Christmas Music

Colonial Christmas, Barry Phillips & Friends

Barry Phillips is a cellist, composer arranger and recording engineer whose CDs have included a series of collections of early American music.  In 2008, Barry released Colonial Christmas, (Gourd Music) a CD of instrumental carols and dances from the American colonial period. Barry’s CDs always have thoroughly researched and beautifully written notes, and each carol in this collection has a story. The pieces are, as always, beautifully played, Barry on cello, with Shelley Phillips on oboe and French horn, and additional musicians on bassoon, double harp, fiddles and other period insruments. The music is lilting but mellow, perfect for accompanying Christmas dinner or as background for present opening.

Christmas Classics, Solitudes

Since 1981 Solitudes had made CDs that incorporate natural sounds (birds, wind, sea, etc.) with music. The Christmas offering here is characteristic of their style. The selections move from light classics (“Skater’s Waltz”) and familiar seasonal favourites (“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”) to traditional carols (“Greensleeves”), all interlaced with nature’s own music. If so-called “New Age” music is your style, this  CD is definitely meant for your collection.

A New Miss Read for Christmas!

Christmas at Thrush Green by Miss Read

Or, more accurately, by Miss Read (Dora Saint) and her long-time editor, Jenny Dereham.  But it is a Thrush Green story, with all of our favourite characters and the daily village dramas that Miss Read fans love.

If you’ve never read a Miss Read book before, this is a good one to start with. The first few chapters interweave introductions of  all of the characters into the narrative; you feel you know them right away.

There are carollers, church-goers and anti church-goes, Dottie Harmer and her animals,  Dimity and her vicar-husband, Ella, Winnie, Nellie Piggott and her Fuchsia Bush cafe,  and, of course, the Misses Lovelock. The small boys Jeremy and Paul are now teenagers, the Curdles’ children are growing, and age is creeping up on the people we’ve read about for all these years.

Ella’s is the central crisis in this story: she is going blind from macular degeneration. But other crises arise in other families, social gaffes are noted and overcome and a firm sense that Thrush Green will always be Thrush Green rests lightly over the whole book. A lovely Christmas time read.

Miss Read’s other Christmas books look very well-worn on my book shelves. I re-read them almost every year. These include Village Christmas, No Holly for Miss Quinn, The Christmas Mouse and Winter in Thrush Green. I also like to read The White Robin around Christmas or New Year. It’s such a hopeful, sweet story.

Christmas Thoughts

The Women’s Insitutute (WI) published a small book in 2007, Practical Know-how at Christmas. Along with the hints, they included some timeless quotations about the holiday. Here are some of them:

Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money.  (Anonymous)

Life is much like Christmas — you are more apt to get what you expect than what you want.  (Anonymous)

The Devil makes his Christmas pie of lawyers’ tongues. (English Proverb)

Q: Why is Christmas just like a day at the office?  A: You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit. (Anonymous)

To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult every year. (E. B. White)

Heap on the wood — the wind is chill; but let it whistle as it will. We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.  (Sir Walter Scott)

Christmas Handmade Decorations for Little Hands

©2008, Ramona K. Silipo. All rights reserved.

One of the simplest handmade tree ornaments is a spiral. You can make them in different sizes by tracing different round objects– for instance, jar lids of several different sizes; or a teacup, a mug, and a saucer. The larger the circle, the longer the dangle from the tree branch.

You’ll need scissors, pencil, paper and items to trace. That’s all. You can add glitter if you don’t mind the mess, but I would forgo it with young children. It just gets everywhere, including in their mouths and up their noses which can’t be healthy for them.

Construction paper is the old standby. But good-quality, heavier gift wrap works very well and adds a bit more colour. Magazine covers are excellent, as they have body and lots of colour. Aluminum foil can be used, too, but may be best saved for older children who can cut through it more easily.

Trace the circle. Then simply begin at the edge, cutting round and round the edge, about 1/4 inch from the edge, until you reach the center. Leave the center about the size of a nickel so you can punch a hole for the hook or ribbon to hang it (or you can fold the end over the tree branch, but it doesn’t work a well as using and ornament hook).

Younger children might need you to draw a guide line for cutting, which can be tricky. If you show them how to cut, following the edge as the circle gets smaller, most children “get it” from watching.

Another easy decoration with circles is made by cutting one large circle, say, 3″ in diameter (a coffee mug size) and four circles slightly smaller (a tea cup size). For this you need construction paper or light card. Heavier magazine covers might work, too, if you want to experiment.  Fold the four smaller circles in half and make a cut in the vertical middle of the fold. Using the slit you cut, slide the four smaller circles on to the larger circle, spacing them evenly around the edge. Punch a hole near one edge of the larger circle for the hook or ribbon to hang it on the tree.

Don’t forget the old traditional stand-by, the paper chain. These are more colourful when made from gift wrap than construction paper.

Cranberries and popcorn are great to string for your trees outdoors. The birds will enjoy them, but you will have to remember to remove the thread after the berries are gone so the birds don’t get tangled in it.

