Wednesday Reading Meme
Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Forever Christmas, an account of Christmas at Tasha Tudor’s Corgiville Cottage, with absolutely luscious pictures of Tudor making the yearly Advent wreath (hung from the ceiling with crimson satin ribbons from her parents’ wedding!), decorating gingerbread cookies for the tree (cut fresh from the forest and lit with candles), dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh…
Just gorgeous. Two of my life dreams are to ride in a sleigh and see a Christmas tree actually lit with candles.
And I popped back to the archives for Katherine Milhous’s The First Christmas Crib, which is not (as I expected) an account of Jesus’s birth, but rather a recounting of the first Christmas creche, created by Saint Francis of Assisi. Older Christmas picture books tend to be more religious than the newer ones, which probably shouldn’t surprise me but does slightly, just because overall the older Newbery books were not particularly religious. Christmas books were the last outpost for a rearguard action, perhaps.
What I’m Reading Now
Ruth Sawyer’s holiday story collection The Long Christmas, illustrated by our friend Valenti Angelo of Newbery fame. The book was first published in 1941, and although Sawyer doesn’t directly reference the war in the introduction, she is very conscious of the need for a light in the darkness, a repetition of the message “peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then the first story is about Satan rising in the fields of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth, intent on storming the stable and killing the baby messiah, but his evil plan is thwarted when the archangel Michael descends from heaven and vanquishes him in pitched battle.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve got my eyes on Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.
Forever Christmas, an account of Christmas at Tasha Tudor’s Corgiville Cottage, with absolutely luscious pictures of Tudor making the yearly Advent wreath (hung from the ceiling with crimson satin ribbons from her parents’ wedding!), decorating gingerbread cookies for the tree (cut fresh from the forest and lit with candles), dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh…
Just gorgeous. Two of my life dreams are to ride in a sleigh and see a Christmas tree actually lit with candles.
And I popped back to the archives for Katherine Milhous’s The First Christmas Crib, which is not (as I expected) an account of Jesus’s birth, but rather a recounting of the first Christmas creche, created by Saint Francis of Assisi. Older Christmas picture books tend to be more religious than the newer ones, which probably shouldn’t surprise me but does slightly, just because overall the older Newbery books were not particularly religious. Christmas books were the last outpost for a rearguard action, perhaps.
What I’m Reading Now
Ruth Sawyer’s holiday story collection The Long Christmas, illustrated by our friend Valenti Angelo of Newbery fame. The book was first published in 1941, and although Sawyer doesn’t directly reference the war in the introduction, she is very conscious of the need for a light in the darkness, a repetition of the message “peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then the first story is about Satan rising in the fields of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth, intent on storming the stable and killing the baby messiah, but his evil plan is thwarted when the archangel Michael descends from heaven and vanquishes him in pitched battle.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve got my eyes on Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-03 08:37 pm (UTC)That's hardcore.
(The most Christian-mythos poem I ever wrote involved the Devil coming by for Christmas, but it did not involve archangelic battle.)
no subject
Date: 2025-12-03 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-03 10:49 pm (UTC)(I say "he" because my parents have had separate Christmas trees for as long as I can remember, due to significant differences in Christmas tree aesthetics. Dad, as mentioned, wants to load the tree with anything and everything to create a Victorian extravaganza of color, and he wants a big tree but doesn't care that much if it's real or artificial. Mom has a set color palette and aesthetic -- wood, straw, red, strings of wooden "cranberries" painted red, white lights only, lots of handcrafted and Scandinavian stuff -- and only buys ornaments she really loves, and very much cares that it be a real tree. They tried having a shared tree for the first couple of years, I'm told, but then Mom bought maybe 1-2 new ornaments and Dad bought a lot more, and the half-and-half balance shifted rapidly. So when I was a kid, Dad would have a huge artificial tree in the living room, and Mom a much smaller one in the dining room. When we moved to Vermont, they started both buying real trees from the tree farm down the road, but kept the separate decorating schemes. Now that they're elderly, they just get one tree, but they alternate years. It delights me, I have to admit.)
I've never ridden in a sleigh, and I share your dream. It just sounds so magical!
no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 01:09 pm (UTC)In my researches into the candlelit Christmas tree dream, I've learned that the secrets to not burning the house down seem to be:
1. The candle holders need to be weighted on the bottom so they will not flop over and set things alight.
2. The tree should have a VERY sturdy base AND ALSO be attached to either the walls or ceiling to ensure IT does not flop over and set things alight.
3. You only light the candles ONCE, traditionally on Christmas Eve although obviously the Tudor family innovated to the evening of Christmas day.
4. The tree must be FRESH, preferably cut down within the last two days, so it is still full of sap and will not burn even if you try.
5. And you keep a bucket full of water on standby in case all these precautions fail.
This is an awful lot of precautions to fulfill, so the sleigh ride dream is probably more manageable all around. Someday I will ride in a horse-drawn sleigh!
no subject
Date: 2025-12-06 03:21 pm (UTC)candles
Date: 2025-12-04 01:54 am (UTC)Re: candles
Date: 2025-12-04 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 08:56 am (UTC)Then the first story is about Satan rising in the fields of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth, intent on storming the stable and killing the baby messiah, but his evil plan is thwarted when the archangel Michael descends from heaven and vanquishes him in pitched battle.
Okay, that is a LOT. WWII influence indeed!
no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 10:07 am (UTC)Then the first story is about Satan rising in the fields of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth, intent on storming the stable and killing the baby messiah, but his evil plan is thwarted when the archangel Michael descends from heaven and vanquishes him in pitched battle.
Oh my god, haha! That's so much.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-06 03:19 pm (UTC)Okay, I'm laughing and laughing. I'm imagining a Darth Vader voice saying, "Your religion origin story is Boring. It lacks Action. Let's see how we can ... improve on it."
(Also: I think my mother-in-law gave us that First Christmas Crib picture book when my kids were young.)
I too would enjoy a ride in a sleigh! (and have never experienced one.)
no subject
Date: 2025-12-07 06:47 pm (UTC)Someday, we'll all find the opportunity for a sleigh ride. Someday!!
no subject
Date: 2025-12-08 10:22 pm (UTC)You are a reader after my own heart. I thought I was the only person who gorged on holiday stories.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-09 02:30 pm (UTC)