Favourite Christmas decoration:

As I am about to decorate the tree (perhaps tomorrow evening), I am thinking about what is in my box of decorations.

My favourite old decoration (out of many items from my childhood, including glass baubles and birds, and frosted plastic bells) is a pink wreath no more than 8 inches tall, oval rather than circular, and with a small figure seated on the bottom curve, holding a tiny music book and singing carols. Pink is neither Christmassy nor a colour I like or wear, but I always loved that little singer as a child, and I still do.

My favourite modern decorations are items from all over the world, including some I bought during visits: a red cardinal from a Christmas shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario; a golden wire deer, which came from the New Forest in England; and a tiny Mary and Joseph from a town in Cornwall.  Gifts from others, including Secret Santa gifts have also joined my tree decorations; this year I have the 2017 Russian ballet dancer, and the 2019 Canadian drum to hang up.

@dot

I remember laughing about it years ago when I found out that “Wassail, Wassail” was a drinking song.  I have to say that I like the catchy tune it has.  People from that long ago time enjoyed their holidays.  I will always love the Waverly Consort long after all of their members have passed away.  Their music is so beautiful and excellent.   I was indeed privileged to see and hear them twice in concert many years ago at Hope College, which is my alma mater. Please have a merry Christmas and happy new year, Daughter of the King.  🙂

I watched The Chosen Christmas Special last night. YouTube had some technical difficulties, so I switched over to Facebook and that worked out alright. The special itself was pretty good. 🙂 

Two more online things I'm interested in coming up... 

A Virtual Guided Tour of Bethlehem
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-guided-tour-of-the-old-city-of-jerusalem-and-bethlehem-tickets-131366949081?aff=efbeventtix

Trans Siberian Orchestra Concert
https://tsolivestream.com/tso/livestream/

Naturally both are streaming live at the exact same time on December 18th @ 7pm Central time. I'm personally more interested in the Bethlehem tour, but I think I'm the only one in my family. I've been to a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert before though, and it was VERY good. If I knew one or the other would be available to watch again later, I'd get tickets for both of them.  Haven't found any info online though.

10 days till Christmas!!!!

So cool you got to see the TSO in concert Fantasia! I've been to one concert with a local orchestra that played "Wizards in Winter" in the past, (they played it entirely with handbells) but that's as close as I've come!

8 days until Christmas!

One of my sisters made peppernuts the other day, but they didn't even last the evening. I think I may have to make another batch. However another sister made crispy sugar cookies, so I have to wait a couple days before I get to make cookies. I hoping to bake on Saturday. 

Yesterday, my BRCC package (ordered on Black Friday) finally arrived, I warpped gifts for my parents and have placed the box under the Christmas tree with some help from a younger sibling. Just have to get one more gift and then I will be ready for Christmas.

SnowAngel

For any fellow theater enthusiasts out there, the Fates of Hadestown and other cast members have a holiday album! It's a mix of original and classic holiday tunes. They even included a few that aren't very popular, like Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. The holiday album isn't related to the musical, other than it featuring the cast and some of the songs being in a similar style to the show's music.

Many years ago, the church I grew up in would feature the choir singing carols for about half an hour before the midnight service. It was there I was introduced to a song called "Night of Silence" (composed by Daniel Kantor, at a college just up the road in St.Paul). To me it had a beautiful, haunting, longing melody that was a perfect contrast to "Silent Night" (which always accompanied it, with the two songs being sung in a round to finish). I only heard it once a year, and in those pre-internet days I kind of forgot about it when I moved away.

I'd not heard it in churches since then, but came across it once again during a St. Olaf College Christmas concert, which is kind of a big deal around here. In my old age I've come to appreciate this beautiful pairing all the more, and, truth be told, part of it might be the nostalgia factor of attending Christmas services with my parents. Listen to a St. Olaf performance here (in a beautiful cathedral) and read the composer's story about the song here.

@stargazer, that is so beautifully and— I am trying to think of the right word ... pure, that's it! Thank you for introducing me to this pairing of songs. That performance gives me goosebumps.

Speaking of singing, as is wont with our family, we will be singing carols together on Christmas Day. This is always a very precious time. We usually have a neighbourhood carol sing in our home at this time of year, but, uh, not in 2020. Hopefully next year!

That was just beautiful, @stargazer — thanks so much!  

