Have a holly jolly Christmas,
It’s the best time of the year.
I don’t know if there’ll be snow,
But have a cup of cheer. – Johnny Marks
Since y’all seemed to enjoy my Halloween favorites column, I thought a companion piece for Christmas would be in order. Though it’s only my second favorite holiday, it’s my husband’s favorite and since it is the world’s most popular celebration the activities are extended for a much longer time and there’s a lot more “stuff” to choose from for this list. For me, Halloween and Christmas are the two high points of a long festive season which begins with the autumnal equinox and ends with Mardi Gras, with a sort of encore at Easter. But the stretch of time between Halloween and Christmas Eve, by virtue of being bookended by my two favorite days in all the year, is the best.
My Favorite Christmas Songs
Some people love Christmas music, and some hate it; I react to it as I react to nearly any music, loving some and hating some and tolerating the rest. I don’t like sappy or overly sentimental songs, nor those in the “wink wink, nudge nudge” school such as “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”; bad and/or forced rhyming irritates me in any song, which is why I have a strong aversion for “Winter Wonderland” (bluebird/new bird and snowman/“No, man”; really?) And the only Beach Boys song I hate more than the grating “Little Saint Nick” is the truly execrable “Kokomo”. Among traditional Christmas carols my favorites are those in minor keys: “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” and “Carol of the Bells” are especial favorites, as is the haunting “Veni, Veni”, (performed here in both English and the original Latin by one of my favorite artists, Enya). Of modern Christmas songs, my hands-down favorite is “Holly Jolly Christmas” performed by the inimitable Burl Ives:
My Favorite Christmas Shows
The video above contains clips from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, one of the earliest Christmas specials from the “Golden Age” of such presentations in the 1960s and ‘70s. It’s among my favorites, though it’s exceeded in my estimation by “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” from the same producers, an origin story which depicts the young Santa Claus as a libertarian who holds that people have the right and duty to disobey stupid laws:
But of all the stand-alone shows and special episodes of series, my absolute favorite has to be “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, as those of you who remember “My Favorite Short Films” had probably already guessed. Chuck Jones was better at translating Dr. Seuss’ bizarre whimsy into animation than any other director, the choices of Boris Karloff as narrator and Thurl Ravenscroft as singer of the Grinch song were nothing short of inspired, and Seuss’ words, silly as they are, presented the meaning and moral of the story without spelling it out in words of one syllable.
My Favorite Christmas Movies
There are probably hundreds of Christmas movies, a number of which are regarded as classics. But while I do enjoy It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, there are only two without which my holiday season would be incomplete. One of these, which we watch every Christmas Eve, is the Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol; though it does have a few flaws it’s the only version of the story in which I can see Scrooge as a completely real person, and his conversion as both natural and believable. The other is A Christmas Story, which I had never even heard of before I met my husband. It’s one of his favorites and soon became one of mine; in fact, it’s usually the film which kicks off our Yuletide viewing season. The plot is very simple: a young boy in the late 1930s schemes to get a BB gun for Christmas. But that brief description does the film absolutely no justice; in fact, no description I could write could do so. Do yourself a favor: just see it. Trust me.
My Yuletide Schedule
Regular readers know that I am a creature of habit, and like to do things on a very regular schedule (as long as I get to set that schedule myself). I generally start thinking about Christmas presents in June or July, keeping my eyes open for fun little “stocking stuffers” and even for full presents; this year my husband found the perfect gift for one of our friends way back in March, and it sat in my secret gift stash until I wrapped it a few weeks ago. Once Halloween is over the stores all put up their Christmas displays these days, completely ignoring Thanksgiving; I refuse to acknowledge this premature celebration, beginning only on the traditional American date, the day after Thanksgiving. That’s the date on which we tromp off into the forest, find a suitable tree, and bring it home to decorate. That day or the next we do our Christmas cards and I prepare soup stock:
Stock: 4 quarts (liters) water; 10 chicken bouillon cubes; ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) each salt and pepper; ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml) each thyme, sage and MSG; 1 teaspoon (5 ml) each tarragon, paprika and granulated garlic. Combine all ingredients in large stock pot, add turkey carcass (after removing as much remaining meat as you can) plus neck and giblets. Bring to boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer until all the meat has fallen from the bones, stirring occasionally and pulling the bones out as they become clean (you’ll probably have to pick bits of meat from them by hand as you go). Once all the bones are out remove from heat, allow stock to cool and ladle it into quart (liter)-sized containers. If using glass jars, make sure you leave expansion space before freezing or else they will break. It takes a few days for one of these to thaw in the refrigerator, a few hours at room temperature.
Soup: 1 jar stock; 2 quarts (liters) water; 5 chicken bouillon cubes; ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml) each salt & pepper; 1/8 teaspoon (0.625 ml) each thyme, sage & MSG; ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) each tarragon, paprika & granulated garlic. Combine all ingredients in large stock pot, bring to boil over medium-high heat, then add 2 cups (500 ml) of egg noodles, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
I of course do this again on Boxing Day with the remains of the Christmas turkey; on New Years’ Day we generally have ham (saving the bone for split pea soup later in the week). All of the feasts are accompanied by traditional side dishes and homemade bread, with seasonal desserts (and yes, I render my own pumpkin from the Halloween jack-o-lantern and make my own mince meat, too). It’s a lot of work for one woman, but I take housewifery as seriously as I took harlotry. Christmas Eve and New Years’ Eve meals vary, but the days after those feasts are always leftovers. Sometimes we open one present each on Christmas Eve, but that varies; one thing that doesn’t is that the tree stands until King Day, when we have our first king cake of the season.
My Favorite Christmas Foods
Beside the stuffed turkey, candied yams, corn pudding, mince meat pie and plum pudding of the Christmas dinner, the season is full of delicious foods. Just after Thanksgiving I make two fruitcakes so they’ll have time to age, and during Yuletide I generally prepare panettone several times (it’s an Italian brioche flavored with orange and nutmeg, which my husband loves); then in the week before the holiday I make cookies, fudge and other treats so as to make up tins for all the people we regularly do business with. But none of these are my favorites, though I do enjoy all of them; of all the foods usually associated with the season I would have to say my own favorites are spiced Christmas teas, gingerbread (I sometimes make a house), fruit and chocolate combinations, those Danish butter cookies that come in tins and egg nog, especially that made by our local dairy.
Even though I am not a Christian, my favorite Christmas song has to be “Adeste Fideles” (Oh Come All Ye Faithful) performed by Luciano Pavarotti.
I LOVE Fruitcake! 🙂
As far as Christmas music … Chuck Berry and the sound of his ES-350T always makes me smile …
Best Christmas movie is The Man Who Came to Dinner. A great song is Candlelight Carol by John Rutter.
Not anyway my favourite, but “Dinner for One” has been religiously shown every Christmas/New Year on TV in much of Europe for around four decades. It’s unknown in the UK. There are lots of alternative versions, this is the original — which is shown without subtitles or dubbing:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is tradition for our family. We’ve watched it every year sine I was very young.
Simply good business practice for a professional. *rimshot* 🙂
For holiday treats, I have quite a weakness for my mother’s Peanut Butter Balls
My favorite Christmas song was always “O Holy Night”, possibly for personal reasons. As a kid, I was one of the few in the Atlanta Boy Choir who could hit the high notes of the beautiful upper first soprano line. And, of course, Handel’s Messiah is amazing.
Maggie, we’re going to find a rare of point of disagreement: I don’t much care for “A Christmas Story”. There are parts I like and it is very quotable. But, for some reason, it turned me off the first time I saw it and I’ve never really warmed to it. The Stewart Christmas Carol is good. I recently saw the Zemeckis CGI one, which was … not. But my favorite is probably the Doctor Who Christmas Carol they did a few years ago, which was wonderful.
I also thoroughly enjoy Veni, Veni (O Come, O Come, Emanuel) as well as Ave Maria, Adeste Fideles, and Carol of the Bells. I was in a lyrical choir in college for two years and obviously, we sang A LOT of Latin, so song in Latin makes me happy. But both songs are also just a beautiful and, yes, haunting. I also second Hal’s vote for Handel’s Messiah.
No tree this year, but I will have my decorations up until King’s Day. Twelfth Night is my birthday and my nephew’s birthday is December 3rd so what my family does now is decorate on his birthday and take down the decorations the day after mine.
What gets me down at Christmas is the anti-capitalism presented in stories such as A Christmas Carol. Thus my favorite Christmas-themed film is the one that sends-up that genre, the one we never see on TV at this time of year but ought to: Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie.
“There are two S’s in Christmas, and they’re both dollar signs!”
I have never understood why so many people see “A Christmas Carol” as anti-capitalist; it most certainly is not. Dickens himself was a successful businessman, and both Fezziwig and the post-conversion Scrooge are successful businessmen who are painted quite positively. I imagine the problem is the American “all or nothing” mentality; because the story criticizes a greedy, mean, unprincipled man for whom commercial success is the ONLY goal in life, they think it is criticizing the principle of capitalism itself, which it is not. In the last line of the story we are told Scrooge became a better employer and used his money constructively instead of merely hoarding it; I can’t see any good libertarian disagreeing that this is a positive ending.
My ringtone is set to “you’re a mean one Mr. Grinch” for the season.
Bah! Humbug!
Kris Kringle a libertarian, huh? It’s been a few years since I’ve watched it all the way through, but I don’t remember a word about taxes, the market, or the proper size of government. I’m guessing that wherever one is politically, one can easily cast Kris as one of your own and the Burgermeister Meisterburger as one of those who are NOT your own.
I like the hymnal stuff, the traditional stuff, and the upbeat poppy new stuff. Some I like more than others. I like “O Holy Night” a great deal when it’s done well. I’ve heard some truly awful renditions. “Silent Night” is beautiful in every language I’ve heard it in so far. I’ve quipped that it would be beautiful in Klingon, though I’ve yet to confirm this. The only Christmas songs I avoid like the plague are the ones which try to be cool by being snarky, cynical, etc. “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” is a perfect example of this. I might not care for some of the others, but they don’t piss me off.
A Christmas Story. Yeah. Laura keeps trying to get me to watch this thing, but judging from everything I’ve ever seen of it this is exactly the sort of thing I don’t want to see, especially associated with something I enjoy. I guess I’ll eventually break down and see it (after all, she gave Sailor Moon a try), but my first viewing of it* won’t be anywhere near Christmas. Hey Laura, how does June grab you?
One of these years, I’m going to cook a goose for Christmas. But goose is expensive, and it’s more meat than Laura and I would eat, or even Laura, my mother, my sister, and her three kids would eat. Add in the other sisters, a brother or two, a few extra nieces and nephews and my goose is cooked, in a good way.
* See, I’m leaving open the possibility that I’ll end up liking it.
Libertarianism isn’t about taxes; it’s about the right of the individual (like Kris or the kids) to be free of arbitrary government control (like banning toys because they offend the ruler). Kris is willing not only to violate the Burgermeister’s laws, but to flagrantly break them, conspire to break them, continue to break them after a warning and take pleasure in his outlaw status. That’s not JUST a libertarian, it’s positively anarchistic.
Exactly. But other peoples personal (not public) actions are so fun to regulate.
If I hear another self professed libertarian talking about locking up the gays and removing government rules on chemical levels in drinking water… Well I’ll probably just bitch about it.
That’s liberals, conservatives, libertarians, Marxists, and almost everybody else. Just about everybody knows of or can imagine laws they would violate or wish they had the guts to violate.
Hardly. Most political groups believe that laws are a positive good and talk about changing bad laws, but only the anarchist segment of the political spectrum believes it is the right of individuals to ignore laws they find unjust. Many people violate laws that they find inconvenient, but only libertarians, anarchists, minarchists etc believe that it is their right to do so; the others are just hypocrites. And I refuse to believe that Santa Claus is a hypocrite.
What Santa Claus thinks of national health care, fast trains, the draft, Social Security, taxes, the market, or laws against anything other than toys the makers of this feature were wise enough to remain silent on. Again, everybody can claim him as “One of Us,” except for the “always obey any authority, no matter what, just because he’s the authority” crowd.
You’re being willfully obtuse, so we’ll just drop the issue.
No I don’t think that I am, but yeah, if it’s going to make us sore at each other, OK.
My idea of holiday music is the HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s “A Very Scary Solstice” and “An Even Scarier Solstice” albums. Because it isn’t Christmas without the risen dead.
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is awesome too, though.
Enya is one of my favorite vocalists all around. She has a precision to her tone that doesn’t tip over into being over-controlled which is one problem that opera singers have outside of their own milieu.
Carol of the Bells, O Holy Night, and Good King Wenceslas are my favorites.
Although not strictly speaking a christmas song, I love Sarah Brightman’s cover of “The First of May.”
Ah, Christmas traditions. The only one of my family’s traditions that I haven’t let fade away is my grandmother’s Christmas fruitcake – I bake two dozen of them in September, ‘bless’ them liberally with dark rum, and put them away to mellow until the Christmas season. (I have changed the recipe, minimally – Grammy used candied fruit, I use dried fruit; and Grammy didn’t use rum on them.)
Christmas for one isn’t Christmas.
Sorry I’m so late. I lost my internet for a month or so, and I’m still going back and reading some of the things I missed.
I’m surprised nobody had mentioned Fairytale Of New York as one of the best songs. I know it’s not really well-known in the US, but it’s not horribly obscure either, and it’s huge in Britain. I thought somebody would mention it. I’ve been obsessed with it for the last few Christmases, ever since I came across it on Youtube. Other songs I love include All I Want For Christmas by Shonen Knife, even though I can barely make out any of the words (I’ve always cared far more about music than lyrics anyway), and Christmas Eve Can Kill You by the Everly Brothers.
My favourite traditional songs have varied over the years, but in the past decade I’ve mostly favoured Angels We Have Heard On High and I Saw Three Ships.
I would like to thank the world’s only poisonous mammal for
1) letting me know about that insanely cute Shonen Knife song!
2) reminding me that I need to pick up some banana chips (you’ll get this one), and
3) nothing here, actually, but there are supposed to be three, so here.
Actually, there are some venomous shrews as well.
You might also like Shonen Knife’s newest Christmas song, Sweet Christmas. It’s got a cute music video for an added bonus.
Enjoy your banana chips! (And the video for that one is EXTREMELY cute!)
Must be why they’re so hard to tame. (DA-DUM!)
On my way to check out some Shonen Knife.
My birthday is 2 days before Christmas and i have a Christmas theme middle name. I have always had positive and negatibe thoughts about being a Christmas baby. It is so festive so that is a good thing and in college my friends would be home with their families but they would usually spend my birthday with me. The negatives are sometimes people are too busy or they wrap your b- day present in Christmas wrap. Just a pep peeve.