her mom's old war plant workers, in the television story she chiefly does it for the handicapped son of one of her mother's friends from the war plant. Instead of her going to her grandparents' for Christmas and being lonesome and disillusioned, she gives up the trip for a better reason. Plus Maryellen in the film is talented in drawing. Beverly the little dancing pest was heard from little and they gave Maryellen's dad something to do other than just be a name in the book. She was played by the same little girl who played Dolly Parton in the recent film Christmas of Many Colors (and its predecessor, Coat of Many Colors), which I found rather lightweight and unbelievable, despite the great cast; the script was just too didactic and childish. In fact this Maryellen episode was much better than that Parton film, although Alyvia Alyn Lind was perfect as young Dolly.

(Supposedly this is the first in a series of Maryellen stories on Amazon Video. Will be interested in seeing the rest. If you have Amazon Prime I recommend this.)
In the meantime, some videos to enjoy:

Probably my favorite episode of The Ghost & Mrs. Muir TV series: "The Ghost of Christmas Past"

Another "GAMM" favorite, although not Christmas: "The Medicine Ball"

Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory

Homicide in a Holiday Town

We Wish You a Murderous Christmas, Vicki Delaney
Merry Wilkinson is the proprietor of Mrs. Claus' Treasures, a specialty gift shop in the small New York town of Rudolph, which, after languishing for years, is now a successful year-round Christmas town, with everything themed to that holiday. As the story opens, Merry and her best friend Vicky, who's a bit sweet on the handsome new chef at the Yuletide Inn, have finished their meal and run into Merry's parents and the Olsens, owners of the Inn, just as Jack Olsen suffers a heart attack. The next thing everyone knows, Gord Olsen, Jack's bullying son from his first marriage, has come into town and is making plans to sell the Inn to a cheap motel chain and the adjacent gardens to a discount superstore chain. Everyone in the town is opposed to the idea, none more than Merry's dad Noel, one of the townspeople that came up with the Christmas town idea. So when Gord is murdered after an argument with Noel on the very night he doesn't have an alibi, he's the natural suspect. And of course Merry, who proved herself an able sleuth in her first outing, won't stop until she clears her dad.

I'm a Christmas freak, so I love the idea of a town dedicated to Christmas year 'round (heck, I'd live there myself). I like Merry, but I feel she's a bit hard on her assistant Jackie in this outing, although I understand that she's freaked out by her dad being under suspicion. (She does better by her dog in this book, however.) As usual in a small town, Noel has his opponents, including the annoying Sue-Anne Morrow on the town council (apparently related to Sue Ann Nivens from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and the envious neighboring town of Muddle Harbor, a fading relic just as Rudolph would have been, also throws its unscrupulous oar into the water. Since there was no love lost between Gord and anyone else, except for his awful wife Irene, there is no lack of suspects.

It's not a perfect series. Merry has two handsome guys fighting for her attention. Yeah, as if. The police office investigating the case is correct: Merry's just sticking her nose in too much (but then the story ends here!). And odious Irene kind of just vanishes near the end of the book. Nevertheless it's a cute little series revolving around a neat (for me) concept. I'd love to see Merry's oft-mentioned brother Chris appear in the next story!

Trim Up The Tree...

...but not quite yet!

As I'd reported in my main blog, on the first Sunday of Advent I managed to get the Christmas candles up in the front window, the door wreaths up, and the wreath, little blue tree, the Santas in the chairs, and the Father Christmas flag up on the porch, and draped the net lights over the bushes out front. The other lights would have to wait. I had taken Monday and Tuesday off, and this helped greatly. I spent Monday morning divesting Thanksgiving and dusting off things, and putting out the Christmas stakes (reindeer, candy cane, and jingle bell) outside and the mailbox cover. Plus Woody and Holly, the log reindeer. I'd planned to have the foyer all decorated when James got home, but the string of lights on the mini-ornament tree failed and I wasn't going out during rush hour. Instead I toted all the boxes that needed to come upstairs upstairs (I even managed to get the village upstairs; it's not heavy, just awkward.)

Tuesday morning I had to run to Michaels. All they had were LED strings in sets of fifty. I used them, but the tree now looks garish. Sigh. The kids today will grow up thinking LEDs are normal and pretty, but they will never know how soft and sweetly lovely incandescent lights were, comforting and gentle rather than garish. Anyway, I was able to finish up the foyer, and then I put up the library tree and the decorations dotting the library shelves and the couple of things in the downstairs bath.

Wednesday I had to go back into work; got my telework training done for another year and sent a file on for approval. Unfortunately I think the chicken salad in my sandwich was starting to spoil. I got very queasy after lunch and finally came home. I logged on to work via my computer in case something needed immediate attention, but it was all quiet and I swigged some Pepto Bismol and finally had a short nap. James was late so I roused up and busied myself putting greenery in the china cabinet and cleaning off things in prep for decorations.

Thursday was a telework day, but I got a bunch done during lunch and after work: put up the ceppo on the china cabinet, the feather tree with the vintage ornaments and the gilded walnuts I made as a teenager (so I guess they're now vintage, too!), and finally the table, which had to be cleaned off first (I swear, horizontal surfaces in this house gather so much junk). I did everything but the "1910 tree" because there wasn't time, but did get to the gingerbread and candy cane decorations in the kitchen. This was all possible because James came home late because he was picking up his new glasses. They are pewter colored and look super with his beard. I even had the Christmas village up on the mantelpiece before he walked in the door.

Friday morning the decorating continued—the "1910 tree" becoming the centerpiece on the table, the Rudolph tree going up in the hall. I had to dust and polish my entire bureau before I could put the little Italian and Scottish decorations up our bedroom. I absolutely don't understand how the bedroom gets so dusty. I could probably leave the spare room without dusting for a year and it wouldn't accumulate as much as it does in our bedroom in a week.

All I had left was the woodland tree, but it was time for me to get dressed and head to the Apple Annie Craft Show at the Catholic Church of St. Ann off Roswell Road. I don't even know anymore how many years I have been going to this event. I like this church; it's a pity it's such a long drive away. There were a lot of jewelry vendors this year. I stopped to talk to the first one, who was a man who made his own links (jump rings) out of wire and then he makes chain-mail bracelets from them. If "chain mail" sounds big and awkward, these weren't; they were fine and beautiful. He does the chain work and his wife the beadwork. I felt old; I mentioned Trifari to him and he had never heard of it. ☹  It was such a part of my life growing up that it's hard to believe that no one remembers any longer except for some jewelry collectors.