I remember having a feeling of sadness on Dec. 26 when I was a child.  I didn’t like it that Christmas was over and the tree had to be taken down.  And of course winter became more dreary because of the weather, and the colored lights would have to be put away.  The trees were barren with the leaves gone except for the evergreens. Now it doesn’t seem so bad, although I still wish that the time didn’t seem so long between the holidays and the beginning of spring.

I got a very interesting Christmas email/blog yesterday that I enjoyed reading through and thought I would share it here.  

“When is Christmas?” If you have little ones in your household, this question is floating in the air. A grandchild asked it of me yesterday. She seemed astonished to learn that Christmas Eve would be coming in one week, despite seeing three candles lit in the Advent Wreath and the majority of doors in her Advent Calendar open and emptied of chocolate. Then she lamented simultaneously how soon Christmas would arrive (“We’re just not ready, Grandma!”) and the fact that she still had to wait a whole week! You have to love a child’s mind.

As a liturgical celebration marking the birth of Christ, there are two answers to the question “When is Christmas?” For Western Christians (Catholics, Protestants), Christmas falls on December 25th; for Eastern Christians who follow the Julian Calendar for liturgical seasons, Christmas falls on January 7th . . . except for certain dioceses within Orthodoxy that align themselves with the Gregorian Calendar solely for occasion of celebrating Christmas on December 25th.

Well, that gives us Part One of the answer. But it leads to a bigger question: “Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th?” This question drops us into the thick of it!

According to most scholarship, Jesus’ birth occurred sometime between August and early fall. This conclusion stems from two factors: considerations of weather and travel conditions in terms of Caesar Augustus’ decree that “all of the inhabited earth” should be counted and the New Testament report of shepherds in the fields, tending their flocks. The later observation implies that livestock were grazing over a broader area, as opposed to being more contained during colder months. In the world of shepherding in the Holy Land, grazing far and wide would have begun right before Passover (as early as late March) and continued until mid-November.

But even this information invokes ambiguity, since sheep and goats still grazed in fields during colder months, although more likely fields closer to home. Often smaller flocks were confined within the lower levels of dwellings, so designed for that purpose. Either way, in winter months shepherds had to supplement the flock’s diet by cutting foliage or finding other food for them. In the biblical account, this activity does not seem to be implied.

So, adding together the information that the order for the census would have avoided cooler, rainier months and the likelihood that sheep were grazing far from the settlements, scholars deduce a late summer or early fall birth date for Jesus.

There is another line of reasoning based on the priestly schedule of Zacharias (Zechariah), husband to Elizabeth and mother of Jesus’ all-important cousin John the Baptist. Zacharias was known to serve in the Temple in either June or December. The Bible states that Elizabeth became pregnant after he returned from those duties. We are told that the Annunciation of Mary (conception of Jesus) occurred six months after cousin John’s conception. If you follow that reasoning with a nine-month measuring stick, you end up with a date of Jesus’ birth in either September or March.

So, no matter which of these narratives you like, one thing is for sure: neither lands on the date of December 25th. So how did that day get picked?

Widely circulated as fact is the story that December 25th was selected by anonymous early Christians in order to mask the popular “pagan” festivals held around the Winter Solstice—that phenomenon where the the longest period of darkness occurs on the night of December 20. This solar event historically has incited reveling and behaviors either sinful or, at the very least, chaotic and disconcerting.

That may have been a factor, but personally, I tire of this superficial narrative. It frequently is delivered in a manner that demeans the celebratory symbols of Christmas (trees, candles, songs, decorations). Also, there is a scholarly problem with the narrative: it appears in written form only in the twelfth century. By the fourth century, the dates of December 25, as well as January 6, the all-important feast of the Epiphany, were already set!

One branch of scholarship explains the December dating of Jesus’ birth as a response to the date of the Annunciation, celebrated by Christians on March 25. This date was formulated in early Christian times in light of possible dates for Jesus’ Crucifixion. It pulls from ancient Jewish thought about Creation and embodies the idea that Divine Conception and the Redemption should occur on the same date.

Still, wouldn’t you think that concrete information as to Jesus’ birth would have been recorded somewhere? The Star followed by the Wise Men evoked a serious, indeed deadly, response from King Herod. Witnesses to His nativity (Mary for starters) were around to provide the information. Yet, if we recall that the tradition of celebrating individual birthdays did not exist in Roman times, nor was it established during early Christianity, the initial disinterest in determining an exact date for Jesus’ birth is not so surprising.

