I started young . . .

 

I love Christmas

 

The tree of Christmas

☆

How
can I
explain
how this
time of year
makes me feel.
It’s about seeing
the innocence of wee
children and feeling the
all-pervading feelings of
anticipation and joy and the
excitement at what's on its way
to us. For me it's not about gifts
or religion. It's the music, the songs,
the decorations and the way people are
nicer to one another.
It is
Xmas

 

All Rights Reserved Lynda Gear

 

A New Zealand Christmas poem

An original poem 

 

Grinches Inc.

So there we were, halfway through September and Christmas posts were starting to appear on social media.  Some were from genuine Christmas lovers who like me, start getting excited for the season around this time but some were just to poke fun.  Here's one that appeared -

"Go ahead and put that Christmas tree up.
Nothing makes sense anymore."

The person that shared it stated it wasn't even October yet and it wasn't okay.  Yes, they were right, it wasn't October and no, they were wrong, it was okay if you wanted to put up your tree.

Considering these same people will put up a photo of themselves sunbathing on the beach with a comment about wishing it was summer already.  Do they get blasted for posting a summer photo in the middle of winter?  Of course not, and why should they?

What Grinches don't seem to realise is that for some of us, Christmas is more a state of mind than a religious holiday.  It's a happy place and in a world that is utterly chaotic right now, we all need a happy place.

So let's just concentrate on what we enjoy and leave others to do the same.

Christmas (Yule) beginnings

The season is now considered a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ but that is not how it started out.  The English term 'Christmas' (“mass on Christ’s day”) is of fairly recent origin.  The earlier term 'Yule' may have derived from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl, which referred to the feast of the winter solstice.
    Christmas originally had nothing to do with Christianity and pre-dates Jesus Christ by hundreds of years.  It is based on pagan fertility rites and practices.  Many of our Christmas traditions like decorating trees, singing carols and giving presents, are rooted in the traditions of non-Christian festivals.  We don't observe Christmas on 25 December because it was Jesus's birthday; no one really knows when he was born anyway.  It's more because this was the date the Romans historically celebrated the (northern hemisphere) winter solstice.  For each hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.  The fact that Christmas was celebrated on the birthday of the unconquered sun (dies solis invicti nati) gave the season a solar background, connected with the kalends, a Roman term for the first day of a month.  On 1 January, the Roman New Year, houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and presents were given to children and the poor.
    The current-day figure of the American red-clad Santa Claus was based on folklore traditions surrounding -

1. Saint Nicholas, an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the city of Myra in Asia Minor [modern-day Demre, Turkey] during the time of the Roman Empire; 
2. The English figure of Father Christmas, the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas.  Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrelated English folkloric tradition.  The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in the late Victorian period; 
3. The Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children.
   

Christmaholics Inc.

Why, as a non-Christian, do I get joy from a time many consider a religious holiday?  Many of the traditional carols I so like are Christianity-inspired, e.g. 'Silent Night', but for me the season has absolutely nothing to do with religion.  

I've always loved Christmastime.  As far back as I can remember I looked forward to it, followed as it was by six weeks of summer school holidays.  The joy and anticipation at primary school in the build-up to Christmas.  The carols, the crafting.  The decorations in shops and on the streets.  Lower Hutt city used to erect three huge red candles at the southern end of town.  I knew it was truly Christmas when they appeared.

The first Christmas I can actually remember was the year we spent Christmas on the South Island's West Coast with our father's family.  I was eight.  We were given Christmas stockings filled with mandarins or little oranges, walnuts and little toys; the one and only time I've had a stocking.  I don't recall hearing any carols and we certainly didn't go to church.  What I do remember are the smells of that summer.  Two distinct smells.
    One was a tree or plant with a very strong scent; a nice scent.  The next time I smelled it was many years later, when walking along a suburban street.  I was instantly jolted back thirty something years.  I stopped in front of a garden, trying to work out which plant it was, but I couldn't.
    Then, a few years further on, a salesman in a shop was wearing a particular cologne or lotion, the other smell I particularly remembered and one I hadn't smelt since I was eight years old.  I recognised it instantly.  Once again, I was transported back and it was Christmastime.  I wish now I'd asked him what he was wearing.
    Those two smells are to me the smells of that Christmas in the 1960s.  I can't identify or describe them but I know them instantly.  That wonderful, memorable Christmas I think was the beginning of my love for the Yuletide season.

