Charlie Brown Trees, Favorite Rocks, and All That Seasonal Sentiment

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas is in the Air, edited by Amy Newmark 
Yes, it's the 2020 edition of heartwarming stories, and it even includes a few tales that made it in after the coronavirus hit. It's the usual collection, which means there are families facing economic difficulties who receive unexpected gifts, people who make a difference by "paying it forward," families with silly gift exchange customs that sometimes take incredible turns, memories that bring back beloved department family members with tears and laughter...all full of warm-fuzzies and cocoa-sipping goodness.

I'll admit, this year, what with all the goings-on, some of the stories made me cry. It's that type of year. And I had to smile...about the Army officer with his favorite rock, about the fruitcake that made the rounds hidden in freezers, about the mom with the caroling kids in the local grocery store, the aunt with the penchant for odd gifts (a pinata full of Twinkies anyone?), the teenage girls who gave some rather racy gifts to their parents, the avocado Christmas tree, the tale of the revolving cake stand...

As always, not for sentiment Scrooges...but for the rest of us, every one's a hug.

From Stagecoach to Factory to Country House

A Black Country Christmas, anthology by Alan Sutton Publishing

I found the first one of these Sutton Christmas anthologies (A Worcestershire Christmas, if you care) at a library book sale several years back. I think the coronavirus emergency made me a little crazy this year; every time I found a book from this series for less than five dollars with postage, I bought one and managed to accumulate ten (or is it eleven?). 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.

 

"The Black Country" is the British name for the old industrial areas and towns, where great smoke-belching factories or coal-dust clotted air from the mines gave the area its name. These volumes are hit-and-miss, but this one was an interesting read, with a balance between gritty stories of industrial workers like nail-factory employees and lighter fare, including an exceedingly funny piece from Jerome K. Jerome about a magazine editor who tries to talk a friend into a debate about abolishing Christmas, only to find the friend knows all the arguments, and another amusing tale from a district nurse who does a favor for an unpleasant client, only to get in difficulties. A mummer's play is presented, as is the Nativity story in verse, and "The Carol of the Fir Tree," a song peculiar to the Black Country. At Christmas a mother finds herself already pulled three ways at the time when her son insists she come with him to help him shop, a little girl rides miles on the train to spend a Christmas with her aunt that's very different from life on a narrowboat, a new custom introduced by an uncle brings some tears and great happiness to two small children, a young woman named Annie discovers standing in line at the post office isn't all bad, a young woman finds out a fusty businessman isn't as dour as she imagined, and there's even a positive story about a workhouse Christmas celebration.

Topping it off, right at the beginning is an account of a trip to Wolverhampton by Charles Dickens.

An interesting and varied collection here. Enjoy!

First Sunday of Advent

Theme: Hope (and boy, do we need it this year).

You never take a vacation without preparation.

Neither do most people go into Christmas without a little preparation. Shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating, and more are all part of Christmas prep. But if you celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, there's more to it than that. Advent is a time of reflection, to prepare hearts for the birth of Jesus Christ.

Advent was originally a 40-day period, like Lent, and fasting, except on Sunday, was common. Now Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The longest Advent period happens when Christmas is on a Sunday, and begins November 27. The shortest Advent happens when Christmas is on Monday, beginning December 3.

Several Christmas-y holidays fall within the Advent period, including St. Nicholas Day and St. Lucia Day. St. Thomas' Day also used to be a pre-Christmas holiday until the church moved it to another month. "Thomasing" was practiced as children went "a'souling" for soul cakes on that day, a combination of trick or treating and caroling.

Here are some Advent and Christmas customs in other countries:

• Advent Period Begins: The Most Beautiful Hungarian Christmas Traditions

• Advent Traditions in Germany

• Six Quirky Italian Advent Traditions

• A Guide to Advent in Britain

• How Do We Celebrate Advent in France? 

• Seven Unique Spanish Christmas Traditions 

• 25 Surprising Facts about Christmas in the Netherlands 

• Christmas in Brazil 

• Posadas and Other Mexican Christmas Traditions

Thanksgiving Stories, Part 2

1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, Catherine O'Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac

A whole myth has grown around the 1621 report from Plymouth of the Separatists (history later referred to them as "Pilgrims") holding a harvest festival in the autumn of that year to which they invited the Native tribe who had helped them get through the first winter, all told from the point of view of the European settlers. The Pilgrim village and the reproduction of the Mayflower have long told only this version, but in the past 30 years progress has been made and now the settlement tells both sides of the story, with Wampanoag people recreating the life of their ancestors.

 

As Alistair Cooke explained so long ago in his America series, the Pilgrims, and later the Puritans, who came to the American shores were not "model" Christians, and were not just there for religious freedom. Their belief was diametrically opposite to those of the natives: if they did not come to this new land and improve it—make farms or a city or some type of business—they were sinners in the eyes of God. The Wampanoag, on the other hand, believed they were placed on the earth with the express blessing of their Creator, to take their living from the land as it was. Naturally, these two ideas would clash. Sadly, the Europeans possessed more power than the Natives. They were pushed to the sidelines, converted to Christianity if possible, and driven off their birthright given to them by the Creator. Many were killed and their culture was suppressed.