The whole issue of dating historical events makes interesting fodder for discussions with children. In a world so used to pinpoint accuracy, the idea that much is unknown from the past can seem hard to believe. What is clear, though, is that our beloved traditions for Christmas, starting with the season of Advent, and continuing until Epiphany, are solid and immovable. Conditions in the outside world may affect details of their practice, but none of them can affect their truth or power, even in a year where so many contrary winds have blown against them.

Last night my family ended up buying a ticket for the Trans Siberian Orchestra online concert. It was quite good. 🙂 It was my kids first concert (though I'm not sure it counts because it wasn't deafening and we weren't in the nosebleed section) and they liked it a lot. They spent most of the time dancing until they'd collide with a sibling, cry, recover, and return to dancing.  

6 days until Christmas!

I have butter softening on the countertop for baking cookies, but the siblings are busy with other projects, so might hold off on baking sugar cookies until tomorrow.

My parents went to a Joann store yesterday while running errands and picked up the last gift I needed to get, Cricut removable vinyl for Scarlet. The store didn't have black (Scarlet's favorite color), so I got dark purple. It really is for her, I would have gotten a bright purple for myself.  

I got a couple of Christmas movies from the library today, Lady In The Lake (1947) and Lady On A Train (1945). We've already watched Stalag 17, Battleground, Christmas In Connecticut, The Man Who Came To Dinner, The Thin Man, It's A Wonderful Life, and White Christmas. Still have to watch We're No Angels and Never Say Goodbye, and probably will watch A Christmas Carol (1938) and It Happened On Fifth Avenue.

SnowAngel

We made sugar cookies on Sunday and had a lot of fun. I made a double batch of this recipe and instead of traditional frosting we used ganache which is now our tradition for Christmas sugar cookies. We decorated the frosted cookies with sprinkles and freshly ground BRCC Holiday Roast.  

Awesome cookies, @snowangel! Holiday Roast in a cookie sounds like it could be amazing. 

Also, 2 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite Christmas memories occurred a good number of years ago, when my younger sister got a gift on Christmas morning she had wanted badly for 'most of her life' - a violin.(she was about 10 at the time). She opened it, and at that moment it began snowing outside (I am not kidding!) Needless to say, the perfectness of the moment got to her and she cried, because... that's what you do when your Christmas morning turns into a scene from a Hallmark movie!!  

In case I don't post here again before Christmas, I just want to thank everyone for sharing your thoughts, memories, and current celebrations. Merry Christmas! Long Live the True King!

Here in SW Ontario, Canada, it is 10 a.m. on Christmas Eve day. Thinking of all those NarniaWebbers around the world for whom Christmas Day has almost begun, or who are just awakening on Christmas Eve day. to all!

A major winter storm may affect even those two family members (my sister and my dad) who could join us this year. So, tomorrow could be an even quieter Christmas than anticipated. Our two sons live in hot spots (one in Ontario; one in Québec with his wife): it is highly recommended that they not travel to family in another area because of COVID. This is very sad ('though understandable), and we will definitely be having video chats with all our kiddos over the holidays, but will miss us being all together more than we can express.

However, all this does not affect the joyous meaning of this season ... Emmanuel, God with us!

Our family Christmas is postponed until everyone can safely come, whenever that may be. Don't laugh too hard, but we have decided to leave all our Christmas decorations up until then, in honour of our delayed Christmas. Our live tree, of course, will not live more than another few weeks, so we will haul up our cute medium-sized artificial tree from downstairs at that time. The local farm turkey is tucked away in our freezer, although some of the Christmas baking I will need to re-make, since it will not be as fresh come spring or whenever.  

A friend reminded me of the 1914 Christmas truce near the beginning of WW 1, presented in such a moving, powerful way in this short video (really, an advertisement, but wow, well done!):

Here's to 2021 on NarniaWeb, our very special online community!  
Further up and further in!

EDIT: Adding this very beautiful and meaningful Christmas song by one of my favourite artists, Michael Card. Though this year has been extremely tough for millions around the world, the Christian's past, present, and future is built on the most sure hope, Immanuel, God With Us: