A BELL RINGER GOT THE BELL ROPE

 

A Bell ringer got the bell rope

Tangled around his thigh

And as a result, he caught

His ding dong merrily on high

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE BISHOP'S WIFE (1947)

 

Directed by Henry Koster, the Christmas classic, The Bishop's Wife, tells the tale of an Episcopal Bishop, Henry Brougham played by David Niven, who has been working for months on the plans for a new cathedral, paid for by a selfish and stubborn widow Mrs. Hamilton, (Gladys Cooper).

As a result he begins to lose sight of his wife, Julia, (Loretta Young) and daughter Debbie (Karolyn Grimes) and of why he joined the church in the first place, so Dudley, an angel in human form, played by Cary Grant, is sent to help him, with the task of building a new cathedral and repairing his fractured marriage.

Dudley help’s everyone he meets, but not always in the way they would have chosen, nonetheless everyone liked Dudley, with the exception of Henry.
As Christmas approaches Henry begins to believe that Dudley is there to replace him, at work, and in his family’s affections.

He even manages to affect his maid Matilda (Elsa Lanchester) and Secretary Mildred Cassaway (Sara Haden).

Even the cynical old atheist family friend Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley) falls under his spell, eventually, but Dudley must be careful not to become too fond of earthly distractions.

It’s a gem of a movie which can be appreciated any time of year and has many memorable scenes but my favourite is when Sylvester, the taxi driver (James Gleason) befriends Julia and Dudley and they go ice skating in the park, in fact the sequence is one of the best things you’ll see in many a film, enjoy.

I WAS PUNCHING BUTTONS ALL DAY

 

I was punching Buttons all day

But I got the sack though

Which was a little disappointing

Because I liked doing Panto

MICROSOFT ADVENT CALENDAR

 

I got a Microsoft Advent Calendar

This year, but if you should open

Too many Windows, They will,

For no apparent reason all close again

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – FAREWELL MR KRINGLE

 

Anna Walls (Christine Taylor), a sceptical magazine writer who is assigned to chronicle the 50th anniversary of Kris Kringle (William Morgan Sheppard) in the town of Mistletoe.

The town in fact wasn’t always called Mistletoe it was originally Summertown but it was such a Christmas town the inhabitants renamed it.

Mistletoe’s Santa Claus is hanging up his hat After 50 years (don’t panic he’s not THE Santa Claus) and Anna Walls is assigned to see what makes him tick.

This is complicated by the fact that because of a personal tragedy in her life Anna is a nonbeliever, not only in Santa but Christmas itself.

So slowly through her interactions with the townspeople, in particular Mark Stafford (Christopher Wiehl), Anna quickly discovers how much Kris Kringle means to the small town, and how much Christmas means to Kris Kringle.

But through her investigations will Anna recapture her Christmas spirit? That is the big question.

Well, it is Christmas after all.

THE ST STEPHEN’S DAY MASSACRE

The Wren is a bird with a rather unfortunate connection to Christmas.

There is an old Irish legend that claims that when St Stephen was imprisoned, he would have made good his escape had it not been for the chirping of the Wrens.

As a result, from that day forward in Ireland every St Stephen’s day, December 26^th, in a ceremony called “the Wren massacre” Wrens were stoned to death.

Since the 1920’s the custom has thankfully died out.

ILLUMINATING THE CHRISTMAS TREE

 

The practice of using small candles to decorate Christmas tree’s is said to date back to the middle of the 17th century in Germany.

However, it was to be 150 years before the custom became firmly established.

In the beginning the candles were made of tallow, derived from animal fat, which gave off equal amounts of smoke and odor.

There was also the risk of the tree catching fire although tree’s were normally cut fresh of Christmas eve and therefore more difficult to ignite however a bucket of water always stood by the tree just in case.

The first candles were glued to the branches with wax but eventually candleholders appeared and then an American called Frederick Artz invented a candle holder made of tin with a tray to catch the drips of wax and a spring clip to attach it to the branch.

A Christmas tree was lit by electricity for the first time in New York in 1882 when Edward Johnson, a colleague of Thomas Edison, lit a Christmas tree with a string of 80 small electric light bulbs which he had made himself.

As the bulbs were all handmade, they were two expensive to be commercially viable however by 1900 some large stores put up large illuminated trees to attract customers.

It was in 1903 when The Every Ready Company of New York began to make strings of 28 lights which cost the equivalent of a week’s wages.

It wasn’t until 1927 when the General Electric Company of America produced strings of miniature bulbs like we get today.