Well, I had two surprises, one sad and one good. The sad one was that they are remodeling the meditation garden, so I couldn't have my usual peaceful visit. I was a bit unhappy at first, because they have torn out all the plants and the pond and the statues and they're putting in granite. But it turns out that they are building a columbarium, a place to inter ashes, like the place at the Church of All Saints where Amy Rutledge is, and a prayer garden. It was supposed to be done by Christmas. I know when it is done it will be very nice but I was sorry that the rustic look of it is going away.

The happy surprise is that I ran into Claudia Barbour. We chatted a few minutes and I invited her to the Twelfth Night party.

Most of the things I would have liked to buy were very expensive: solid wood lazy Susans with beautiful blocky designs, natural wood "no electric" speakers (I actually would have bought one of these but we had nowhere to display them properly) with beautiful geometric decorations, solid wood crosses hand-carved. Not a lot of cute clothing for grandchildren this year, either.

Did stop in the sanctuary to say some prayers before I left. I always pray for James and Tucker and Snowy to be healthy and for me to be a better person, but mostly I prayed for all this political hatred to end. Reading Facebook has become a chore and the vitrol from both sides is frightening.

I stopped at Michaels on the way home to get some Sharpie markers, Trader Joe's to stock up on Christmas goodies, and finally at Kaiser at Town Center to pick up my levothroid. I was thirsty and feeling a bit cranky, but then the phone rang in the purse of the lady ahead of me, playing the Boston Pops' "Sleigh Ride." It cheered me up no end.

I got the woodland tree up tonight before settling in to watch Christmas specials tonight: John Denver and the Muppets, A Muppet Family Christmas, "Santa Claustrophobia" from Hill Street Blues, and Christmas Past.

 
Christmas on the American Frontier 1800-1900, John E. Baur
I got this at the library book sale, having taken it out at least once. Taken directly from diaries, journals, and histories by the people who lived the experience, chapters address different aspects of the American pioneer experience, starting from the founding of the country and the customs brought from Great Britain, France, and Spain and introduced to the native inhabitants, some who took great enjoyment from the holiday, but sadly, mainly due to alcohol. Some inspiring stories tell about settlers, cattlemen, explorers, and trappers making the best of what they had and sharing what little they had with others, or riotous dances at distant ranches, but more often the tales are bleak: people lost in blizzards just feet from the homes they were heading for, groups on short rations enduring another hungry day, cowboys spending the day tending cattle and wishing for some camaraderie, rough-and-tumble miners breaking from hardscrabble life for one day, and even British immigrants learning to endure the wild Western weather. Other customs are learned as Spanish customs like farolitoes and La Posadas catch the eye of visitors.

This book is from 1961 so the text may not be as softened as it might be at the present time, but the main draw here are the actual words of the pioneers. Coloring-book type illustrations break up the text. Slightly dry, but with some surprises (for instance, the word "hop" as a synonym for a dance; it sounds like a 1950s term, but goes back at least one hundred years earlier).

Heartlukewarm Stories

Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Joy of Christmas, edited by Amy Newmark
The 2016 edition, which advertises itself as being not only about Christmas, but having stories of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, too, which is strange, since I did find the one Hanukkah story and didn't find one about Thanksgiving.

I've loved these things for years, but this seems like a lesser effort. Maybe it was from reading two "true" stories that were remarkably similar to Pearl Buck's "Christmas Day in the Morning" and a novel called The 13th Gift. Maybe it's because I keep seeing the same authors' names over and over; do they just have an affinity for heartwarming Christmas events happening to them? Maybe it's because some of the stories were just "meh" this year, like the little boy repeating to Grandma exactly what his mother asked him to say? Or maybe it's just that 2016 has made me extremely cynical?

Whatever. Some of the pieces are heartwarming, but this isn't the "Chicken Soup" folks at the top of their game.

"Trees of Winter"

E.B. White

Oh, they are lovely trees that wait
      In the still hall of winter,
      Silent and good where the Good Planter
Fixed the root, wove the branch delicate.

Friendly the birches in the thin light
      By the frost sanctified,
      And here, too, silent by their side
I stand in the woods, listening, upright,

Hearing in the cold of the long pause
      Of the full year
      What trees intend that I should hear:
Interpretations of old laws...

Hearing the faint, the chickadee cry
      Of root that molders,
      Of branch bent, and leaf that withers,
And little brown seed that does not die.

What We're Thankful For

One Thanksgiving-oriented activity I have been reading about for years is the concept called a "Thanks Jar." You take an empty jar, decorate it if you like, and leave it somewhere where the family can access it, along with a pen and some paper, on November 1. The idea is for everyone in the family to write down things they are thankful for, whether profound or everyday. Ideally, every family member should write something everyday, but 100 percent participation 100 percent of the period isn't the point: it's about thinking about being thankful for what you have rather than thinking about what you want. I'd actually read the idea for this several years ago, but I either didn't have a jar or I forgot until the week before Thanksgiving or I thought "There's only two of us; is this worth doing?"

After my frustrating allergic reaction to the shingles vaccine and James' heart attack, I figured if any year called for a Thanks Jar, 2016 was it.

Plus this year I remembered to save a spaghetti sauce jar. The instructions for the project said you could paint the jar, or even engrave it. I went for the simple approach, the deep purple Advent-color ribbon I had in one cupboard and a clearance kids' craft project (make an autumn necklace). The little slips of paper were just copier paper I scored and cut into eighths. And one freebie pen.

We decanted the jar this weekend. I'll leave you to guess who wrote what (some will be apparent) and there were some duplicates. Some of them required extra thanks. :-)

• milk
• iced tea
• Christmas music
• the woman who has put up with me for 26 years
• chocolate
• Snowy songs when I come home
• cold nights to snuggle under blankets
• beat the "widowmaker"
• 4-day weekend with my sweetie!
• my job
• gingerbread
• sunrises
• Thanksgiving (for reminding us what's important)
• a warm puppy
• all our friends
• sunsets
• James being better
• Tucker
• Books!
• Snowy
• Lassie
• good friends
• FALL!
• for surviving "the widowmaker"
• Christmas!
• sunrises
• dark chocolate
• sunrises
• a place to live, a job, good food to eat and lots of fresh water
• sunsets
• Eastern Standard Time!
• budgie song!
• wispy cirrus clouds against bright blue autumn skies
• James' cooking
• brisk breezes
• all the men and women who serve/have served in the Armed Forces
• our home
• did I mention books?