For a slightly more sophisticated garland, you can use walnuts. For this you will need whole walnuts, eyepins (which you can find at crafts shops and stores that sell beads and jewelry findings), and narrow ribbon, yarn or cord in gold, red or green (or any colours you want).

You can leave the walnuts natural, or paint them gold or just give them a coat of clear gloss to dress them up. Put an eyepin in each end of each walnut. Thread ribbon or yarn through the eyes of two nuts, and tie a decorative bow leaving an oval of ribbon about an inch long between the two nuts. Make the garland any length you like.

To make ornaments from single walnuts, tie narrow ribbon or gold cord around them longwise. A dab of Elmer’s Glue-All at the bottom will help if you use satin ribbon or metallic cord and it’s slippery. Tie a loop at the top to hang it from the tree; or tie a bow at the top and use an ornment hook threaded through the knot to hang it.

Quakerly Christmas

©2008, Ramona K. Silipo. All rights reserved.

Friends (Quakers) have a testimony against holding special days (holidays), presumably based on the concept that each day is a blessing and that we should have one standard of behaviour for every day of the year. This means that many Friends do not celebrate holidays such as Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving (USA and Canada). However, many Friends do celebrate, albeit modestly in most cases. My home meeting in California, for instance, has a Christmas event presented by the children, followed by a pot luck meal. This year, there is carol singing each First Day for those who want to join in. And so on. As with all the testimonies, it is left to each person to discern what, if any, recognition of Christmas to express.

My experience, both before and after becoming a Friend, is that nothing in my personal or family Christmas traditions seems antithetical to living as a Quaker. As a matter of fact, I find that at Christmas time many people are more alert and open to answer that of God in everyone; and people are often more aware of their need to be generous, forgiving and patient with others. I see nothing negative in setting aside a specific time of day or year to stop and consider how one’s life might be more enlightened and enlightening.

My personal and family traditions are pretty simple: a nativity set from my childhood with candles lit each night, a tree decorated with homemade ornaments and old glass ones as well, inviting people with no family or friends in the area for dinner, and a Christmas Eve with closest friends at which we eat soup and bread for dinner, read Christmas stories and light candles to remember friends who have died during the year. (This began during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when we lost several friends each year. We’d stand around the table, all too aware that one or two of us would probably not be there the next Christmas. Thank God, we haven’t had to light any candles  for many years now.)

Reading to each other and the children is a lovely bonding activity. Story telling is as ingrained in human history as music, and the stories of Christmas are always a joy to me. Stories are usually more symbolic than literal, so I don’t see that Christmas stories in the form of carols are a threat to good Quaker order in any way

For me, the joys in life are simple– friends, family, dogs (or other pets), good times, talking, laughing, music, theatre, art– nothing spectacular. At Christmas many of these joys are magnified and appreciated more. We all strive for the Quaker ideal of living in the Light every day, but, so far, I’ve not met anyone who’s achieved this ideal. Until we do, it seems not only appropriate but very positive to set aside times, like Christmas, to remember our best moments in life, reinforce long-cherished relationships, and create new opportunities to move forward toward the Light every day.

Crafty Fun for Children as Summer Rolls into Autumn

©2008, RKSilipo. All rights reserved.

Hardly seems possible, but over the weekend, I heard the first TV commercial this year to give the countdown to Christmas… even before Labor Day. It gets earlier every year.

I don’t mind much, since I love Christmas and I read about it, buy gifts for friends and make plans for holiday activities all year ’round. I just wish the focus was more on making things, doing things, sharing things among family and friends, than on buying things.

This is actually the time of year to think about homemade decorations, especially Christmas tree ornaments, since so many can be made from items collected outdoors. Plants are starting to dry up, throw seeds, drop leaves, produce nuts and generally offer up wonderful natural shapes for decorations. It’s also the time to think about what items can be recycled, adapted or reused to make fun, inexpensive decorations.

Also if you want to make Christmas presents, whether you knit, sew , draw, cook or whatever, this is a good time to write down your gift list, estimate the amount of time it will take to create each gift, and buy the materials you will need.

I watch for sales all year ’round and buy up such items as ribbons, braid, fabric remnants, beads and so on, and put them in my Christmas drawer, the bottom drawer of a chest where I keep my sewing and craft materials. I just toss things in there.  Then about this time of year I check to see what I have and what I still need to buy for the projects I have planned.

DECORATIONS

Some of nature’s designs that make lovely decorations are

• sea shells collected on summer days at the beach
• driftwood, sea glass and pebbles flattened by the sea
• teazels
• seed pods
• walnuts
• avocado pits
• peach, plum and nectarine pits and unshelled almonds
• pine cones
• bare branches after the leaves have fallen
  

And whatever grows and leaves interesting remains at the end of the growing season in your area. Use your imagination. I’ve even seen skeletons from bunches of table grapes dried out, painted silver and gold, and hung with ribbons on a Christmas tree. It took me a couple of hours of looking at them curiously to figure out what they were. The six year old girl in the family had saved and dried out the twigs all year, and her mom helped her spray paint them.

Shells can be hung just as they are. Use a small bit in your electric drill to make a tiny hole, then let the children thread through a thin satin ribbon in red or green, or some gold cord to make a hanging loop.

I have some gorgeous pieces of driftwood that I use as background for my nativity scene. Smaller pieces can be drilled and hung as they are, same as the shells. They can also be varnished so they have a sheen, or your more artistic or older children can decorate them with paint, to give as gifts or to decorate your tree.

A safe, clear, shiny coating can be made by mixing one part white PVA glue (such as Elmer’s Glue-all) with five parts water. This makes a very thin, drippy paint which can be applied with a brush; or you can dip nuts, pine cones, etc. in it to give them a shiny, sealing coating. Things should be laid out on wax paper or plastic wrap to dry, as the paint is VERY sticky.

Good Dog, Carl – A Canine Babysitter with Lots of Stories to Tell

©2008,Ramona K Silipo. All rights reserved.
Good Dog Carl is the first in the series of Carl books by Alexadra Day, based on her own experiences with her dog. In this story, we meet The Mother who is seen only fleetingly, because the protagonist of these books is a cuddly, paternal Rottweiler, and his sidekick is a toddler.

These books are lushly illustrated, without text, or with only one or two lines of text at the beginning of the story to set up the premise. They are wonderful for very young children and their parents to “read” together. They spark imaginations and they show little ones that books are fun and exciting. These books are beautiful for parents to look at and enjoy as outstanding art for children, and they’re joyful for children because the adventures are activities that they themselves are learning about as toddlers and pre-schoolers.

In Good Dog ,Carl we meet Carl and his charge, and follow them through a typical day. In another story, we spend a day in the park; in another Carl takes Baby shopping, and so on.

In Carl’s Christmas, one of my favourites, the paternal Rottweiler takes the toddler on his back for a Christmas Eve adventure. The illustrations show the dog dressing the baby, the baby riding his back to the toy shop, finding gifts and having other small adventures. It closes with Carl, the baby and a mouse (with its present) all sleeping peacefully in front of the fireplace.

The series includes Carl’s Birthday, Carl’s Sleepy Afternoon, Carl Goes to Daycare, You’re a Good Dog Carl (different from the first book), Carl’s Summer Vacation, Carl Goes Shopping, Follow Carl!, Carl’s Masquerade, Carl’s Afternoon in the Park.

These books come in several different formats, from chunky board books to full sized picture books with sewn bindings and sturdy covers that are meant to last on your library shelves. They are fantastic gifts for the little ones, and are a joy for the grown ups to look at.

Christmas Stories (2)

An Oxford Book of Christmas Stories includes both traditional and modern tales, and the illustrations are evocative and lush. These are stories for grown ups to enjoy and to read with children.

Some of the titles will give you an idea: “Burper and the Magic Lamp,” by Robert Leeson. “Ghost Alarm,” by Nicholas Fisk. “The Anarchist’s Pudding,” by Geraldine McCaughrean. Mr. Pickwick’s adventure sliding on the ice is included as well.

How about an opening to whet the appetite: “Jeremy James first met Father Christmas one Saturday morning in a big shop. He was a little surprised to see him there, because it was soon going to be Christmas, and Jeremy James thought Santa Claus really ought to be somewhere in the North Pole filling sacks with presents and feeding his reindeer” — from “Father Christmas and Father Christmas,” by David Henry Wilson.

Several of the stories have sinister or macabre twists, and the Christmas ghost story is a classic form, thanks to Charles Dickens.

Stories by Paul Auster, Ann Beattie, Ray Bradbury, Italo Calvino, Annie Dillard, Patricia Highsmith, Jane Smiley and others are included in A Literary Christmas, Great Contemporary Christmas Stories, a collection from the Atlantic Monthly Press. These are stories for avid readers and for those who want to sample the work of some of the most interesting writers of our time. Some entries are excerpts from previous works, and some are topical short stories. A great read for the Christmas season.

For stories in song, The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols is very handy. It includes all the verses of fifty Christmas carols as well as the music, and it’s small enough to slip into a handbag on the way to Midnight Mass or Christmas service. The carols are from throughout Europe, some dating as far back as the Middle Ages. The book includes a brief history of each carol and an introduction with a short history of Christmas caroling, as well as notes on the carols in performance. Like all Penguin Books, it’s a fantastic bargain.

And don’t forget, there are many editions of A Christmas Carol available, from economy paperbacks to lushly illustrated coffee table versions. The movies are fun, especially the musical, Scrooge, with Albert Finney in the title role; but reading the story with your family or friends is a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve.

Speaking of the movies, let me put in a vote for the oldie with Alistair Simm as Scrooge. Yes, it’s in black and white. But Simm is such a wonderful Scrooge, and he looks like such a jovial granddad, this is a perfect version for children. The Ghost of Christmas Future is really scary, too, which the kids really like!

©2007, RK Silipo. All rights reserved.