CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: A Worcestershire Christmas

compiled by David Green

Atlanta originally only had one Borders book store, located at the Tuxedo shopping center at the corner of Roswell Road and Piedmont Road. Even after they expanded into other locations around the metro area and moved that particular Borders to a large, two-floor store near Phipps Plaza Mall, I always missed the original store. It was more like a neighborhood bookstore than one of the "box" stores and often had more obscure offerings than Waldenbooks and BDalton, which were the two front-runners back then. It also had comfy chairs in odd corners and was rather homey even though it was stuck in the lower part of the "U"-shaped shopping center and parking was often a "bear."

The particular delight of the original store was the remainder tables. Where the other stores had the run-of-the-mill bestsellers languishing on their remainder tables, the original Borders always had more exotic fare. British-published books often showed up and I'm pretty sure that's where this volume originated, since my copy of Gavin Weightman's Christmas Past was also a original Borders remainder find.

These are short prose (and the occasional poetry) excerpts from books about life in the Worcestershire area of England. Some of them are fictional offerings, including a chapter from a novelization of the British radio serial The Archers, which has been running since the 1940s or 50s, can't remember which, and is still broadcast on BBC radio. Other excerpts are personal memoirs of life in the area...fascinating bits from writers and celebrities about growing up mid-20th century when an apple, an orange, a little toy and a penny was a grand Christmas gift, and when the snows of winter fell so thickly that it was a struggle to walk from croft to barn to tend the livestock. (Make no mistake: some of the memories herein are not pleasant.) Several of the entries are by Fred Archer, who became famous for his books about the vanishing rural landscape of England.

If you're not an Angliophile or fond of nostalgic stories, this probably isn't the volume for you, but I found the stories fascinating...perfect fireside reading!

"Deck the Halls..."

I seem to be in the middle of it all this year. The window lights are up, and the wreaths on the front and inside doors, and the decorations on the porch (but not the lights, since James is having knee problems). The one display I do have up is the woodland tree and Santa.



I found the patchwork tree when James pulled the boxes out of the closet this morning; don't even remember where I bought it, but if it wasn't in the boxes then it was after Christmas sometime.

Before I can decorate I need to put all the Thanksgiving stuff away, so that is my next step. Lots of steps, lots of steps...LOL.

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Uncle Toby's Christmas Book

illustrated by Julian Brazelton

Someone mentioned having borrowed this volume from the library on one of my Christmas groups, which made me curious. I have several collections of Christmas short stories or Christmas books where stories are included, and several are repeated ad infinitum, such as Pearl Buck's "Christmas Day in the Morning," Taylor Caldwell's Christmas story, etc. The copyright on this book is 1936, before most of these repeated stories were written, so when I saw an inexpensive copy of this volume on sale I put in a bid for it.

This is a well-worn copy that someone obviously loved for years. I can imagine someone in the latter years of the Depression or, especially, during World War II, getting some comfort and ideas from its convivial food-and-games section, with its suggestions for playing games like charades (including the very old-fashioned supposition that everyone has an attic filled with old dresses and suits for playing "dress up"). The one thing I was afraid I would get was half of the book being a reprint of A Christmas Carol, but I was pleasantly surprised to find only a read-aloud version (not Dickens' read-aloud version; I could tell from the modern colloquialisms inserted into the 19th-century text!). Appearing was another story I hadn't read in years, "A Candle in the Forest," about a poor family rich in love and the wealthy boy who is drawn to them. (This is a lovely story—I think I originally read it in "Reader's Digest.")

There is also a story about the Christmas Truce of 1914 I had never read before, two different Christmas memoirs by Theodore Roosevelt, one of my favorites: Lincoln Steffen's classic "A Miserable, Merry Christmas," and other vintage stories, poetry, and carols.

The only "fly in the ointment" of this volume is one of those sad little "humorous darky stories" that seemed to be so popular in those days. It is called "How Come Christmas?" and has some little boys and a minister having a rather minstrel-show like discussion of who came first, the Baby Jesus or Santa Claus. The story is, of course, all in dialect. I am not a person of color, so I cannot judge how angry this might make someone. For my part, stories like these from that era make me sad: that otherwise intelligent and creative people could not look beyond the color of someone's skin and see them as equal. I read this story thanking God that, except for a few misguided souls, we have gone beyond "humor" and attitudes of this sort.

A worthwhile volume to find if you are a lover of vintage books.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEW

• Christmas Through a Child's Eyes, Helen Szymanski
Here's a great bedtime book for the Christmas season. These are very short personal memories about Christmas from over a dozen writers, many stressing stories of hard times during the Depression and World War II, when an orange and some candy was an exciting gift and that one special gift, even if it was used, could make your day. Some stories are about a child giving up a beloved gift to someone else who has nothing. All are heartwarming, although some are rather amateurish in style.

• Take Joy!, Tasha Tudor
From childhood reading the unforgettable The Secret Garden, I was in love with Tasha Tudor's lovely, delicate drawings and watercolors. I ended up buying a hardback of Secret Garden simply to get her color illustrations. Take Joy! is a mixed confection of a few Christmas stories and poems, Christmas music, small legends of Christmas, and a section talking of Christmas preparations at Tudor's Vermont farm, all liberally decorated with color and black-and-white illustrations of birds, children, biblical figures, Christmas plants, decorations, homes and fields of snow, animals, and of course the corgis of Tasha's "Corgi Cottage." For Christmas and Tudor lovers everywhere!

A Happy Thanksgiving...and What Came of It

It was a nice quiet fore- and early afternoon. James had "paused" the pre-Macy's parade show so I could see the White Christmas Broadway cast performance while eating a nice bowl of hot oatmeal, and it was a jolly parade (except why can't Al Roker interview real people watching the parade rather than second-rate actors promoting their programs?). My favorite was the briefcase drill team sponsored by a men's clothing store! And I was right, the action did look spectacular on this television. I loved the wonderful zinnia/pumpkin/autumn leaf fall bouquets/garlands around Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer in the broadcast booth.

The National Dog Show followed. About one o'clock I had a sandwich to tide me over until dinner. I should have guessed something was up when the sandwich made me queasy. I took some Pepto Bismol and lay down for a half hour, but I was still not feeling well and developing a headache when we headed to the Butlers.

I thought the headache was simply from being hungry and had a few of Lin's little piecrust-and-cinnamon treats as well as the wonderful little appetizers brought by Leigh's friend Tony and his sister. A luscious turkey, some "roast beast," Ron's great mashed potatoes, and other goodies followed for dinner, with additional goodies of conversation.

Despite the food, I developed an annoying sinus headache and we headed home around nine o'clock. I sorted out my sale flyer clippings for tomorrow, got my clothes ready, and finally we gathered the trash for the pickup tomorrow and went to bed.

I set the alarm for 5:50, as my first stopping place was only a fifteen minutes' drive from the house. However, it was lucky today was trash collection day, as the alarm never did go off. (I checked it later; it's a seven-day clock and it turned out it thought today was Saturday.) I was fit to be tied as I got dressed; it was only thirteen minutes from the time I leaped up to the time I got out the door, munching a breakfast meal bar.

I wasn't out for a lot today and I was glad of it, as I could still taste dinner from last night—sigh...the next time I zero in on a pair of turkey wings, someone remind me, okay? my stomach just can't handle it anymore. I was looking for a larger memory card for my camera at Staples and did find it. Next I was going to Target with the idea of buying a broom vac. I was feeling so rotten when I saw the lines I said the heck with it. Instead I went up to the Town Center Office Depot and picked up something else.

Well, I had in my hot little hand a Barnes & Noble coupon for 40 percent off any one book if I used my MasterCard. I have a MasterCard that I don't often use, but I won't cancel it because it's my Sears card and that took me years to qualify for. Arrgh! When I got there it was only 8 a.m. and they weren't opening early. I did get some pumpkin loaf at the attached, open Starbucks for dessert, then went back to Costco (which wasn't open, but the gas station was), stopped at Borders for a few minutes, then went to Michaels.

I have to note that none of the places I went to were crowded. Staples was next door to Marshalls and there wasn't even a minor crowd there. Target had a lot of people, but it wasn't a ravening crowd as I'd seen in previous years. Not even Michaels was that all crowded. I didn't get much there; just some snowflakes for winter decorating and some "bling" for a gift.

By this time B&N was open. I had my eyes on Christmas Through a Child's Eyes, but almost bought Eden's Outcasts. But by this time all I wanted to do was get home, so I grabbed the Christmas book and made tracks home.