 I enjoyed this. I want to do it again next year.

First Sunday of Advent

This year the season of Advent is the longest period it can be, because Christmas Day is on a Sunday. If you are a Christian, it is a season akin to Lent, in which you prepare yourself spiritually for the holiday. It's also time for more secular pursuits: baking cookies, shopping, attending Christmas plays or presentations, taking in a concert, and enjoying yourself with friends. I have a craft show that takes place on the first weekend of December, and we always attend the annual performance of the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company's Atlanta Christmas.

I also like to go to downtown Marietta right before Christmas to see the stores dressed up in their Christmas finery.

What is your favorite Advent activity?

What is Advent? | The United Methodist Church

The Voice: The Season of Advent

The Liturgical Season of Advent

Vox: Advent Explained

Where Did the Season of Advent Come From?

By the time the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began (well, with a few minutes' help from the DVR), I had walked Tucker, had breakfast, and had time to get royally frustrated: I could not find my Christmas cards. They finally turned up in the spare room, where I'd had them in my hand while putting away something else. I've become such a textbook example of what Pam Young and Peggy Jones used to call sidetracked. So that's what I did while watching the Muppets open the parade and all the Broadway acts dance by and finally the parade and the bands and the balloons stream by. Seeing Felix the Cat come along (a faithful reproduction of the original giant balloon) and hearing the theme song play was an exercise in nostalgia all in itself. Tony Bennett and the Parade are both 90 years old this year, but poor Tony was looking a bit seedy when he sang with Miss Piggy.

Watched most of the dog show while wrestling with registering with Office Depot so I could pick up some Black Friday specials today and just pick them up tomorrow, ditto with Staples. Needless to say, it didn't work well and I was suddenly racing to get dressed to take our goodies over to the Lucyshyns for Thanksgiving dinner. James had made glazed, roasted carrots; a corn casserole; and a cucumber and tomato salad. The GPS took us on an inexplicable ride through lesser streets when we could have just gone through Sugarloaf Parkway, but it was no matter, as it was a beautiful, clear day if somewhat warm.

It was so warm half the crowd was sitting outside and playing fetch with Cole, the dog. I spent a little time outside listening to Juanita talk about her berserk boss and other things, and some inside, where I said hi to Jake (Nancy was too ill to come) and met Kristine's sister Dorothy, and noshed on appetizers (relish tray, vegetables and dip, pita and some type of potato dip).

We had a huge spread: three kinds of turkey (baked, Cajun, and smoked), pot roast, glazed ham, mashed potatoes (all of which was eaten up tooth and toenail), the corn and carrots and salad we brought, crab louis, two kinds of stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, sweet potatos with marshmallows, green beans, creamed corn, and other things I've just plain forgotten, and then after dinner we sat down and chatted with Phyllis and Leigh and Clair.

By the time we left it was dark enough to see burgeoning Christmas trees and lights popping up everywhere. There was a good deal of traffic, but none delayed, and we were able to come home and relax a bit before going to bed early.

Today I am thankful for...

• James making it out of the hospital in one piece
• Tucker, who makes us laugh
• Snowy, who gives us the gift of music
• Our friends and family both here and far away
• Our home and all its hygge
• The books that keep us dreaming
• The work that buys us books
• Summer finally being gone, gone, gone
• And for all those who serve: military, firefighters, police, doctors, nurses, social workers, and so many more—you do so much for so little and fewer thanks

Twas the Day Before Thanksgiving...

It has been a busy, busy morning here. JoAnn decided to start their Black Friday sale on Wednesday, so I had gotten up not soon after James, dressed, had a little milk and grabbed a packet of peanuts, and headed to Kennesaw. A fluorescent light James used in his modeling had died, so we recycled the old one last Saturday and I picked up a new Ottlight for him as a Christmas gift, and bought myself a watercolor pad with a coupon. I would like to come back on Friday, though.

Since it was still before nine, I stopped at the nearby Office Max to see what might be interesting there tomorrow and bought a desk calendar for work, since apparently no one sent me a message that they were ordering calendars this year. I got a very interesting coupon on the receipt: 30 percent off a chairmat, which we both really need.

What I needed now was breakfast. Alas, Chick-Fil-A has discontinued my favorite breakfast, the #8, oatmeal and a fruit cup. Thanks...the only low-cal entry they had and they killed it. So I went to Panera and had "power almond quinoa oatmeal," which was okay, but a little too sweet for me. I also didn't think much of the "power." I was hungry again by 10:30.

Stopped by Barnes & Noble to see if there were any new books out (nada for now and didn't buy anything because there's a coupon for the weekend and all the magazines are 30 percent off), then stopped at the post office to get Christmas stamps before heading to Publix to pick up lunch. They had a James favorite, chicken and wild rice soup, so I got two for supper and picked up a baguette to make a sandwich when I got home. A quick stop at Staples to see if there's anything of interest for Friday, and then I made one final stop at Office Max, since I couldn't find a mailing tube at the post office. And now I have another coupon for another chair mat to boot.

It wasn't lunchtime quite yet, though, because I'd gotten a call from James saying he had forgotten his insulin this morning. I stopped at home quick enough to refrigerate the soup and played Mercury with the insulin.

I had some preserves and baguette for lunch with a milk chaser and spent the afternoon watching Lassie episodes on YouTube.

Incidentally, one of the things I found at Publix was the Thanksgiving newspaper. Now I don't have to go to the QT before the Macy's Parade tomorrow. Something else to give thanks for.

(Later on: supper, a special on the 90th anniversary of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and then some pre-recorded specials, including The Thanksgiving Treasure.)

In the meantime, I've had a good read with this new book:
 
Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience, Melanie Kirkpatrick

It's always nice to find a Thanksgiving book for adults out that is not a cookbook. This one is a history of the holiday written after the author visited a high school where most of the students are immigrants. She wanted to examine all the aspects of the holiday, not just the tired Pilgrim-and-Indians story that's trotted out every year (and believe it or not, a story that no one outside of Plymouth, MA, knew about until the mid 1800s). That is a part of the holiday, but not all of it; for a long time it was the holiday that substituted for Christmas in New England, since the strict Puritans and their successors did not celebrate it.

