Ending With "Ideals"

Ideals Christmas 2023, from Ideals Publications
What more can I say about these pretty books containing poetry, essays, and artwork/photographs? They are definitely a cozy "go to" during the Christmas season: the nostalgic soft-focus vintage paintings, the still-life items of Christmas decorations, the annual narrative of the Nativity story with appropriate artwork, etc. This issue had an inordinate amount of verse that were Christmas carol words, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment.

One of my favorite poems, "Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913" by Robert Bridges (turned into a song for John Denver so long ago) appears in the volume. I also liked the short but joyful "Christmas" by Marchette Chute.

As always, Pamela Kennedy's essays are a joy; I remember back when she was writing these about her children, and now she's writing them about her grandchildren. The Dickens essay was thoughtful, and also Bennett's history of St. Nicholas.

This is an annual treat. And that's it for this year's Christmas books. I'm still working my way through Flame Tree Press' huge collection of "gothic" Christmas fantasy short stories, mixing vintage offerings like Dickens' "The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton" with modern ones.

On the Eve of Twelfth Night

Christmas in Puerto Rico, from World Book, Inc.

Well, this is it. With this volume, I've finished my collection of World Book's "Christmas Around the World" books, started way back when I came upon at least a dozen of them at the Cobb County Library Sale (and found most of them there later. This one, however, came via online.

It's a colorful volume packed with all the unique celebrations that come from Puerto Rico's mixed heritage of Native forebears, Spanish explorers, and being a commonwealth of the United States, so that Christmas trees, snowmen, and Santa cavort in the tropical sun along with poinsettias, palm trees, and cactus decorated with colored lights, not to mention roosters for the one who supposedly crowed at midnight when Jesus was born. Special foods, like lechon (roast pork) and pasteles, are served, music is heard everywhere played on the unique 10-stringed guitar and unique Puerto Rican carolers fill the streets.

There are pull-outs about Jose Feliciano and "Feliz Navidad," a portrait of a "santero," a carver of saints, and others, and a big section on the big celebration in the country, Three Kings Day on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany.

Christmas As It Was

A Shropshire Christmas, compiled by Lyn Briggs

I found my first volume of the Sutton "Christmas anthologies" (A Worcestershire Christmas, if you care) at a library book sale many years back. When A Surrey Christmas turned up at a subsequent sale I realized this was a series. Every time I found a book from this series, I bought one and have now managed to accumulate all of the regional ones. These contain short excerpts of Christmas/Christmastide passages from various British novels, memoirs, and poetry books, with the action taking place in the shire or historical era denoted in the title.

Like A Hertfordshire Christmas previously reviewed, this one is a bumper issue of old Christmas lore, mostly of Christmas as it was celebrated from 1850 through the 1970s, and little repeated material as in a few of the other books. Shropshire is on the border of England and Wales, and contains such famous cities as Shrewsbury, Telford, Ludlow, and Ellesmere, and several famous writers and artists came from the area, including A.E. Housman, poet; Wilfred Owen, World War I author and poet; and Randolph Caldecott, artist. (The Shire in The Lord of the Rings is reportedly based on Shropshire and Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mystery stories are set in Shrewsbury.) Housman, Caldecott, and Cadfael are all represented in this collection, and the famous Dick Whittington, "three times Mayor of London," supposedly was a "Salopian boy." ("Salop" is the ancient name for the Shropshire region.)

But the best bits in this book are just regular reminisces from "regular people": from creeping downstairs to find apples, nuts, an orange, and small toys in your stocking to the windows of the poulterers' shops filled with all sorts of geese, turkeys, and other game to carols born in the Shropshire hills to the story of a servant married (but not living with) a wealthy man obsessed with servants to homely Christmas celebrations in cottagers' huts and middle-class homes.

Is There a Santa Claus?

'Twas the Night Before, Jerry B. Jenkins

Tom Douton is a self-made journalist with a knack of writing cynical stories about the victimized "little people" in life. Noella Wright is an optimistic university journalism instructor. When these two opposites meet, they unexpectedly fall in love. Noella doesn't understand his cynicism, nor does Tom understand her happy outlook to life; they just know they're happy together.

