Tag: december

From “The Doctor’s Christmas Eve” by James Lane Allen in The Ultimate Christmas Collection:

“Elizabeth’s peculiar interest in animal pictures had begun during the summer previous, when the family were having a vacation trip in Europe. Upon her visits to galleries of paintings she had repeatedly encountered the same picture: The Manger with the Divine Child as the center of the group; and about the Child, half in shadow, the donkey and others of his lowly fellows of the stall — all turned in brute adoration. The memory of these Christmas pictures came vividly back to her now — especially the face of the donkey who was always made to look as though he had long been expecting the event; and whereas reasonably gratified, could not definitely say that he was much surprised: his entire aspect being that of a creature too meek and lowly to think that anything foreseen by him could possibly be much of a miracle.

“Once also she had seen another animal picture that fascinated her: it represented a blond-haired little girl of about her own age, with bare feet, hair hanging down, a palm branch in her hand. She was escorted by a troop of wild animals, each vying with the other in attempt to convince this exceptional little girl that nothing could induce them just at present to be carnivorous.

“The most dangerous beasts walked at the head of the line; the less powerful took their places in the rear; and the procession gradually tapered off in the distance until only the smallest creatures were to be seen struggling resolutely along in the parade….

“The meaning of the picture seemed to be that nothing harmful could come from the animal kingdom on this particular day, providing the animals were allowed to arrange themselves as specified in the procession…. All, no doubt, would have been glad to parade behind Elizabeth….

From “Christmas Legends” by Denis A. McCarthy in The Animals Christmas: Poems, Carols, and Stories, edited by Annie Thaxter Eaton:

Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
Joy shall be yours in the morning!

Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
Come from far away you to greet —
You by the fire and we in the street —
Bidding you joy in the morning!

For ere one half of the night was gone,
Sudden a star has led us on,
Raining bliss and benison —
Bliss to morrow and more anon,
Joy for every morning!

Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow —
Saw the star o’er a stable low;
Mary she might not further go —
Welcome thatch, and litter below
Joy was hers in the morning!

And then they heard the angels tell
‘Who were the first to cry Nowell?

Animals all, as it befell,
In the stable where they did dwell!
Joy shall be theirs in the morning!’

From Greetings from Christmas Past by Bevis Hillier:

“Bats were almost as popular on Victorian cards as belfries and bells. They were to be one of the favourite subjects of Art Nouveau designers, though their basic structure is more Gothic in feeling. Maurice Rheims, who illustrates a gold goblet decorated with a spreadeagled bat in his L’Objet 1900 (1964), writes: ‘Ces animaux, chargés de bien de crimes, ont fait en tout temps l’objet de légendes et d’illustrations terrifiantes.’ — [These animals, responsible for many crimes, have always been the subject of terrifying legends and illustrations.]

“But it was not until the nineteenth century that stories of the vampire bats of the South American forests reached Europe, giving the little blind flying mouse a reputation for sinister perversity most satisfying to the decadents: ‘Holy Roman Vampire’, [Oscar] Wilde suggested. The younger Strauss’s comic opera Die Fledermaus [Revenge of the Bat] was first performed in 1874.

“Batcards ranged from the jollity of these cherub jockeys to the near-lubriciousness of Emily Thomson’s: design [first postcard, below], with its disingenuous caption, ‘Thy thoughts I cleave to’.”

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Note: The four blue bat images up-top aren’t real photos. I didn’t have any bat-baubles, so I used Adobe Firefly to generate some for me. Yet they do look like something I’d photograph, don’t they? 🙂

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From “Solstice Songs: O Holy Night” in The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice by Carolyn McVickar Edwards:

Oh holy night!
The stars are brightly shining!
It is the night of the Sun Child’s birth.
Long we have lain in cold
and fear of hunger
But Sun returns
And the Earth wakes again!
A ray of hope:
The weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks
A new and glorious morn!
Sing and give thanks
Oh lift your voices high now
The Sun returns
Sun returns
to light the world.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Oh Sun returns!

From “December Mist” by Morgan Golladay in Solstice: A Winter Anthology, edited by Dianne Pearce:

Sunlight reflects blue off the
banded mist, begotten by yesterday’s
warm sun on December earth. The gods of
soil and field slumber still,
cold slowly settling into their bones.

I walk the verge, waiting, watching….

I greet this Solstice
with calm, measured footsteps, waiting and
watching
as cycles turn.

