“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”
Today is warmer and brighter than yesterday. The sun is around but behind a bank of clouds. Nothing is stirring. It is a quiet Saturday.
Today is the solstice, the longest night of the year, midwinter. My friends and I welcome the first day of spring at the beach by singing our traditional songs in tribute. I wonder why not the Winter Solstice. It is a beginning as we will gain a few seconds of sunlight every day. Watching the sunrise on a cold December morning would be a celebration to welcome back the sun. Next year, for sure.
I think every family in my neighborhood had similar Christmas traditions. Houses and bushes were lit with multi-colored bulbs. Orange bulbs filled the plastic candles in every window. Many of those candles had to be taped to the window sills because the bulb was heavy and the candle was light. We all had real trees back then and Christmas cards hanging on strings around the room.
When I was a kid, our house, was never filled with Christmas knick knacks and stuff or, if it was, I missed it. The tree was the entire room. That’s how it looked to me. It stood in the corner and almost reached the ceiling. The middle branches had long arms. When the tree was lit, I used to lie under the outside branches and look up at the center of the tree filled with lights and ornaments. It was amazing.
My sister Moe’s box came last week. I took out the gifts and put them around my tree. My sister Sheila sent a gift in an envelope which says on the front, “Don’t open until Christmas Day.” I put that on the tree, on the bigger tree.
I am going to make cookies this afternoon. I hope to do two, but I’ll be happy with one. My kitchen is ready. More Christmas is afoot.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
December 21, 2019 at 12:58 pm
Hi Kat,
I’m so glad that we start back towards summer again tomorrow and begin to have shorter nights. It’s obvious that early Christians moved the birthday of Jesus to the winter solstice to give them an excuse to light up the long night with lights of all kind. After all, how would it look to claim to be a Christian and celebrate a pagan holiday in December. 🙁 I’ve only traveled to the Southern Hemisphere in July or spring. I wonder how much Christmas spirit one can conjure up at the beach when it’s nearly 100 degrees outside. 🙂
December 21, 2019 at 2:02 pm
Hi Bob,
The early Christians merged their religious rites with Pagan rites, those celebrated with bonfires and songs. December coincided with a festival for Saturn so it was chosen in the third century for the time of the baby’s birth.
I figure they can conjure up lots of spirit when it is hot in the Southern Hemisphere. They are probably even wondering how we can conjure up feelings of good will when it is so cold. It just comes down to what we are used to, and that becomes Christmas to us.
December 21, 2019 at 5:32 pm
I’m very glad that Christmas is afoot at your house, too. I’m thinking about baking cookies. I’m going to have a guest Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so I’m thinking about Belgian waffles and scrambled eggs.
But here’s one thing I’ve been looking for that I can’t find: my mother used to make a sheet cake with pudding inside it. And I mean literally… Inside it. It wasn’t on top and it wasn’t on the bottom. It was in the middle. Do you have any recipes that will fit that bill? And there weren’t any holes in the cake, so it wasn’t a poke cake.
Merry Christmas!
December 21, 2019 at 5:46 pm
Rick,
Was the pudding its own layer? Was it soft like pudding would be? I did find something that might help:
How to Put Pudding in the Middle of a Cake: https://www.leaf.tv/articles/how-to-put-pudding-in-the-middle-of-a-cake/
Belgian waffles and eggs are a great choice.
December 22, 2019 at 12:04 pm
Well I’m not sure we’ll get a few seconds of sunlight more per day, the sun is hiding very good behind the clouds 🙂 🙂 but I am looking forward to brighter days!
A cold or perhaps the flu has hit me so I’m not doing much today and I am glad I cleaned the oven yesterday.
I don’t have a tree yet (well I don’t count the little plastic one and I was thinking that I perhaps would revive the very short lived tradition (before the christmas trees were commone here) to have a young apple tree instead. I know a few smaller ones that will be either cut down or in the way that I can dig up if I don’t feel too bad tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Christer.