Sitting and meditatively doing a craft that will become a Christmas present or bauble is one of my favorite preparations for the holidays. I used up the supplies I bought to recreate and/or supplement the beaded ornament I inherited from my grandmother (Inspired by vintage ornaments). Now I have been scoping out various ideas online:
I love the smell of the cinnamon ornaments, so maybe I will do this again. They also make great present decorations. I also feel like my tree might need more spiders.
I might also make Bami Ballen again (Holiday Crafting: Bami Ballen), but will likely not make crackers this year (Holiday crafting: crackers). These are most definitely gifts since all the surprise is gone when you make them for yourself. Otherwise, I will be baking. The fruit cake is done, but there is matzo toffee to make and stuffed dates.
I LOVED Garfield when I was a kid, so of course Lou Rawls is part of the soundtrack of my childhood. He did some fabulous holiday tunes. I want this one to be longer.
During the depression, in times before stores could conscionably decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving had passed, there was a November with five Thursdays. Thanksgiving had always been celebrated on the last Thursday of November. The last Thursday of this November was the 30th. That meant stores couldn’t ramp up for Christmas until December 1st. Worried that just 24 days of Christmas shopping would damage an already limping economy, the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, announced that this year Thanksgiving would happen on the fourth Thursday.
FDR’s announcement was met with confusion and consternation. Shopping wasn’t the only schedule that hinged on Thanksgiving, there were college football games and class registration. After FDR’s announcement the states were divided about how to enact the holiday. Some states gave a holiday on the fourth Thursday and some kept it on the last Thursday. A small handful of states gave two Thanksgiving holidays.
Radio hosts made merry about the confusion of when to celebrate Thanksgiving, and the whole hullabaloo was derided as Franksgiving. But don’t we always have Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November, I hear you ask? And yes. After a couple of years of Franksgiving confusion FDR make Thanksgiving a federal holiday that falls on the fourth Thursday. Most states then aligned their celebrations and rivalry football game scheduling fell in line. Up until the Franskgiving debacle, the holiday had been announced annually by the President.
Thanks to Christmas creep, the whole economic reasoning behind the idea seems ludicrous. But just imagine, an August, September, and October even without Christmas decorations in stores!
There are plenty of thematically appropriate and dramatic representations of Passover in the movies. We will be taking a slightly sleepier and round about approach with Phenomena (1985) because sometimes we just need a comforting and familiar horror movie. What? Didn’t know that a European horror movie set in a girls school had anything to do with Passover? It’s easy to miss.
We may also track down “A Rugrats Passover” (1995). I am a sucker for cartoon holiday specials.
By William Morris Agency, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28343387
It’s been a while since I worked up an Every Month is ____ History Month post. Truth is, I got rather stalled on Pearl Bailey. The more information I found on her, the more I became completely fascinated, and nothing I found was quite enough. Unlike many other personalities that no-one I know seems to remember, Pearl Bailey wrote quite a bit about her life. I can’t tell you how excited I was to find out she had penned her own memoirs and social commentary. Suddenly, only her own words would do. I acquired a few of her books and, unfortunately, they got added to my to-read shelves. And, that is where the research post ended, until now.
No, I haven’t finished reading her biography (the one I picked up). I have read through Hurry Up America and Spit (1976), and I am currently picking through Pearl’s Kitchen (1973). The song on our Christmas mix, ‘Five Pound Box of Money’ by Pearl Bailey is just too good not to share now, and since I have got enough information for a basic biographical sketch, I figured why keep waiting. I am now a confirmed Pearl Bailey fan. I’m not going to have any trouble revisiting this great lady in another post once I have read about her story in her own words.
Pearl Baily was born in 1918 in Newport News, Virginia to Reverend Joseph James and Ella Mae Ricks Bailey (Pearl Bailey, 2022). Her brother, Bill Bailey was well known on the vaudeville stage. In a later article, Bailey recounted how she stumbled accidentally into show business by way of what sounded like a sibling spat. She had been sent to the theater to fetch her brother, who was rehearsing his dance act. He brushed her off and sent her home, so she returned, entered, and won the amateur contest that night. She was just fifteen (Pearl Bailey is serious about ambition to teach, 1956). After some time on vaudeville stages and touring the country with the USO during WWII, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946 (Pearl Bailey, 2022) to excited and complimentary reviews (Pearl Bailey’s easy style clicks on Broadway, 1946).
“The way I sing is the way I live,” Miss Bailey says…”What I do is like telling a story to music, it’s got to be something that brings a chuckle. The audience enjoys it because it tells of things they know.”
