Stocking Stuffers # 6

OH MY PRETTY LITTLE ELFIN FACED GIRL (PART ONE)

Oh my pretty little elfin faced girl
In green woolly tights and pixie shoes
I’ve admired you from a distance
Where your smile melts away my blues

I watched you bloom in the spring
And bask in the warm summer glow
Then dressed in russet colours of autumn
And all the year I’ve felt my love grow

Now winter is here and Christmas is near
Oh how I long to kiss your sweet lips so
Oh my pretty little elfin faced girl
I pray I meet you beneath the mistletoe

MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS GIFT

My favourite Christmas gift
Costs nothing it’s free
It’s the overflowing gift of joy
I get from my family

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS # 7

Twas the night before Christmas and all thru the Hotel
There were creatures emitting a terrible smell
And the cause of the awful pungent aroma
Was an octogenarian party from Cromer

BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY # 6

On Christmas day 1908 Quentin Crisp, gay author and activist for homosexuals was born while fellow author Carlos Castaneda arrived in 1925.
Rod Serling scriptwriter and the host of The Twilight Zone was born Christmas day 1924 and in 1913 it was Henri Nannen, journalist and publisher.

SANTA SHOWS THE WAY

Several years ago in a small town in Pennsylvania a paramedic responded to help a motorist who had suffered a heart attack.
When he arrived on scene he noticed a man in a Santa suit directing traffic around the area of the incident.
He later discovered it was a firefighter who had been playing Santa at a children's party and came upon the accident on his way home.

CHRISTMAS PASSED

I miss my dad, I miss my mum
And my brother now he’s gone
But though we are forever apart
They live on still in my heart
Through every special memory
Of the time they shared with me
So although they have gone away
They will be with me on Christmas day

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – JOYEUX NOËL

Joyeux Noël portrays a small part of the historic events of Christmas Eve 1914 when numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the French, German and British front-line soldiers of the conflict met peacefully in No Man's Land.
The film shines a light on the rare window of peace when men met to share a precious pause in the hostilities to exchange mementoes and sing Christmas songs.
The short respite when humanity briefly returned to the battle scarred land was soon at an end but this film portrays events beautifully.

GANNA

Christmas in Ethiopia is known as Ganna and as the orthodox Ethiopian church uses the old Julian calendar and is celebrated on January 7th.
The most spiritual place experience a traditional Ganna is in Lalibela, which was built by King Lalibela in the 12th century as Ethiopia's own Jerusalem.
Pilgrims travel for days to attend colorful Ganna ceremonies in one of the thirteen ancient churches carved from solid volcanic rock.
In the rest of the country and particularly in the capital Addis Adaba the celebration takes place in modern churches that are designed in three concentric circles.
Men and boys have to sit separately from the girls and the women and the choir sings from the outside circle.
As the People enter the churches they receive candles and after lighting them everyone walks around the church three times.
Once people take their places they then stand throughout the mass, which can last as long as three hours

FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SONG # 26 - HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Despite the general awfulness of the Christmas song there are however always exceptions to the rule and I have a short list of personal favourites
Without exception all my choices not only include the song but the best performer of that song and so in no particular order here is my twenty sixth selection.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Written By Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane
Performed By Judy Garland

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be
Out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
Next year all our troubles will be
Miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon, we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

TWO THOUSAND YEARS HAVE PASSED

Two thousand years have passed
Since you died on that cross of pain
Dying for our salvation
Which began your holy reign

Two thousand years have passed
And when Christmas comes again
We will celebrate the day of you birth
Which began your holy reign

TASKING

Folklore surrounding St Lucia suggests that unfinished tasks should be completed by St Lucia’s day such as the grain from the year's harvest should be threshed and all spinning, weaving, cleaning and decorating.

CHRISTMAS PIG

In preparation for Christmas farmers slaughter the Christmas pig on St. Lucy's Day.

GROTTOS GO LEGAL

Santa’s little helpers, the first contacts,
Have all been given revised contracts
They will be known by the Santa Claus’s
From this year on as subordinate clauses

TOMTEN

The Victor Rydberg poem, "Tomten," is always read at the Lucia Fest of the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.

FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS CAROL # 17 IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Written by Edmund Sears

From heavens all gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace, their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

NORTHERN LIGHTS

We have just learned
Candles may not be burned
In Santa’s workshop
The practise has to stop
A spokesman claims
That elfin safety is to blame

SEASONAL GREETINGS FROM THE PACIFIC

Hawaii
Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou
New Zealand (Maori)
Meri Kirihimete
Papua New Guinea
Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu
Philippines
Maligayan Pasko
Philippines (Tagalog)
Maligayamg Pasko
Masaganang Bagong Taon
Samoa
La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou

ON CHRISTMAS DAY 1901

The Boers launched a surprise attack against the British forces in the Orange-Free state at the Battle at Tweefontein.

CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE WORKHOUSE # 2

It’s Christmas day in the workhouse
In a typical parish establishment
Full of the inebriated and the loose
She we should have a Christmas goose

DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN?

What would you call a man?
With a big belly and no dress sense
Who never replies to your letters
A man that’s too lazy to shave
And is obsessed with stockings,
Who can only be relied upon for one day a year
Will never stop to ask for directions
A man who only owns one suit
Never gets you the present you asked for
And needs to be rewarded with food and drink
Oh and always leaves the dirty dishes
Well what do you think? Could be any man alive eh?
So what would you call this man?
I would call him Santa