I just got back from my walk and picking up the days mail.
Yesterday was a warm sunny day, it seemed almost too warm to be putting up Christmas lights, but now I wish that I had. Today is gray, and blustery with ice pellets in the air, and a wind that cuts through me, and made me wish I had worn a warmer coat, and made me glad I had worn shoes instead of flip flops.
The sky is low and grey, and there were snowflakes and ice pellets in the air. I was thinking about the post I was going to write today, and how I wished was wearing warm gloves. As I walked past the home that already had their Christmas lights up, I drifted into the warm and homey images of the Season, kept thinking about my cold hands which I had in the pockets of my denim jacket, and how cold they were. The words from a song in the A Muppet Christmas Carol. sung by a cute, little mouse began to run through my head.
" It's in the giving of a gift to another
A pair of mittens that were made by your mother
It's all the ways that we show love
That feel like Christmas"
My mother never made mittens, but we always had plenty. Though we were a working class family we did OK, of course you could in those times. We often got hand-me-down winter clothing from our neighbors, whos children had moved far away.
All fo this mental rambling brings me to a what I want to write about. Today is Mitten Tree Day, when people, usually school children bring mittens to school, church, the community center, wherever to decorate a tree, then these mittens are given to children who need them. The tradition my have started with a first grade teacher or it may have started with the book The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen. The story of a woman named Sarah, who knitted mittens for the children she saw at the school bus stop who had none. She hung the mittens on and evergreen tree, and the children never knew who gave them this gift.
When she ran out of yarn, basket of yarn appeared on her doorstep, she then knitted mittens for all of the children in town, and no one ever knew it was Sarah who made them.
hCildren always need mittens. and even if you can't knit, here is a way to make some, quicker than quick.
Turn Your Ugly Christmas Sweaters into Warm Winter mittenshttp://lifehacker.com/5714457/turn-your-ugly-christmas-sweaters-into-warm-winter-mittens
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Krampus, Belsnickle, and St Nicholas
Certainly looks like an image of the emotional state of the Black Friday shopping crowd, but it isn't, this image is from www.Krampus.com, a site devoted to , well you guessed it the "jolly devil" himself, Krampus.
As our country is a melting pot, it is also a melting pot of holiday traditions, and once they got here they were stirred and stirred round once more, emerging as something to be rewritten and retold until every community seems to have a version all their own. And so it went with St Nicholas, Belsnickle and Krampus, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Tomorrow is St Nicholas Day, the gentle patron, giving gifts to the good children. Howsoever on the evening of Dec 5, it is Krampusnacht, Krampus, which means claw, carries a switch to punish the naughty children and to swat the bottoms of young ladies, he is rightly called the "jolly devil". With his broad smile and prominent red tongue he was depicted on most Victorian Christmas trees, often dressed in red,and carrying switches. The Victorians would often claim that the presence of the "jolly devil" was to remind us that there are two sides to everything. Krampus accompanied St Nicholas on his rounds, and really bad children got tossed into his backpack and were carried off. the slightly bad ones got a lump of coal and a swat.
But Krampusnacht was also for the adults who dressed in costume and went about the streets making merry and more than a little mischief.
As our country is a melting pot, it is also a melting pot of holiday traditions, and once they got here they were stirred and stirred round once more, emerging as something to be rewritten and retold until every community seems to have a version all their own. And so it went with St Nicholas, Belsnickle and Krampus, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Tomorrow is St Nicholas Day, the gentle patron, giving gifts to the good children. Howsoever on the evening of Dec 5, it is Krampusnacht, Krampus, which means claw, carries a switch to punish the naughty children and to swat the bottoms of young ladies, he is rightly called the "jolly devil". With his broad smile and prominent red tongue he was depicted on most Victorian Christmas trees, often dressed in red,and carrying switches. The Victorians would often claim that the presence of the "jolly devil" was to remind us that there are two sides to everything. Krampus accompanied St Nicholas on his rounds, and really bad children got tossed into his backpack and were carried off. the slightly bad ones got a lump of coal and a swat.
But Krampusnacht was also for the adults who dressed in costume and went about the streets making merry and more than a little mischief.
From Bavaria, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, along with their meager possessions the new arrivals brought their customs and stories, and in a new land they created their own versions of St Nicolas, and Krampus. A version more suited to the new land they found themselves in, dressed in robes which were sometimes made of burlap sacks and pelts, he went door to door with his bundle of switches, pockets filled with candy and fruit, and carrying a large sack. At each home the children gathered in front of him, he might ask them to recite their prayers, or something that they had learned in school,or just ask if they had done the chores, good children got candy and fruit, and the bad ones got a switch, the really bad ones got tossed into the sack and carried off, by Belsnickle himself.
