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Winter Holiday Thread

Started by pyewacket, December 04, 2015, 12:33:34 AM

K_Dubb

Quote from: pyewacket on December 01, 2016, 11:45:15 PM
Christmas Trees and Traditions in the Appalachian Region of America

For pictures, links, and carol videos:

QuoteFor instance, it was often a tradition to sew homemade hard candies into small packets of muslin to hang on the tree and distribute on Christmas Day.

Kind of like julehjerter, though they're made of paper.  Ours always had chocolates for some reason.


pyewacket

Quote from: K_Dubb on December 01, 2016, 11:59:50 PM


Kind of like julehjerter, though they're made of paper.  Ours always had chocolates for some reason.



Thank you, K_Dubb! I'm going to share this pattern. My best friend and I travel to a shop for homemade candy right before Christmas Eve to get treats for the stockings. I used to make candy bonbons myself, but I'd rather have the yummy varieties they carry. Plus the liquorice pipes. :)

K_Dubb

Quote from: pyewacket on December 02, 2016, 12:12:33 AM
Thank you, K_Dubb! I'm going to share this pattern. My best friend and I travel to a shop for homemade candy right before Christmas Eve to get treats for the stockings. I used to make candy bonbons myself, but I'd rather have the yummy varieties they carry. Plus the liquorice pipes. :)

Oh goodness, if you can buy homemade candy you like, you're very lucky.  The only reason I bake anything is because I can't get it otherwise hahaha.

A real tree with white lights, julehjerter, straw ornaments, and little strings of Norwegian flags is iconic.  Weird, I can't think of another country that puts its flags all over the tree, but it's been that way for a long time -- there's a song about it my mom learned in school in the '40s.

maureen

mixing traditions in Mexico
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pyewacket

Thank you for visiting us here and for sharing your lovely pictures, Maureen!    :-*


maureen

Quote from: K_Dubb on December 02, 2016, 02:06:29 PM
I love the tinsel and candles!
a present to you all, with chocolate coins and fruit as spheres, the cornucopia of the Xmas tree, with love


K_Dubb

Quote from: maureen on December 02, 2016, 02:22:03 PM
a present to you all, with chocolate coins and fruit as spheres, the cornucopia of the Xmas tree, with love

Oh yeah, that's what those are!  Thank you, Maureen.  It must be more fun to take down than put up!

K_Dubb

Quote from: Rix Gins on December 02, 2016, 03:08:47 PM
Mail in your box-tops now.

Oh that's hilarious, Rix!  A simpler era, indeed.

Rix Gins

Quote from: K_Dubb on December 02, 2016, 03:39:56 PM
Oh that's hilarious, Rix!  A simpler era, indeed.

Glad you liked it, K.  Hard to believe, but commercials like this used to get us kids excited for Christmas.  Haha



Rix Gins

Quote from: pyewacket on December 02, 2016, 03:59:23 PM
Thanks, Rix! Did anyone ever use this product?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB28fvRqg4s&list=PL0792E42A9A148496

That's quite a unique product, for sure.  Paraffin based, I would assume.  Hard to clean up?  That girl is Pamelyn Ferdin who played lots of 'older kid' rolls throughout the seventies.  And of course, that man is George Fenneman, Groucho's sidekick on You Bet Your Life.


pyewacket

The UK has some of the most charming Christmas themed commercials. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjKS270ha4A

pyewacket

The Halifax Explosion in 1917 was the deadliest non-natural disaster in Canadian history. A special bond was formed from this tragic event and the reason why Nova Scotia presents Boston with the gift of a Christmas tree every year.

Here's the story:
http://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/11/20/why-nova-scotia-gives-boston-its-christmas-tree-for-free-every-year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4cJBf2ECKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFg8ANIlOBw

K_Dubb

For you, dear pate:  France was just about the first country (bien sûr!) to treat the simple carol tunes sung by real people as serious music, so we have a good idea of what they were actually singing back then, both in France and in Nouvelle-France.  This series of six short tunes is kind of a greatest hits of about 1700:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhvDHTCbI4Y

They are, if memory serves,
Tous les bourgeois de Châtres
Où s'en vont ces gais bergers
Joseph est bien marié
, which must have been hugely popular as it pops up everywhere
The gorgeous Or nous dites Marie
Une jeune pucelle, the tune for Canada's Huron Indian Carol
À la venue de Noël

I wonder how many made it down the Mississippi?

The little town I live outside of here in Cali had their Christmas parade last night. It was pretty funny because the town is like a cross between South Park and A Christmas Story. I'm not much of a Christmas person but I have to say watching all the little kids running around having a great time and seeing Santa Claus has really put me in the mood.  ;D



pyewacket

In many cultures animals are a special part of Christmas legend and lore.