I have a part of my nose that was fractured 28 years ago, just before my birthday. Sometimes when it's going to rain (like tonight and this weekend), it starts to hurt. And now it was hurting to the point where I couldn't think of anything else but the pain. So when I got home I took some ibuprofin and did what I usually do after shopping on Black Friday—took a nap!

I was up at 1:30 to watch Rick Steves Europe and have my lunch, but the moment I put my glasses on, the pain started to return and the queasiness returned. Nevertheless, I went to Barnes & Noble at Akers Mill to get Eden's Outcasts (it's a biography of Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson), stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond to use a really good coupon ($10 off a $30 purchase) on a saddle stool, and then finally stopped at Michaels with my 50 percent off coupon for more rechargeable batteries.

This time when I got home I took some Tylenol. It took care of the nasal pain but not the queasiness, so I had James bring me home a plain baked potato for supper and we had the pumpkin loaf for dessert. Even the latter aggravated my stomach. Ugh.

Can't wait for this front to go through. In the meantime I'm going to finish this and take my glasses off, since my stupid nose is hurting again.

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is Coming

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: The Curious World of Christmas

by Niall Edworthy

New publication in the United States of a book published in 2007 in Great Britain. This is a gift-book sized volume that is, nevertheless, crammed with Christmas goodies: quotations both for and against the holiday (George Bernard Shaw's nay vote prominent in the text), odd things that used to be done during celebrations, such as the Asses' Mass, where a donkey was ridden into church and both the priest and the congregation were encouraged to bray, and just plain oddities, like King Henry II's jester who was known for his farting. The book is written in an informal, conversational style that does have a few scatological references—apparently those courtly old medieval types were really fond of farting and rude words relating to bodily elimination sure to make teenagers giggle.

Edworthy also traces the holiday history through the ages, Christmas symbols and customs, with text, diary entries, newspaper and magazine excerpts, etc., with iconic little drawings scattered within the text. A great book for next to the bed before Christmas, where you can read two passages or two pages.

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Christmas Curiosities

"Old, Dark and Forgotten Christmas"
by John Grossman

The images of Santa Claus we have today are so ingrained and considered so "traditional" that it is hard to imagine that even 100 years ago the image of the Christmas giftbringer hadn't been standardized. This delightful little book is a fun read, watching the development of "old Santeclaus" from an early 1800s poem to the red-clad figure we know today, through a collection of images, mostly from old postcards, some from the United States and many from Europe.

Santa is such a genial figure today that it might seem horrifying to discover that early St. Nicholas characters carried around birch rods to whip naughty children or traveled with a devilish-looking character named the Krampus or Knecht Ruprecht who administered punishment or threatened to take disobedient children away in a sack.

Other photos show Santa conveyed by other means than reindeer, with more benevolent companions like angels, and other Victorian images for Christmas such as fairies, dancing food, animals celebrating Christmas, and...dead birds! Wonderful stuff; a great book for anyone interested in the history of Christmas.

Prim is Proper

While James was at his club meeting today, I went to the home of a woman who does primitive designs. I had bought some of her things last year at the Apple Annie Craft Show, and she sent me a postcard about a sale she was having.

This was quite nice. I figured at Apple Annie she would have pretty much all Christmas designs and I wanted to see if she had other holiday items or even non-holiday stuff. She did. All of it was at least 25 percent off and most of what I bought was 50 percent off. One Hallowe'en item was 75 percent off (a little cornucopia), but she couldn't remember how much the original charge was and gave it to me for free! I got two small Thanksgiving items, a pumpkin with a star embossed in it with the words "give" and "thanks" popped up on wire and a tiny platter not more than two inches long that says "Happy Thanksgiving." I also got a little square that says "Life is short. Eat chocolate" and a little framed item that says "Love Abundantly" and two metal hearts with small bells in them and filigree openings that are supposed to be for Christmas but which I am saving for Valentines Day.

The rest were Christmas things: a small painted wood gathering of candles and a little primitive sheep with long black stick legs, and then the gingerbread stuff, which was all half off. There's a little holly-trimmed cup-and-saucer with miniature gingerbread men, candy canes, and other Christmas flora inside it, and a white metal cornucopia with the same contents, and then a gingerbread tea set with a cookie jar, a crock, and three nesting bowls. (These are all small; the "cookie jar" is about three inches tall and is the largest of the five items.) The ginger stuff is all for the kitchen.

If you are a primitives fan, you really need to be reading the magazine "Early American Life," and if you love Christmas prims, at least get the December and Christmas issues of the magazine.

I started reading the magazine once in a while when they had a New England article, but always bought the December and Christmas issues because the photos in the magazine were so nice. A few years back, the magazine almost went out of business. When it returned, I discovered they were having more historical articles which I was interested in. This year's December and Christmas issues, for example, besides showcasing several nice primitive-decor homes, have articles on ice skating, Christmas candy containers, tin cookie cutters, the surprising source of the College of William and Mary's founding funding, and holiday displays at historic sites.

What, No Pumpkin Pie?

Debunking Thanksgiving Myths at Plimoth Plantation

Most of the myths about Thanksgiving were created whole cloth by the Victorians.

Not to mention that Plymouth Rock is a lot smaller than everyone thinks it is. The story of the Rock is rather odd. It was once more than twice as big and was in the middle of a Plymouth wharf. People walked over it every day and no one paid it any mind, until one day circa the mid-1800s they were planning to demolish the wharf and get rid of the rock. An very elderly man protested, saying his grandfather had told him that it had been handed down in his family that this is the rock the Pilgrims had used to "step down" from the Mayflower. ::cough:: They actually came ashore in smaller craft.

Since it would be terrible to destroy this historical artifact, they attempted to pull the rock out of the wharf area. It broke in half. They transported the part that broke off to a prominent place and labeled it Plymouth Rock. Then for years Victorian tourists were allowed to chip little bits off it as souvenirs. Finally they decided to mount a permanent and protective monument around it. They moved the stone again and it broke again. This time they glued it back together and put it in the little enclosure that it's in today.

And that's the story of Plymouth Rock! :-)

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Christmas Long Ago

by Marian I. Doyle

This is another in a series of wonderful Schiffer price guide books like the Robert Brenner Christmas books, in which the "price guide" is in reality a very small part of the book and the volume is really packed with full color photos. This is Christmas ephemera from the Victorian era: postcards, advertising cards, magazines illustrations, engravings, Christmas cards, book illustrations, early photographs, and even a few magazine pages. The illustrations are peppered with text explaining the customs of the time, and passages from period writings, from Harriet Martineau's diaries of touring the United States in 1835 to late Victorian passages from magazines, along with other quotations. Delightful, eye-popping illustrations of winter sports, Victorian decorating, gift-giving and gift-bringing, the evolution of Santa Claus, and celebrating Christmas Eve and Day. You don't need to collect anything to enjoy this wonderful book!

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Christmas and Christmas Lore

by T.G. Crippen

I found this book in the library last year after hearing it referred to by Bill Bryson as "scholarly and ageless." It is a much easier read than Miles' 1912 book about Christmas customs and certainly more readable than Dawson's Christmas: Its Origins and Associations from 1902, which seems obsessed with how royalty spent the holiday (and which I have previously reviewed). Crippen's 1923 book begins with the origins of the holiday, continues with the various symbols of Christmas, celebrations through the ages, and also covers the other holidays around Christmas: St. Thomas' Day, St. Stephen's/Boxing Day, Childermas, the new year, and Twelfth-Night/Epiphany. You will find sections about the origins of wassailing and regional customs like Hogmanay and the "Mari Lwyd" in Wales, and some old-fashioned recipes for what sound today like gastronomic indigestion and beverages guaranteed to have you under the table. What I finally purchased was a reprint copy from 1972. A great addition to the library if you are interested in Christmas history.

Here's Bryson's commentary about the book and Christmas in England.

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: The Modern Christmas in America

by William B. Waits

This is a different sort of Christmas book for me, as it is a sociological textbook, albeit one that starts with an amusing piece by Corey Ford. Critics of the 20th and now 21st century Christmas blame its excesses on "commercialization"—Mr. Waits (and what an appropriate name for a man who is comparing the old Christmas with the new!) examines a different theory: that the change of the United States from a largely agrarian nation to an urban one brought about the change from the idea of home-crafted personal Christmas gifts as being appropriate to the purchase of manufactured goods (since the seasonal lull for farming families would not happen to those employed in an industrial society, and thus no time for making gifts).

The main draw of this intriguing book is the reproduction of advertisements from the 1880s through the 1930s showing the change from the original manufactured gifts (notions or "gimcracks") to the simple elegant card to more expensive gifts, including those which years before would not have been considered gifts, like appliances, automobiles, and everyday clothing. There's also an examination of how advertisements made people think certain gifts (and therefore themselves) as inadequate, and also how the face of the woman consumer changed across the decades from the Gibson girl to the fun-loving flapper to the elegant, detached matron of the 1930s, and how advertisements composed after the closing of the frontier emphasized manly gifts for boys as a way of strengthening their manhood without a need for them to experience the frontier for themselves.

I quite enjoyed this...your mileage may vary!

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Quizmas Carols

Gordon Pape and Deborah Kerbel

I don't usually like trivia books in question-and-answer format, Christmas or not, but I make exceptions occasionally. This little volume is packed with not only questions, but dozens of interesting facts in text about the hundreds of Christmas songs written over the years. It is divided into chapters like "The Earliest Carols," "English Carols," all the way down to chapters about media songs and Christmas songs written for children. Each chapter contains an introduction and then a few pages of narrative bookending the trivia questions. A great little book for those interested in the origins of the songs that crowd the airwaves in December.

The authors also have a "Quizmas" trivia volume.

How You Know Christmas is Coming...

...the bellringing Hershey kisses arrive on television!

It Wasn't Always Merry

Puritan influence in New England died hard: "Christmas in New England before 1860"

Holy Lightbulbs!

James said he saw Christmas lights tonight on his way home, a few blocks away from Smyrna City Hall!

Martinmas Day

"One very cold day, near the city gate of Amiens, France, Martin of Tours saw a beggar who was freezing. He took his sword and cut his cloak in two, giving one half to the beggar. The next night, he dreamed he had given his cloak to Jesus.

St. Martin's Day marked the first day of Advent in the past. Back then Advent, like Lent, was a fasting time. Now it is seen as a period of reflection and preparation for the coming of the Christ Child, and today fasting is done only on Christmas Eve and involves eating light meals and fish rather than abstaining from all food.

Here are some good sites about St. Martin/Martinmas:

Feast of St.Martin (Martinmas)

Liturgical Year: Martinmas Traditions

St. Martin's Day: The Magic of Eleven

Eating a Goose on St. Martin's Day

The Celebration of St. Martin

Interesting that St. Nicholas, like St. Martin, rides a white horse!

We're having turkey tonight, not goose, but it's close! :-)

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEW: The Life Book of Christmas

This is actually in three volumes, published in 1963. It originally came in a slipcover and probably looked quite grand. I bought my copy off eBay and it has become quite battered in the intervening 45 years (of course, I've become quite battered in the intervening 45 years myself! LOL).

The first volume is The Glory of Christmas, which illustrates the story of Jesus from the prophecies of the Old Testament to the original spread of Christianity. These volumes are mostly illustrated, and this one has some magnificent reproductions of medieval and Renaissance art. There is narrative, and some small stories and poetry in each section as well. The second volume, The Pageantry of Christmas, is illustrated with paintings, tapestries, woodcuts, drawings, and finally photos that trace the history of the Christmas celebration from the early Christians to ethnic customs brought to American from other countries. Touched on are St. Nicholas and the conversion of Christmas from a drunken feast to a family-oriented holiday.

The third volume, The Merriment of Christmas, brings the volumes to modern times. There are recipes, of course, as well as some Christmas crafts, a Christmas play, suggestions of old-fashioned games, and some literary selections, including Christopher Morley's "The Tree That Didn't Get Trimmed" and a humorous selection by Robert Benchley about Christmas feasts in the 1880s.

A nice collection for your Christmas library, but nothing essential.

A Classic Christmas: The Ed Sullivan Show

I found this used in an FYE today and played it when I got home. It is a compilation of both black & white and color Christmas performances from The Ed Sullivan Show. The performers include The Supremes, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Señor Wences, George Carlin, the Cowsills, and more.

The bad thing about this DVD is that to squeeze it into 46 minutes, several of the performances, like David Seville and the Chipmunks and Rich Little doing A Christmas Carol, are edited. On the other hand, what there is is delightful. There's a compilation of "Jingle Bells" made of cuts of different performers, including Paul Anka and Shari Lewis with Lamb Chop and Charley Horse. There is about one or two minutes of footage of New York City in 1960. The great Mahalia Jackson sings "Sweet Little Jesus Boy." A German children's choir perform. There are two performances by Jim Henson's original Muppets: once with reindeer characters and a second sequence with Arthur Godfrey.

And Topo Gigio closes the show by a'kissin' Eddie good-a night. :-)

Don't pay too much--but this is a great 1960s nostalgia item.

"Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November..."

A happy Bonfire Night to our friends in England!

A Disney Hallowe'en Treat

Here's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," narrated by Bing Crosby.

Part One

Part Two

Ghosties and Ghoulies

The Vintage Halloween Website

Halloween Alliance

"Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees."

. . . . . Faith Baldwin

Pumpkin Face

Carve your own pumpkin.

Operation Ceppo, The Homestretch

Everything is now painted except the "snow" on the bottom level. I am detailing this a bit with—believe it or not—Elmer's glue. With the "nose" of the glue bottle, I draw an outline of a shape that is supposed to look like a snowdrift or just something covered with snow, then fill it in with the glue. Then I let it dry. Then I put another layer on certain areas, and a third layer on a couple of them. I realized that since I am using paint instead of the previous cotton, the area will look flat. The glue "drifts" and piles are there to give it a little contour. Once I have them the way I want them, and they are dry, I will put a coat of white paint on them and then scatter that with various kinds of glitter. I have some white glitter from JoAnn that almost looks like flocking (great for snow!), a fine white glitter, and one small tube of white glitter that is in hexagon shape. (These are from the little six to four tube glitter sets JoAnn has in its dollar bins.) I don't want to waste the hexagon shape; it's a good highlight. I also just found that one of the collections has a glitter that looks like clear beads...may use a dribble of that, too.

Operation Ceppo

I had to bring something downstairs to the "holiday closet" during lunchtime today and looked up to see the box with our "ceppo." You might call this an "Italian Christmas tree." Most ceppos are pyramid shaped, but this is an alternate style. A traditional ceppo usually has a Nativity scene on the largest level, and other levels contain food gifts and other little Christmas keepsakes, with candles on each level on each of the four corners.

This was the only Christmas decoration I put up the year my mom died.



We always put it in the den in the old house; the tree was upstairs in the living room, a room we seldom used unless we needed a book (the library was located there), had company, or at Christmas. The miniature tree on top was our tree downstairs in the den, where Bandit and later Pigwidgeon lived and where we spent all our time.

All the decorations on the ceppo were packed in a cardboard box with the ceppo, which I had built several—maybe it's more like "many" since I'm pretty sure it's at least twelve years ago!—years ago from two circular plaques 8 inches in diameter, one 6 inch diameter circular plaque, and a 1 inch diameter dowel cut into three pieces, after seeing a drawing of one in the book Celebrate the Wonder. I finished it right before Christmas, so never got a chance to paint it before it was time to decorate. You can tell in the photo that it is still "au natural."

And every year, instead of keeping it out to paint, I bundled it away immediately because it had to go to the very back of the top shelf of the little closet we used for the Christmas decorations if everything was to fit.

Seeing the box down in the new, larger closet, unencumbered and not containing anything but some silver tinsel rope and the little nativity figurines, made me think once more about painting it.

I decided to paint the bottom shelf white since the figures there are for a snow scene with St. Nicholas. The "snow" I had previously was made of cotton balls; I want to paint the lower level and then treat it with the three types of white glitter I have to simulate snow. The second level will be painted a sand color since that is where the little nativity set, a Hallmark miniature set which I bought one year at Thalls Pharmacy in Cranston, will go. I am thinking of getting some little trees or bushes to go in the rear to make it look more realistic. Since in the past two years I have put the ceppo on the china cabinet, where you can't see the top level, I could just paint that level white also, but should I find another place for it, I would love to put the angel and the star up there, as it used to be when I originally built it (before I had the miniatures tree on top). So I would want it blue for the sky.

My original thought was to paint the edges of the "rounds" and the vertical dowels in silver, to match the silver snowflakes I had around the top edge of the bottom level. Then I found a bottle of "Metallic Blue Pearl" from a previous project in my paint stash. I decided to use that for the top level and it is so lovely I want to use it for the edges and the verticals as well. The silver snowflakes will go perfectly with the silvery blue paint. I'll need to buy another bottle first, I think, as well as the sand-colored paint. So that's what this week's Michael's coupons will go for.