Kirkpatrick touches on all aspects of Thanksgiving, including an entire chapter on football, which has been a Thanksgiving tradition for almost 150 years (and it's possible a form of football might even been played at that classic "first Thanksgiving"). She also delves into the unique Plymouth holiday Forefather's Day, and the Native American Day of Mourning—and of course the 1930s controversy over "Franksgiving," when FDR dared to move the holiday up one week to improve Christmas sales in the Depression.

The final third of the book are different Thanksgiving readings from authors from George Washington to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Abraham Lincoln to Billy Graham, and then some vintage recipes from Thanksgivings gone by. I wish they'd included a Marlborough pie recipe as they kept mentioning this vintage dessert throughout the book. (Recipe from "New England Today.") Possibly one of the best things about this volume are the little watercolor-and-ink spot drawings as chapter headers and between sections of chapters which are also used on the endpapers. It lends a special touch to this neat little volume.

Three Reads for Thanksgiving Eve

Quick, simple, yet heartfelt:

Molly's Pilgrim, Barbara Cohen
This almost-a-picture book is about Molly, whose family recently immigrated from Eastern Europe. The girls at school—the popular ones—make fun of her unfashionable clothing and her bad English, and Molly is also self-conscious of what her strict but fashionable teacher would think of her, or even worse, of her mother, who wears clothing from "the old country." Things come to a head when the children are asked to dress a clothespin as a Pilgrim for Thanksgiving. Fresh in her knowledge of the story, Molly is fearful when her mother says she will dress the clothespin—and her worst fears come true.

What is a Pilgrim? As Molly's mother so eloquently proves, it is not just a starched black-and-white separatist used as a decoration, a gentle lesson that should not be soon forgotten. Get the new edition with the Daniel Duffy illustrations!

A Pioneer Thanksgiving: A Story of Harvest Celebrations in 1841, Barbara Greenwood
This is Greenwood's followup to A Pioneer Story, a combination story and activity book which followed a year in the life of the pioneering Robertson family. Now the Scots-descent Robertsons, along with their German and First Nations neighbors (the setting is Canadian) harvest their crops and get ready for a harvest celebration/Thanksgiving as impulsive Sarah worries about her elderly Grandmother and in the process of trying to make her feel better, nearly gets her little sister Lizzie hurt. The story alternates chapters with things to do—making a corn dolly and a weathervane, mixing up some cranberry sauce, playing "conkers" with chestnuts, and more—and the native celebrations are touched upon as well. Illustrated with lovely pencil drawings. The original book (also called A Pioneer Sampler) is worth getting as well as a great look into pioneer days.

The Thanksgiving Treasure, Gail Rock
This is the novelization of the television special of the same name, a sequel to The House Without a Christmas Tree. Addie Mills is intrigued when her teacher Miss Thompson says during a  lesson that we should try to make friends of our enemies, since recently she and her dad ran into nasty old Mr. Rhenquist, who shorted James Mills a payment for digging out a pond for him. When Addie and her best friend Carla Mae go out collecting autumn plants for floral bouquet gifts, she scopes out his place and discovers he owns the one special thing Addie has always wanted: a horse. So Addie collects items from her own Thanksgiving dinner and takes them to the "cranky old goat." Rhenquist resents it at first, but then slowly begins to thaw.

 This is a lively and often funny and sometimes sentimental novel about the power of friendship. It differs from the television special in small ways (for instance Addie's best friend in the special is Cora Sue), but the story is pretty much the same with more details—about Addie's unconventional bicycle, her school friends, the bleak November Nebraska landscape, the period bits like the kids' Thanksgiving radio play and long underwear—with fabulous illustrations by Charles Gehm (the very last one is "nifty," as Addie might say). If you loved the special, the book will be just your cup of tea.

Stir Up! Sunday

"Stir up, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people, that they plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded.”

Traditionally, this collect is read at services on this last Sunday in Ordinary Time (also known as the Feast of Christ the King). In Great Britain, it was the signal that it was time to make your Christmas puddings. Toss away your visions of Jello pudding; this is a spicy, dense cake filled with raisins, citron, and nuts which is steamed rather than baked. In days when dessert was few and far between unless you were fairly well-to-do or wealthy, even poor families would scrape together the few extra pennies and shillings it might take to have their Christmas pudding. Since after it is steamed it is soaked in brandy, and the brandy needs some weeks in a cool location to "set" into the mixture, it was made several weeks before Christmas and then warmed up to serve with some hard sauce for the topping.

To thoroughly follow traditions, each person in the household should be allowed to stir the pudding and it should be stirred from "east to west" in honor of the journey of the Magi.

Christmas 2016: Stir Up Sunday – What It Is and How to Celebrate It

Pudding Recipe for Stir Up Sunday

Good To Know: Stir Up Sunday


The Story of Santa Klaus, William S. Walsh
In 1961, Omnigraphics reprinted this charming little Christmas volume from 1909 in which author Walsh takes the threads from many cultures to explain how thin, ascetic Saint Nicholas became the children's friend, chubby and jolly Santa Klaus [sic] and how other legends inspired the modern traditions of items like the Christmas tree and gift giving. He takes us to the ancient Turkey where he discusses all the legends surrounding Nicholas of Potara, later Bishop of Myra, who became St. Nicholas, patron saint of children, pawnbrokers, sailors, Russians, and a good dozen other things. Christmas celebrations go back to the Church's effort to overlay the pagan celebrations of Saturnalia with a layer of Christian respectability and giving old traditions new meaning. While the Christmas tree has certain legends surrounding it—St. Winfred chopping down the oak tree to reveal an evergreen, Martin Luther decorating a small fir in imitation of the beauty he saw walking home one winter's night—Walsh goes even further back to the Scandinavian sacred tree Yggdrasil. Also discussed in charming Edwardian prose is the journey of the Magi, the Christmas tree's journey from the Germanic countries to Great Britain and the United States, the French custom of Twelfth Cake, and the story of La Befana/Baboushka.

This book is well worth finding at a used book store or book sale for its old-fashioned history of Christmas through the "modern times" of 1909. There are many black and white illustrations of famous artwork having to do with the Nativity and newspaper clippings, however, the former are rather muddy. Luckily this is 2016 and you can look up any one of them online to be seen in detail.

Old Advent

Originally both Advent and Lent were of the same length, forty days, and a time of fasting and prayer in preparation for the great holiday ahead.

"The word 'Advent' is from the Latin 'Adventus,' which means 'coming.' Advent is the beginning of a new liturgical year (in the Western churches), and encompasses the span of time from the fourth Sunday before Christmas, until the Nativity of Our Lord is celebrated. The first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday nearest the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (which is November 30th), and so it will always fall somewhere between November 27th at the earliest and December 3rd at the latest. The liturgical color for this season is purple (Usually a deep purple as opposed to the lighter, red-violet shade of purple associated with Lent).

Like Lent, Advent is a preparatory season. It has significance because it is a season of looking forward and waiting for something greater; both for the annual celebration of the event of Christ's birth, and for the time when Christ will come again." *

Today, of course, Advent is simply a great rush of shopping to get "the best" gift ever for someone.

This year the Advent season is at its longest since Christmas is on a Sunday, and in a few days it will be "Stir-Up Sunday," the day you are supposed to bake and then put away your Christmas puddings "in the larder" for the upcoming holiday.

In the meantime, a take on classic Victorian Christmas literature for the first day of Old Advent:


Away in a Manger, Rhys Bowen
Former "female detective" Molly Murphy—now Molly Murphy Sullivan with a toddler son—is doing some early Christmas shopping with her young ward Bridie when they come upon a tiny blonde girl singing Christmas carols with the voice of an angel. Bridie is intrigued by the girl, and in the process of being kind to the child, they meet her brother, find out the children must earn money under the tyrannical rule of their "Aunt Hettie," and notice that both of the youngsters speak with cultured British accents. Molly can't understand for the life of her how these two ended up on the streets—but if you are familiar with the Molly Murphy mystery series you know she won't leave the situation alone, even though her husband Daniel, a newly-minted, unbribable police captain, warns her that they may be part of a confidence ring.

While the usual Molly regulars appear, including Daniel's imperious mother and Molly's loving but eccentric neighbors Sid and Gus, Bowen has done this one one better by writing it in the plot fashion of a Victorian Christmas melodrama, with the primary characters, two well-bred children of evident aristocratic heritage, immediately in place. So don't be surprised when some of the villains of the piece appear Dickensian or sound like they come from a 1900 novel (this means you can pick out one of the bad guys just by how that person is described), all wrapped up in modern sensibility. Just sit back and enjoy the Victorian machinations and the evocative descriptions of Christmas in New York at the turn of the last century: slippery sidewalks, crossing sweepers, the new technology of mechanical figures in store Christmas display windows, mistletoe, buying a fresh Christmas tree from a streetcorner vendor, hot chestnuts, cold sleet, home-baked Christmas goodies (even from Sid and Gus!), charity, and a character losing hope...

And of course there's the usual massive coincidence as well. Never mind: it's all about family and finding a home and making happiness out of the small things. This one has jingle bells upon it.


* from aquinasandmore.com

St. Martin's Day

St. Martin's Day, also known as "Martinmas" or "Martinstag," is a celebration based around St. Martin of Tours, a soldier who later became a saint. He is best known for having given half his cloak to a beggar who was thinly clad on a freezing day. He later left the military and devoted his life to helping the poor. In Europe the holiday is celebrated with lanterns and roast goose.

Back when the season of Advent, like Lent, was forty days and involved fasting, Martinmas was a last feast before November 15. In some parts of Germany, "Here comes St. Martin on his white horse," means it's about to snow.

More about Martinmas:

About St. Martin of Tours

St. Martin's Day Traditions in Bavaria

Martinstag

Fish Eaters: Martinmas

St. Martin's Day in Ireland

St. Martin's Day (mouse over the photos to see the full images)

And appropriate for a Martinmas Day:


Christmas 1914: The First World War at Home and Abroad, John Hudson
I found this book in a discount book catalog and ordered it thinking it might be another book about the Christmas Truce, judging by the soldiers on the cover, and was pleasantly surprised to find it addressed Christmas in Great Britain (specifically in England) in all its aspects, including the Christmas Truce and also about the famous Princess Mary box, a gift that was sent to all of the soldiers serving (I was surprised on finding out after all these years how truly tiny it was!). In the process, it covered aspects of World War I that I had never heard of before, including zeppelin raids on the famous British beach Scarborough and other North Sea sites. Chapters are devoted to members of football/cricket clubs and military schools who joined up together only to have their ranks decimated by the war, the efforts of British women and girls (and even elderly men and invalided males) to knit items to keep their "boys" warm in the trenches (this includes a discussion of "trench foot" that would have horrified females of that day), Christmas fêtes given for the soldiers, Belgian refugees on British soil, meeting Germans who had once been employed in England, and other memories wistful (families celebrating without a son or slon-in-law or father) or terrifying (early, uncensored reports of the carnage). Vintage postcards and photographs fill out this unique little book. As a history buff I enjoyed this.

Happy Hallowe'en!

The Vintage Hallowe'en Website

Origins of Hallowe'en

Strange Hallowe'en Facts and Folklore

Vintage Hollowe'en Traditions

Dennison's Bogie Book from 1920

Rudolph Day, October 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.

And it's now just two months until Christmas! What are you doing to prepare? Perhaps reading some Christmas books?


A Country House Christmas, John Chandler
Fans of Downton Abbey, plus the older British dramas like Upstairs, Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street, and Flambards would probably love this compilation volume from Sutton (part of their "Christmas in..." series of British memories). Passages are taken from the real-life country house reminisces of Phyllis Sandemann, Harold MacMillan, Kenneth Grahame, and Hilaire Belloc among others; fiction in country houses is supplied by the pens of Charles Dickens and Washington Irving (and a nice skewer of the country house set is given in the humorous "Christmas at Boulton Wynfevers"), plus there's the jaw-dropping tale of a real-life mad Christmas Eve in the 1930s delivering "Milord's" gifts ("Pheasants by Taxi"); and many-day-by-day diaries of guests in country homes (and a letter to her mother from one harried hostess). Old favorites like "The Mistletoe Bough" and Robert Herrick's classic Candlemas poetry, plus vintage illustrations, photographs of country estates, and Randolph Caldecott art round out this nostalgic volume.

Christmas Ornament Legends from Old World Christmas 
The Old World Christmas company supplies traditional glass ornaments in Christmas shops all over the country (including The Incredible Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge, TN, Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI, and the Yankee Candle Flagship Store in Deerfield, MA), made in Germany by third- and fourth-generation craftsmen (but at an affordable price as opposed to Radko ornaments). This little gift book is worth finding for a dollar or two; it mixes old Victorian "scrap" illustrations (mostly of St. Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus) with pretty full-color photographs of their ornaments that have meaning behind them (grapes for fruitfulness, for instance, or rabbits for good luck) or rare ornaments like the "John Bull" or "Spark Plug" figurals. Cute if you can find one at a reasonable price.

