Autumn Reveries

Fall scenes set to beautiful music!

Autumn Animals!

 

Hedgehog from Centerparc's blog:

Red squirrel from BoredPanda.com

West Highland White in the leaves from Animalfair.com

White horse in autumn by Brian Jannsen:

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost (1923)

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

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

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

Rudolph Day, October 2015

Truman Capote's enduring classic:

"A Christmas Memory"

"Why I Reread 'A Christmas Memory'"

"October Gave a Party..."

October's Party
George Cooper

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

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

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

Welcome to Fall!

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

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

Rudolph Day September 2015

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

Story of "The Huron Carol"

Story of "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

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

Rudolph Day August 2015

Some reading on the religious side of the Christmas holiday:

Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, Francis X. Weiser

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

Rudolph Day, March 2015: Vermont Holiday

A Vermont Christmas, Richard Brown and Jay Parini
This is a nifty coffee-table book of mostly photographs—with a difference. Most of the books of this sort are a confection of beautiful decorations, breathtaking scenery, and warm celebrations. There are many photos of scenery in this volume, but most of the photos are of the more "homely" (as the British say) sort: a cow next to an old barn, a minister ready to go before his congregation, a child before an old stove, a man shoveling snow from his roof, sheep in the snow. Some local recipes using maple syrup are included, but most of the text is nostalgic, including a wonderful essay by a woman who lived on a Vermont farm in the 1920s and an excerpt from The Lone Winter from 1923. A book for a cold afternoon, to partake by the fire and/or with a cup of cocoa.

Rudolph Day, February 2015: Lost Christmas Gems

A Dream for Christmas, 1950s African American family moves to Los Angeles to take over a failing church; written by Earl Hamner Jr

A Christmas Carol 1971 animated version which won an Oscar

The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait musical special

Hollywood Palace (1968) with Bing and Kathryn Crosby

Bob Hope Christmas Special (1965; his first in color)

Some Christmas Cheer for the Interim Season

The Little Match Girl (1987) 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever 

The Best of the Andy Williams Christmas Shows 

Bob Hope Christmas Special (1967)

Rudolph Day January 2015: Santa Claus and His History

A Pictorial History of Santa Claus | The Public Domain Review

Krampus: Santa's Devilish Companion

Belsnickel

Belsnickel, The Counter-Claus

Krampus, Knecht Ruprecht and Pelznickel

Over by Christmas

The Walnut Tree, Charles Todd
This is a "holiday novel" by a very loose thread only, when a beautiful thing happens on Christmas Eve, so it was appropriate for the end of the Christmas season. In this one-off novel from Todd as not part of the Bess Crawford or Ian Rutledge series, Lady Elspeth Douglas is in France with her good friend Madeleine when the Great War breaks out. Elspeth has been brought up in great wealth, but when she sees hordes of thirsty soldiers in Paris and tries to help them, she is called to serve as she has never been called before. Having an "understanding" with her best friend's brother, she is disconcerted when she is attracted to the Army officer who makes it possible for her to get out of England. Defying her guardian, she trains as a nurse and goes back to the front, where she discovers a purpose for her life, but a dilemma for her heart.

This is a short, sweet wartime romance about a wealthy girl who finds her true self and her inner strength in serving on the battlefield. She experiences mud and misery and terror, grief and love, kindness and loyalty, with her nerve and her dignity intact. While the end may seem a bit pat for modern audiences, the events narrated did happen in real life. I enjoyed all the characters and the brief look at the nursing sisters' experience at the front and with the wounded, and the stubborn resolve of the men determined that their cause was the right one. And the holiday event brings to mind a beautiful image that will stay with me.

So Many Nights Before Christmas

 
The Annotated Night Before Christmas, Martin Gardner
Clement C. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" forms the basis of this book that features not just an annotated version of the poem—otherwise the book would be about six pages—but as many of the parodies and similarly-metered poems that have been written in the succeeding years. (Incidentally, the first thing Gardner says in his introduction is "I hope no one imagines that I regard the selections in this book as good poetry," which makes him sound incredibly snobby right off the bat. But, truly, there is much doggerel in this book.) It also opens with a brief biography of Moore and his estate, which gave the New York City neighborhood "Chelsea" its name, Christmas in Moore's time, and the history of St. Nicholas, before descending into homage and parody, the earliest which was written only a scarce dozen years after the original. (Most of the earliest "sequels" are 19th century polemics against gluttony and greed.) There are alcoholic versions, one portraying an exhausted salesgirl, fairy tale incursions, even a collection of "MAD" magazine versions and a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, plus various ethnic versions (Cajun, hillbilly, etc.) in excruciating dialect.

Near the end there's a "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" chapter, since the original Rudolph story (not the Rankin-Bass classic) was written in the same meter, as well as its lost sequel, Rudolph's Second Christmas.

For Moore fans everywhere. To be read slowly, however, over several nights, or else the poems read one after the other become frankly annoying.

In Time for Christmas Pudding

Mrs. Jeffries and the Merry Gentlemen, Emily Brightwell
This is a long-running mystery series (this is book 20-something) about the household staff of Inspector Witherspoon, a Scotland Yard detective with an impressive record of solved crimes. What his superiors don't know, of course, is that his housekeeper, the titular Mrs. Jeffries, and the rest of the household staff have formed an investigative team of their own. They go where Witherspoon isn't trusted, among other servants, or to the shopkeepers, and gather clues which they bring back to the clever Mrs. Jeffries, who sits down with her employer each evening and manages to subtly feed him the clues until he comes to the inevitable solution.