It will be odd to have it painted; it's been "natural" for so long! :-)

[Later: Well, cool! I may have enough of the blue after all...I'm crossing fingers. For the second level I painted the area that will be in the back a sage green I had, then dry-brushed a little brown and yellow on it so it would look like winter grass. At the front where the stable will be I mixed up "beachcomber beige" and "real brown" from my small set of Apple Barrel gloss paint set and made a sandy area, which I sprinkled with a little bronze glitter and a little gold glitter...not enough to make it glitzy, but just to give it a little shimmer where the Christ Child will be. (90 percent of it will be under the stable structure anyway!) Then I gave a first coat to the edge with the blue. It looks like I have enough for a second coat, which is all it may need.

Then all I need to do is put another coat of white on the bottom level and sprinkle it with the different white glitters.]

"The Leaves at Play"

Come and watch the merry little leaves at play:
Jolly times they're having this October day.
Down they gently flutter like the flakes of snow;
Chasing one another, flying to and fro.
Don't tell me they're only driven by the wind;
I am sure they 're doing just as they've a mind.
See those two go racing swiftly down the street!
Red 's ahead, now yellow, which think you will beat?
Over in that corner there's a dancing-class,
See them wildly waltzing o'er the withered grass.
They have lively music, led by Mr. Breeze,
Listen to his whistling up there in the trees.
Some have gone in swimming down in yonder nook,
See that host of bathers diving in the brook.
There a crowd has gathered in an eager talk,
Now they're widely scattered all along the walk.
So they gayly frolic through the sunny hours, .
Careless of the winter with its icy showers;
But the cold is coming, and the snow-drifts deep,
When, their playtime over, quietly they'll sleep.

                       . . . . . . D.C. Hasbrouck, St. Nicholas, October 1881

"Autumn"

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!

                                             . . . . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2008 Marietta Pilgrimage Home Tour

Woot! The homes being toured this year are on Whitlock Avenue. This used to be the "ritzy" area and the homes are all big Victorian/Queen Anne types with wraparound porches, chandeliers, and "all the trimmings," as they'd say in The Right Stuff. The Christmas decorations should be quite nice.

This year's tour is December 6-8. Tickets can be purchased at the Marietta Historical Society office at Marietta Square (it's not on the square; it's across from the train tracks, opposite the little engine and tender).

(Ah! And the Mistletoe Market is in two weeks at the Cobb County Civic Center. Why they hold the darn thing in October is a mystery, but...there it is...)

A Site That Keeps Getting Better and Better

The Antique Christmas Lights Site

George Nelson adds more to this site every time I check on it. There's now a section on angel chimes, vintage advertising, reminisces by people who remember Christmas trees with candles and the arrival of the early lighting outfits, and more. You could literally spend days reading on this site.

1920s Chic

Anyone remember Dennison? They were a paper company out of Massachusetts which was bought out by Avery awhile back. The main thing I remember Dennison for was stickers ("gummed seals" as they called them back then); they had all kinds. I bought some of their dog stickers just to get the collies. :-) In the 1910s and 1920s, however, they were also famous for selling all kinds of crepe paper (not just streamers) for use in holiday decorating and even for making temporary costumes for parties and playlets that children could put on. They would come out with yearly booklets, the "Bogie Book" at Hallowe'en and the Christmas Book, to give you ideas for decorating using their paper products. These booklets are rare today because folks just tossed them out after the holiday and now they sell for $$$ on e-Bay.

Well, some kind soul scanned one of the Christmas books from 1922 and it is linked at Google books:

Dennison Christmas Book

Really neat look back at was considered "trendy" back then in decorating for the holidays; also interesting to see party game suggestions—and 1920s price list as well!

God Rest Me Merry

If you walk by my cubicle today you will find me playing Christmas music. Why? Well, because I just bought the three-CD set and didn't want to wait to listen to it? :-) This is the O'Neill brothers music, piano instrumentals, which I bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival on Sunday. Already finished playing their "Autumn" album.

Besides, it's end of fiscal year and I need something to cheer me up!

Lots of Christmas Links!

Christmas Links

Christmas in July

Some Christmas specials online:

This is an odd one: 1970s effort about aliens coming to earth and finding out what Christmas is all about. The animation makes the aliens look like ethereal wise men.

A Cosmic Christmas

Another animated curiosity from the early days of video games:

Christmas Comes to Pac-Land

Produced by the Mormon church:

Mr. Krueger's Christmas

The Emmy award-winning animated special done in the style of Victorian illustrations:

A Christmas Carol

Some network standards, available for purchase on DVD:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Garfield Christmas

Christmas crackers from the British:

Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean

Vicar of Dibley: "The Christmas Lunch Incident"

A blast from the past:

Bob Hope Christmas Pacific Tour 1958

The Origins of Christmas

So today I was searching for the "Children in Need" Doctor Who specials, made a turn at Christmas, and discovered that last year the BBC made a special about the Dickensian origins of Christmas. Here's the article from the "Radio Times":

Griff Rhys Jones on the Dickensian Christmas

And here's the special, in two parts...not sure why it's on a Japanese site:

Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas, part 1

Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas, part 2

And here are several other documentaries on the origins of Christmas that I'd never seen:

The Origins of Christmas

The Unwrapping of Christmas: Its History, Myths, & Traditions (The hostess says this is one hour, but only 31 minutes of video are posted)

Beyond Today: "Christmas, Mirth or Myth?"

Download a Song or Two

You can buy and download Christmas albums in .mp3 format at Amazon.com.

The 2008 Hallmark Christmas Dream Book

Ornament Catalog

Particularly noted: a very nice Father Christmas, page 5; very pretty shell remembrance ornament, page 9; two new Rudolph and Grinch ornaments, page 15 (should get a Grinch for the library tree); a CLASSIC Ernest Shepard Pooh ornament, page 33 (much more appropriate for the library tree than the Disney version) and also some bears reading "A Visit from St. Nicholas"; Snoopy and the "beagle scouts"—too cute!, page 47; a Mach Five!, page 49; a new Lady and Tramp, page 50; a ViewMaster and a jukebox that plays swing music, page 57; a Jonny Quest ornament!!!!, page 63; a Star Trek communicator and a very realistic Indiana Jones, page 65; the Canadian Santa, page 70. There are, of course, ornaments for High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Pirates of the Caribbean, WALL-E, and other hot items as well.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEWS

• AMC Greatest Christmas Movies, Frank Thompson
I would have had this book read before now, but it came to me in dreadful shape; I got it from a used bookstore and found it with water damage. I'd avoided buying this one full price because I didn't want to put profit into the hands of the idiots who cancelled Remember WENN. Not a very charitable thought about a Christmas book.

As a volume that examines Christmas movies, it has its good points and its bad points. One positive point is that it addresses silent Christmas films, which other Christmas film books usually ignore. There are also extended chapters about A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation, although some of the material is a bit tedious. The volume also has the advantage of nice stills from the movies it does cover. On the other hand, many well-loved Christmas films are completely ignored, and in a short commentary on classic Christmas television fare, only A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are acknowledged—the omission of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is inexcusable. Not to mention this is yet another Christmas book that covers Christmas horror films in depth. IMHO, "Christmas" and "horror" should never be uttered in the same breath.

• Christmas in Connecticut, Diane Smith
I found this on remainder, a lovely oversized coffee table book filled with stories about various celebrations, exhibits and displays across the state of Connecticut. About half the book is lovely photos of Christmas decorations and displays, and just plain landscapes covered in snow. Gorgeous.

Elves, Fairies and...Convicts?

Did anyone catch this film, North Station (also known as Station Nord—a shot of the DVD) last fall? I have been hoping it would make the rounds again so I could catch the whole thing. It wasn't broadcast on any of the regular movie channels, but showed up on Film Festival or Family Room (I can't recall) on the VOOM HD channels that we get. I saw the end of it one time, the middle, the beginning...never all at once, which made it hard to get a handle on this very strange Quebec-made Christmas fantasy.

The story concerns young Samuel, who has been sent to live with his uncle at North Station, the last stop on the railway before the North Pole. Samuel's late uncle always prepared responses to children's letters to Santa, and this year Samuel and young Evelyne, whom Samuel is developing a crush on, decide to answer the letters themselves. However, they fall asleep in the middle of the task, but miraculously the letters are all answered and ready.

Samuel leaves to take the letters to the post office, but is caught in a blizzard and lays dying in the forest. Howie, a little African boy in Moorish dress captures Samuel's last breath in a bottle and takes Samuel to the North Pole, where he is revived and meets Santa Claus and also Bianca, the beautiful fairy who lives there (perhaps this is some French version of the Santa/St. Nicholas story?—Bianca doesn't appear to be "Mrs. Claus"). Samuel is captivated by the workings of Santa's workshop around him, so Santa makes him an offer: since Samuel's last breath is still trapped in the bottle, he can remain at the North Pole and become one of the helpers himself. But in return for staying alive, he must relinquish all his memories, including of Evelyne. Samuel does so and soon becomes a trusted helper. The bottle with his last breath is stored in a vault with those of others who Santa has rescued from death and who are now his helpers (you can tell all of Santa's helpers because they all have sparkly eyebrows, as Samuel is given).