Don't you love the Santa Claus at left? I really love the Victorian Santa Clauses in their hooded robes rather than the modern Santa in his fire-engine red pants, jacket and tassel cap. Some Victorian Santa Clauses even dressed in other colors than red—palest of blues, off-white, green—as shown in these Google images. Even better, a search on "vintage st. nicholas illustrations" brings this delightful result.

Did you know that two of the oldest Christmas songs—not Christmas carols or hymns about the birth of the Christ Child, but songs about the secular side of the celebration—are both about Santa Claus? "Up on the Housetop" was written in 1864 and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" in 1881. ("Jingle Bells" was written in 1857, but isn't about Christmas—it's a song about taking your girl out alone on a fast ride, as later generations would use a sports car.)

A Country Pick'ns Thanksgiving

More years ago than I can remember, we have been going to the Yellow Daisy Festival, and one of my favorite vendors there are a couple named Tom and Jan Messenger out of Kansas who run a craft business called Country Pick'ns. They make little shadow boxes and then the tiny things that go in them, all with a country theme, and sell them at craft shows all around the country. They have several themes: Christmas/winter, camping/cabins, autumn/Hallowe'en, summer/beach, patriotic, sewing, gardening, kitchen/cooking, farm, and homespun/housekeeping. The "shadow boxes" themselves are vertical or horizontal, and some look like bookshelves, but all are in miniature. Over the years, I've bought several sets from them:

Previous Purchases

The "Me" Shelf Completed

In addition, when my friends Mike and Jen got married, they went camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for their honeymoon, and I did a Country Pick'ns shadowbox as their wedding present, with a deer, a canoe, a campfire, a lantern, and a few other appropriate items.

The one shadowbox I've always wanted to make, however, was a Thanksgiving-themed one, but they didn't have one. I've been thinking and thinking about this for several years now, and when we went to Yellow Daisy this year I went through all the items, bit by bit, to see what I could work with. Below is what I came home with.

As you can see, most of the items have a general fall theme. The closest shadow box background that I could find that would work with Thanksgiving, however, was actually a Hallowe'en-themed item and originally had a goofy-looking cat behind the pumpkins. I took the back off and painted it out before I took this photo. Then I went online and found a cartoon turkey (at left) that was the closest I could find that would approximate the Country Pick'ns style. I cut a slit along the top of the pumpkins in the background image and slid the turkey in.

The bread on the breadboard, the pumpkin and "bittersweet" in the pail, the second pumpkin, the corn in the basket with the leaf on it, the pie, and the "harvest blessings" sign I could use "as is," since they all related to harvest and feasting, but the rest would need a little fixing.

The witch hat I sawed the top off, and also the little curl on each side, and painted the whole black with a brown band and a gold buckle to be a "Pilgrim hat." Yeah, I know Pilgrims didn't wear hats like that, despite the pictures, but it's part of the iconography. Even the Mass Pike has the stereotypical Pilgrim hat as a symbol.

The chicken I took and painted its body brown like a turkey and gave it a big wattle. It still looks chicken-y; I guess we can call it a ticken? :-) Or a churky? Whatever.

I took the autumn lady, clipped the brims off her hat, and then painted what was left of her hat white, giving it some bonnet lines with a drawing pen, and gave her a big white collar as in the paintings of 17th century woman, along with black shoes with buckles, plus I darkened her skirt to a darker autumn color.

The "jump in the leaves" plaque I popped the leaves off with an X-acto knife (losing one in the process) and completely repainted, then glued the leaves back on. (I had to buy extra leaves through an online craft store since Michaels quit carrying them. I peppered a few more on the shadow box frame itself.)

If I had it to do over again I would not have used such a wide drawing pen. It doesn't quite look like Jan Messenger's work, although I tried to duplicate her style as much as possible. I think I'm also going to borrow some matte-finish from James so the repainted areas—I only had gloss paint—won't shine so much.

But...here's the result. I have my Thanksgiving shelf at last.

Happy Hygge!

Do you know about hygge? it's a Scandinavian concept with an "emphasis on the delights of small pleasures slowly taken." There's summer hygge as well, but in winter it comes into its own, "all about candelight, wood piles, open fires, warm socks, felt slippers and cosy blankets...[i]t's also about cherishing the magic of autumn and winter—from wild walks along stormy beaches to stargazing in clear winter skies to celebrating the year's first frost" and then coming home to warm drinks, good food, and the warmth of fire and friends.

Here are some books about hygge:

The Cozy Life

Hygge: The Complete Guide

Hygge is what some magazines today are calling "mindfulness"—to slow down and appreciate all the good things in your life, even if it's something so small as seeing a new bird, watching a beautiful leaf fall, eating a crisp fall apple, or doing some tiny thing. It can be translated into a way of cooking or a way of decorating, but that's not really "hygge"; it's truly the thought that counts. One of my favorite new magazines, "The Simple Things," tries to celebrate the idea of hygge in every issue: a handful of bright flowers in a drinking glass, a simple meal with friends, reading a favorite book, sitting by a fire and sipping tea.

This fall and winter forget the competitive Christmas shopping and enjoy some hygge!

Incidentally, it's pronounced "hue-gah."

(The quotes in the first paragraph are from the September 2016 issue of "The Simple Things.")

Autumn Poetry

"It's September"

by Edgar A. Guest

It's September, and the orchards are afire with red and gold,

And the nights with dew are heavy, and the morning's sharp with cold;

And the good old-fashioned asters laughing at us from their bed;

Once again in shoes and stockings are the children's little feet,

And the dog now does his snoozing on the bright side of the street.

It's September, and the cornstalks are as high as they will go,

And the red cheeks of the apples everywhere begin to show;

Now the supper's scarcely over ere the darkness settles down

And the moon looms big and yellow at the edges of the town;

Oh, it's good to see the children, when their little prayers are said,

Duck beneath the patchwork covers when they tumble into bed.

It's September, and a calmness and a sweetness seem to fall

Over everything that's living, just as though it hears the call

Of Old Winter, trudging slowly, with his pack of ice and snow,

In the distance over yonder, and it somehow seems as though

Every tiny little blossom wants to look its very best
When the frost shall bite its petals and it droops away to rest.

