Merry Christmas to all my wonderful, faithful readers and friends! I love meaningful quotes. Whether serious, inspirational, poetic, literary, or humorous, the well-crafted sentiments from clever people of the past are a joy to read. After the chaos of Christmas morning present opening wanes and the mess is cleaned, grab a mug of hot beverage,… Continue Reading
I doubt any of these words associated with the Christmas season are unfamiliar, but often the meanings and origins of even the most common words can be fascinating and surprising. At least to me, an avowed vocabulary nut! Read on for Christmas fun facts and knowledge (Additional fuel to dazzle your holiday guests!) Advent The… Continue Reading
I love Christmas and I love The Muppets! The late, great John Denver on the original The Muppets show. A terrific rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – The Muppets Christmas Song. Mindy Kaling joins The Muppets for their Christmas group number! The Muppets spread… Continue Reading
What Child is This? was written by William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898), the manager of an insurance company in Glasgow. In 1865, when only 29 years of age, Dix was struck with a near fatal illness and consequently suffered months confined to his bed. During this time, he read the Bible comprehensively and underwent a spiritual renewal that… Continue Reading
As my writing and publishing timeline moved on past the first three novels in The Darcy Saga, the timeline of events for the characters began to overlap in unusual ways. What do I mean? In early in 2010, just as I finished In the Arms of Mr. Darcy, my publisher requested a Christmas/Pride & Prejudice-themed… Continue Reading
CAUTION: Whenever looking into the past, we must remember the changes in values, ideas, and lifestyle over the course of time. Keeping that reality in mind, I’ve gathering a bunch of Christmas advertisements from decades past, and some not all that long ago, which to our modern eyes are questionable at best. These samplings run… Continue Reading
In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered — flushed, but smiling proudly — with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. – Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol All of us, I presume, are familiar with the image… Continue Reading
According to Clement Clark Moore, sugar-plums are so special that of all the possible delights a child might dream of, they top the list. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads… So what exactly are these “sugar-plums” dancing in dreamland? At first glance the “sugar”… Continue Reading
As my readers already know, the first three novels in The Darcy Saga series moved very slowly in time, covering the first year of Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy ended as the winter of 1816 turned into 1817 with spring budding on the horizon and Lizzy expecting their first baby. Loving… Continue Reading
Decorating with Evergreen— Placing boughs of evergreens into the house is a practice dating to ancient times and present in numerous cultures for various reasons signifying life, prosperity, good luck, and so on. Church records dating to the 7th century tie evergreen boughs and trees to religious symbolism. Martin Luther is commonly attributed with the… Continue Reading
The Darcy Saga novels detail roughly five years of Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage. When writing a saga-type series recounting the day-by-day and month-by-month events of life, it is inevitable to include scenes from several Christmas celebrations. Additionally, my novella A Darcy Christmas is ALL about my favorite holiday. I suppose it is fair to say… Continue Reading
Author: Charles Wesley (1707-1788), younger brother of John Wesley. Charles was a hymn writer and a poet, also known as one of the people who began the Methodist movement in the Church of England. Hark the Herald Angels Sing was composed specifically as a “hymn for Christmas day” and appeared in 1739 in a book called… Continue Reading
Santa Claus, tinsel on trees, Frosty the Snowman, reindeer pulling a sleigh… These are a few of the current Christmas images we are familiar with in the US. What about yule logs, a boar’s head, community wassail bowls, a king of misrule, mince meat pies, and figgy pudding? Rarely are these traditions seen here in… Continue Reading
The general opinion is that wassailing is all about the apples and/or an ancient pagan ritual. Neither is true, but the origins are interesting nevertheless. Earliest traces are to a simple Anglo-Saxon/Old Norse toast — Waes Hael! — which translates to “be hale!” To this wish for good health, a fellow drinker would respond, Drinc Hael! As may… Continue Reading
A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly know today as ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore was written in 1822 and published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823. He would not claim to be the author until 1844 and there has been some speculation that Henry Livingston… Continue Reading