– Pearl Bailey (Pearl Bailey’s easy style clicks on Broadway, 1946)
Early on, she would describe herself as a writer when speaking with reporters and critics. Throughout a very successful career entertaining on stage, through which she was often featured in newspapers, she would carefully craft and plan her shows based on her projections of what the audience would be (Pearl Bailey’s next role, 1956). By 1956 she declared a desire to follow her long time dream of becoming a teacher, taking classes at UCLA towards that ambition (Pearl Bailey is serious about ambition to teach, 1956). She would later earn a degree in theology from Georgetown University, but before this she published several books (Pearl Bailey, 2022):
The Raw Pearl (1968)
Talking to Myself (1971)
Pearl’s Kitchen (1973)
Hurry Up America and Spit (1976)
Between You and Me (1989)
Somewhat satisfyingly, her achievements and greatness were awarded many times over during her lifetime. She was appointed special ambassador to the United Nations by President Gerald Ford; she received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly!; she won a Daytime Emmy award; she was the first African-American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and she was awarded the Bronze Medallion, the highest award conferred upon civilians by New York City (Pearl Bailey, 2022). Pearl Bailey died at the age of 72 from arteriosclerosis (Pearl Bailey, 2022).
There is so much more that I haven’t covered here and, I promise, I will get to it. But for now, enjoy a little Christmas:
I have an unfinished project tracking fruitcake recipes through newspaper clippings that calls to me. To get me in the mood to revisit it, and to get you in the mood for the holidays, here are some choice clippings of the theft, poison, and murder with which fruitcake has been associated.
Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.), 09 Jan. 1922. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]), 08 Jan. 1911. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]), 31 Dec. 1929. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 22 Feb. 1959. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]), 09 May 1892. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
I have a lovely pony bead and pin ornament that my grandmother made long ago and it inspired me to try my hand at this holiday craft. All that is needed is a Styrofoam ball, straight pins, Pony beads, and patience.
Pony beads or three-cornered beads are still obtainable online, perhaps even in your local craft store. I quickly found out that my general flat head pins would not hold the bead in, so I focused primarily on using pearl head pins to affix the beads to the Styrofoam. I also picked up some crystal headed pins from a wedding supplies shop and wanted to do a disco ball like ornament but soon found that longer needle length is not a good thing in this craft. They end up competing for space inside the foam ball and eventually no more pins can be added.
These are light weight for having pretty decent visual impact and are very meditative to do in the evening.
The next set of ornaments that I tried my hand at were inspired by a picture my friend sent from an Indy shop: stuffed and beaded soft ornaments. I think the inspiration was a shinier tighter weave, but I thought felt would hold it’s shape nicely. I based my designs on the sun in honor of solar holidays like Saturnalia and Yule, celebrating the sun on the shortest day of the year. In the end, they kind of ended up looking like cookies though.
This is also a very meditative craft. I got to use up a bunch of beads in my closet and I stuffed the ornaments lightly with the felt scraps from cutting out the circles. I also put a clove bud in each one for a hint of holiday smells.
Hello! I hope y’all’s Halloween was as lovely as mine! As the first of the feasting holidays (in my house), I busied myself making seasonally appropriate meals with in-season foods and baking. One of the bakes I have been slowly perfecting for myself is barmbrack. The recipe I have is rather old and super spare so I went online to find something a little easier to get a good product out of.
What I found was a lot of recipes for yeast-less ‘barmbrack.’ That sounded great and much easier, but then I found this post by the Irish American Mom pointing out what is and is not actually barmbrack. I love her soap-box (delivered in a completely enjoyable way) and the history she provides on this bake, so I wanted to make sure and share in case anyone else is becoming as obsessed with variations on fruitbread/fruitcake as I am.
By Peter Nicolai Arbo – Nasjonalmuseet, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78150204
Walpurgisnacht is known in the Germanic countries of central Europe as a night when the dead walk the earth, when witches and fairies roam about, and the division between the worlds of living and those of the dead are thin. Falling six months from Halloween, Walpurgisnacht shares many of its attributes.
Saint Walpurga
Walpurga was born, and became a nun, in England before traveling to assist her brother, Saint Boniface, in evangelizing the Germans. When Boniface died, Walpurga became abbess of the Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm monastery he established there. Saint Walburga is often depicted in stone carving and pictures as being accompanied by a dog. There is little in her autobiography to account for this faithful companion, but there is plenty of historic associations of dogs with other Germanic goddesses like the Norns and Friga, a Goddess of May Day and the Wild Hunt. This is just one way that the Saint and Goddess have been woven together through time. Saint Walburga’s tomb was also said to start weeping a miraculous healing oil on the first of May. Though the church would try and downplay the association of the oil and saint with Mayday, the connection would remain in people’s minds.
