Charles Wesley (1707-1788), younger brother of Methodist preacher John Wesley, is the author of this famous Christmas carol. 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...
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...
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...
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...
A Regency Era Christmas centered on food and dining with family, much as it does today. For the dinner entrée, the cook would include goose, pheasant, venison, or a beef haunch. Turkeys and other foul might be served, but not as the main meat focal point. If fortunate they would...
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night” ~Luke 2:8 Unlike most Christmas carols, the origins of Silent Night are rooted in well-established facts AND steeped in dramatized legend. The Facts: Father Joseph Mohr (1792-1848), a young priest in the parish church at...
Food historians tell us the practice of serving large, stuffed fowl for Christmas is like many other Christian holiday food traditions in that the idea was borrowed from earlier cultural traditions. Peacocks, swans, geese, duck, pheasant, guinea fowl, and turkeys have topped the list for centuries. The larger the bird,...
In the United States, turkey as a holiday dinner meat is associated most strongly with Thanksgiving. However, Christmas runs a close second. In my family tradition, glazed ham with fresh cloves has forever been our dinner choice, turkey the special treat for Thanksgiving. Whether choosing turkey for either or both...
The earliest published Christmas menu dates from 1660, the year of Charles II’s restoration to the throne. The Accomplisht Cook was written by Robert May, an English chef who trained in France and cooked for nobility throughout his life. This remarkable document includes a section titled “A bill of fare for Christmas...
Most years I share live performance videos which are my favorites. Topping the list in the contemporary recording artist list is the a-cappella group Pentatonix. Personally, I think they are phenomenally talented and their harmonizing never fails to elicit goosebumps and send chills up my spine. My favorite Pentatonix performance...
According to history, in Roquemaure, a small town in southern France, at the end of the year 1843, the parish church organ had been renovated. To celebrate the event, the priest asked town wine merchant and poet Placide Cappeau to write a Christmas poem, even though the latter never showed an interest...
In 1988 the movie Die Hard starring Bruce Willis and the late great Alan Rickman was released. Surprisingly, considering the later hoopla, it was NOT released over the Christmas holiday but rather on July 15. Being fans of action flicks, we saw the movie in the theater and loved it....
In the decades since folks in Hollywood began making movies, a certain number have been specific for the Christmas season. Up until the recent two or three decades, defining a “Christmas” movie was relatively straight forward. It had to be set during the holiday season, of course, usually involved some...
In 1741 George Frideric Handel wrote Messiah, his greatest musical creation, at the age of 56 in a single wild writing jag lasting 24 days. According to Newman Flower’s George Frideric Handel: His Personality and His Times: “He (Handel) completed the first part in seven days, the second part in...
The insertion of an X into the word CHRISTMAS (in place of the word “Christ”) has long been a controversial topic. Most folks presume that the change is a sacrilegious gesture, the common saying “taking Christ out of Christmas” familiar to all of us. Until my own research into historical facts,...
