“Thank goodness for holidays to cheer us through the cold. And thank goodness for wild evergreens to ornament the way…. I come now, under a winter sun cold and shiny, gathering wild evergreens and gay red berries to decorate home for the holidays….
“Mountain laurel is my favorite Christmas evergreen. It can be gathered throughout the eastern mountain regions of this continent. Though harmful to farm animals that might happen upon it (and also to humans, were they to taste the unappetizing leaves), mountain laurel’s looks appeal. Its snarled, striated shrub-trunks open into bouquets of glossy evergreen…. You’ll know you’re in a mountain laurel thicket when you have to stoop to pass under overhanging boughs….
“These are magical places, shaped for elves and gnomes rather than for people.”
“There is something in the very season of the year that gives a charm to the festivity of Christmas. At other times we derive a great portion of our pleasures from the mere beauties of nature…. The song of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, the golden pomp of autumn; earth with its mantle of refreshing green, and heaven with its deep delicious blue and its cloudy magnificence, all fill us with mute but exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury of mere sensation….
“But in the depth of winter… our thoughts are more concentrated; our friendly sympathies more aroused. We feel more sensibly the charm of each other’s society, and are brought more closely together by dependence on each other for enjoyment. Heart calleth unto heart; and we draw our pleasures from the deep wells of living kindness….”
bulbs of red, green, gold in the tree tinsel, ribbons, a scarlet bow The birds come anyway
white-breasted and red-breasted nuthatches black-capped chickadees, white-throated sparrows song sparrows with dark dashes and “stickpin” gold finches, house finches awash with red evening grosbeaks, yellow with bold white patches jays in brillance of clear sky after snowfall cardinals in cassocks and crests of scarlet
“Under Owl’s supervision, the work began. The sparrows flew to town and found spools of red and green thread with which to string the decorations. The squirrels gathered nuts and polished them with their little paws until they shone silver and gold.
“The raccoons picked red berries and pine cones and strung them into long, loopy chains. Meanwhile the cardinals and blue jays and other brightly colored birds found all the feathers they had lost and, using their nest-building skills, wove them into ornaments with their agile beaks. The deer and elk helped, too, fetching branches of holly from the forest meadows.
“One by one, the animals hung these decorations on the towering blue spruce. At last, the tree was ready. The animals gathered together to admire their handiwork.
“Their tree had no glass balls or lights like those on other Christmas trees, yet it was no less beautiful without them. From bottom to top, the great spruce glimmered with bright berries, tufts of feathers, colorful dried leaves and flowers, and gold and silver nuts. At the very tip top was a snow-white star made from wild swan feathers, and around the bottom Owl (who prided himself on being able to read and write) had carefully arranged holly branches to spell out the words:
“Deep in the winter night, the family will come one by one, carrying great and small boxes, brilliant in all colors, ribboned in red and green, silver and gold, bright blue, placing them under me with the hands of their hearts, until all around me they are piled high, climbing up into my branches, spilling over onto the floor about me.
“In the early morning, with all my candles burning and all my brilliant colors standing out and twinkling in their light, the children in their pajamas and woolen slippers rub their sleeping eyes and stare at me in amazement….
“In the evening, the people stand around me and, looking at me, with their faces shining in my light, they sing and sing, their wishes and joy clambering up into and through my branches, filling the room up to the very roof, passing out into the night and the snow, fainter and fainter….
“In the final stillness the mouse creeps out, hurries across the floor and under my branches, searching and nosing, brushing the branches gently, finding crumbs, secure in the silence of the Christmas night and sharing what comes to all creatures… for I am the Christmas tree.”
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night Sailed off in a wooden shoe, Sailed on a river of crystal light Into a sea of dew. “Where are you going, and what do you wish?” The old Moon asked the three. “We have come to fish for the herring fish That live in this beautiful sea; Nets of silver and gold have we,” Said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.
Then peace was spread throughout the land; The lion fed beside the lamb; And with the kid, To pastures led, The spotted leopard fed In peace, in peace The calf and bear, The wolf and lamb reposed together there.
As shepherds watched their flocks by night, An angel brighter than the sun Appeared in air, And gently said, “Fear not, be not afraid, Behold, behold, Beneath your eyes, Earth has become a smiling Paradise.”
Back by popular demand (!!), here is the first post in 2023’s “Ten Days to Christmas” series, a series that I started a few years ago — originally beginning two days too late to name it after the more well-known and traditional moniker “Twelve Days of Christmas.” I started it in 2019, as a way of learning more about photography, trying new setups and experiments as each year’s project progressed. For those unfamiliar (or those feeling nostalgic), here are links to posts with all the photos in the previous years’ series:
Christmas baubles, glittery whatnots, and holiday lights are great subjects for photography experiments, fun and suitably challenging. You can learn a lot about lighting, depth of field, color, and exposure; and — as you can see in the second trio of photographs below — sometimes you can just unfocus the camera and work with whatever you get!
Each year I add one or two items to my photography gear to help with this project. In 2020, for example, I bought an inexpensive boom to hold foil wrapping paper as backgrounds; and the next year, I bought studio lights and stands to hike up my glitter game. You can seem them both in use below, in a photo I took showing the process of taking photos, last year.
I’ve also been using star filters (sometimes called starburst or crosscut filters) occasionally, though there use is somewhat more limited than I had expected since lights only “burst” pleasantly when they’re in focus. And this year I acquired a Plamp — a rather clever gadget that you can use to suspend things in the air in front of Christmas trees, which I used in several of the photos below to give the impression (maybe) that the doves and angels are floating around on their own.
I have an assistant, also, one who follows me from room to room, picks up whatever I drop, and steps aside when I swear out loud about things that looked so much better in my head (as things often do!) than when I set them up and took the photos. Here he is earlier today, taking a break in his safe spot, right after I knocked over a light stand….
This year, I made a commitment to starting the project early — since I had most of my Christmas decorating done shortly after Thanksgiving — so that I wasn’t scrambling around every day for ten days taking photos, post-processing them, finding poems and quotes, and creating blog posts. Here’s how that worked out:
I took these photos today, found the poem today, and wrote this post today. So much for starting early….