Goddess Walpurga
Walpurga, or Walburga, is all white and gold. She is a fertility goddess, a forest goddess, and a goddess of springs. She is associated with grain and the harvest, and like Berchta she has a spindle. With her she carries a unique three cornered mirror that shows the future. She has been compared to Holda, also keeper of a spindle, goddess of fertility, and sharing a tendency to reward her followers with gifts of gold. She has also been compared to Brigid, who shares her May holiday and her double life as saint and goddess.
Wild Hunt
When the sun sets on the 31st of April a storm of spirits rips through the sky, making mischief through every town in it’s path. Is Odin the leader of the Wild Hunt, atop his six legged steed, or was it Perchta, or Holda? In Scotland the Wild Hunt is made up of the Sluagh or Unseelie Court, joined by any restless spirit that did not feel much like leaving the physical world.
Walpurga has been linked to the Wild Hunt as well. Yet, different from the many spirits who might do you a trick if found in their path, Walpurga is pursued. She runs from the tumult, flying from village to village in a desperate attempt to find a hiding place. It is said that if you leave your window open, so she can hide behind the cross of the windowpane grill, she will leave you gold as thanks.
Krampus and boy by j4p4n. https://openclipart.org/detail/320772/krampus-and-boy.
Though there is plenty of creepiness about a man who sneaks into our houses after spying on us all year to reward behavior that he deems good, Santa is far from the only holiday spirit to take on the job of keeping us all in line. Most of the witches and demons of Christmas time share this reward and punish vocation, but they haven’t all been painted as benevolent, harmless, and rosy cheeked as our dear old Claus.
Let’s begin with the Krampus. Krampus has been described as a half goat – half demon, and is one of the companions of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas’ companions vary by region, share some similar characteristics, and seem to play the part of a shadow self or the evil side of the Saint. Where St. Nicholas rewards good girls and boys with gifts during Christmas time, the Krampus punishes naughty children by whipping them with bundled reeds, locking them in chains, and/or carrying them away in a woven basket he wears on his back. Krampus may be a vestige of pagan celebrations that pre-date Christianity; they have at times been forbidden by the Catholic Church. Lately, there has been a renewed interest in the Krampus that, because of modern humor and consumerism, some worry has been diluting the dark and violent truth of this Christmas creature.
Krampus is far from the only dark creature you might find during the winter holidays. Several cultures have tales of yuletide witches that both punish and reward as deserved. In Germany and Austria Perchta keeps an eye out for young women who do not abstain from their spinning on holidays, and those who have not yet finished their work on time. Individuals not observing the traditional fasting are also likely to be visited by Perchta’s wrath. This punishment, dear reader, is nothing to sneeze at. Far from simply whipping or chaining you, Perchta will disembowel you. After she has ripped your organs from your abdomen she will replace them with sticks, rocks, and garbage before sewing you back up again. Oddly, this punishment may have a silver lining. If you mend your ways, as much as you can with garbage inside you, then she may return with your safe and clean innards and undo her previous work. The lesson, in this case, is if you don’t take care of it you can’t have it anymore.
La Befana is a much more benevolent Christmastime witch. She travels around Italy during epiphany bringing gifts to good children. The story goes that the three wisemen stopped by her home looking for direction to the baby Jesus. La Befana did not know the way and neglected to join the 3 kings on their journey to Bethlehem. Not long after she regretted her decision and attempted to catch up to the 3 travelers. La Befana now travels in search of the Christ Child and leaving gifts as she goes. It has been hypothesized that La Befana is connected to the same ancient goddess as Perchta, Mother Holle, the Russian Baboushka, and Gryla.
Gryla, however, isn’t known for her kindnesses. She is an ogress, troll, or giantess, and the mother of the yule lads, seven (or thirteen) mischievous spirits who wreak havoc during Christmas time. Gryla may have multiple heads, and multiple tails, or she may simply have been an embroidered demonization of a ‘parasitic’ beggar woman. Whatever her appearance, her raison d’être is eating children who don’t obey their mother.
So, if you didn’t already think Christmas time was a time of darkness and a time to fear that which lurks in the shadows outside your door, you now have a whole host of new imagery. To me the ancient fears of demons and witches explain some of the more beautiful aspects of the holiday season, that of banding together with family and helping your neighbors. Krampus, Perchta, and Gryla may get you if you do not.
Raedisch, Linda (2019) The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year. Llewellyn Publications: Woodbury, Massechusets.
Ridenour, Al (2016) The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil. Feral House: Port Townsend, Washington.
