Christmas Archives - Page 12 of 16

Christmas spirit

It seems that every year, I work harder to get that Christmas spirit, whatever that means. I actively ignored Cyber Monday and Black Friday, and whatever that abomination is that has people shopping on Thanksgiving day.

BTW, had to correct someone about the origins of the term Black Friday; no, it doesn’t have anything to do with slavery.

Maybe taking some Christmas quizzes online will help. Christmas carol quiz: Can you name the song from just one line? Well, of course I got 15/15; I’m a choir person.

Which holiday movie am I? Elf? I have never even seen it!

Speaking of movies never seen, I guess I’ll not be watching Saving Christmas with Kirk Cameron any time soon.

If you’re going to be visiting a bunch of relatives during the holidays (may I say “the holidays”?), this could be useful: Second Cousins Once Removed Explained. It’s easier once you find the common ancestor.

Here are some more Christmas links:

Kristen Bell and Straight No Chaser’s ‘Text Me Merry Christmas’.

Opossum Carols, or Walt Kelly’s Xmas Postludicrosity.

Siren’s Crush, featuring Rebecca Jade (#1 niece) singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Silent Night.

Why the spike in the cost of six geese-a-laying?

I tried to create a link to capture all of SamuraiFrog’s posts of the season, but it missed this Kristen and Dax piece.

I do believe I’ve gotten all of Jaquandor’s seasonal posts.

From the Renaissance Geek: Louisville Underground.

Santastic No. 9 video mashups from christmash.com, including a Beatles one.

Ugly Holiday Sweaters & Suits.

My favorite contemporary (and by that, I mean post-1950) pop Christmas song may be Stevie Wonder – What Christmas Means To Me. But I’m still terribly moved by Julie Andrews – The Bells of Christmas from a Firestone (tire company) LP I still own.

Probably my favorite Christmas comedy routine is Steve Martin – 5 Christmas Wishes.

Oh, the picture: this is my sister Leslie and me, almost certainly at Fowler’s in downtown Binghamton, NY, a couple of years ago.

You want to talk about REAL religious persecution…

Open Door USA has a map where Christians are being threatened in this world today. Please note that the United States is NOT listed.

Watching part 5 of the Ken Burns masterpiece on The Roosevelts last month, I saw a brief mention of those terrible events of November 9-10, 1938, Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” “the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms… throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops.”

Not an hour later, I was watching the CBS Evening News, and there was a report about anti-Semitism being on the rise in Europe again: “The memories of Jewish persecution — of the November 1938 Kristallnacht when Jewish institutions were destroyed — are burned into German memory. Frankfurt’s main synagogue, badly damaged that night, is one of those now under armed guard.”

The ethnic minority in Iraq called the Yazidi who was faced with elimination by ISIL, or ISIS this past summer.

Open Door USA has a map where Christians are being threatened today, including much of Asia and northern Africa. Please note that the United States is NOT listed.

I mention this preemptively to say: Americans, there may be a war on Christians in this world, but it ain’t happening here. Let me make it crystal clear: people wishing you “happy holidays” on December 24 does NOT qualify as religious persecution.

Circular question answering New York Erratic

Let me say that while Thanksgiving and Christmas are wonderful and all, there seems to be a lot of sense of obligation.

And in an act that defies logic, I am now answering questions that New York Erratic answered for me, even though I gave them to her, based on questions Lisa posted, and which Dustbury also answered… Oh never mind.

1. What is your dream vacation spot and why?

It would be a place by the water, preferably running water, like a river or waterfalls, because I love water; maybe it’s the Pisces in me. It would be neither too hot nor too cold. MaybeVictoria Falls, in September.

2. Where did you come up with the name of your blog?

There was a long-running radio talk show called Rambling with Gambling, from which I got the Ramblin’ part. The Roger part, I have no idea.

3. How do you define blogging success?

It really does vary. While I don’t especially care, when my Times Union blog is trending, or when Chuck Miller declares it one of the week’s 10 best, I enjoy that.

But the real success is that I find people with whom to have reasonable, usually rational, dialogue. Such as with New York Erratic.

4. What is your favorite type of “going out” entertainment?

I like going to the movies because I like seeing movies in the theater. Watching videos often creates the temptation to pause it and do something else. That’s OK with something I’ve seen before, but not the first time. That’s why I ultimately canceled Netflix; I had The Hurt Locker for four or five months, and never found two solid hours to watch it without The Daughter around, or being too tired, or too busy.