In this story, one of the members of an investment club called "the Merry Gentlemen" is murdered, and Witherspoon (and of course his unknown compatriots in service) must find out whodunnit quickly, or his Christmas holidays will be ruined.

The readers of 20-plus books in this series can't be wrong, so I feel a bit guilty about being so diffident about it. It's not a bad book, I just have so many series I like better that I wouldn't involve myself in this one. The characters are appealing and the stories remind one of the plotlines and protagonists in the Pennyfoot Hotel mysteries. If you're looking for a Victorian cozy, this is a good one to try (well, starting at the beginning, anyway).

The Greatest Gift...Freedom

Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters, Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack
This is a picture book for children about slavery just before the Civil War, portraying the two different celebrations on a Southern plantation: the opulent world of the planter and his family and the poor living conditions of their slaves. While Christmas means the slaves are given extra privileges and more food and a chance to also celebrate the holiday, the comparison between the revelries of the planter's families and the simple celebrations of the slaves make the point of the story all the more powerful.

This is a simple way of introducing children to the injustices that existed during the time of slavery, with beautiful illustrations that bring the dreams of freedom of the enslaved men and women alive.

Christmas in New Amsterdam

Santa and Pete: A Novel of Christmas Present and Past, Christopher Moore and Pamela Johnson
First, this is not the Christopher Moore of snark. The gentleman who wrote this little book is relating some of his own family history in writing the story. While ostensibly it is the story of how St. Nicholas and his assistant Peter (known as "Black Peter" in the Netherlands) met, began to travel, and migrated to the new world in time to avert war between the Dutch and the Native people, it is the framing narrative that is the meat of the tale. Young Terence's grandfather, who drives a New York City bus the length of Manhattan, is lonely after the death of his wife, and Terence's parents wish him to learn something of his heritage and his grandfather rather than being self-absorbed, so every Saturday a rather resentful Terence is placed on his grandfather's bus to follow him on his route. Gradually Terence becomes entranced with Grandpa Mann's historical tales and the regulars who take his bus.

There are some liberties taken with the Nicholas/Peter story, since originally the pair delivered gifts on December 5, both in the Netherlands and in New Amsterdam; however it would take away from the narrative to have to divert to explain the date change. While the description says it's the tale of Santa and Pete, it's really the story between Terence and his grandfather and their friends on the bus that carry this sweet story.

Christmas Annuals, Part 2

The House Without a Christmas Tree, Gail Rock
"Do you think Dad might do it this year? Might buy me a tree?"
Ten-year-old Addie Mills has a comfortable life in small-town Nebraska in the late 1940s. Her mother having died when she was a baby, Addie has been brought up by her serious, taciturn father and her offbeat but caring grandmother. She's a good scholar, artistic, and articulate, but somehow no matter what she does, it never quite pleases her father, who has refused for her entire life to have a tree at Christmas. Once again, Addie pleads her case, but is rebuffed—but a contest at school brings the situation to a head.

If I've seen the television special, you may ask, why read the book? Well, because it says so much more—about Addie and Carla Mae's friendship (and Carla Mae's family), about Addie's conflicted feelings about Billy Wild, and, most of all, about Grandma; we learn much more about Grandma's eccentricities than were intimated by the special (the breakfast scene where she drops the pancake, for instance), so you can understand more fully why Addie's classmates think Mrs. Mills is a little peculiar. Addie's narrative rings true to the opening and closing voiceovers heard in the specials and lends a special note to the tale.

And frankly, because this is such a good tale it deserves to be told again. :-)

The Tuckers: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel
"Penny Tucker stood on her knees among the cushions of the window seat and pushed her nose against the cold glass. With each fresh gust of wind, hard little white balls shot out of the dark and hit the windows. Across the street every house twinkled with ropes of Christmas lights...[t]onight the PTA was holding a special meeting to celebrate the beginning of Christmas vacation. All of the Tuckers...were to take part. That is, all but...seven-year-old Penny. She had been kept in with a virus infection Nobody had asked her to be on the program."

Children's series books have proliferated since the late 1800s; this was one that appealed to both boys and girls: the stories of five children, their parents and grandparents, plus one big wooly dog and a black cat. The kids are a rambunctious, but generally-well-behaved bunch, but the youngest girl is not always well and in this Christmas story, she begins to fret that she is becoming lost in her family of achievers. Her oldest sister can bake, her older brother is a builder and his twin sister is musical, and her younger brother is practical—but what can frail Penny do? She finds out when she wishes the family can spend Christmas at their lake cottage: it's a week of fun, friends, festivities, and even suspense, when she and a friend discover an abandoned baby in a trailer.

While written in simple words, Penny's plight is still touching and will appeal to anyone who feels left out by life. The warm events in the cottage and at a nearby farm will enfold you in its Christmas arms; you'll wish you were out, carefree, playing games in the snow and joining the kids in finding a Christmas tree. But it's Penny's search for a place for herself that really makes this book special and sets it above all the other books in the series.

"Wonderingly she thought, 'I've found something I didn't know I was hunting. I've found Christmas.'" In reading this, may you, as well.

A Historic Christmas

The Christmas Heritage of Old Salem, Flora Ann L. Bynum
This is a thin volume about Christmas in the Moravian settlement in North Carolina that eventually merged with another town called Winston to become Winston-Salem. The Moravians, from a sect of Protestanism founded by Jan Hus, are known for their simple decorations which include candles and a multipointed star which has become known as a Moravian star and a ceremony called a lovefeast in which sugar buns are served. I picked it up because it was a dollar; there's not much to it, but the photographs are lovely.