Those are only a few of the strange things about this movie. Another odd thing involves the reindeer: when they draw Santa's sleigh they are actual, physical reindeer, but when they are off-duty, they revert into people. They are in fact convicts who are working off their debt to society and when they are not drawing the sleigh they are usually quarreling. The elves use them several times to make deliveries to North Station and you see them singing carols in the background, wearing unusual clothing.

Anyway, some time in the future, Santa receives a letter from a little girl whose grandmother is sick. She asks Santa for help—and it turns out "Grandmother" is a grown-up Evelyne.

There are more facets to the plot than this, but since I never saw it all in one go I never did figure out what was going on at certain points. There are a couple of segments where Santa plucks people from various points on earth and gives them courage before returning them to their home, and at the end Bianca grows weak and ill, but I never found out why. Another part of the story involves a plump, resentful elf named Cathy who was banished to work in the kitchens because she accidentally broke a couple of the bottles containing peoples' last breaths. I never found out if it was possibly Cathy who made Bianca ill or not.

Someday I hope to see it from beginning to end to see if I can get the plot straight! :-)

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEW (and Another Holiday Offering)

(books from remainder tables after Christmas and just a couple not read during Christmastide...)

• Re-read: The Story of Holly and Ivy, Rumer Godden
Ivy, an orphan girl who has made up a fantasy for herself about spending the holiday with her "grandmother" instead being sent to the Infants' Home for Christmas, disembarks from the train in the town of Aylesbury, looking for her fictional grandmother, and sees a beautiful Christmas doll in a toy shop window. Like Ivy, Holly the doll is wishing for a real home, and is in terror that she will have to stay at the toyshop with the evil stuffed owl Abracadabra glaring at her forever. How they both find a home is the tale told in this charming book. If you saw the movie supposedly "based" upon this story (The Wish That Saved Christmas), pick up the book instead; it's a classic of love and faith...but mostly it's about wishing, and how wishes sometimes come true.

• Re-read: The Homecoming, Earl Hamner
The book that inspired the classic television special first broadcast in 1971. What you will read is the original story about the Spencer (not Walton) family, which, besides the difference in names, presents a slightly darker tale, but not in an unsavory way—just a more accurate portrait of the often grim lives of Appalachian families in the 1930s that were warmed by family and love. Even if you've watched the television movie for years, this story will provide fresh insights.

• 11 Days in December, Stanley Weintraub
Weintraub seems to be making a career of telling military Christmas tales: this follows his books about the World War I Christmas truce and about George Washington's Christmas farewell to his troops. This is his story of the Battle of the Bulge and the men who combated the last desperate push of the German army. Includes the true story of General George Patton's outrageous appeal to God before the battle. Great book for history buffs, especially WWII aficionados.

• God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers, James McIvor
A wartime Christmas book not written by Stanley Weintraub, this slim volume talks about the American Civil War and how celebrations during the war led to a change in how Americans celebrated Christmas. The central chapters of the books are filled with diary entries and information gleaned from contemporary journals about the experiences of both Union and Confederate on the battlefield.

• Santa's North Pole Cookbook, Jeff Guinn
Guinn's characters in his "Santa Claus" trilogy supply their favorite recipes. A nice variety of ethnic dishes and a good mixture of sweets and savories.

• Once Upon a Christmas, James Dillet Freeman
These are chiefly religious-themed short stories about Christmas, some fanciful,some true-to-life, viewing the Nativity from different points-of-view (the stable animals, a scarecrow, and Joseph, just to name a few), with several others about family miracles at Christmastime, including the amazing story of a boy who rescues an angel with a broken wing. If you are looking for a collection of non-run-of-the-mill Christmas stories, you may enjoy this volume.

• Christmas by the Hearth, anthology, Tyndale Books
A collection of inspiring short stories for the holidays, from classics like "The Little Match Girl" and "The Gift of the Magi" to modern-day tales of faith in the vein of Chicken Soup for the Soul to stories based on old Christmas legends, like that of the Christ Child who arrives unawares. One story involves the reminisces of an older woman who we realize at the end of the story is a famous 19th century author. The collection is further enhanced with attractive pages that include black-and-white sketchwork.

and

• Hanukkah, Schmanukkah!, Esmé Raji Codell and LeUyen Pham
What if someone wrote a Jewish version of A Christmas Carol? Although it sounds improbable, the story is given an interesting treatment in this picture book for older children and adults, about a penny-pinching, embittered New York City sweatshop owner who pushes his impoverished employees to the edge. Nicely tells the story of Jewish immigration to the United States and the hardships faced by those who left the old country for "the streets paved with gold." The color illustrations perfectly capture the mood of the story.

"Spring is Sprung..."

As a gift for the first day of spring, Mother Nature gave us...winter.

Well, at least a chill night, a wonderful sleeping night. It got down into the high 30s and will be typically March and blustery all day, but the sun is streaming in the window.

I started laughing at the ad for Singulair on the Weather Channel page: "Which of the following outdoor allergens do you think might affect you? Grasses. Trees. Weeds. Outdoor mold." Uh, yes. :-) Or as James puts it when anyone asks what I'm allergic to: "Look outside. Is it green and growing? Then she's allergic to it."

Will Easter Be So Early Again?

Tamra sent these neat facts through Christmas to the Max:

Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).

This "dating of Easter" is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Based on the above, Easter can actually only be one day earlier—March 22, but that is pretty rare. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives, and only the most elderly of our population (95 years old or above!) have ever seen it this early. None of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! The last time it was this early was 1913 so, if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that! The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year.

Just the facts:

• The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228—220 years from this year.
• The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285—277 years from this year.

Egg-citing

I finally have all my Easter decorations up except for a garland. My St. Joseph's Day altar received short shrift this year due to the early arrival of Easter; everything is already packed back up in its box. In its place, a simple "Spring" wooden placard, a china flowered sheep, a small square basket and a Mary Engelbreit container on end, a chick, an Eastery Victorian-looking resin of an Easter bunny riding a sheep, two lambs, and a Lego Easter bunny, plus three plastic eggs. There is one more decoration, but I will not put it up until Easter Sunday: a simple resin cross. On Easter Sunday I will also replace the spring flag with the Easter flag, which also has a cross on it.

The stuffed Easter animals—Rupert and Leonard, the two rabbits; Chickles the chick, and Baasley and Baabsey (don't look at me, I didn't name them...LOL) the two little sheep—are on the hearth.

I also decorated the Easter tree while I was waiting for something in the wash (and swept the stairs, which are everlastingly in need of sweeping or vacuuming), so the foyer is "together" as well.

Signs of...Ugh...Spring and the Upcoming Feast

I can barely contain my enthusiasm for the approaching pollen season and hot weather.

Not. :-)

While James was dismantling and "re-mantling" my poor benighted computer, I finally took down all the winter decorations (I knew I was going to forget something, and I did: all the garlands. Where I will fit them I don't know, especially the one with the pine cones and frosted needles, since the boxes are crammed full.) I have the boxes of spring and Easter things out, but have little enthusiasm to put them up.

I did put my St. Joseph's altar on the china cabinet. I put one of Mother's tatted doilies down, and then the base, which I painted red with a small circular copper-colored base on top which the St. Joseph's statue sits on. He is flanked by grape on one side, olives and figs on the other, with citrus fruits and breads in front, and a scattering of filberts and almonds around that. It's not this, but then what is? :-)

Incidentally, St. Joseph's Day is being celebrated on the 15th this year due to the actual date (the 19th) falling during Holy Week.

Make Like a Hare

Leap Day: Making Up for Lost Time and

Leap Day – February 29

Addie's "Mom"

Hurrah! Here's the Gail Rock article whose link was changed from the first time I found it. I'll remember to save the article this time...

Gail Rock's Books About Small-Town Living Conjure Images That Transcend Generations

In fact, this article seems longer than the one I read four years ago; I don't remember anything about Lisa Lucas breaking her leg or asking Ms. Rock to include a horse in the story.

::cough:: The photo accompanying the article does NOT go with it. :-)

All Hearts

I am finally finished putting up the Valentine decorations. I'd planned to put them up Saturday, but my plans were interrupted, and after that the weather was so sultry it felt like I should be putting up paper umbrellas and glasses of pina coladas rather than Valentine hearts.