From “Winter Solstice Sleep” by Clive Frobisher in A Poem for All Seasons, compiled by Robert Blackham:

As sunlight withers and day departs,
Night time claims the hills and fields.
Cloaking treetops in icy darkness,
Forgotten ghost of summer past.

Creatures bolt into earthy beds,
Spiralling into slumber farther deep.
Through the longest night of year,
Nothing stirs, time seems frozen still….

Through the winter they endure,
Dormant in subterranean cocoons.
Awakening with the yawns of Spring,
The creatures rise to start anew.

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From “The Bride of the Mistletoe” by James Lane Allen in The Ultimate Christmas Collection:

“It was a pleasant afternoon to be out of doors and to go about what they had planned; the ground was scarcely frozen, there was no wind, and the whole sky was overcast with thin gray cloud that betrayed no movement. Under this still dome of silvery-violet light stretched the winter land; it seemed ready and waiting for its great festival.

“The lawn sloped away from the house to a brook at the bottom, and beyond the brook the ground rose to a woodland hilltop…. Out of this woods on the afternoon air sounded the muffled strokes of an axe cutting down a black walnut partly dead; and when this fell, it would bring down with it bunches of mistletoe, those white pearls of the forest mounted on branching jade. To-morrow eager fingers would be gathering the mistletoe to decorate the house. Nearby was a thicket of bramble and cane where, out of reach of cattle, bushes of holly thrived: the same fingers would be gathering that.

“Bordering this woods on one side lay a cornfield. The corn had just been shucked, and beside each shock of fodder lay its heap of ears ready for the gathering wagon. The sight of the corn brought freshly to remembrance the red-ambered home-brew of the land which runs in a genial torrent through all days and nights of the year… but never with so inundating a movement as at this season. And the same grain suggested also the smokehouses of all farms, in which larded porkers, fattened by it, had taken on posthumous honors as home-cured hams; and in which up under the black rafters home-made sausages were being smoked to their needed flavor over well-chosen chips.

“Around one heap of ears a flock of home-grown turkeys, red-mottled, rainbow-necked, were feeding for their fate….

“Thus everything needed for Christmas was there in sight: the mistletoe — the holly — the liquor of the land for the cups of hearty men — the hams and the sausages of fastidious housewives — the turkey and the quail…. They were in sight there — the fair maturings of the sun now ready to be turned into offerings to the dark solstice….”

From “Christmas 1949” in Christmas Poems by Dorothy Stott Shaw:

Saturn and Mars have met and kissed
And passed and gone their innocent ways,
And solstice-ward the pattern moves
Of lengthening nights and shrinking days.

Two planets blossom in the west
Like stem-less flowers of yellow light;
Westward the constellations move
In spangled splendor through the night.

Motionless in the shimmering dark,
Hushed in the hollow under the hill,
The trees stand tall to touch the stars;
The snow clings fast; the twigs are still….

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From “The Hymn” by John Milton in Christmas Poems, selected by David Stanford Burr:

At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light
That with long beams
the shamefaced night arrayed;
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim
Are seen in glittering ranks
with wings displayed,
Harping in loud and solemn choir
With unexpressive notes,
to Heaven’s new-born Heir:

Such music (as tis said)
Before was never made
But when of old the sons
of morning sung,
While the Creator great
His constellations set
And the well-balanced world
on hinges hung;
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltering waves
their oozy channel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres!
Once bless our human ears,
If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
And let the bass of Heaven’s deep organ blow;
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.

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From “Brighten the Corner Where You Are” in Thankfully: The Christmas Guest and Other Poems by Helen Steiner Rice:

We cannot all be famous
or be listed in ‘Who’s Who,’
But every person great or small
has important work to do,
For seldom do we realize
the importance of small deeds
Or to what degree of greatness
unnoticed kindness leads —

For it’s not the big celebrity
in a world of fame and praise,
But it’s doing unpretentiously
in undistinguished ways
The work that God assigned to us,
unimportant as it seems,
That makes our task outstanding
and brings reality to dreams —

So do not sit and idly wish
for wider, new dimensions
Where you can put in practice
your many ‘Good Intentions’ —

But at the spot God placed you
begin at once to do
Little things to brighten up
the lives surrounding you….

For if everybody brightened up
the spot on which they’re standing
By being more considerate
and a little less demanding,
This dark old world would very soon
eclipse the ‘Evening Star’
If everybody Brightened Up
the Corner Where They Are!

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