But Tom doesn't know the complete story behind the round pendant Noella wears all the time, one with an incised Christmas tree shape and the words "Forever and..." The only time he asked, she merely said "Santa brought it to me." But the truth is much more complicated than Tom knows, and he doesn't know how to react to it.

He only knows it has made a rift between himself and Noella, so he makes a decision that will change his life.

This was a sweet little book with a twist at the end I didn't expect; it turns very suddenly from a love story between two dissimilar people and becomes something unexpected. However, I thought the writing was a bit...distant. Tom and Noella never really came alive for me, although Tom's adventure at the end was well-written.

Decades of Christmas

A Hertfordshire Christmas, compiled by Margaret Ashby

I found my first volume of the Sutton "Christmas anthologies" (A Worcestershire Christmas, if you care) at a library book sale many years back. When A Surrey Christmas turned up at a subsequent sale I realized this was a series. Every time I found a book from this series, I bought one and have now managed to accumulate all of the regional ones. These contain short excerpts of Christmas/Christmastide passages from various British novels, memoirs, and poetry books, with the action taking place in the shire or historical era denoted in the title.

Some of the books repeat certain things heavily, like the "St. George and the Dragon" skit done door-to-door by the Waits, or excerpts from Dickens, so it was refreshing to find this one, which is pretty much wall-to-wall memoirs from former Hertfordshire writers and residents, and they run the gamut from poulterers' shops in the late 1880s to memories of the cold, cold winter of 1962: from a story about an orphan put out for fostering by an old couple to a Christmas selection by Anthony Trollope, from wartime Christmases during both World Wars to celebrations in school, memories of composer Elizabeth Poston to one from Charles Dickens' great-granddaughter Monica, reports from department stores and ghost stories and bookmobiles, and more.

I really enjoyed this one because of the different decades of memories throughout, and, as always, the reminders of how little it took one hundred years ago to make a small child's Christmas.

Heartwarming Essays and Short Stories

Fifty Years of Christmas. edited by Ruth M. Elmquist

This is a charming vintage book of poetry, short stories, and essays from the "Christian Herald" from 1901 to 1950. Sounds preachy, you think? Well, although many of the essays and some of the stories involved the Nativity, this collection is no didactic, gloomy collection. In fact, one of them is the sweetest love story ("There Was a Star") about a man who has loved a woman all his life, but believes she is in love with his brother.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher talks about traditions in "This Must We Keep." Men in a World War II prisoner of war camp, enemies and friends, come together in "The Hour of Stars." An embittered newspaper owner finds Christmas in "A Good-Willer." Edgar A. Guest's touching poem "On Going Home for Christmas" is followed by his essay "I'm at My Best at Christmas!" which tells how he wrote the verse. "Christmas on Beacon Hill" talks about a candle-lighting custom in Boston which I wonder if is still done. And there are so many more heartwarming ones!

It's nice to go back to time when essays and stories were thoughtfully written for adults, and not just "sound bites" in juvenile-vocabulary-ridden tales from the internet in between intrusive advertisements. I like being treated like an adult.

The Famous History of the Famous Poem

Twas The Night: The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem, written and compiled by Pamela McColl
This is a big, beautiful "coffee-table book" published on the 200th anniversary of the writing/publishing of the classic "A Visit from St. Nicholas." It talks at first of the history of the Christmas celebration as well as the history of St. Nicholas, then switches to the history of Santa Claus in New York, a tale that pivots upon Washington Irving, who in his farcial history of the city, declared that St. Nicholas was the patron saint of the city formerly known as New Amsterdam.

Nor was Clement C. Moore the first person who talked about "Santa Claus" or his flying about in the sky. Indeed, there is still contention by the family of Henry Livingston, Jr., that he is the actual author of the poem, but the proof was lost in a house fire. (Author McColl talks about these theories, but believes the author is Moore.)

This is a neat book with a lot of historical information, but the author wanders far afield of the poem itself, quoting historical figures about Christmas celebrations but not necessarily citing Moore's poem. Still, the illustrations, of Santa Claus and of Christmas in general, are gorgeous, with many full page and half page color illustrations of paintings, advertisements, and magazine illustrations. I bought it at fifty percent off; you might want to find a bargain copy.

Poetry for Christmas: "Christmas Eve"

by Faith Baldwin

The snow is full of silver light
Spilled from the heavens' tilted cup
And, on this holy, tranquil night,
The eyes of men are lifted up
To see the promise written fair,
The hope of peace for all on earth,
And hear the singing bells declare
The marvel of the dear Christ's birth.
The way from year to year is long
And though the road be dark so far,
Bright is the manger, sweet is the song,
The steeple rises to the Star.

Romance for Christmas

Lovelight Farms, B.K. Borison

Stella Bloom had a bleak childhood; daughter of a philandering husband, her mother never recovered from being abandoned by her lover; subsequently she grew up learning not to count on people who might abandon you. When her mother died, she accidentally met Luka Peters, a statistician. Luka becomes her best friend, supporting her dreams when she bought a local Christmas tree farm, the one place where she was truly happy. But due to recent setbacks, she's afraid she might lose the farm and is afraid to tell her employees. Instead, she concocts a plan to win a prize with an internet influencer to fund the farm further.

Unfortunately, she told the influencer she and her boyfriend ran the farm. So she asks Luka to be her "temporary boyfriend."

You guessed it, these two "best friends" have been in love all during their ten-year friendship. Luka seems amenable to admitting it, but due to her trust issues Stella thinks its better to leave the status at quo.

This is a sweet Hallmark-type romance taking place in a very accepting small town (no one cares, for example, that the sheriff is hoping to be in a same-sex relationship) and Luka is a very appealing lead male character—he even cooks, and his Italian mom, who appears all too briefly, is a hoot. Stella, however seems to be a perpetual child, frightened of any commitment fearing her life will end up like her mother's (one actually wants to bonk her mom for basically allowing Stella's deadbeat dad to ruin her life). Basically the story is 300 pages of their yearning for each other.

Some good things: the farm manager, Beckett, is a hoot: a tough guy who's a sucker for kittens. Lovelight Farms' Christmas sounds like a dream. No one likes Stella's deadbeat dad. Some bad things: there's yet another best-friend-is-a-dreamy-baker (both in her looks and her baking). The yearning goes on so, so, so long.

The sex scenes are pretty good. A nice Christmas story if you don't expect much.

Poetry for Christmas: "The Shortest Day"

Happy Winter Solstice!

by Susan Cooper

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

Poetry for Christmas: "A Song for a Christmas Tree"

by Louisa May Alcott

Cold and wintry is the sky,
Bitter winds go whistling by,
Orchard boughs are bare and dry,
Yet here stands a faithful tree.
Household fairies kind and dear,
With loving magic none need fear,
Bade it rise and blossom here,
Little friends, for you and me.

Come and gather as they fall,
Shining gifts for great and small;
Santa Claus remembers all
When he comes with goodies piled.
Corn and candy, apples red,
Sugar horses, gingerbread,
Babies who are never fed,
Are handing here for every child.

Shake the boughs and down they come,
Better fruit than peach or plum,
'T is our little harvest home;
For though frosts the flowers kill,
Though birds depart and squirrels sleep,
Though snows may gather cold and deep,
Little folks their sunshine keep,
And mother-love makes summer still.

Gathered in a smiling ring,
Lightly dance and gayly sing,
Still at heart remembering
The sweet story all should know,
Of the little Child whose birth
Has made this day throughout the earth
A festival for childish mirth,
Since the first Christmas long ago.

The Belgian Detective Sees It Through

Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Agatha Christie

Simeon Lee has a fiendish plan for Christmas: invite all his family, including his estranged sons, to a family reunion. Already home caring for him is his stolid son Alfred and his wife Lydia. Visiting will be George (the cheap one) with his spendthrift wife Magdalene, the artistic David and his wife Hilda who hopes seeing his father will destroy his demons, and his granddaughter Pilar (child of his deceased daughter). Also visiting is Stephen Farr, son of his old partner in his diamond mines day. Simone plans to torment his children with talk about changing his will—but before he can plot any further, he's murdered in a welter of blood in...guess what...a locked room.