Christmas in Williamsburg, Taylor Biggs Lewis Jr and Joanne B. Young
My last book about Christmas in Williamsburg was a children's book; this is more of a souvenir type volume which was published in the 1970s and updated for the Bicentennial. Despite the printing date, the photographs inside are full-color and very evocative of Williamsburg decorations in that era. I can't remember if it was actually at Williamsburg or in a book I bought at Williamsburg two years ago, but they mentioned they are getting away from the Della-Robbia type (fruit-decorated) wreaths and garlands of the 1970s simply because citrus fruits were too costly in those days to decorate outside with (the inside fruit would be eaten). They are getting back to classic greens and ribbons instead. This is another place I have on a bucket list that probably won't get to fruition: Colonial Williamsburg on Illumination Night.

Christmas Annuals, Part 1

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
"The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied and stole and smoked cigars (even the girls) and talked dirty and hit little kids and cussed their teachers and took the name of the Lord in vain and set fire to Fred Shoemaker's old broken-down toolhouse...I don't suppose they woke up that morning and said to one another 'Let's go burn down Fred Shoemaker's toolhouse!'...but maybe they did. After all, it was a Saturday and not much going on."

Thus begins Robinson's now-classic story about six kids "from the wrong side of the tracks" who get involved in a church Christmas pageant after they're told there will be cookies and soda served. Their working-class mother is either laboring or sleeping, so they don't even know the Christmas story—and let's say their interpretation surprises everyone: they spend a lot of time trying to think up ways to off Herod the King to defend the infant Jesus. Eventually the tales about the pageant rehearsals get around and everyone is predicting this will be the worst pageant ever.

This is a humorous look at a group of undisciplined kids who have been left to their own devices so long that they appear to be budding criminals. The narrator (she's known as Beth in the television adaptation of this story, but she's unnamed here) takes a sharp, funny look at the Herdman kids and the other adults and children around her, especially snooty Alice Wendleken, and along the way some truths are revealed and even the horrible Herdmans have a lesson to teach about Christmas.

If you haven't read this book—why not? If you have, Christmas is the time to pull it out once again and enjoy.

* * * * *

Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost
Frances Frost's tetrology of books about growing up on a Vermont farm in the late 1940s were once perennials in school libraries. Now they are highly sought on book sites (especially the rare fourth volume), and while it's mainly for the story of Toby Clark and his Shetland pony Windy Foot as the seasons roll around on the Clark farm, passages like this might also be the reason: "The village lawns about the white houses lay withered and rusty yellow; the leaves had long ago been raked to the roadsides and burned; and the only brightness was the dripping scarlet of the barberry bushes around the north side of the square." "Up on the south hill the snow lay heavily on the dark green boughs of spruce and hemlock, pine and fire. Silently Toby and Betsy snowshoed through blue shadows and brilliant patches of sunlight...[t]here at the farther edge of the clearing, on the verge of the dark woods, stood a young fox, curiously unafraid, his fur golden russet against the snow, watching them with burning eyes."

As the Clark family prepares for Christmas by making and mail-ordering gifts, stringing popcorn, cutting a live tree, baking cakes and pies, and searching the woods for greens, they await the visit of their new friends the Burnhams. Toby can't wait to take Tish Burnham sleigh riding behind the sleigh he's cut down for Windy Foot to pull. The family goes to town to shop at the general store, and later to sing carols around the village tree, and Toby and Tish ski and share ice cream to their hearts' content. This book takes you into the family so you feel warm by the Clark fireplace and smell the delicious foods Mary Clark cooks and sing Christmas songs along with the family. You're there to see the gifts wrapped in tissue paper and held closed with stickers, the smaller ones inserted in the branches of the tree as was customary at the time. It's warm and happy, like a big hug from a favorite friend. Like a friend you see once a year at Christmas, it's there to welcome you to into the holiday.

* * * * *

Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky
Most of my favorite Christmas books are, except for A Christmas Carol, from childhood or the 1970s; the exception is this one, written in 2001 as part of the "Dear America" book series. It rings so true for me from the opening: "Mama and Papa believe in cold. That's why I tell Lady we have nothing to fear. You see, Mama and Papa have toughened us up on the sleeping porch. That's where we sleep with no heat and just screens, and not just in summer but all through the fall and beginning again in early spring. We're used to cold. But now we're going to be hardened off for the rest of the year in the rest of the house...[t]his is going to be an odd Christmas, no doubt about it. Instead of sugar plums and stockings stuffed with goodies and stacks of presents under the tree—a Time of Bounty—I am thinking of this as The Time of the Dwindling. Everything is diminishing: our money, the light of day, and even the hours that Papa works. But in my heart I know we Swifts are tough—hardened off like seedlings. I just know that somehow, someway, this shall be a Christmas. Not the same kind of Christmas as others in the past, but maybe one to remember all the same."

Still, even Minnie (our protagonist) would have lost faith if the family had not taken in a cousin from the Dust Bowl, a wispy child whose outer delicacy belies an inner strength that helps carry the family through hard times. Perhaps the characters seem so true to me because Lasky based them on her own family, so that they have an air of verisimilitude to them. A couple of times word choice gives me pause—for instance, Minnie's brilliant (we'd call him geeky) brother says something about cousin Willie Rae which her older sister calls "extremely insensitive" (back then I think she would have just said "rude"!)—and the standard "Dear America" epilog seems overly politically correct and even a little fantastic, but the book as a whole is endearing. I look forward to this one all year.