~~all images from Krampus.com
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Celebrate the days December, slightly edited by me
One of my favorite sourse for for a quick bit of information is About.com, so as i was looking up something entirely different I found this list of occasions to celebrate in the month of December. Through the wonders of search engines, you can end up places you can end up with information better than when you started out to look for, well anyway I can.
December 4th
December 6th
Human Rights Day
United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Nobel Peace Prize Awarded
December 11th
December 12th
December 29th
- Hi Neighbor Month
- National Stress Free Family Holiday Month,,,,,my wish for everyone this season
- Read A New Book Month
- Safe Toy and Gift Month
- Universal Human Rights Month
- Write to a Friend Month
- Eat A Red Apple Day
- National Pie Day
- Rosa Park's Day
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in 1955. - World AIDS Day
- National Fritters Day
- Special Education Day
December 4th
- National Cookie Day...so i had cookies for breakfast
- Wear Brown Shoes Day...I don't have any, does this mean I have to go shopping????
December 6th
- Ira Gershwin's Birthday
A Famous Composer born in 1896. - Mitten Tree Day.....love this one
- St. Nicholas Day
- National Cotton Candy Day
- Pearl Harbor Day
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
- National Brownie Day
- Hanukkah Begins at Sunset
- Ball-Bearing Roller Skates Patented
In 1884. - First Christmas Seals Issued
In 1907.
- Emily Dickinson's Birthday
Born in 1830.
United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
December 12th
- Frank Sinatra's Birthday
Born in 1915. - Golf Tee Patented
- Hovercraft Patented
In 1955 by Sir Christopher Cockerell. - Poinsettia Day
- National Cocoa Day
- First Miniature Golf Course Opened
In 1929. - South Pole Discovered
In 1911.
- Bill of Rights Day
Adopted in this day in 1791. - Phonograph Patented
By Thomas Edison in 1877.
- Boston Tea Party Anniversary
In 1773. Check out my page for this special day! - Las Posadas......gotta look this one up!!!! note to self
- Ludwig Von Beethoven's Birthday
A Famous Composer born in 1770. - National Chocolate Covered Anything Day
- National Maple Syrup Day
- Underdog Day
- Wright Brother's Day
First flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
- Wear a Plunger On Your Head Day....preferably a new one
- Oatmeal Muffin Day....NOMS!!!!!
- Games Day
- First Crossword Puzzle in a Newspaper
- First Day of Winter
- Humbug Day
- Look at the Bright Side Day
- National Flashlight Day
- First Christmas Lights for Sale
In 1882. - Thermometer Was Invented.....by Joe Farenheit, Willard Scot says
- Roots Day
- National Eggnog Day
- Christmas
- National Pumpkin Pie Day......haven't they got this confused with Thanksgiving?
- Boxing Day
- Kwanzaa Begins
- National Whiners Day
- Visit the Zoo Day
- Card Playing Day
- Chewing Gum Patented
In 1869. - National Chocolate Day
December 29th
- Bowling Ball Invented
In 1862. - Pepper Pot Day ,.......NOMS1 recipe exchange
- Let's Make A Deal Day
Debuted on NBC in 1963. - Tiger Woods' Birthday
Born in 1975.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Dickens was right about the spirits of Christmass
Charles Dickens was onto something when he created the spirits of Christmas, as in our memories each one has a personality and a history. Christmas marks the passage of another year. The happiness, sadness, hopes and dreams that surround that day make up the personality of each Christmas spirit.
Christmas, or anyway the secular side of it has changed over time, but it is also caught perpetually in the Victorian era, why else would we wrap the latest electronic device in paper depicting handmade Victorian toys? The tree, though a symbol much older than Victorian times in which it became popular, could be made from anything to plastic to antler sheds, decorated with candles or blinking lights synchronized to music, heirloom glass ornaments, treasured handmades, the variety of things that could be used to decorate a tree are only limited by the imagination. The presents under the tree are a very old idea, but the train, of course, is a pretty new one.
There are as many variations on Christmas, as there are conventionally interpretation. One wonders how many started out as family traditions, or the idea of one person.
"In our haste to bring back the anticipation and wonder or Christmases past, lets us not over look Christmas present for Christmas Presents." Anne Moss
The Christmases we have lived, make up the Christmas we live now, and the future Christmases of those who's lives we touch.
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