This book from National Geographic, for children, gently tries to set the record straight about the myths of the first Thanksgiving while providing information about the original inhabitants of the land the Wampanoag called Patuxet.

The Thanksgiving Treasure, Gail Rock

In 1972 CBS asked executive Alan Shayne to come up with a Christmas special in the vein of their previous year's hit, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. From the postwar memories of his co-worker, Roberta Gail Rock, Shayne, Rock, and Eleanor Perry came up with The House Without a Christmas Tree, featuring bold, artistic, and stubborn 10-year-old Addie Mills. This sequel, aired the following year, was also very popular. Rock later novelized all four of the Addie Mills CBS specials.

Shayne recounts in his book A Double Life that once given the germ of the idea of the special, he asked Gail Rock to write down all her memories of her childhood. She must have written a prodigious memoir, as the books include details that couldn't possibly be squeezed into a 75-minute special. As in its predecessor novel, we learn more about Addie's relationship with her best friend, her father, and her grandmother, and her encounter with what will be a new friend: crusty, crabby elderly Walter Rhenquist, who owes Mr. Mills money and won't pay him. When Addie's beloved teacher Miss Thompson suggests, during a lesson about Thanksgiving, that people should try to befriend their enemies, it sets into motion a series of events that involve Addie, Rhenquist, and a horse named Treasure.

There are little changes and additions from the special: we hear about the path Addie and her best friend have worn between their houses; the school conversation about Thanksgiving goes a little differently and the poem featured is not quoted; where in the television story cousin Henry calls Grandma "your grandmother," implying Henry is not also her grandson, the book Henry does call her "Grandmother"; Walter Rhenquist tells a third story about his old friend Pearlie Blake; Addie talks about an event we only see the very end of in the film.

At once amusing, sad, thoughtful, and troubling, and a snapshot of midwestern life during post-war Nebraska, The Thanksgiving Treasure is a fine followup to the sterling original story.

Give Thanks for Your Blessings...Be Kind...Be Well!

Tales from the Past: "Franksgiving"

Throughout the nineteenth and early 20th century, Thanksgiving Day was celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Then came the Great Depression. Businesses were still hurting in 1939 when Thanksgiving would fall on November 30, and business owners hoped moving the date up a week would stimulate Christmas shopping and keep their companies in the black. President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed, and so "Franksgiving" was born. Let's say...it didn't go over very well.

• FDR's "Franksgiving Debacle"

• When FDR Moved Thanksgiving: The Presidential Power Grab That Tore a Nation Apart

• The "Franksgiving" Scandal 

• POLITICO: "Franksgiving": The Time FDR Moved Thanksgiving Up a Week 

• The Unintended Consequences of "Franksgiving"

• Happy "Franksgiving"! 

The image comes from the film Holiday Inn; even films and theatrical shorts mercilessly drubbed this date change.

In 1941, Thanksgiving was officially designated as falling on the fourth Thursday of November.

Thanksgiving Stories

Molly's Pilgrim, Barbara Cohen
Here's a short, simple, almost-a-picture book story that introduces us to Molly, a Russian Jewish girl whose family recently moved from New York after escaping religious persecution. In New York, at least, Molly knew other Jewish girls and other immigrants. In their new home, Winter Hill, the girls at school—the popular ones led by the conceited Elizabeth—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 made from a clothespin used as a decoration, a gentle lesson that should not be soon forgotten. Get the edition with the Daniel Duffy illustrations; the newer editions have more abstract illustrations that look as if the story takes place in the 1960s. The Duffy illustrations are detailed pen-and-ink pieces that capture the 1920s setting, children's clothing, Molly's mother's dress, etc. wonderfully.

A Pioneer Thanksgiving, Barbara Greenwood, illustrated by Heather Collins

In 1998, Greenwood and Collins published A Pioneer Sampler (known as A Pioneer Story in Canada) about a Scots-Irish family, the Robertsons, making a living in the wilderness in 1840, along with their German-heritage neighbors the Burkhalters. They build a home, start to farm, befriend and trade with their Ojibwa neighbors, have small family crises, and eventually settle in. The books are unique in that they are a Little House-like children's narrative, mostly told from the point of view of the middle children Sarah and Willie, interspersed with nonfiction pullouts about Native peoples, methods of farming and home building, plants, etc. and also projects for children (cooking, games, making simple tools) all illustrated beautifully by Collins.

 

In this, one of two sequels, the Robertsons and Burkhalters have finished their harvest and are preparing for a "harvest home" celebration, known by the new name of "Thanksgiving." As the story opens, Sarah is worried about Granny, who is not feeling well and spending much time in bed. She decides to pick some cranberries for Granny as a treat, but it means she will have to navigate the treacherous bog, with 5-year-old Lizzie in tow. There are similar adventures before the families can sit down to feast. Projects include learning how to play "conkers," making bread and cranberry sauce, and crafting a nutting basket, and the pullouts include pieces on cranberries, Native thankfulness ceremonies, the importance of nutting, etc. Charming and homey (and will make you thankful you don't have to prepare food like our ancestors did!). Even better, although Greenwood wrote this as taking place in Canada, it could actually take place in either that country or the United States, as both have a holiday called "Thanksgiving."

40 Days Until Christmas: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Many years ago I found, on the remainder shelf, or perhaps at a book sale, a pristine copy of A Christmas Carol published by Candlewick Press, with absolutely exquisite illustrations by P.J. Lynch. I had no need to buy another copy of the Carol, having already replaced my second edition annotated copy with the third edition of the annotated copy, plus having it in an illustrated version based on the George C. Scott film, plus several books of “short" stories which included the complete Carol. Not to mention that I had an e-book version as well!

But I bought it anyway, lured by the illustrations, saving it for Christmas–until I discovered a friend of mine had never read the book although they’d seen numerous versions on film. Never read A Christmas Carol? Not ever? Not even in a little Signet paperback with the original illustrations by John Leech bound in the middle? Inconceivable! So I took the Lynch book and sent it to my friend instead–then completely forgot I did so and went looking for it a year later. I only realized this when I went through all my Christmas books, and this year, when I found the book on a special offer from Amazon, decided to replace it.

It was truly worth the trouble, not only for Dickens’ timeless story but for these wonderful illustrations done in watercolor and gouache. His people have an Arthur Rackham vibe, but it’s the landscapes and streetscapes that truly shine. The cover illustration alone is beautiful. Of particular note: the foggy London street at the opening of “Stave One, another street scene on pages 20-21, a nearly greyscale shot above Scrooge’s neighborhood on page 40, the page 48-49 countryside spread looking like a shot out of a James Herriot Yorkshire book, the fabulous lighthouse scene on page 101, Scrooge’s first glimpse of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come on 114-115, and the spirit’s cloak becoming a curtain on page 134. And there are no words for the heartbreaking view of Bob Cratchit bowed over Tim’s bedside on 140.

If you have only one version of the Carol to buy, make it this one. You won’t be sorry. I promise.

 

"Though Poppies Blow"

by Martha E. Davis, age 17, "St. Nicholas" magazine, September 1930

Some gold drooped down from the gleaming sun
     And formed into poppies, fragile and deep.
They symboled a state that had just begun
     To wake from an opiumed sleep.

They ran down hillsides, brown and bare;
     They danced to a diamonded sea

And the poppies laughed in the azured air,
     For their souls were gay and free.

Some blood dripped out of a weary life
     Into a foreign field,
And the red from the product of Hell's own strife
     The gaps in the crosses sealed.

And the poppies of fire are thick and red
     As the bombs that burst in a sky.
They grow from the hearts of a fighting dead
     That fought for the right to die.

The poppies are gold in this sunny clime;
     In Flanders they're sparks from a flame;
But the seeds are alike as the years of time
     For the source remains the same.

52 Days Until Christmas

A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide, Rachel McMillan
This is a fun book for anyone who likes the romance movies on the Hallmark Channel (and some on the Lifetime Channel), but unfortunately I don't. You know the ones: they've got cutesy names like Mistletoe Kisses, A Prince for Christmas, Merry and Bright, and they're basically all the same plot with the same gorgeous lead woman and the same hunky lead guy, who despite all obstacles they fall in love, sometimes with the help of a cute puppy or kitten, an adorable child or children, or a magical small town where everybody knows your name and believes in Santa Claus. I would not have read it had I known that. I thought it was a guide to all holiday movies with some activities to go with each theme (classic Christmas, romantic Christmas, etc.) Some classic films are mentioned, but very briefly. Also, it really isn't a guide to the movies at all, like describing the plot, listing the actors, and giving a rating to the film. A three-line synopsis is all each movie gets. The only movie in the book that I remember seeing and liking was the updated Little Women take The March Girls at Christmas, and even that has its flinching moments, like John Brooke and Teddy Lawrence being immature.

If you are a Hallmark Channel fan, you may enjoy the setup. There are fifteen themes, like "the shoppers Christmas," "the family Christmas," "the destination Christmas," suggested movies for each theme, and suggested activities (baking cookies during baking themed movies, exploring a city at Christmastime with the Christmas in the City films, etc.). Each chapter also has some Christmas trivia, such as when Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer joined Santa's team, or the importance of "Silent Night," or how Santa Claus was portrayed in older times, and there are some recipes.

Otherwise it's a big commercial for Hallmark Christmas films and a total bore. Very girly, too. Give me A Christmas Carol, The Homecoming, and The House Without a Christmas Tree any day.

"The Closing Year"

by Patricia Beesley, age 13, in "St. Nicholas," November 1932

Autumn's gorgeous banners

Fling their challenge from the trees,

And a host of hurrying warriors

Are marching with the breeze.

Oh, don't you think they know their fate,

As they go marching on their way?

It takes a hero's courage

To live only for a day.

For winter's leaden war clouds

Are spread across the sky,

And autumn's gallant army

Is going forth to die.

Winter's white-clad soldiers

Are riding with the storms

Against the leafy heroes

In their gay, red uniforms.

The battle will soon be over,

And the stom king will win;

For autumn fights her last fight

And winter's closing in.