Rescued by Rudolph

Rudolph!, Mark Teppo
I was attracted by the cover. And the title. And finally by the mind-boggling description on the back cover.

A few days before Christmas, Santa's special elf in charge of operations catches his boss hacking into the Vatican's website; before he knows it, he's been lassoed into a desperate mission. Santa Claus is upset because he has found one final letter from a little girl whose father was killed in an accident at Thanksgiving, a little girl who has asked for Santa to bring her father back. And that wish is one Santa is determined to fulfill, even if he has to go to Purgatory for it.

Yes...literally.

Told by Santa's special elf Bernard Rosewood, this is a story of adventure and loss, violence and tenderness, and vivid fantasy, in which the very existence of Christmas is threatened by Higher Powers, and only one can affect the rescue: Rudolph himself, not the nasal cutie from television, but a reindeer who has literally survived a hellish accident.

I really, really enjoyed this. If Unholy Night was not your traditional Nativity story, this is definitely not your traditional Santa Claus story. I loved all the little touches: how Santa really does deliver all those gifts in one night, the extraordinary abilities of the reindeer team, behind the scenes at "the Residence" (otherwise known as the North Pole), Mrs. Santa Claus' sizable role, all mixed up with a mind-blowing trip to the ends of the earth, complete with mathematical calculations and lots of firepower.

Note: this isn't a children's story, but older teens will probably love it because the attitude is as snarky as they are. :-)

Annual Inspiration

Ideals Christmas: 70th Anniversary Edition
Not much to say about the latest version of Ideals Publications annual collection of verse, inspirational essays, photographs, and seasonal artwork. You either like the collections or you don't. I happen to enjoy the modern ones. This year's issue came with a bonus: 32 additional pages from past issues, including one from 1945, the second year of publication, and an essay from Gladys Taber.

Note to Ideals: I still miss your Thanksgiving issue! Please bring it back!

Homespun Christmas

Christmas Through the Years, Gladys Hasty Carroll
I remember seeing this author's books in the library as a child; they were what today we would call "chick lit," or more likely "domestic dramas." However, they were a cut above the usual; apparently one of Ms. Carroll's books lost out on a Pulitzer Prize to The Good Earth. But I found this book in the Christmas rack of the Friends of the Library book sale, and the price was right...

...and I loved it. This isn't the kind of rubbish they write today about divorce and adultery and affairs; oh, the families in these short stories have problems, but they're homelike problems of growing up, losing a family member, growing older, trusting one's child's spouse to do the correct thing, etc. The first four pieces are charming examples of how farm- and middle-class folk celebrated the Christmas season before and during World War I. "Christmas 1922" is notable because it is taken from the author's own diary and talks about Christmas in her home, with much nostalgia about telephone party lines.

"Christmas 1946" is a reprint of one of her most famous stories, a Christmas novella called While the Angels Sing, about a widowed mother who is staying with her daughter and her family for Christmas and learning many things about her son-in-law and her grandchildren, still thinking about her son, who survived World War II, but never came home. I couldn't wait to turn the pages to see what had happened with the daughter and her best friend, the older brother who had a crush on the snobby daughter of a neighbor, the younger brother who was so independent, yet so caring of his little sister, or if the janitor would really turn on the heat in the church for the Christmas pageant!

"Christmas 1949" is yet another novella, Christmas With Johnny, the sweet story of a nine-year-old boy who feels left out at home, at church, at school. His parents give up his beloved farm, so that he has to move away from his only friend, a little girl (a fact he is teased about in school and by his father), and when it looks as if he may have found a secure place in Sunday School, he's teased about that as well, and bullied at school. It takes a crisis for his parents and his teachers to discover how alone he actually feels.

The other stories were lovely as well, but I liked the two novellas the best. If you enjoy stories about families at Christmas, with strong family values and Christmas cheer, you would do well to look up this book.

Lovely to Look At...

The Christmas Book, Alvin Horton and Karin Shakery
I found this book at the Smyrna Library book sale at the fall Jonquil Festival. It's another collection of history, decorating tips, recipes, and lush color photographs of decorations, landscapes, foods, decorated trees, etc., also addressing entertaining and simple Christmas decorations. I guess I sound a little jaded about this one, and it isn't fair to the book: if you don't have a omnibus-type book like this, it's very pretty, well-written, and potentially useful to anyone looking for recipes or decorating tips, but by now, having bought several different publishers' versions of these books, I always notice how they stress simple recipes and natural decorations brought from your yard, and the houses they show are downright opulent, with gorgeous woodwork, big open rooms, massive fireplaces, all wonderful to look at, but not really realistic. And apparently they all have big yards with pine trees and bittersweet in them to use for the natural decorations. I mean, how many people can afford to live like this? Someday I'd love to see all this care and attention  and beautiful photography lavished on 1200-2200 square foot normal family homes, or even ordinary apartments, and show what a little bit of love and Christmas magic can do for them!

Welcome Back, GRT!

The Christmas Turkeys and Other Misadventures of the Season, Gerald R. Toner
It's been over ten years since I found Toner's first book of Christmas stories, Lipstick Like Lindsay's, misfiled in a used book store, and promptly went out to find his other two books, Holly Day's Cafe and Whittlesworth Comes to Christmas. I hadn't seen anything else by him for years, and then by accident discovered he had a fourth book of Christmas stories out.