It's September! It's the fullness and the ripeness of the year;
All the work of earth is finished, or the final tasks are near,
But there is no doleful wailing; every living thing that grows,
For the end that is approaching wears the finest garb it knows.
And I pray that I may proudly hold my head up high and smile
When I come to my September in the golden afterwhile.

Rudolph Day, September 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.


Christmas in the Crosshairs, Gerry Bowler
"There's a war on Christmas!" has been proclaimed now for several years by groups angry about stores saying "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" or state governments forced to take state-funded creches off state property, etc. Is there really a "war on Christmas"? Well, yes, says Gerry Bowler—but then there always has been.

Christmas has, believe it or not, been a bone of contention since 4 AD (or 4 CE, if you prefer). The early Christian church sanctioned no Christmas celebration and in fact, over the years the most vociferous opponents to Christmas merrymaking have been Christians themselves. "We should not be celebrating the birth of the Christ child as if he were some King Pharaoh," thundered early Christian leaders. The Puritans pointed out that nowhere in the New Testament was "Christmas" mentioned, just a weekly day of rest and prayer, and those were their only days of rest practiced in their meeting houses. The new Protestant religions, especially the Calvinists and Presbyterians, post-reformation rejected "Popish" Christmas celebrations while others pointed out that most of our Christmas customs derive from earlier pagan practices (mistletoe, the evergreen tree, the Yule log), other old time practices (feasting due to killing of livestock that couldn't be fed during the winter and gifts which came from Roman custom of giving gifts at the New Year), or involved wicked events like dancing and singing of songs that were not hymns and—heaven forbid!—men dressing like women and vice-versa. Other religions, as well as nonbelievers, were tired of stores being overwhelmed by Christmas carols and decorations from late November, and worse, their non-Christian children being forced to make Christmas ornaments and sing religious songs.

Bowler neatly and sometimes humorously recounts the history of the holiday, and the protests against it, from the Christian rise which overtook the pagan religions (and absorbed so many of their customs) all the way up to the protests by the Westboro Baptist Church, the ACLU, and various organizations who feel there's just too much Christmas in December. Since I collect books on the history of Christmas, this was a welcome find. I have Mr. Bowler's World Encyclopedia of Christmas and I'm off to find Mr. Bowler's book about Santa Claus now; Christmas in the Crosshairs would make another good-reading addition to my library!

What if we make something for Christmas? Many craft projects should be started now:

"Better Homes and Gardens" Christmas Crafts

"Country Living" Christmas Crafts

"Parents" Christmas Crafts for Kids

Cross-Stitch Christmas Free Patterns

Autumn Poetry

My Autumn Leaves
By Bruce Weigl

I watch the woods for deer as if I’m armed.
I watch the woods for deer who never come.
I know the hes and shes in autumn
rendezvous in orchards stained with fallen
apples’ scent. I drive my car this way to work
so I may let the crows in corn believe
it’s me their caws are meant to warn,
and snakes who turn in warm and secret caves

they know me too. They know the boy
who lives inside me still won’t go away.
The deer are ghosts who slip between the light
through trees, so you may only hear the snap
of branches in the thicket beyond hope.
I watch the woods for deer, as if I’m armed.

Rudolph Day, August 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.


A Yorkshire Christmas, George Collard

This is another in Sutton's line of Christmas books, either from English shires (their equivalent of a county) or during a certain time or literary period. Having picked up one (Worcestershire Christmas) at a book sale, I've collected one or two at the time when I can find them inexpensively (not to mention Surrey Christmas turned up a year later at the same book sale).

This one is a particularly happy find because so many familiar writers are contained within. The Brontes were from Yorkshire, so both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre supply Yuletide passages and the family is heavily represented. Charles Dickens apparently wrote most of A Christmas Carol in Malton, and Scrooge's office was based on the office of Dickens' friend. Lewis Carroll, Winifred Holtby (from her famous book South Riding), and James Herriott also supply seasonal literary passages. Historical events taking place at Christmas, such as King Arthur's Christmas in York, the defeat of the Duke of York by armies commanded by Margaret of Anjou (the wife of kidnapped King Henry), William the Conqueror's victory over King Harold on Christmas Day, and others are also included. The best readings are nostalgic memories of old Yorkshire customs like the Waits, Lucky Birds, frumenty and fluffin, the amazing Yorkshire Christmas pie, charity by the rich to the poor, simple gift exchanges (oranges or figs, small toys, the custom of families knitting, travel by stagecoach, and instances of deep snow.

The volume is liberally illustrated with vintage illustrations and photographs from 1900 through the 1940s. The passages are all short and can be read one or two a night before the holidays.

* * * * *

For a classic story, but on the American side of the Atlantic, none is more heartwarming than Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," here read on stage:

Already Anticipating Christmas!

I'm the guest blogger today at Joanna Wilson's "Christmas TV History":

http://www.christmastvhistory.com/2016/07/christmas-in-july-2016-linda-m-young.html

Rudolph Day, June 2016

Hurrah! It's Leon Day! Only six months until Christmas! Have you begun your Christmas shopping yet? Don't let the holidays leave you with another enormous bill in January; start buying now, as soon as you see something you know a friend or family member would like. These can be hidden in boxes under beds, in the dark corners of closets, if they are not perishable in the high corners of the garage or the attic, etc. Gift cards from established stores can be purchased now and put away. Don't be afraid to shop clearance sales—some beautiful items can be found marked down and they can be stored away for the next five months.

Summer already on your last nerve? Yeah, me, too. Here are three Christmasy pictures to cheer  me  you up:

 
1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, Alfred Carl Hottes
This is a grand little book about Christmas that I first read at the library and then found an inexpensive copy online. It is the sort of Christmas book I like, with chapters about different aspects of Christmas: the history of Christmas celebrations, customs in different countries and traditional foods in those countries, kinds of Christmas trees, legends and stories of Christmas, etc., all illustrated with black-and-white scratchboard and pen-and-ink.

The chief draw of this book is that it was originally published in 1937. My edition is postwar, from 1946, but the text remains the same, so that "current Christmas customs" have no mention of synchronized singing-and-dancing house lights, computer graphics, and other 21st century garnish. Indeed, the author shows a slight scorn for artificial decorations and plays up fresh greens and real trees. He even opens with a definition of Christmas that includes Santa Claus leaving gifts in stockings and on (not under) the Christmas tree, which was the original custom,  for everyone who's ever puzzled about "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and the line about "presents on the tree." (I read a story taking place in World War II which had a man in his twenties questioning that line, which I knew was wrong; a man that age would have remembered when gifts were hung on the Christmas tree. Books published in the late 1940s still mention this custom.)