I did most of it, including the porch, last night; I like to go out there after dark and decorate, so that next morning when the neighbors go by they blink. "Oh, God, she's done it again." Susan next door does decorate on Hallowe'en and Christmas, and several folks had Christmas lights, but most of the time folks around here are bland as unsalted butter. Aside from different plants in the yard, the other homes are anonymous. I'm glad they're not into pink flamingoes, whirling multicolor pinwheels, bedraggled streamers, and other things I've seen in other yards, but...a wreath on the door? Some potted plants? A stone figure of a dragon or a dog or a small child? Something tasteful that will relieve the monotony?

(I just had to go out and fix the pasteboard hearts; the wind has freshened and blew two of them in the yard. I trust they are more securely fastened now.)

Clever and Amusing 3D Animated Short

Will Santa reach his goal? Check out "Ornaments."

Holiday Media

A Collection of Christmas movies, Videos, Commercials and Cartoons

Includes the famous Richard Williams animated version of A Christmas Carol, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject. Why this isn't out on DVD God only knows.

The Most Un-Wonderful Days of the Year

Certainly having to take down the Christmas decorations belongs in this category! Things are proceeding slowly here since work has priority, but last night I divested the front porch of its finery and all the Christmas things in the main bathroom (blue Santas and a blue angel and the blue and purple snowman soap dispenser) are ready to be put away once the soap dispenser has dried. It's still uncommonly warm, which makes it more depressing.

I have $10 in Hallmark rewards cash and am wondering if I should invest in more Valentines Day finery or just save it for Easter or cards. You can only use it on Hallmark-branded merchandise, so I can't buy a Jim Shore piece with it, which I'd rather do. :-)

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEWS

• Humor for the Holidays, anthology, Howard Books
Collection of short, humorous pieces, chiefly about Christmas but some centering around Thanksgiving, most with a mild, non-pushy Christian message. Some of them are "awww" pieces, a few others laugh-aloud, most gentle. Take a tea break daily and enjoy a story or two.

• On Christmas Eve, Ann M. Martin
Eight-year-old Tess is determined that this is the year she will stay awake and meet Santa Claus. She even buys him a gift to thank him for all the gifts over the years. She never dreams that her determination will lead her to a wondrous Christmas Eve where old legends come true. But there are some things, like the wish she makes for her friend Sarah, that even Santa Claus can't bring. A cocoa-by-the-fire book; be warned, however, if reading to children, that a death is involved in the story—several of the reviewers on Amazon.com were really upset by this plot point.

"The Afterglow"

The greetings and carols have ended,
the glad celebrations have ceased
With the angels ascended to heaven,
The Wise Men returned to the East.
But the light that once shone on a manger
Still brightens the world from afar,
And listening hearts sill hear angels,
And wise men still follow a star.

. . . . . . . Ellis Rowsey

Saturday Frolic and Sunday Shopping

Here it is Epiphany already! How does one slow down the doggoned clock on happy days? Yesterday went by like a breath of wind and today, even though James is at work, the hours are flying by.

We were out only briefly yesterday to stop at the hobby shop and then at MicroCenter before getting some sodas at the supermarket and hurrying home to prepare for the Twelfth Night party. We have been leaving the cooked goodies (this time we served chili, cocktail franks in barbecue sauce, split taquitos, mini egg rolls, and honey barbecue chicken wings) and the chips and dip in the kitchen and the rest of the goodies (cheese spread and M&Ms in the center of the table so folks could still gather round the table to eat; there is always space at the coffee table and we also have these clever plastic gadgets (not trays) that carry a paper cup and paper plate and have a hole for your "plastic silverware." James did the cooking part and the cheese spreads because even the light whipped Philly was very stiff, and I did the rest, and we were just finishing as the first guest arrived.

It was a wonderful party, full of stories and laughter. Our friends from Warner Robins got to attend, and we even enjoyed the company of Sue Lawson's mom. It's always nice to have a Mom around. Even Jessie managed to have a good time although she'd just had her wisdom teeth out on Thursday and was in a bit of pain throughout (I gave her a little ice cream to cool her mouth).

Willow went crazy barking for about an hour, but eventually began to wander around happily panting and searching for leavings. By the time the last guest left she was tuckered out. Schuyler, I'm sorry to say, although she had no trouble with the small game night we had, did not enjoy a full-blown party. Not sure if female budgies are just not social critters like the males—certainly Pidge and Bandit ate up all the attention—or if it is just natural shyness, but she wasn't happy much of the night, except when I gave her a stalk of millet and then when the crowd lessened a little.

We left the dishes because James had to get to bed due to having to work today, but everything else was cleaned up last night and I did the vacuuming again today so now all is spotless. Since I had the table cleaned off and will be transferring the Christmas things to winter things over the week, I did not replace the Christmas runner. Instead I used the food-based mineral oil I finally found and gave the table top (which is solid wood) a good oiling. It was looking pale and dry, almost like dry skin on a person, from lack of oils, since it hadn't been treated since we bought it seven (?) years ago. I put a good coating of oil on with a paper towel, let it absorb for half an hour, wiped the excess off with another paper towel and left it a bit more, then finally buffed it down with a holey old sock which has been washed and saved for dusting/polishing purposes. It looks so lovely; the color deep brown again—how wonderful that a clear liquid brings out such a wonderful color.

I didn't sleep in after James left for work, but instead set out for the store. I had a 30 percent off coupon for Borders and Borders Bucks as well as some rewards coupons and got the Inside the Victorian Home book I had become so enamoured of on New Year's Eve. I also bought James a new aircraft calendar and, through some shopping, purchased at least six more gifts for next year! These are all gifts I know people will like and use, not just "this is on sale; I can give it to so-and-so," and three of the things I would truly not ordinarily been able to afford. I also bought two Christmas books at half price.

Greg's Christmas Village

And I thought my mother-in-law's setup was elaborate!

http://www.gregschristmasvillage.com/

There are 69 shots in all. Tip of the hat to Cori on "Christmas to the Max."

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEWS

• The Victorian Christmas Book, Antony and Peter Miall
This book was referenced so many times in The Country Diary Christmas Book that I finally hunted up a copy (which arrived appropriately on Christmas Eve). The Miall brothers use catalogs, images, and books of the time to paint us a Victorian Christmas, from the historical events leading up to the Victorian revival of the holiday as a children's festival, then to each sequence in the celebration to finally end on Epiphany. Included are pages of old magazines, gift projects, household books, original recipes, period illustrations and liberal quotes from that most Victorian of books, A Christmas Carol. Wonderful historical treat.

• Re-read: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel
Western Publishing's Whitman books, inexpensive hardbacks for children, published a series of books by "Jo Mendel" in the 1960s about the Tuckers, five children, stay-at-home mom as common in those days, dad who works with his own father at the town variety store, and Grandma. The children are typical for the day: sometimes helpful, sometimes moody preteen Tina, twins Terry and Merry who alternately fight and stick up for each other, quiet and often sickly Penny, who loves dolls, and five year old Tom (five going on twenty somedays). The adventures are typical for the day: solving minor mysteries, neighborhood foibles, summer days at the lake, etc.

Cottage Holiday has always been a little different: sickly Penny, who feels left out of family activities, is allowed by her doctor to go with the family to their lake cottage to spend the Christmas holidays. They have fun in the snow, help a young woman and her baby son, and face the threat of a cougar stalking nearby farm animals, but paramount to the story is Penny's search for her place in the scheme of things. It's remarkably introspective for what is supposed to be a simple children's story. It's one of the stories I read once a year for a good dose of Christmas spirit.

• Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments
Nice little book about the history behind the Hallmark Keepsake Ornament line and assorted artists who created some of the most popular lines. Worth finding remaindered if you are a Hallmark collector or fan.

• The Time-Life Book of Christmas
Another library acquisition that I should hunt up: oversized, lavishly illustrated in black-and-white and color, with standard sections on Christmas food, decorations, and various ethnic customs, some popular—and some not-so-well-known—stories, but other sections about Christmas cards, decorations, etc. with wonderful file photos of vintage celebrations, Christmas cards, ornaments, magazine clippings, etc. The photo sections are worth the price of the book.

Christmas Bargains

Made a trip out to Books-a-Million today for any Christmas sales; they had their Christmas books half-price, but there was nothing I wanted that badly. I did get a Richard Peck book off the bargain table and, since it was buy one bargain book, get the second half price, got the Worst Case Scenario Christmas Survival Book for only $1.50. It should prove amusing, especially to James.