Again, Toner doesn't write stories where magical figures like elves or angels come out to solve everyone's problems, or religious-themed fiction where faith holds sway. His stories are about everyday people facing everyday Christmas issues: two men who volunteer each year to distribute Christmas baskets, the couple who have restored their grand old Victorian house in a now-swank neighborhood with one eyesore holdout who throw a Christmas open house, the young man who takes a job in a home for the elderly just to make money for the holidays, a man who goes out looking for his homebound-for-Christmas daughter in a snowstorm, and more. Some will make you sniffle, some will make you laugh (I particularly enjoyed the ending of a story about two business rivals trying to outdo each other with Christmas charity), all are down-to-earth, folks you might live next door to or meet in church or in the supermarket. If you want a good Christmas read, you couldn't do any better than to check out any of Gerald Toner's books.

The Ghost of Antioch

Unholy Night, Seth Grahame-Smith
This book opens with a bang with a Syrian thief being chased camel-back across the desert fresh from an exploit to steal treasure from a minor Roman ruler. His name is Balthazar, and he's wanted by the Romans (and everyone else) for his thievery. Finally captured and transported to Herod's palace, he meets two other criminals destined for death, Gaspar and Melchior. It will take all of Balthazar's cunning to free them—but what happens when, during their escape, they take refuge in a cave where a young carpenter, his wife, and their new baby are hiding from Herod's rampage against all boys under age two? Will they leave the child and his family to be slaughtered?

Obviously, this is a revisionist version of the Nativity story, as written by the author of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. It's also an adventure story in which Balthazar, the clever thief known as "the Ghost of Antioch," is the central character; sadly, the other two "wise men" have a strong opening once they are introduced, then fade into the woodwork as the story progresses.

Your tolerance for this tale will depend on whether you can accept a different view of the Nativity story. Grahame-Smith writes a Joseph who is willing to fight for his family, a Mary who is not a sweet silent cipher nursing her babe in holy light, and a "wise man" who is neither perfect nor laudable, but there are certain factors in his past which you slowly discover lead him to make the correct choices. This is not a feel-good story, except in the last few pages which some may find a bit trite; it is, like the days Jesus lived in, full of violence, pride, and unfairness. Battles and torture are both described for what they are, and it is not a clean, pretty place as in a creche scene. However, it is an acceptable, if not outstanding or particularly memorable, retake on a familiar tale.

Movies for Christmas

For the fourth Sunday of Advent, some different films:

Mercy Mission: The Rescue Of Flight 771

Scrooge  (Albert Finney)

An American Christmas Carol

Santa and Pete

The Winter Solstice

Five Questions and Answers About the Solstice

Everything You Need to Know About the Winter Solstice

Why We Need the Winter Solstice

Happy Yule!

"Old" St. Thomas Day

And, of course:

The Shortest Day

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

Mint Juleps, Sauerkraut, and Frolics

The Southern Christmas Book, Harnett T. Kane
To read this book you must do it with the eyes of an historian, as it was written in 1958. Gratefully, it is relatively free of the tongue-tangling dialect, references to stealing watermelons, and "happy days on the Ole Plantation" attitude of most pre-Civil Rights Southern books. Oh, it comes across very clearly that the author is white and there are black servants flitting around in the background somewhere having a happy time getting new clothes and new shoes; they pretty much disappear after the Civil War, too.

What is appreciable about this book is that they identify that there wasn't just "one" South, but different areas of the South which celebrated Christmas differently. In Baltimore the large German population ate sauerkraut with their Christmas turkey. The Colonial Virginia Christmas was full of drinking and dancing—and later that newfangled decoration, the Christmas tree. No Christmas was possible in the early White House, but later John Adams' granddaughter enjoyed the holiday there. Christmas customs in Louisiana and Missouri had French roots, while rugged settlers in the mountains held "frolics" where homespun-dressed folks danced to "a fiddle." Even the rough-and-ready Texans held parties, even if they had to make do with a little coffee and fresh-caught venison, and decorate a tumbleweed with yarn, while the Spanish residents had la posada, luminaria, and pinatas for their fun. Obscure celebrations that included "Old Buck," John Canoing, shooting in Christmas, and fireworks are also touched upon.

Valuable as a chronicle of history and an interesting read, even if half the population is considered in only a few paragraphs.

A Great Miracle Occurred There

Hanukkah

Judaism 101: Hanukkah

7 Surprising Things...About Hanukkah

Virtual Dreidel Game

That Pagan Pine

The Solstice Evergreen, Sheryl Ann Karas
Everyone knows the legend of the Christmas tree! St. Boniface prevented a group of Druids from sacrificing a young boy and in the process cut down their sacred oak with one slash of his axe. From the stump sprang a young fir tree, which, the saint explained, was the symbol of eternal life.

But there are many legends surrounding evergreens, and here Karas collects many of them, from Native American tales to Japanese, German stories to MesoAmerican, Russian foklore and Sicilian, showing that around the world, all mankind was fascinated by the trees which did not shed their leaves in winter. Each chapter discusses the evergreen in relation to different religions: the nature-based prayer of native tribes, the Wiccan, Greek mythology, to the sacred tree of Norse legend, Yggdrasil. The narrative is slightly plodding, but the included tales from different countries and tribal areas are unique. A desirable library withdrawal or sale purchase if you are curious about the various aspects of the evergreen that came together to form the Christmas tree.

What the Dickens...?

Inventing Scrooge: Dickens' Legendary A Christmas Carol, Carlo DeVito
I can't figure out if DeVito's former English teachers are going to be chuffed that an old student had a book published or if they're going to hide their heads in shame at his awkward sentence structure and downright howlers.

I think if I hadn't read other books about the origins of A Christmas Carol (the material in the annotated version, The Man Who Invented Christmas, and the fascinating The Life and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge), I might have been more forgiving to this book. There are certain interesting facts in this one, such as the origins of Tiny Tim and nephew Fred, Scrooge's and Marley's names—oh, and the John Leech color plates from the original book are reprinted in their glory on the endpapers, but they're marred by simplistic text, repetition, padding, typos, and a few incredible grammar errors. This is most obvious in the chapter "Fred," where in paragraph 4 it says "In 1824, at the age of fourteen, Charles took Fred in when he moved into a three-room apartment..." Wait. Charles moved into an apartment at the age of fourteen? No, it was Fred who was fourteen, judging by the previous paragraph. In the next few paragraphs, we hear about Dickens' father, wife, two men named Willis and Marcone, and then in paragraph 10, talking about Dickens' post-marital household: "In addition to Mary, young Frederick Dickens...was now a member of the household." Mary? Who the heck is Mary? She hasn't been mentioned in the chapter at all. In paragraph 11 come the topper: "And when Kate's sister Mary [ah, now he explains it] was suddenly seized by a grave illness, of whom Charles was immensely fond..." I read this twice, then read it aloud to my husband, who said, "Wait, he was immensely fond of grave illness?" Egad.

It's stuff like this that ruins a potentially good book. In short, I liked the trivia, but the execution was less than sterling. If you can find this on remainder, I suggest you buy it that way.

Animation for Christmas

For the third Sunday of Advent, which is Joy:

Classic Disney Winter Cartoons

"Noel" (The Christmas Ornament"

"Pinocchio's Christmas" (Rankin-Bass)

"The First Christmas: Story of the First Christmas Snow" (Rankin-Bass)

Classic Tales of the Newborn King

The Christmas Book of Legends and Stories, Elva Sophronia Smith & Alice Isabel Hazeltine
This is a thick book of old-fashioned poetry and stories about the spiritual side of Christmas celebrations, first published in 1915 and expanded in 1944 (with a good deal of Ms. Hazeltine's poetry in the process). The book is divided into sections about various aspects of the Christmas story, including "The Pilgrims," "The New-Born King," "The Christ Child," "The Boy Jesus," etc. and is chiefly verse, some from such noted authors as Katherine Lee Bates ("America The Beautiful"), Heywood Broun, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Selma Lagerlorf, Ruth Sawyer, Sara Teasdale, and even poetry from Joyce Kilmer and John Milton. Legends pepper the pages: that of Babouska (in Italy known as Befana), Joseph of Arimethea, St. Christopher, and Bride, there are stories of Christmas celebrations in foreign lands (including an excerpt from Monica Shannon's Newbery winner, Dobry), and there are also several simple playlets for children to present as part of a church gathering. Interestingly enough, one is about the daughter of one of the Wise Men, who breaks tradition by asking to accompany her father (she doesn't, but ends up having visions of the journey).

Even with all the collections of Christmas stories and poetry I have, several of these stories were new to me, or were new versions of old tales. This is a great book to find at a used book store or library sale for those who wish for something more spiritual to read at bedtime or during quiet time, but simple enough to be calming and nostalgic. A happy find.

Books for Christmas!

Some reviews for the second Sunday of Advent:


The Old Magic of Christmas, Linda Raedisch
I had this on my Amazon wishlist, so was chuffed when I found a copy, brand new, in with the Christmas books at the Friends of the Library Book Sale. I think it probably surprised someone who took a look at the subject matter and disposed of it posthaste.

This is not a book about Victorian Christmases or charming olde world Christmas celebrations: this volume goes back, way back to the pagan era, and the different gods, little people (elves, kobolds, boggarts, etc.), mythic figures, and dark creatures hiding in the winter nights that so frightened and awed the population which fought a never-ending battle against cold and hunger. In its pages we meet witches, the Wild Hunt, dark St. Nicholases dressed in fur and smutched with soot, the Yule Buck and other animals long ago associated with the winter solstice; characters from Nordic legend and German tales, goddesses who later became associated with the Christian story of Christmas (St. Lucy, La Befana), the Yule Lads  who commit mischief and the Kallikantzari who are more sinister. Plants associated with Christmas are also discussed.

I have several books of pagan Christmas lore, and Raedisch still surprised me with Yule tales I hadn't heard. She also sneaks sly, humorous references to present media in the text, which keeps it from being a dry recitation of old legends. A must for those interested in the ancestral antecedents of the modern Christmas celebrations.

A Christmas Story Treasury, Tyler Schwartz
This is a thin but oversized gift book tribute to the now-classic 1980 film that did terribly at the box office (because it was pulled five weeks after release and wasn't available for Christmas) and became a tradition—and a hit—via cable TV. (I saw it for the first time on HBO; by the time I went to the theatre, it was gone.) It's chock-full of color stills from the film, tidbits about the origin of the story and its filming, and eight nifty buttons at the side that you can press to hear actual dialog from the movie. But wait, Red Ryder aficionados, there's more: an envelope in the back that contains goodies like Ralphie's Radio Orphan Annie membership card, a reproduction of the original movie poster, and more.

This book originally sold for $25, but these days you can get it for a more reasonable $10 on the remainder stacks at Barnes & Noble. At that price it's perfect for reliving your memories of Scut Farkas, not putting your arms down, Christmas themes, Chinese turkey, and shooting your eye out!

Stories for Christmas

For the second Sunday of Advent:

"Peace on Earth, Good-Will to Dogs"

"A College Santa Claus"

"A Child's Christmas in Wales"

"A Dream Story: The Christmas Angel"

"Merry Christmas"

Today's Saint...

