Friday, 18 December 2020

Uncanny Christmas Tales – (020) A Winter’s Tale

It was in sixteenth century Germany, or so the legend has it, in a town called Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt.

That the founder of the protestant church, Martin Luther, was the first to decorate a Christmas tree with lighted candles.

Apparently when he was walking home through the forest one dark and frosty winter’s night, his attention was drawn to the myriad of bright stars that he could see sparkling and twinkling through the branches of the trees.

The beauty of the nights display had a great effect on him, and he proceeded home very excited.

When he arrived home he relayed to his family what he had seen and what had excited him so and almost immediately he set about decorating his Christmas tree with candles and then to his families surprise he lit them.

Goodness only knows what his family thought, possibly that he was possessed, and what of the other people in the town, what did they think of him and his antics?

It probably caused as much consternation than the reformation.

Thursday, 17 December 2020

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS # 34

 

Twas the night before Christmas

And all thru the caravan

Not a creature was stirring

Which wasn’t the plan

But the camp site was flooded

So that was the reason

And would be out of action

For the festive season

THE SNOWMAN WORE A SMILE

 The Snowman wore a smile

And was quietly humming

Because he knew that soon

The snowblower was coming

CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE NORTH POLE

 Christmas Eve at the North Pole

Under moonlit skies

Creeping around the Village

Are the Mince spies

WHEN HE ONLY RECEIVED BATTERIES

 When he only received batteries

His enthusiasm was muted

But there was a handwritten note

Which read “Toys not included”

PUZZLED AUNTY

 

Bimbette wouldn’t buy

Her niece a jigsaw

For Christmas, even though

She’d asked for it before

It was because it was labelled

6-8 years

So not finishing it in the two week

Holiday was her fear

Uncanny Christmas Tales – (016) Christmas Wrap

 

When I was a kid and it came time for the “oldies” to open their presents I was always amazed by the fuss they would make about the wrapping paper.

They would first admire it then they would caress it tenderly and then they would gingerly begin to unwrap the gift, and once unwrapped they would inexplicably set aside the present while they carefully folded the wrapping paper so it could be used again the following year, and then and only then would they turn their full attention on the gift, and then this ritual would be repeated with each subsequent present and would be performed by all of the oldies.

As a child I was confused and quite frankly didn’t understand why they didn’t tear the paper to shreds like the rest of us.

Looking back, I can only assume that this was as a result of having been through the hard times, the depression of the thirties, the shortages of the war years and the austerity of the fifties.

My mum would go through the whole ritual and would carefully tuck her pile of wrapping paper, bows and ribbons, away in the sideboard draw “Ready for next year”.

Come the next year and the fabulous treasures which had been so thoughtfully secreted away were nowhere to be seen, only new rolls of wrapping paper, packs of bows and reels of ribbons.

So, I think to myself sanity has been restored this year it will be about the presents not what they were wrapped in.

But no, on Christmas day it’s the same ritual all over again.