Got some miniature woodpiles for the Christmas village and acid-free tape at Michael's, then went to Walmart. I really love the one in Acworth; they always have enough cashiers and everything is clean and moves briskly. They had everything on our grocery list (and things we needed that weren't there) except for low-carb wheat tortillas. Sigh. I just got low-carb ones to tide us over.

Oh, and I returned my library books...and came out with The Time-Life Book of Christmas!

We've had a few sun break-outs, but it's been mostly cloudy today and it rained with thunder during the night and drizzled when I went out at 10:30. Willow immediately broke out into a salvo of barks at the thunder, and if that hadn't woken me, she certainly did!

Christmas—as well as this week!—has certainly gone by too quickly!

"Christmas, Christmas, Wonderful Christmas!"

Had a nice sleep in yesterday courtesy of the Big Boss, but I'd really intended to go to Harry's earlier. It wasn't quite a Dickens Christmas there—

"...[t]here were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers" benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner..."

but it was crowded with folks piling their carts high with goodies for the feast. I also dropped in to Publix for some dessert goodies for tomorrow, and started next year's shopping at Michael's.

I had hardly arrived home and done laundry and vacuuming and other minimal chores when I realized I did not have enough salad dressing for the salad we were bringing to dinner tomorrow, so I nipped out to Food Depot—not as crowded as I feared—and found it, surprisingly, first try!

Then I was finally ready to sit down, with Schuyler's cage next to me, to her surprise and wonder, and I had lunch—yummy salad greens, milk, a bit of the demi baguette I bought myself as a treat, and pistachio nuts—and we watched The Homecoming: A Christmas Story and the 1980, 1981 (two shows), and 1982 Ask the Manager Christmas shows, from Joe receiving his spotted tie as a gift to Dan telling Dana about the "Christkindl" custom at his house for the first time. Oh, yeah, and the eggnog and Joe intoning "Rudy Cheeks, Rudy Cheeks, Rudy Rudy Cheeks." Always shed a tear now at the end of the 1980 show when the cast and crew do their "Merry Christmas" and the late Cliff Allen appears.

Oh, also got a nice late surprise in the mail: the copy of The Victorian Christmas Book that I had bought from Amazon Marketplace arrived. The Country Diary Christmas Book uses so many quotes from this book that I couldn't resist ordering it: it was 30 cents, an ex-library book, but quite intact and with an excellent cover.

By then it was time to load Christmas gifts in a Xerox box, get Schuyler back to her perch on the bookcase and clean up, and take Willow outside. To our surprise, we met James at the door—they let him out fifteen whole minutes early! Soon we were in the truck and heading to the Boulers for Christmas Eve dinner. We went the long way, through Dunleith, the neighborhood next to our old one, but they did not do luminarias for Christmas Eve this year; I don't know if they have quit or did them over the weekend.

We had a grand time at the Boulers, with the Spiveys, the Elders and the Boroses, plus Keith—noshed our way through turkey, ham, beef roast, some veggies, dessert, then did presents before the fire. Keith, as always, gives the most unique gifts: this year we received a bird feeder, a bag of birdseed, and a guide to wild birds of North America. The Boulers' dogs watched us enviously from the upstairs balcony: G'Kar, the Jack Russell, shoved himself between the banisters to stare at us.

We came home via a roundabout route to check out more lights. When we got home, I was still in gift mode, so we opened our gifts under the tree. I had bought James a new copy of Top Gun (he only had the videotape), two books about the space program and one about World War II fliers, a DVD set of WWII videos, and a 4GB jump drive. I received the book of The War, London Then and Now, a bag for my new camera, and some Japanese Cherry Blossom cologne from Bath and Body Works. We also received some cute gifts from Emma, who bought me a cute pig Webkinz. I think I will name her "Peggy" after Mike's guinea pig (I know, not the same species, but both cute!). Miss Schuyler got a nice big piece of millet from Santa, and Willow got beef and cheese treats (which she has been staring at since last night).

We then sat and relaxed and listened to Christmas music and then the Midnight Mass from the Vatican, which lasted over an hour tonight.

This morning, therefore, we slept in, despite the pinpoint power failure at 8 a.m. which turned James' C-PAP on and off again. Willow finally started to bark, at which we discovered Santa had sent Atlanta a Christmas gift: it was raining! It rained steadily for nearly two hours, then cleared, but it looks as if another bank of rain is headed this way. I'd rather have snow, but we need the rain.

While I went out searching for a newspaper, James made French toast out of the last of the challah loaf we bought last weekend. (Last year we had hit six places Christmas Day and never found a newspaper. One place even told me they didn't print a newspaper on Christmas. Nonsense! Large Metro area newspapers are like hospitals; they never take holidays.) I was successful in one try and we ate breakfast—luscious French toast made with Splenda and topped with the lovely Grade B super-maply syrup my cousin Donna bought us two years ago—and read the paper along to the end of the Walt Disney World parade and then Christmas at St. Olaf's.

Anyway, it's about time for me to go wash the salad...Merry Christmas to all, and Buon Natale, too!

[Later: I should say we had a great time at the Butlers, but that would be redundant—we always have a great Christmas dinner there, and the company is always delightful.]

Happy Christmas to All!

Check out a "whole passel of pictures" in Autumn Hollow.

From the Library of Congress

Today in History

"Christmas Eve"

The door is on the latch tonight,
     The hearth-fire is aglow,
I seem to hear soft passing feet—
     The Christ child in the snow.

My heart is open wide tonight
     For stranger, kith or kin;
I would not bar a single door
     Where love might enter in.

. . . . . . . Author Unknown

Gift Wrapping for Men

This is the time of year when we think back to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men; Gaspar, Balthazar and Herb, went to see the baby Jesus and, according to the Book of Matthew, "presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of wrapping paper. If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so:

"And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than the frankincense."

But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics:

1. They were wise.

2. They were men.

Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion: This is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I know. One is Rob, who said the only time he ever wraps a gift is "if it's such a poor gift that I don't want to be there when the person opens it." The other is Gene, who told me he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than 15 seconds per gift. "No one ever had to wonder which presents daddy wrapped at Christmas," Gene said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."
I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a sector of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this sector with a marking pen.)
If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by Scotch tape.
On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt. My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills like having babies that come more naturally to women than to men. That is why today I am presenting:

GIFT-WRAPPING TIPS FOR MEN

* Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If, when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognizes it, you can claim that it's myrrh.

* The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. They must be crazy, or women, or both.

* If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper! Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning.

YOUR WIFE: "Why is there a Hefty trash bag under the tree?"
YOU: "It's a gift! See? It has a bow!"
YOUR WIFE (peering into the trash bag): "It's a leaf blower."
YOU: "I also got you some myrrh."

In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it. The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt.

A Little Christmas Humor

(As Mr. Spock might reply dryly, "Extremely little, Ensign.")

A Few Christmas Questions

Q: What do elves learn in school?

A: The Elf-abet!

Q: If athletes get athletes foot, what do astronauts get?

A: Missle toe!

Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?

A: Frostbite.

Q: Why was Santa's little helper depressed?

A: Because he had low elf esteem.

Q: Why does Santa have 3 gardens?

A: So he can ho-ho-ho.

Q: Where do polar bears vote?

A: The North Poll.

Q: What do you get when you cross an archer with a gift-wrapper?

A: Ribbon hood.

Q: What kind of bird can write?

A: A PENguin.

Q: What do you call a cat on the beach at Christmas time?

A: Sandy Claus!

Q: How do sheep in Mexico say Merry Christmas?

A: Fleece Navidad!

Q: Why does Santa's sled get such good mileage?

A: Because it has long-distance runners on each side.

Q: What do you call a bunch of grandmasters of chess bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?

A: Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!

All on a Christmas "Eve Eve"

Had some problems last night that I am pretty sure were attributable to not taking one of my pills and then taking another before bed. This happened another time when I did not take the Prilosec (or took it after the fact) and then had chicken. Poor Schuyler must think we are nuts, especially with us having stayed up past midnight and my watching "Christmas in the Airwaves" a second time on chat with Rodney and Mike.

Needless to say we had a slow start this morning and did not make it to the Colonnade on time to have lunch; the after-church crowd was already milling its way out the door. We went to Ryan's, which used to be Olde Country/Hometown Buffet. I only had a little steak—it was so highly peppered even James complained—and a few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, a bit of crust from a tiny slice of apple pie and some chocolate cake. It seemed to sit okay.