...is St. Eligius, the patron saint of goldsmiths. Of course, for many of us, he lent his name to the hospital in the television series St. Elsewhere, which, darnit, still isn't released on DVD... (I think they did first season.)

Heartwarmers for Christmas

For the first Sunday of Advent.

For Better or For Worse: "The Bestest Present"

For Better or For Worse: "The Christmas Angel"

The Wish That Saved Christmas

The Night Before Christmas (story of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas")

Little Women's Christmas Story

The original, British version of Father Christmas

The Snowman, with its beautiful score

Thanksgiving Readings

The Children's Book of Thanksgiving Stories

A Dear Little Girl's Thanksgiving Holidays 

"An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving"

"A Thanksgiving Dinner That Flew Away"

"How Indian Corn Came Into The World"

"Bert's Thanksgiving"

"Aunt Susanna's Thanksgiving Dinner"

Funny Thanksgiving Help-Line Calls

10 Thanksgiving Disaster Stories

Rudolph Day, November 2014

The last Rudolph Day of 2014 features two books:


12 Stories of Christmas, Robert J. Morgan
This is a sweet collection of Christmas stories with a spiritual bent, perfect for reading during the Twelve Days of Christmas. The tales range from nostalgic, such as the story behind a snowglobe that takes a boy back to 1943 when the family car is stolen, and the gentle story of a telegraph girl who searches a hospital for news of her brother at Pearl Harbor, and the story of an unexpected catalog delivery to an impoverished family during the Depression, to humorous, in which a teenage bookworm is persuaded to participate in his aunt's opus of a Christmas play and falls prey to stage fright in a delightful way. There are even romantic tales. My favorite ended up being the last, about the husband of a young couple awaiting the birth of their first child; he's encouraged to build a cradle by his wife, who's tired of him fussing over him. The result is a total surprise!

The volume is peppered with beautiful color photographs that relate to the stories without being actual illustrations based on the text. This is a lovely gift book for those who like heartwarming or spiritual Christmas tales.

An Old-Fashioned Christmas, text by Karen Cure
I almost didn't pick this book up because it looked as if it was mainly recipes, but for only a dollar I did anyway, and was unexpectedly delighted. The book does present recipes, but from different periods in American history, and, along with the recipes, Cure tells us something about each of the historic locations/homes in the book: Colonial Williamsburg, Winterthur Museum, and Sleepy Hollow Restorations representing Colonial America; Victorian America's homes: the Mark Twain House and Chateur-Sur-Mer in Newport. The Gallier House in New Orleans, the Conner Prairie Settlement, and Columbia, a State Park in California are regional representations. "Christmas With the Presidents," a series of recipes from George Washington's kitchens, and some vintage Christmas carols finish out the volume. Liberally illustrated, with a third of the photographs in color. Perfect for fans of Christmas and history.

Merrymaking in the Midst of Danger

Especially for "Stir Up Sunday," the day when the Christmas pudding would be made so it could be soaked in brandy, cooked, and then put away until Christmas.

Christmas on the Edge of the Abyss, 1939

BBC's Christmas in World War II

London in the Blitz

British newsreel: Christmas Under Fire

From the series Wartime Farm: Christmas Episode

Stir Up Your Sunday!

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent is "Stir-Up Sunday," from the first words of the collect in the Anglican service. Traditionally, this is the day the Christmas pudding is made, and then soaked in brandy or another spirit and put away to serve on Christmas Day.

More about Stir-Up Sunday, with a traditional pudding recipe.

Jamie Oliver talks about Stir-Up Sunday and Christmas puddings.

According to Catholic Culture, Stir-Up Sunday is also the First Sunday of Advent.

A Telegraph writer makes the case for home made pudding, not one purchased at the store.

Old Fashioned Books E-Books About Christmas

Just in time for Old Advent to start:

  St. Nicholas: His Legend and His Rôle in the Christmas Celebration and Other Popular Customs

  The Book of Christmas

  Christmas: Its Origin and Associations

  Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (a great book chronicling Christmas customs only 100 years ago)

  Yule-Tide in Many Lands

Hallowe'en Viewing

Mellow viewing;
For Better or For Worse: "The Good for Nothing"

Cheesy, but fun, with Melissa Sue Anderson 180 degrees from Mary Ingalls:
Midnight Offerings

Not Hallowe'en necessarily, but spooky:
A Cold Night's Death

Suitable for small ones, but psychedelic:
The Worst Witch television film

More conventional school story:
The Worst Witch television series, starting with Episode 1

And then there's completely off the wall:
Paul Lynde Halloween Special

A Pioneer Christmas

A Little House Christmas Treasury
This is a darling little book comprised of Christmas chapters from "the Little House" books, with the now-classic illustrations by Garth Williams in color, and decorative snowflakes scattered throughout. The Ingalls celebrate Christmas in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and finally in DeSmet, Dakota Territory, and the Wilder family has a feast in upstate New York. It will strike you all over again how little these children had, but who made their own fun in inventive ways, playing tea parties with leaves and acorns, cutting paper dolls from scraps of paper, just running and making "snow people" and having snowball fights, and how little it took for them to be happy: red mittens, a drinking cup of one's own, a stick of candy, a rag doll, a "boughten" hat. It also brings home the chill of living in a cabin where the only heat comes from a fireplace...in other chapters not included in this book Laura describes waking in rooms so cold that the nails in the wall are furred with frost, and the visiting relatives in these stories wrap in layers and layers of clothing and blankets in order not to be frostbitten on the sleigh ride home.

