Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas...and Then Some!

I was looking around the internet looking for Christmas Trivia that I promised you, when I came across a web site entitled Christmas Facts. More trivia there than you would need in one sitting. So, I picked some out...if you want to see it all, go to this link: http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/xmastrivia.html It's a lot of reading, but it's a big holiday, it's been around for a few years, and you probably need something to do after all of the gifts are wrapped.   So, if you're up for the full read, grab an Egg Nog, sit back, and enjoy.  In the meantime, here are some highlights: "White Christmas" (1954), starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, was the first movie to be made in Vista Vision, a deep-focus process. "Wassail" comes from the Old Norse "ves heill"--to be of good health. This evolved into the tradition of visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and drinking to their health. A Christmas club, a savings account in which a person deposits a fixed amount of money regularly to be used at Christmas for shopping, came about around 1905. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Americans buy 37.1 million real Christmas trees each year; 25 percent of them are from the nation's 5,000 choose-and-cut farms. After "A Christmas Carol," Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories, one each year, but none was as successful as the original. Although many believe the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year, it is not. It is the fifth to tenth busiest day. The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest shopping days of the year. An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck. An average household in America will mail out 28 Christmas cards each year and see 28 eight cards return in their place. Animal Crackers are not really crackers, but cookies that were imported to the United States from England in the late 1800s. Barnum's circus-like boxes were designed with a string handle so that they could be hung on a Christmas tree. As early as 1822, the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by the amount of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution to the problem was to limit by law the number of cards a person could send. Even though commercial cards were not available at that time, people were already sending so many home-made cards that sixteen extra postmen had to be hired in the city. Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in "A Christmas Carol," three other alliterative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam. California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina are the top Christmas tree producing states. Oregon is the leading producer of Christmas trees - 8.6 million in 1998. Candy canes began as straight white sticks of sugar candy used to decorated the Christmas trees. A choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral decided have the ends bent to depict a shepherd's crook and he would pass them out to the children to keep them quiet during the services. It wasn't until about the 20th century that candy canes acquired their red stripes. Charles Dickens' initial choice for Scrooge's statement "Bah Humbug" was "Bah Christmas." Christmas presents were known in antiquity among kings and chieftains, especially on the European continent. However, they have been common among ordinary people in Iceland only during the past 100 or so years. Christmas trees are known to have been popular in Germany as far back as the sixteenth century. In England, they became popular after Queen Victoria's husband Albert, who came from Germany, made a tree part of the celebrations at Windsor Castle. In the United States, the earliest known mention of a Christmas tree is in the diary of a German who settled in Pennsylvania. Cultured Christmas trees must be shaped as they grow to produce fuller foliage. To slow the upward growth and to encourage branching, they are hand-clipped in each spring. Trees grown in the wild have sparser branches, and are known in the industry as "Charlie Brown" trees. During the ancient 12-day Christmas celebration, the log burned was called the "Yule log." Sometimes a piece of the Yule log would be kept to kindle the fire the following winter, to ensure that the good luck carried on from year to year. The Yule log custom was handed down from the Druids. During World War II it was necessary for Americans to mail Christmas gifts early for the troops in Europe to receive them in time. Merchants joined in the effort to remind the public to shop and mail early and the protracted shopping season was born. Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using electric Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional candles. Frankincense comes from certain Boswellia trees which, at the time of Christ, grew in Arabia, India, and Ethiopia. Tradition says that it was presented to the Christ Child by Balthasar, the black king from Ethiopia or Saba. The frankincense trade was at its height during the days of the Roman Empire. At that time this resin was considered as valuable as gems or precious metals. The Romans burned frankincense on their altars and at cremations. Franklin Pierce was the first United States' president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree . Frustrated at the lack of interest in his new toy invention, Charles Pajeau hired several midgets, dressed them in elf costumes, and had them play with "Tinker Toys" in a display window at a Chicago department store during the Christmas season in 1914. This publicity stunt made the construction toy an instant hit. A year later, over a million sets of Tinker Toys had been sold. George Washington spent Christmas night 1776 crossing the Delaware River in dreadful conditions. Christmas 1777 fared little better - at Valley Forge, Washington and his men had a miserable Christmas dinner of Fowl cooked in a broth of Turnips, cabbage and potatoes. Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company. Historians have traced some of the current traditions surrounding Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, back to ancient Celtic roots. Father Christmas's elves are the modernization of the "Nature folk" of the Pagan religions; his reindeer are associated with the "Horned God," which was one of the Pagan deities. In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Festivities were banned by Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry, on what was supposed to be a holy day, to be immoral. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660. In Britain, eating mince pies at Christmas dates back to the 16th century. It is still believed that to eat a mince pie on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas will bring 12 happy months in the year to follow. In France, Christmas is called Noel. This is derived from the French phrase "les bonnes nouvelles," which means literally "the good news" and refers to the gospel. In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts, however, use shoes. Dutch children set out shoes to receive gifts any time between mid-November and December 5, St. Nicholas' birthday. In Norway on Christmas Eve, visitors should know that after the family's big dinner and the opening of presents, all the brooms in the house are hidden. The Norwegians long ago believed that witches and mischievous spirits came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding. In the Netherlands, Christmas centers on the arrival of Saint Nicholas, who is believed to come on horseback bearing gifts. Before going to bed, children leave out their shoes, hoping to find them filled with sweets when they awaken. In the Thomas Nast cartoon that first depicted Santa Claus with a sleigh and reindeer, he was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the U.S. Civil War. The cartoon, entitled "Santa Claus in Camp," appeared in Harper's Weekly on January 3, 1863. Jesus Christ, son of Mary, was born in a cave, not in a wooden stable. Caves were used to keep animals in because of the intense heat. A large church is now built over the cave, and people can go down inside the cave. The carpenters of Jesus' day were really stone cutters. Wood was not used as widely as it is today. So whenever you see a Christmas nativity scene with a wooden stable -- that's the "American" version, not the Biblical one. Long before it was used as a "kiss encourager" during the Christmas season, mistletoe had long been considered to have magic powers by Celtic and Teutonic peoples. It was said to have the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility. Celts hung mistletoe in their homes in order to bring themselves good luck and ward off evil spirits. Mistletoe, a traditional Christmas symbol, was once revered by the early Britons. It was so sacred that it had to be cut with a golden sickle. More diamonds are purchased at Christmas-time (31 percent) than during any other holiday or occasion during the year. Myrrh is an aromatic gum resin which oozes from gashes cut in the bark of a small desert tree known as Commifera Myrrha or the dindin tree. The myrrh hardens into tear-dropped shaped chunks and is then powdered or made into ointments or perfumes. This tree is about 5-15 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter. Legend says Caspar brought the gift of myrrh from Europe or Tarsus and placed it before the Christ Child. Myrrh was an extremely valuable commodity during biblical times and ws imported from India and Arabia. Originally, Christmas decorations were home-made paper flowers, or apples, biscuits, and sweets. The earliest decorations to be bought came from Nuremburg in Germany, a city famous for the manufacture of toys. Lauscha in Germany is famous for its glass ornaments. In 1880, America discovered Lauscha and F.W. Woolworth went there and bought a few glass Christmas tree ornaments. Within a day he had sold out so next year he bought more and within a week they, too, had sold. The year after that be bought 200,000 Lauscha ornaments. During the First World War supplies of ornaments from Lauscha ceased, so American manufacturers began to make their own ornaments, developing new techniques that allowed them to turn out as many ornaments in a minute as could be made in a whole day at Lauscha. Right behind Christmas and Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday ranks as the third-largest occasion for Americans to consume food, according to the National Football League. Santa's Reindeers are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time. St. Nicholas was bishop of the Turkish town of Myra in the early fourth century. It was the Dutch who first made him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought him to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus. The "Twelve Days of Christmas" was originally written to help Catholic children, in England, remember different articles of faith during the persecution by Protestant Monarchs. The "true love" represented God, and the gifts all different ideas: The "Partridge in a pear tree" was Christ. 