According to legend the rooster has only crowed once at mid-night. This was to announce the birth of the Baby Jesus. For this reason, Spanish and Latin American Countries call their midnight mass on Christmas Eve the Mass of the Rooster, or Mesa del Gallo.

I've made ornaments with my children years ago and they still have some of them. Another tradition that's worth keeping.



https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=n&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livemaster.ru%2Ftopic%2F2118647-shem-simpatichnogo-petushka-iz-fetra


ItsOver

Here's Angel Night 2016, from last Thursday night, an evening of song and celebration, with various choirs singing in the wonderful Calvary Cemetery Chapel and walking and riding tours of illuminated Victorian angel monuments.  It was crisp, dry night, just cold enough to help get one into the holiday spirit.  Calvary is on a hill, overlooking the beautiful Carillon tower, decorated with lights as a Christmas tree.  One of the attached photos shows it in the distance.  Just a beautiful, very special event.








Rix Gins

Great pics there, Its.  That first cemetery photo is utterly fantastic.  I would have loved wandering around those lit up head stones.

ItsOver

Quote from: Rix Gins on December 05, 2016, 12:32:58 PM
Great pics there, Its.  That first cemetery photo is utterly fantastic.  I would have loved wandering around those lit up head stones.
Thank yeeewww!  ;)  It's an older cemetery, with a number of historic and very artistic monuments.  It's a truly beautiful event, including the wonderful choral singing in the little stone chapel.  On the surface, it would seem to be a little "creepy" doing a tour of a cemetery at night but it's all gorgeously back-lit, with lanterns marking the monument route, and music from the chapel in the background, all on top of a hill, with a beautiful view of the surrounding valley.  The only time I would want to be walking around a cemetery in the still of the night.  ;)

K_Dubb

Quote from: ItsOver on December 05, 2016, 12:45:56 PM
Thank yeeewww!  ;)  It's an older cemetery, with a number of historic and very artistic monuments.  It's a truly beautiful event, including the wonderful choral singing in the little stone chapel.  On the surface, it would seem to be a little "creepy" doing a tour of a cemetery at night but it's all gorgeously back-lit, with lanterns marking the monument route, and music from the chapel in the background, all on top of a hill, with a beautiful view of the surrounding valley.  The only time I would want to be walking around a cemetery in the still of the night.  ;)

Would love to have been there!  None of our cemeteries are old enough to have that wonderful profusion of sculpture you see in your photos.  Ancient Yule explicitly included the dead, so it's a (presumably accidental) continuity.

Just finished up my last day of work for the year - time to celebrate with my all time favorite Christmas album
Merry Christmas by Mathis [1958]   His rendition of O Holy Night is incredible...............


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJTmadAABkI&list=PL31T3kgeapGProWTt3ZX3_dbgFRqDtyhh


Happy whatever holiday you celebrate, observe, or otherwise.

Just stopped in to deliver this ornament for zeebo.



pyewacket

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on December 09, 2016, 11:54:34 AM
Happy whatever holiday you celebrate, observe, or otherwise.

Just stopped in to deliver this ornament for zeebo.

RobertGG- it's great to hear from you. I was wondering where you were. Cute ornament- right up zeebo's tree, for sure!

I hope all is well with you and yours and Happy Everything to you, too.  :)

pyewacket

I started this tradition with my children and always thought it was in keeping with the St Nicholas story, but I found some other worthy reasons for the custom.

Quote from: thekitchn.com
1. St. Nicholas and his sacks of gold.

One explanation for this tradition stretches back hundreds of years to St. Nicholas, who was born in what is now present-day Turkey. He inherited a large sum of money, but devoted his life to helping others, and eventually became a bishop.

According to the story, St. Nicholas learned of a poor man who wasn't able to find suitors for his three daughters because he didn't have money for a dowry. St. Nicholas traveled to the house, and tossed three sacks of gold down the chimney for each of the dowries. The gold happened to land in each of the girls' stockings which were hanging by the fire to dry. The oranges we receive today are a symbol of the gold that was left in the stockings.
2. A treat during the Great Depression.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, money was tight, and many families simply didn't have the means to buy gifts. Instead, it was such a treat, even a luxury, to find things like a sweet orange or some walnuts in your stocking on Christmas.
3. Oranges were once a scarce treat.

Some also offer the idea that fresh oranges were hard to come by, especially in the north, so finding one of these fruits in your stocking was a huge treat, and a way of celebrating the holiday.
4. It's the season of giving.

Another theory behind the tradition is that December is the season of giving, and the orange segments represent the ability to share what you have with others.

Did you ever receive an orange in your stocking on Christmas morning?
http://www.thekitchn.com/heres-why-we-put-oranges-in-stockings-at-christmas-holiday-traditions-from-the-kitchn-213985

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