A super acquisition for your Christmas library, especially if you have young children—but it will make you count your blessings!

Whetting Your Appetite for Hallowe'en

Some videos just for fun:

Bunnicula the Vampire Rabbit

Halloween is Grinch Night

"Trick or Treat"

Winnie the Pooh's Halloween Stories (complete with CBS Special Presentation logo!)

Small Town Mystery Dressed Up in Bows

Silent Knife, Shelley Freydont
In this second of the Celebration Bay cozy mysteries, town events' manager Liv Montgomery is overseeing what plans to be the most beautiful Christmas the town has known. The square will be nostalgically dressed for the holiday season and all sorts of events are planned, but there's one fly in the ointment: the tacky new Christmas shop that has opened right on the square, spoiling its cozy nostalgia with windows festooned with drunken reindeer, beer-belly Santas under palm trees, and other tacky and inappropriate decorations, with the proprietor a grumpy Scrooge of a woman. Just when the town inhabitants think things can't get any worse, the man the owner of the Christmas shop hired to play Santa Claus has his throat cut in the store during the town Christmas parade.

Freydont populates her town with people you'd love to know: the friendly bakery owner who cooks delicious treats (even for Liv's West Highland White terrier), the gregarious coffee shop owner, the nurturing quilt shop owner, the ex-hippie natural gift shop proprietor, a friendly good ol' boys club of a town council, two darling elderly ex-schoolteachers, Liv's 60-ish assistant Ted who has daily "singing" bouts with Whiskey the terrier, the bewhiskered older man who always plays Santa Claus so well, one bitchy ex-events' manager (well, there had to be one unfriendly person in town), and even a sexy but usually diffident newspaper editor. The mystery is reasonably convoluted (although you know the nice people who are accused can't possibly be guilty of the crime), the Yuletide atmosphere so Christmassy it will make you hear jingle bells and shiver against the chill, and personal attractions begun are continued.

Readers of police procedurals and Nordic noir, take note: this isn't your bag, but if you're the type of person who likes cozies and Christmas, this book will be perfect for your holiday reading. It even ends up with a meal so luscious it will make you hungry, and some mistletoe. Enjoy!

A Simpler Christmas

Unplug the Christmas Machine, Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli
The Christmas Survival Book, Alice Slaikeu Lawhead
These two books were originally written within three years of each other (1982 and 1985, respectively; the Lawhead book originally titled The Christmas Book), and revised in the early '90s, and are virtual bibles for trying to change the conception of Christmas from a holiday of spend-spend-spend and false promises about what the holiday will provide. Lawhead does quote from Christmas Machine: the memorable "Ten Hidden Gift-Giving Rules," which are uncomfortably true. Both books address the same topics (children stoked with toy commercials who compose incredible Christmas lists, the reality of Christmas as opposed to the dream vision given to us by advertising, the fact that Christmas doesn't reform unpleasant families or crises) and even supply their own fictional tale of Christmas woe (Machine's updated version of Christmas Carol and Lawhead's Christmas Eve fantasy vs. reality). Machine provides a large appendix of alternate gift suggestions, addresses how men feel left out of Christmas celebrations and women feel overworked, and suggests ideas for simpler Christmases. The Lawhead book emphasizes spirituality more, even including a chapter of how churches unconsciously add to the burden of Christmas by scheduling too many events. It also mentions how traditions can be meaningful—or a burden. I was also happy to see that she talks about extending Christmas activities into Christmastide itself and through Epiphany, and there are suggestions for non-alcoholic New Year's Eve activities.

Even though they cover some of the same ground, the two writing styles are very different; both, if found, purchase both.

Sweet September

Just when I thought summer would never end, September slipped in the door in the midst of DragonCon. You couldn't have told it by the weather, which has remained hot and steamy. But a few autumn magazines have already strayed my way, and the sky knows it's autumn if the sun does not. Today I found a Christmas magazine from the publishers of "Country Sampler." And I've been reading the first of my three pre-Christmas reads, Celebrate the Wonder: A Family Christmas Treasury.

It's usually the first because it talks about planning for Christmas as early as September, which may make some blanch, but Christmas has turned into such a circus of excess, and even more in the intervening years since this book was published in 1988, that it feels like you must start planning the holiday as if it is a military campaign. Never fear, this book makes planning a gentle thing; the authors' sole purpose is to start you thinking early, with gentle meetings, musical interludes, and thoughtfulness, so that your December does not become a frantic, stressful rush. The volume is Christian-centered, which may turn off some readers, but if you are more a secular celebrant there are many good ideas for simple crafts, ethnic dinners, and tons of snippets about the history of Christmas celebrations and about celebrations in other countries. While many of the illustrations are clipart-type simple line drawings, the book also features some wonderful 19th century engravings from Thomas Nast and other Victorian artists. One of my favorite parts are the bits of poetry quoted throughout, from unfamiliar European carols to familiar passages from A Christmas Carol. It makes you want to pick up a book of holiday poetry.

These days there is also a wonderful nostalgia factor to the book, as it was written just as the internet was aborning. Catalog shopping has been replaced by web surfing, but in the end the results are the same. If you have a chance to pick up this mellow volume at a used bookstore or library sale, it still has something to say to today's Christmas celebrants. My only quibble with it is that it does not address anything after New Year's, although Epiphany and its cast of characters (La Befana, Babouska, the Little Camel, etc.) are talked about in earlier chapters.

Happy Independence Day!