2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments 3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity-- the Theological Virtues 4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists 5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which relays the history of man's fall from grace. 6 Geese A-laying = the six days of Creation 7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments 8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes 9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit 10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments 11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles 12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed The abbreviation of Xmas for Christmas is not irreligious. The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is chi, which is identical to our X. Xmas was originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation that was used in tables and charts. The actual gift givers are different in various countries: England: Father Christmas France: Pere Noel (Father Christmas) Germany: Christkind (angelic messenger from Jesus) She is a beautiful fair haired girl with a shining crown of candles. Holland: St Nicholas. Italy: La Befana (a kindly old witch) Spain and South America: The Three Kings Russia: In some parts - Babouschka (a grandmotherly figure) in other parts it is Grandfather Frost. Scandinavia: a variety of Christmas gnomes. One is called Julenisse. The best selling Christmas trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine. The Christmas season begins at sundown on 24th December and lasts through sundown on 5th January. For that reason, this season is also known as the Twelve Days of Christmas. The day after Christmas, December 26, is known as Boxing Day. It is also the holy day called The Feast of St. Stephen. Some believe the feast was named for St. Stephen, a 9th century Swedish missionary, the patron saint of horses. Neither Boxing Day or St. Stephen have anything to do with Sweden or with horses. The first Christmas card was created in England on December 9, 1842. The first commercial Christmas card sold was designed by London artist John Calcott Horsley. He was hired by a wealthy British man to design a card that showed people feeding and clothing the poor with another picture of a Christmas party. The first Christmas card said, "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you." Of the original one thousand cards he printed for Henry Cole, only twelve exist today. The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531. The four ghosts in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" were the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, Christmas Yet to Come, and the ghost of Jacob Marley. The movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000) features more than 52,000 Christmas lights, about 8,200 Christmas ornaments, and nearly 2,000 candy canes. The modern Christmas custom of displaying a wreath on the front door of one's house, is borrowed from ancient Rome's New Year's celebrations. Romans wished each other "good health" by exchanging branches of evergreens. They called these gifts strenae after Strenia, the goddess of health. It became the custom to bend these branches into a ring and display them on doorways. The poem commonly referred to as "The Night Before Christmas" was originally titled "A Visit From Saint Nicholas." This poem was written by Clement Moore for his children and some guests, one of whom anonymously sent the poem to a New York newspaper for publication. The poinsettia, traditionally an American Christmas flower, originally grew in Mexico; where it was known as the "Flower of the Holy Night". It was first brought to America by Joel Poinsett in 1829. The popular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One-Horse Open Sleigh." The traditional flaming Christmas pudding dates back to 1670 in England, and was derived from an earlier form of stiffened plum porridge. The world's first singing commercial aired on the radio on Christmas Eve, 1926 for Wheaties cereal. The four male singers, eventually known as the Wheaties Quartet, sang the jingle. The Wheaties Quartet, comprised of an undertaker, a bailiff, a printer, and a businessman, performed the song for the next six years, at $6 per singer per week. The commercials were a resounding success. Theodore Roosevelt, a staunch conservationist, banned Christmas trees in his home, even when he lived in the White House. His children, however, smuggled them into their bedrooms. When Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, died on December 4, 1894, he willed his November 13 birthday to a friend who disliked her own Christmas birthday. Yuletide-named towns in the United States include Santa Claus, located in Arizona and Indiana, Noel in Missouri, and Christmas in both Arizona and Florida.

Christmas Cookie Crunch

I continue holiday preparations, during the beginning of this week focusing on making my annual batch of cookies. 

The picture at the right is from last year, showing a few dozen cookies after they were decorated.

We, one of my son's and I, made about 64 dozen last year.  Cookie-cutter cut sugar cookies (the recipe is a secret) that we roll out, cut and bake, and then hand decorate individually.  We probably made more than that, but there's a lot of quality control sampling that goes on during the process...you have to be sure of your product!

This year, I started without any help and managed to put up 90 dozen through the oven.

That's a record, sort of an Olympic feat for those of us who are usually challenged by just getting out of bed.  I most likely achieved that amount by mixing dough for four batches, not paying attention and kept preparing dough, when I usually do three...or I rolled them very thin.

So far, they look good.

The baked cookies are presently stored in containers awaiting the arrival of my son and his girlfriend, who have promised to help me ice and decorate them all.  Perhaps that will happen tomorrow.  It's not an easy job, as can be supported by the fact that they have used the excuses of, "Have to get up early to take the car in for an oil change," "Have to return a shirt I got for my birthday," (birthday was in March), "They say that the humidity is rising, with the rain, and the cookies will be too soft," and more.  They protest, but after the whole lot is done they manage to stick around the house more, and for some reason the cookie supply dwindles.  Hmmmm?

At this point, as a true blogger, I should put an Url in to take you to the recipe.  As mentioned, the recipe is a secret.  I can only tell you that we've used for 26 years!  Instead of a link to provide you with that information, below I provide a photo of raw dough cut by a cookie cutter and ready to go on the baking sheet, another of them on the sheet in the oven, and a third showing a group moved to a table to cool:

Maybe next year, I'll have the whole process videotaped and then you'll be able to see an embedded movie, instead of the above mentioned static shots.

Next, we'll decorate them.  Again, this blogger might be expected to share that recipe and show you the process but, again, yes the icing is a secret, another that I've used for 26 years, and it's a no-go on the video for that this year, too!

I apologize, not witty and exciting commentary, but the outcome is pretty good tasting.  I get holiday cards starting around Thanksgiving and many who know of them mention them, as if to say, "Hope I get some."  And, some will.  I have a list of "cookie worthy" persons, much like Santa's "naughty and nice."  Although, by me you can be naughty and cookie worthy.  Maybe that topic should be a blog?

In keeping with the holiday festivities, while I go mix the icing and await my helpers, and you anxiously await the finished treats, I'll share a song that I wrote for last year's family holiday newsletter.  This one came to being as I do have a terrible sense of direction and my wife has hopes that I'll get to wherever I travel, and back (I think).  Hope you enjoy it.

Oh GPS*
*Sung to the tune of Oh, Tannenbaum

Verse I

Oh GPS, Oh GPS
Wife thinks I need one for my aim
Oh GPS, Oh GPS
To me east and west, one in-the-same.

I turn left, when I should go right
I plan lunch at home, show up at night

Oh, GPS, Oh GPS
You’d save many hours from my plight

Verse II

Oh GPS, Oh GPS
You certainly could change my life
Oh GPS, Oh GPS
I’d have fewer stories for my wife

She wouldn’t hear, “I missed the sign
And ended up in Palestine”

Oh GPS, Oh GPS
What to say, but “I’m home on time!”

At this point, being a blogger and having deprived you of cookie information, I am feeling a bit of remorse for holding out on you, so I will share a site that talks about buying a GPS...now that you've read my little ditty, you might be inspired to buy one for yourself or for someone you don't want to get lost:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/144125/how_to_buy_a_gps_device.html

I might add that as far as I know they haven't come up with a device to deliberately get people lost, but one time I did change the language in my GPS to Italian (I was studying the language and wanted my own little form of language immersion) and that caused a few wrong turns!!!  But, I didn't end up in Italy, darn.

Oh well, more on the cookies as they develop....happy pre-holiday!

Christmas Past

I came across my Christmas newsletter from last year and thought I would share it with my blog readers.

There are several blog posts in the works, regarding the holiday season, that I'll share with you over the next few days.  However, to finish those and start this year's family newsletter, I am doing some very heavy research. 

Actually, my wife said I had to "get this place decorated, please, sometime before the holiday!" 

Along with awaiting the arrival of family for the annual Christmas Tree hunt...no shots have been fired, to date, but I'm sure I'll have something to write regarding that adventure soon...today, I'll be in the depths of the basement and the freezing environs of the outdoor shed searching for all the stuff I put away last year...where I stashed it so I knew I could find it (yeah, right!).

Here's Christmas 2009:

My therapist told me that it would be a good thing, this year, if I could take the time to envelop myself in the spirit of Christmas, relax and enjoy the holiday, and take comfort in the simply pleasant things of the season, giving and sharing as I went along. “Create and enjoy the holiday!”
 