I've gotten a lot of flak over my love of Christmas.  Eyes will roll when I talk about decorations I've seen or bought; it's even been commented on that I have such a lot.  I don't mention things much anymore.  I wear earphones when playing my Christmas music, so as to not inflict it on anyone else.  Thanks to the Internet, there's a big selection of festive films to watch when I need that feel-good hit.  I belong to numerous on-line Christmas groups where people share their crafts, decor, pictures and memories.  I have Christmas sites and a private Facebook Christmas group.  I made it private so I don't have to put up with sarky comments from family and friends, under the guise of humour.  But a fig I do not give; my sites and groups give me pleasure.  I've written a Christmas poem, 'The Days of December' and a song, 'Antipodean Christmas (Christmas Past)' about the Christmases of my childhood.

While it's true I've always liked Christmastime, it's only in the last ten or so years I've started Christmas crafting and regularly sourcing decor and ornaments.  I remember buying a little brown scarf-wearing bear from a gift shop in the mid-1980s.  I think that was the first Christmassy decoration I ever bought and it hangs every year on my tree to this day.  In the 1980s I also bought little ceramic 'Avon' Christmas bottles - a white mouse and a white chick.  Every year still they are put out on display.
    This was in the days before the Internet and on-line auction sites.  If there were any shops that dealt exclusively in Christmas - apart from Kirkcaldie & Stains in Wellington in December - I didn't know of them.  I never shopped at Kirk's Christmas shop; I wasn't rich enough.  So I didn't buy any really and I never used to be that fussy about decorations because I had no idea what was "out there".  But now I am, fussy and aware!  My collection has grown a lot.  What I'm trying to do is gradually acquire good quality decorations and dispose of my less desirable ones.  What I like are traditional or quirky ornaments made of glass, metal, wood, plaster or ceramic.  I'll even buy papier mache or plastic, if I like what it is.  I like realistic-looking animals, not cute, squashy, glittered ones.  What I don't like is inflatables, too much bling, cartoon characters and caricatures.  I remember one year going into a large department store where I'd shopped for Christmas decorations before and being sorely disappointed.  Every single nutcracker was pastel-coloured and covered in bloody glitter.  I see what's available in America, England and greater Europe and am jealous.  We in New Zealand have bugger all variety/quality and if a shop should import some large pieces, they are priced exorbitantly.
    My oldest decoration and one of my favourites is a ceramic Santa head, made by Crown Lynn in the 1950s.  My father won two of them in a raffle.  For years they sat on a windowsill at home.  One got broken some time.  I don't remember being given the other one but I must've asked for it and have had it since my twenties.  A couple of years ago I bought another off Trade Me, so I could have two again.  I try and buy things in twos so I can leave one each to my children.  They are going to be so rapt!

Talking of the religious aspect of Christmas, a few years back I was hankering for a more 'traditional' festive season and really wanted to experience a church Christmas service, so I took my mother along to a Salvation Army citadel.  I am not a Christian and prefer the original meaning of the season, but I do love the carols and quite like the three wise men on their camels.  I was disappointed.  Yes, they sang some carols.  But that was it.  I didn't feel Christmas, and that's what I like about it - the feeling.

Christmas cosiness for me will always be about a northern hemisphere winter: open fires, roast dinners, snow, carollers wearing scarves, mittens & pom-pom hats, sleigh rides, lighted candles on windowsills, red-breasted Robins - everything we don't have.  But most of all it's about the thing we do have in common: the feeling made up of anticipation, joy, goodwill, togetherness and love.
    So that's the crux of it really.  Feeling.  Yes, I love red, green, gold and silver ornaments.  Yes, I love fragrant, decorated trees and fairy-lights.  Yes, I love Christmas music.  Yes, I love Christmas pies, pudding, cake and mulled wine.  I love to decorate my home with lights and ornaments, to make it a special place and time for my grandchildren.

Christmas short fiction

I like to read and write Christmas fiction.  The stories I've written thus far are:

'The Frog Prince' (2010)
'Mary Christmas' (2019)
'Holly Berry' (2020)
'A Christmas Girl from New Zealand' (2021)
'Her Happy Place' (2021)
'Special Delivery' (2021)
'Kindred Spirits' (2022)
'The Christmas Spirit' (2022)
'The Fat Lady Sings' (2022)
'Old Father Christmas' (2023)
'Closer to Christmas' (2024)
'The Dream' (2024)

I keep my Christmas short stories, prose and lyrics/music on a private site.  I am able to give permission to specific people to view the site.  I am happy to let people read them but before I do that, I need to know who you are.  If you'd like a sample, send me a message and we'll go from there 😊

Russell Ince's 'Christmas Imaginarium'

Based on the UK's Isle of Wight, the Christmas Imaginarium is a delight for Christmas lovers.  Russell also writes and beautifully illustrates his own Christmas books.  They do online orders and will post to New Zealand.

'The Night Before Christmas'

This poem/book, attributed to Clement C Moore, has long been on my wish-list to get.  It's now believed the poem was in fact written by Henry Livingston Jr.  Read about it here.

Christmas things that aren't

I have a real bee in my bonnet.  I love Christmas carols and songs that are actually about Christmas, no matter how dated or corny.

What annoys me tremendously are songs played at Christmastime and called Christmas songs, when they're blatantly not.  A bluesy song for example, with lyrics about having a sad Christmas because one's heart's been broken.  That is NOT a Christmas song but still it gets airplay year in and year out.

I wonder with some cynicism, whether song-writers put the word 'Christmas' in there just so their songs will get played at Christmas for ever more.  They won't be on my Christmas play-list, that's for sure.

Bah humbug.

My Christmas books

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Best-loved Stories and Carols, illustrated by Donna Green (opp shop)

A CHRISTMAS GARLAND
A New Zealand Christmas Album, 1642-1900 by Shirley Maddock & Michael Easther (Trade Me)

A NEW ZEALAND CHRISTMAS
Three Centuries of Kiwi Christmas Celebrations from the Alexander Turnbull Library by Sarah Ell (Trade Me)

THE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS
Customs, Ceremonies, Traditions, Superstitions and Festivities of the Christmas Season by Thomas K Hervey (Trade Me)

CHRISTMAS, A Biography
by Judith Flanders (Trade Me)

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Long attributed to Clement C Moore, it's now believed the poem was in fact written by Henry Livingston Jr.

THE CHRISTMAS IMAGINARIUM (Isle of Wight) 2022 catalogue

The demise of the Christmas card

These days I don't get that many Christmas cards and I lament their loss.  I still buy them for my 'special people', people that I know appreciate receiving them, or will one day.
     I'm sure one of the reasons is the cost of postage, in New Zealand at least.  The only other reason I can see for the sad demise of cards is it's a generation thing.  Young people don't send cards; end of.
     One day they may regret that.  Every now and then I will get out my cards of old, reading the words written by people no longer here.  Those people chose those cards, held them in their hands.  They wrote my name and theirs.  They chose to give them to me.  Often those cards are all I have left of them.
     As a family researcher I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to leave something behind, something tangible that descendants can touch.  Something personal; something precious.
     This year, send a card 💕

My favourite films

Hallmark films are very good value.  Whilst most have a 'romance' element, there is the odd exception.

These are the films I enjoy the most, in no particular order -

• A Godwink Christmas (2018)
• Angel of Christmas (2015)
• Christmas in Evergreen -- Tidings of Joy (2019)
• Christmas Story (2007, sub-titles)
• Jack Frost (1998)
• Miracle on 34th Street (with Richard Attenborough) (1994)
• Much Ado About Christmas (2021)
• Noelle (2019)
• Northpole Open for Christmas (2015)
• One Magic Christmas (1985)
• Santa Claus (1985)
• The Christmas Card (2006)
• The Christmas Chronicles 1 (2018)
• The Christmas Ornament (2013)
• The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (with Henry Winkler) (2008)
• The Polar Express (2004)

New Zealand's Christmas tree

The magnificent Pohutukawa trees with their bright red blooms, more common in coastal areas of northern New Zealand, flower every summer at Christmastime.  This fine specimen is at Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast in Wellington

More info. from New Zealand's Department of Conservation

'All Things Christmas' podcasts

These 'Christmas Past' podcasts from ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS make for fascinating listening.  "...Christmas Past is one of the longest-running podcasts about Christmas. Since 2016, Brian Earl has told the fascinating stories behind our favorite holiday's traditions and shared Christmas memories from listeners around the world..."

You can listen to -

• Stories
• People's Christmas memories
• Backstories about things Christmas 
• Christmas specials