We then drove up to the Stage Door Players to see ARTC's annual "An Atlanta Christmas." They had a new sketch this year, "Civil War Triptych," which was originally performed when "Atlanta Christmas" was a stage production rather than a radio show: a Civil War Christmas was described by turns by a white woman (the preparations for the feast), a black woman slave (the "Christmas Gif'" tradition and the happiness of the relative freedom of the celebration), and a Confederate soldier (privations of camp and homesickness). Plus of course all our favorites, including "USO Christmas," the affecting "O Tannenbaum" about the Christmas truce, and "Are You Lonely Tonight?" We sat between Lin Butler, Stephanie Gould, and the Rutledges and enjoyed beginning to end while I snapped photos.

We must have arrived at the Colonnade for supper during a lull: we got right in and were served promptly, and then people began to arrive again. The Colonnade opened in 1927 and, despite one loss of location and one fire, has survived ever since. They serve "down home Southern food," and you can't pass tables without seeing big plates of fried chicken, but my favorite here is the turkey and dressing: it's the only dressing I eat all of and in large quantities. Their applesauce is not overly sweetened, either.

Unfortunately my tummy was still in a tender state and I have been tasting supper ever since.

We were home early enough to watch "Christmas in Yellowstone" on Nature, a beautifully photographed overview of the park in winter. How I loved the red fox pouncing in the snow, and the beautiful wolves! Also saw Rick Steves European Christmas.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS REVIEWS

• If Only In My Dreams, Wendy Markham
Several years ago I was reading romance books rather regularly, usually the adventure type where the male or female lead was some type of professional adventurer (Navy SEAL, police officer, etc.). Then I got tired of the repetitive plots and bundled them all off to the library except for Laura Hayden's books, Alan Brennert's Kindred Spirits, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

However, Dreams is a keeper: it's the story of actress Clara McCollum, who's about to start filming the plum role of the sweetheart of Jed Landry, a real-life World War II soldier who died in Normandy. But Clara has just received a medical blow: she has breast cancer. She is in mental turmoil when she steps onto the vintage train they are using in the movie—then the train jerks and she is thrown to the floor. When she rises and gets off the train, she is in 1941, and there waiting to help her is the real Jed Landry.

This is a well-written time-travel romance that I found enjoyable not just because of the time period. Markham works all aspects of the past and present plot into a coherent whole.

I have one tiny quibble with the story: part of the plot hinges on the "I'll Be Home for Christmas" line "...and presents on the tree." Jed Landry in 1941 wonders why the line is not "...under the tree" and says it makes no sense. Jed should still remember when some gifts were part of the Christmas tree decorations; I have books written in the 1930s and 1940s where gifts are placed on the tree as they had been during Victorian times.

• Re-read: Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost
This is a book I read for the first time over 42 years ago, in the Stadium School library. It was one of the first books I went hunting for when the internet made finding old books so simple. It is the story of the Clark family, a farm family in 1948 Vermont, particularly the oldest boy Toby, age twelve, who owns a dapple-grey pony named Windy Foot. They are expecting their friends the Burnhams, widowed Jerry and his twelve-year-old daughter Tish, and the story follows their simple Christmas preparations and celebrations: decorating with woodsy decorations, awaiting the birth of a calf, buying gifts and taking part in a carol sing, skiing, etc. Warm, wonderful stuff. You want to grab your winter things and go live with the Clarks.

• Re-read: A Treasury of Christmas Stories, Webb Garrison
These are Yuletide stories with a twist: they all involve some historical event that took place or that was initiated at Christmas: the beginnings of Miami as a vacation location, President Theodore Roosevelt's acceptance of the cutting of Christmas trees, the safe escape of slaves William and Ellen Craft to Philadelphia, Thomas Nast's rework of Santa Claus from Dutch burgher to elf—even the Magna Carta. Something different from the rank and file Christmas literature.

From Creeping Crud to "Kringly"

I've had a decided case of the "ughs" today: woke with a burgeoning migraine as well as a sick stomach. The headache was easy to explain: I went to bed with the fan in the window, aimed directly at my head. This is a no-no when you have arthritis in your neck. As for the other, the Mongolian beef I liked so much last night might have had a beef with me.

So today wasn't a very enthusiastic day for me, needless to say. However, we did go to the hobby shop—the guys always put together some goodies on the Saturday before Christmas. There was an orange-zest flavored sugar-free cheesecake type cake there that was quite tasty. We also went to Borders to spend my birthday coupon; I ended up with Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants, which has just come into paperback, and four magazines. We also braved the crowds and went to Costco. The Cumberland Costco is next to Cumberland Mall and the traffic was, predictably, horrendous: people driving around and around looking for close parking spaces when you could see clearly that the "hidden" deck of the parking garage was mostly empty. Everyone crowds the top deck and the bottom deck and ignores the middle one.

Costco wasn't as crowded as we expected and we got out with necessary milk and also a bottle of cinnamon tablets. Supposedly they improve your glucose levels.

We finished up at Michaels with the world's slowest cashier. This Michaels accepts JoAnn coupons, but they have to fill out a form every time they accept a competitor coupon!

We had parts of a rotisserie chicken from Costco for supper and commenced to be Kringly (Betty Roberts' dad's term for Christmasy): first up was Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, with Scott Bakula and Robert Loggia, the story of a pilot lost in a small plane between Pago Pago and Norfolk Island on Christmas Eve and the New Zealand airliner pilot who helps guide him to safety. Then:
• The Simpsons Christmas Special: Homer doesn't get his Christmas bonus and Marge has to spend the holiday funds to get a tattoo removed from Bart's arm; hilarity ensues when Homer gets an extra job playing Santa.
• The Bestest Present: The first of two "For Better or For Worse" animated specials about little Elizabeth losing her toy rabbit during Christmas shopping—love the "First Day of Snow" song!
• The Christmas Angel: The second special, in which Elizabeth chafes at being "the kid in the middle" and breaks her mother's precious glass angel.
• It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas: A parody of It's a Wonderful Life, with a special guest star, which reminds us how darn good Tiny Toons was and why in God's name isn't it out on DVD?
• The Waltons' "The Best Christmas": The family plans a grand Christmas after Olivia voices fears that her children won't all be with her in the year to come, but an icy evening that plunges a tree into the church roof, traps Grandma and Grandma in Charlottesville, and finds John-Boy helping rescue a neighbor and her niece, trapped in a car that drove off the road into an icy pond nearly ruins their holiday.
• Remember WENN's "Christmas in the Airwaves": A delightful confection of song and story; controlling financier Rollie Pruitt plans to shut down Pittsburgh's favorite small radio station, while writer Betty Roberts, scheming manager Scott Sherwood, and the actors of the ensemble try to thwart his evil machinations. Guest stars are Peter Noone and Betty Buckley...still makes me cry at the end.

The Christkind is Coming!

Celebrating With the Christkind, written by Rick Steves.

Christmas-y Goodness Redux

Been nice the last half of this week working in the light of the Christmas tree and the village on the mantel, listening my way through my collection of Christmas music on cassette. The second side of the carrier holds many favorites: Mannheim Steamroller, Mantovani, the early "Revels" albums, and even a couple of the obscure British carol albums I bought at Oxford Books before they closed.

(List of stores I miss, especially before Christmas: Woolworths, Woolworths, Woolworths, Woolworths, Woolworths, and Oxford Books, PharMor, and, always, the old Paperback Bookstore in Providence...did I mention Woolworths?)

Tuesday evening our branch had a Christmas party at Maggiano's at Perimeter Mall. Ed (our supervisor) let us out early, so I rushed home, walked Willow, then drove back to James' work so we could carpool. We went "through the back" instead of via interstate and found the non-valet parking nearly surrounded by police cars with blue lights flashing. Maybe shoplifters? It was a super party, with good food and good company. All the food was delicious, but my favorite of all was the bread! Before we left, we had a little prayer for Carla, whom we lost last Saturday.

This evening we bought a few last things. Two items we bought at Borders and had the young ladies doing the free gift wrap do their thing. They were eager but not very skillful (but then they had a very small table; it was very hard for them to maneuver). Came home to wrap three more things, and now under the tree looks like a Macy's ad.

I was mourning the fact that the Russell Stover maple cream Santas had milk chocolate coating. Their maple cream Easter eggs have dark chocolate coatings and in 2006, so did their Hallowe'en "buzzard eggs," but this year the buzzard eggs I found were...ugh...marshmallow. Well, I wandered off to look at their Christmas things and James appeared with an entire box of Easter maple cream eggs! He found them on the highest shelf in the candy department. I put the box up in the spare room closet; I can have one a week as a treat and they will last me until next fall. I see Mr. Nicholson has been hanging about again. I wonder if that was their Easter supply in advance?

Welcome, Yule!

So the solstice has arrived!

Ancient Origins: Yule

Yule Lore

Midwinter's Eve: Yule

Bright Yule Blessings!