(Another old custom which I has vaguely heard of Hottes quotes as common: leaving a red candle [specifically red, in a green candle holder] lighted as a Christmas decoration. I thought that was solely an Irish custom, but apparently it was popular in the United States as well.)

In the 1930s the fascination with medieval Christmas feasts seemed to have still been in effect, because there is a lively chapter about a Yuletide banquet in a medieval castle, with its odd foods like peacock served in its own feathers, bread trenchers used as plates, traditional games like Hot Cockles, etc. Another chapter dealing with Christmas music includes the original English translation for the now classic "Silent Night," words different than we know them today. The stories about Christmas in other lands come directly from descriptions written by people who were there observing them, so they are different than the usual canned narrations used in other books.

People interested in vintage Christmas customs will probably enjoy Hottes' compilation. It can be read in chapter order, or one can dip in and read what interests them. And, thankfully, it doesn't contain any dialect-heavy "happy memories of plantation life" stories like many of these older books.

Should Old Customs Be Forgotten...

If you read as many books about Christmas customs as I have, you'll discover several writers quoted quite commonly. Charles Dickens, of course, is one, and Marjorie Holmes, from her At Christmas the Heart Goes Home, is another. But for Christian celebration customs, one writer is mentioned more than the rest: Francis X. Weiser, a Jesuit priest who wrote the classic The Christmas Book. Lesser known is Weiser's The Easter Book, which was written a few years later.

This is a very plain book, no fancy color illustrations or slick paper (there are line illustrations at the beginning of each chapter), just Weiser's lively narration about the Easter season, starting from the very first Easter (and tracing some of the pagan aspects greeting the spring that still remain in the celebration) and tracing ancient and modern celebrations from preparations before Lent through the Ascension. (I was amused at the revision of the tale of the Maypole, which was originally a pagan fertility symbol.) I learned several things here which I had never known before, one being that the word "quarantine" comes from preparations for Lent ("quarantine" referring to the forty days of Lent) many years before it was used for restrictions due to sickness. Also, there was always the joke when I was a schoolkid that it was really called "Length" because it lasted so long. Actually the word "Lent" does sort of mean that: it comes from Anglo-Saxon Lengten-tide (springtime), "lengten" referring to the days lengthening as the summer solstice approaches. Not to mention that the Sunday after Easter is "Low Sunday" because Easter Sunday through "Low" Sunday is all part of Easter week, with Easter being the "High" Sunday.

This book was published in 1954 and the one thing you wistfully wonder when you read it is if 62 years later the charming customs Weiser details so lovingly—sprinkling water in Hungary and Germany on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, not washing clothes on Good Friday, skipping rope in one English village, red eggs only in Greece, wearing mourning or at least dark clothing in Poland during Lent, etc.—are still kept. Even before I left home in the 1980s, it was no longer common to see Septuagesima Sunday, Sexagisima Sunday, and Quinquagesima Sunday listed in our missalettes (not to mention the aforementioned Low Sunday), although they were delightful tongue-twisters to a word-worshiping child. This book will make you nostalgic for seemingly innocent days when children reveled in finding home-made Easter baskets and you could hold open house where any stranger could walk in and not worry about being attacked.

A good edition to anyone's holiday library if you can find a copy at a decent price. This was the first one I found that wasn't over $50!

And I've finished this review just in time because tomorrow is Ascension Thursday...

Rudolph Day, April 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.

An Old English Christmas—for some these are magical words, having read books about classic Christmas celebrations in Regency, Victorian, and wartime Britain. The streets of 20th century London can be seen here. Even older celebrations exist: wassailing of apple trees, mince pies baked for good luck, choral singing, church bells, Royal Christmas trees.

London still glitters today:



 


A London Christmas, edited by Marina Catacuzino
This is a lovely entry in Sutton Publishing's line of "A ____________ Christmas" series—one for each shire, some specialties (A Jane Austen Christmas, A Victorian Christmas, A Wartime Christmas, etc.), and of course this one, for the capitol city. They are collections of excerpts from nonfiction ranging from diaries (like Pepys and Swift) and police reports and memoirs (including children's writer John Garfield), and fiction from George Gissing and Charles Dickens (yes, of course from A Christmas Carol). There are descriptions of Christmas markets groaning with food, the rich going Christmas shopping, and a man mourning the Victorian fashion of children's Christmas parties. However, not all is jolly: poor costermongers going "a-Christmasing" describe their hard work, the bitter "Christmas in the Workhouse" appears, and two bleak holidays are described by Gissing. Historically we visit William the Conqueror's crowning, frost fairs on the Thames, London in the Blitz, medieval banquets at the Middle Temple, and the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square.

Certainly color photographs would have been much better, but these are decorated with vintage black and white prints and engravings that complement the text. Great for nightly readings before Christmas or, like today, as a respite against already sultry temperatures. If you see one at a used bookstore, give it a try!

Happy Rankin Bass Easter!

I believe these are all available on DVD now! Buy these restored versions for yourself!

And my favorite of all:

 

Something to Hold You Through the Long, Endless Summer

A LYRIC OF AUTUMN
William Stanley Braithwaite

THERE is music in the meadows, in the air —
     Autumn is here;
Skies are gray, but hearts are mellow,
     Leaves are crimson, brown, and yellow;
Pines are soughing, birches stir,
     And the Gipsy trail is fresh beneath the fir.

There is rhythm in the woods, and in the fields,
     Nature yields:
And the harvest voices crying,
     Blend with Autumn zephyrs sighing;
Tone and color, frost and fire,
     Wings the nocturne Nature plays upon her lyre.

For St. David's Day

St. David, patron saint of Wales.

19 Facts About St. David and His Day

Rudolph Day, February 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 of the wonderful black-and-white photos of Christmas tree past, nothing pre-lit, nothing shaved, just natural pine tree (or sometimes other kind of tree):

Vintage Christmas Tree Photos

Did you know the Irish always leave a candle burning in the window? This wonderful custom is supposed to welcome Jesus/the Holy Family. But there's another side to the custom.

Smart TV but no fireplace? Here, find this on your television browser! Now have some cocoa and put on some Christmas music!

Have you ever noticed this moment in A Charlie Brown Christmas?