What first? Decorations! Create the feeling of the season. We had pulled back a bit last year, but I stepped up to the plate and pulled everything out of the basement. All twenty two boxes. I was prepared for the effort. The crawl space we call a basement is rife with spiders and cobwebs, but I revved up for the challenge. 

What I wasn't prepared for were the mice that had taken up residence in the imported Swiss manger. I guess they took comfort in the hay and straw that made up the manger roof, and got some sort of nutrition by eating half of baby Jesus. The three kings appeared less royal, now that their clothes had seemingly been reworked into some sort of nest at the bottom of the box, and I'm guessing that the bed of ceramic dust was once the hopeful and happy shepherds! 

Oh well, not going to let this get me down,. Fortunately as I don't throw many things away, we have six other manger sets...onto the lights. Deep breath. Okay, three deep breaths.

The big box of lights. I opened it to find string upon string, that I am sure I put away one at a time, carefully wrapped individually, and all working when they went to sleep last time they were used, are now an intertwined mess of knots and snarls. Seemingly a Medusa shaped, moving mass of uncooperative lines, they appeared to get more involved with as I tried to free one from the other. 

After about three hours of pulling each string out, and lining them up for inspection, not a one would light. Pulling each bulb out and putting in a new one, with not a one responding, I figured it would be more in the spirit of the season if I gave them to the recycling center and gave more money to our country's retail effort. I only had to take one Lexapro after this, not bad. 

Not giving in to what others might see as a failure, I chalked the lights up to “maintaining the faith” and set off to find our tree, on which I would put all of the treasured ornaments we'd saved for over 25 years. 
 

No doubt, I've told you of our tree adventures before, but I wasn't going to think once about our “history.” The standing in the rain, the trudging of the hills for hours, or having one tree after another die on us within a week. Not going to dwell on the past. No, we had a plan. 

Outside our house, too close to it in fact, was a fine fir tree that had to come down and we elected to cut this one down to take off the top for our tree. The fact that it was thirty feet tall and we couldn't get a good eye on the top didn't stop us. Saw in hand, I took to the trunk and dropped that baby after twenty or thirty good swiping cuts. 

What I neglected to judge was that the height exceeded the space between the chosen place for it to drop to and the house. As I told my wife, that's why they sell glass for windows in hardware stores. Never mind the fact that I don't know how to put glass into a window, but is is available.  

After my call to my therapist, and one short hour of 'coming down,' I was back in the game.

It wasn't as big a deal getting the tree into the house as my wife might tell you (she can get very strident when branches are banging into furniture and knocking pictures and knick knacks off the wall). 

Within five hours I had that baby standing up (semi-straight) and the brand new lights were setting off against it really fine. I grabbed the three boxes marked ornaments and were surprised how light they were...figured all of this hefting had me putting on some muscle. 

It was only after I opened them that I remembered the crash of '07. Totally not similar to our current economic crashes, these were the two times the tree fell over in 2007 and demolished all of the good ornaments and collectibles we had. 

Another rush of giving came over me and I headed off to the store to give over more cash to buy new memories. They come in six packs, too. I know not to mix alcohol with my meds, so I try to rotate them...pills on the hour, alcohol on the half hour.

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas...not sure if it was the twinkling lights, the reflection off the new plastic ornaments, the swaying of tree branches (I'm sure I screwed that tree tight into the holder), the combination of Maker's Mark and Xanax, or the after effects of rum laden Egg Nog and Anafranil. 

Anyway, I was doing whatever I could to keep my spirits high. I'm sure it was a unseen broken step on the ladder, and not the mixing of Vodka and Halcion, that produced my fall. 

Fortunately, I landed in the tree and it cushioned the blow as we both went over. The miracle? Not a light went out, not an ornament was broken, and even though I was flat on my face in pine needles, my spirits were high.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a really good night. 

And, I can give you the name and number of my therapist if you need it to make your holidays truly memorable...and when you see Santa, please tell him that refills for me would be nice.