Luckily Hercule Poirot is staying nearby with his friend Colonel Johnson (and despairing the lack of central heating). They soon determine that, despite what George keeps wittering about "lunatics" entering the house to kill his father, the culprit must be homegrown. But everyone has a reason for hating Simeon Lee, so the suspects are unlimited.

I know Christie's reputation, and this one doesn't disappoint. The guests don't even get a chance to see the Christmas decorations before the dirty deed is done (not that dad doesn't really deserve it). I had several suspects...and never guessed the real one!

Not much Yuletide cheer, but a nice solid mystery.

Scrooge, Pickwick, and Other Fellows

Dickens' Christmas, compiled by John Hudson
This is one of the Sutton Christmas anthologies that is not concentrated on a certain shire, but a certain era, and contains compilations from mostly Charles Dickens' Christmas writings (chiefly A Christmas Carol, but also from his monthly magazine "Household Words"), but also has Dickens' era offerings, including the tale of an ordinary man who got himself assigned to one of the terrible workhouses and revealed the crowded and smelly living conditions and meager meals (at one point he says that a candle dipped in boiling water would probably provide more nutrition than the food that was fed the paupers). There's an excerpt from Washington Irving's "Bracebridge Hall" quintet of stories, the scathing poem "Song of the Shirt" about a poor woman receiving hardly enough money from sewing rich people's garments to feed herself, several other workhouse accounts, a lively account of how to give a children's party, and lots of woodcuts and engravings for the era.

I would say pick this one up at a good library book sale.

Poetry for Christmas: "Triolet"

by F. W. Harvey

Winter has hardened all the ground,
     But flowers are on the window pane;
No others are there to be found;
     Winter has hardened all the ground.

But here, while earth is bare and bound,
     Bloom ghosts of those his frost has slain
Winter has hardened all the ground,
     But flowers are on the window pane.

Poetry for Christmas: "Singing in the Streets"

by Leonard Clark

I had almost forgotten the singing in the streets
Snow piled up by the houses, drifting
Underneath the door into the warm room,
Firelight, lamplight, the little lame cat
Dreaming in soft sleep on the hearth, mother dozing,
Waiting for Christmas to come, the boys and me
Trudging over blanket fields waving lanterns to the sky.
I had almost forgotten the smell, the feel of it all,
The coming back home, with girls laughing like stars,
Their cheeks, holly berries, me kissing one,
Silent-tongued, soberly, by the long church wall;
Then back to the kitchen table, supper on the white cloth,
Cheese, bread, the home-made wine;
Symbols of the night's joy, a whole feast.
And I wonder now, years gone, mother gone,
The boys and girls scattered, drifted away with the snow flakes,
Lamplight done, firelight over,
If the sounds of our singing in the streets are still there,
Those old tunes, still praising;
And now, a life-time of Decembers away from it all,
A branch of remembering holly spears my cheeks,
And I think it may be so;
Yes, I believe it may be so.

Christmas in the Forest of Dean

A Forest Christmas compiled by Humphrey Phelps

Alan Sutton Publishing has a series of these "Christmas anthologies," the first which I bought at a book sale several years ago, and I try to pick up inexpensive copies when I can find them. Most of them concentrate on a certain shire or area in England (there are a handful, like A Dickens Christmas, A Wartime Christmas, and A Bronte Christmas that are set around a historic era instead).

This is one of my favorites, with many reminisces from adults who grew up in the Forest of Dean, and the simple gifts children received back then (at least a dozen stories talk about kids getting "an apple, an orange [very rare back then], a penny, some type of simple candy [not chocolate], and maybe a small toy"). One girl even remembered receiving a doll cradle although she had no doll. Also talk about special years when there was snow, or the family received a special meat to have with dinner. of course stirring the Christmas pudding! There are two excellent verses as well, and some sobering posts about the workhouse.

All illustrated with vintage drawings, maps, placards, photographs, and more.