5. How many states (name them) have you lived in?

North Carolina (for four months). New York (the rest of my life.)

6. What is your favorite holiday and why?

Ash Wednesday. Let me say that while Thanksgiving and Christmas are wonderful and all, there seems to be a lot of sense of obligation. The beginning of Lent is a time of quiet reflection. When I was a kid, it was only the Catholics I knew that got the ashes on the forehead, but lots of Protestant churches, including the last two I’ve belong to, participate, and I think it’s an easy, but symbolic, way for religious rapprochement.

7. What’s your favorite number and why?

I really do like zero. It’s nothing, yet it’s massive in combination. It’s that dividing line between the positive and the negative. What’s not to like?

8. What would be your dream vehicle to own?

Some motorized bicycle that I’d turn on for hills, and pedal otherwise.

9. What is your favorite hobby?

I suppose it’s singing, though, until you brought it up, I never thought of singing as a hobby, but rather just WHAT I DO, WHO I AM. Or blogging.

10. How do you try and keep your blog fresh?

I change the blog filter every 3,000 miles. Cereally, I actually plotted out 2014, or parts of it. I decided on my ABC Wednesday topics for every week in Round 14, back in October; didn’t write them, of course, but knowing what I was going to write about gets the brain working. Then I found the half dozen people who turn 70 I want to write about. Then there are holidays and observances. And anything I find interesting I don’t have anything to write about, I link to at the end of the month. This leaves the rest of the time for movie reviews and life experiences. In other words, I throw the blog against the wall and see what sticks.

11. Where do you do your best thinking?

In the shower, or riding the stationary bike. Or when I first wake up, which is why I like to blog when I first wake up (and don’t particularly like to blog at night).

I believe in Christmas

As John Lennon wrote, “the Word is love.”

The day after Thanksgiving, I found myself at the flagship Macy’s store in Manhattan with The Wife, The Daughter, my eldest niece, her husband, and a couple of their friends. I also saw a guy I knew from Albany walk by.

The Macy’s windows are great because they’re so imaginative. On one set of windows was the retelling of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, that famous New York Sun editorial from 1897, complete with a backstory about the girl and her family. It’s certainly why I know there’s a Saint Nick, who’s black and white and Hispanic and Asian and all sorts of colors.

I believe in the love of Jesus, too, who almost certainly wasn’t born in December, but rather under the sign of Aries or Pisces, not that it much matters. Got into a debate recently about how Christianity has led to lots of wars, and such – I’ve had that conversation a LOT, as you might imagine – but, for me, that comes from people misconstruing the Word. And, as John Lennon wrote, “the Word is love.”

You can call it magic, or hoodoo, or myth, and I’m all right with that. Faith is kind of like that. Like the love that the Pope showed to immigrants recently.

Merry Christmas.

In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
~ Albert Camus

Last-minute gift ideas

so this lady walks up at a traffic light, and. . .

Advent/Christmas stories and songs

A Charlie Brown Christmas almost never aired

MUSIC:

Jaquandor has been offering Your Daily Dose of Christmas.

About.com’s Top 100 Christmas songs

The Bells of Christmas by Julie Andrews from a Firestone tire LP I still own.

Nat King Cole -The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)

Snow from White Christmas (Bing Crosby, et al).

The Dream Isaiah Saw, plus the backstory of the song, the lyrics and another rendition.

Tamale Christmas by Joe King Carrasco

SamuraiFrog’s contributions include Good King Wenceslas and the original Santa, Baby, as well as my favorite, A Christmas Carol by Tom Lehrer. But you should READ what he has to say about It Feels Like Christmas.

Eddie, the Renaissance Geek’s usual offering.

A Moose in a Maple Tree – The All Canadian 12 Days of Christmas

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer in Latin, set to plainsong.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen if it were played in a spaghetti western

The Beatles’ Christmas Record 1963

Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas (Full Album)

A very Coverville Christmas 2013; I especially enjoyed the Led Zeppelin.

dj BC writes, “I just dropped Santastic 8, the 8th annual Holiday mashup album in the series … This year we offer 14 new Christmas mashups and one old one which was reissued because it is great and it matches the album cover so well.

A goldmine of mostly very obscure, very bad seasonal music! Examples: a surfing Little Drummer Boy; a Jimi Hendrix version of Auld Lang Syne; and the truly awful Debbie’s Last Christmas.

VISUAL: