Monday Morning Poem: The Oxen, by Thomas Hardy

The Oxen
by Thomas Hardy

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a [...]

Christmas Traditions: The Twelve Days

“On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me….” Every time I hear this carol it makes me smile, for more than one reason. It brings back my days as a preschool teacher, when the class knew few of the lyrics other than “five gold rings”, which they would sing out enthusiastically [...]

Christmas Quotes from Notable Women

No one loves a Christmas tree on Jan. 1.
Irma Bombeck
I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the [...]

Christmas Traditions: Wierd Ornaments

Over the last decade or so, all sorts of businesses have tried to capitalize on the Christmas shopping rush by producing specialty ornaments, designed to appeal to only a segment of the population. It probably began with Hallmark and Disney, but the trend quickly grew to include the truly bizarre. A  few examples:

Merry Christmas! Let’s [...]

Christmas Traditions: Plum Pudding

Here in America, we’re familiar with the old English Christmas dessert, plum pudding, from stories and songs. Few of us, however, have ever even tasted it. One year I bought a boxed one, with a little tin of hard sauce, from the supermarket, but it was truly awful. Now I’m curious enough to do a [...]

Christmas Traditions: The World’s Biggest Tree Image

Each year, on the evening of December 7th, the Umbrian town of Gubbio, Italy, lights up the outline of a giant Christmas tree on the slopes of Monte Ingino, which towers over the beautiful city. According to no less an authority than the Guinness Book of Records, it’s the biggest in the world, climbing the [...]

Christmas Traditions: Early Electric Tree Lights

We now take Christmas lights for granted, but they haven’t been around even for a century yet. I came across this site that tells the story of the earliest ones.
link
There is also a timeline of the development of lighted decorations :
link
And many more fascinating light facts.

Christmas in Connecticut

This event for 2008 runs from 12/5 throughout the month of December.
I’m on staff at the Webb-Deane-Stevens museum in Wethersfield, CT. The museum is a small complex of three 18th century houses. The Webb House, built in 1752 by merchant/trader Joseph Webb, is the centerpiece, famous for 220 years as the place where George Washington [...]

Christmas Traditions: Wassailing

Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wand’ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
Here we come a-what? Wassailing is the [...]