Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’
Christmas post cards – greetings from the past
I’ve sent almost all of my Christmas cards. They are pretty to send, and I love to receive them in return.
But I also love the examples of greetings from Christmas past, my small collection of Christmas post cards.
So, no matter who they were originally intended for, here are some Christmas wishes for you, from years gone by…
From little Rose Marie…
From cousin Virginia…
From 1913… (the back of this one says, in part… ‘don’t forget that rabbit stew we are all to have when one of you chaps snares one.’)
In 1912…
And from Uncle and Auntie…
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Copyright Jane Tims 2012
in the circle of the evergreen wreath
Every year, during Advent, I either purchase or make a wreath of evergreens to celebrate the coming of Christmas. Last year, making the wreath, I had a little help. Zoë decided the perfect place to perch herself was within the circle of the wreath.
Our wreath materials were all obtained on our lake property. The species we used for our wreath were:
- White Pine (Pinus Strobus L.)
- White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) also known as Arbor Vitae
- Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.)
- Common Juniper (Juniperus communis L.) -the variety we used was too prickly and I won’t use it again.
~
At this time of Advent, we wait in the darkest days of the year for Christmas. The wreath is one of the most endearing symbols of this wait. Made of evergreens, it speaks to the concept of everlasting love. To count down the Sundays before Christmas, we light purple and pink candles to symbolize ideas of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The lighted candles also represent bringing light into the world.
The wreath is another of those symbols borrowed from pagan times, when the circle represented the ever-changing seasons and the circle of life. The evergreen stood for the part of life that survives the winter season and candles symbolized light shining through darkness.
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~
gathering green
~
in the space between solstice
and the whisper of stars
in a herded sky
daylight shrinks, always one hour
short of rested
~
in the thicket we gather
armloads, garlands of green
fragrances of cedar and pine
red dogwood twigs
stems of red berry, alder cones
curved boughs of fir
~
flexible as mattress coils, piled on ground
to rest, await brief
overlap, longest night
and feathering of angel down
~
watch, through the trees
the struggle
planet light
and pagan fire
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
from the pages of an old diary – holidays
Among the events recorded in my great-aunt’s diaries were holidays.
Here are some of the activities she recorded for those special days in 1957:
New Year’s Day (Jan. 1, 1957) – they had her brother’s family to dinner.
Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14, 1957) – she sent her grand-daughter in Saint John a Valentine.
Easter (April 21, 1957) – they went to the Presbyterian Church in New Glasgow to see the ‘3000 Easter lilies’ on display. She also sent a box of gifts to her grand-daughter.
Canada Day (called Dominion Day before 1982) July 1, 1957 – not mentioned in her diaries.
Halloween (Oct. 31, 1957) – ‘seven children for Halloween’ Interesting … our modern conversations about Halloween are often to compare the numbers of children who came trick-or-treating!
Thanksgiving – the day before, she ‘did some cooking for Thanksgiving’ (Oct. 12, 1957) and on Sunday, she had her sister (my grandmother) and my uncle for a chicken dinner.
Christmas – my great-aunt belonged to an ‘Xmas Club’. They had their Christmas Dinner together (Dec. 2 , 1957) and exchanged gifts. My great-aunt’s gifts in 1957 were a pair of pillow cases and a pair of gloves.
Part of Christmas meant sending parcels to family and friends. In 1957, my great-aunt mailed Christmas parcels to her son’s family in Saint John on December 14, 1957 and to others on December 11 and 16.
On Christmas Day, they went to her brother’s house for Christmas Dinner.
On December 29, 1957, they went to see the Christmas pageant. There were also other community events, since on December 24, 1954, they went to see the community Christmas tree.
She makes no mention of Christmas decorations in her own home, but I still have a few of the ornaments from her tree.
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New Year’s Day 1957
-response to a diary entry for January 1, 1957
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Tues nice day, quite cold. C.
D. D. also K. J. here to
N. Years dinner. had a chicken sponge
cake for dessert. strawberry vanilla ice cream
we went for a drive after C.s left.
– A.M.W.
~
new year, basket in the hall closet
empty, mending and darning
done, seven to dinner, everyone
satisfied, sponge cake and ice-cream
~
no worries about tomorrow, predicted
storms, the need to stay well,
catches in clothing and worn
heels, arm sore from beating eggs
~
my New Year’s resolutions:
a beater that runs on electricity
no more blue socks darned with red
the chicken was tasty
colourful with carrots
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
red berries red
Red Berries Red
Jane Tims
2011
~~
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Hawthorn
(Crataegus)
~
between ruby glass
and hard wood floor
a slide of light and three
~
extinguished candles
smoke lifts from smoulder
each mote a particle
~
of spectral light, mosaic
shard, image
reassembled in three
~
dimensions
shepherd, hawthorn
pitiful lamb
~~
~~
Canadian Holly
(Ilex verticillata (L.) Gray)
~
drab November
and lexicon
expires
umber leaves
grey verticals
dull stubble
~
winterberries
astound the wetland
red ink on page
words explode
from exile
~
fever flush and holly
above December snow
icicles vermillion
~~
~~
© Jane Tims, 2011
'red berries' Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis L.)
villages and vignettes
I love to view bits of the world in miniature. Especially at Christmas, small replicas of human space make me feel comfortable. Perhaps seeing a world fit neatly into a small space is a version of the safety and calm an animal feels in its den. Perhaps looking over a diorama gives me powerful feelings of omniscience and omnipresence. Perhaps I like the impression of a story being told, from beginning to end, confined in space and time.
Our Christmas decorations are predominantly miniaturized vignettes:
our nativity scene, complete with a stable and its donkey, and a star-spangled hillside of angels and sheep…
my collection of Buyers Choice skaters, including a fellow roasting a marshmallow at a fire beside the frozen pond…
Rudolf and Bumbles from the Island of Misfit Toys…
children gathering around a pitiful Charlie Brown Christmas tree…
a frosty forest of bottle-brush trees and silver reindeer …
and a village with an inn, a church, and a park with a pond, a stone bridge and a park bench…
All very cute, but there is something missing.
The best scenes are those with real people. A scene of us sitting by our Christmas tree, talking and laughing. A scene of people in the bookstore, looking for a special book to give someone they love. The scene of a colleague at work, leaving a Christmas card on each desk. A scene of friends walking along a downtown street while the snow falls and the church bells mark the hour.
Merry Christmas everyone!
~
~
still street
~
the stillness of this street
its gentle curve
the steady glow of lamps
lighted windows, sturdy gates
a frozen pond, stone bridge reflected
soft snow, unmarked
and a park bench
where no one ever sits
~
~
© Jane Tims 2011
bringing the outside inside
Mindful of how busy I am at this time of year, my Mom always said to take Christmas where I found it. She meant to enjoy every moment of the season and glean Christmas from the smallest experience. So, on my drive home from Halifax, I was on the lookout for what I call “Christmassy things”.
One of these was a big truck, well-packed with Christmas trees, bound for markets in the United States. I thought of how these simple natural fir trees from New Brunswick would be the center of Christmas decorations far away.
We are lucky in New Brunswick to be able to buy a freshly-cut tree. In years past, we often went with my brother’s family to cut our own Balsam Fir at a U-Cut. It was fun, watching the kids running through the snow, so excited to choose a tree. Some years, we had a tree from my Dad’s property, one of the many he and my Mom planted and tended. I have also cut a Christmas tree from our own woods, although sometimes they are a bit lopsided. Today, we usually buy our tree from a local grower, in a lot where the trees lean against the fence, categorized by height.
It is so hard to decide on the perfect tree. We have high ceilings, so the taller the better. And I want a tree without a bird’s nest (some people think it is lucky to have a bird’s nest in the tree), so I check between every branch! I also usually want a relatively thin tree, to let the decorations hang easily.
Today or tomorrow, my husband and I will go out to get this year’s tree. We will wrap the tree in a red bedspread, set aside for this purpose, and tie the tree securely to the top of our car. We will take it home to settle for a day or so, and then bring it inside. And the fresh smell of cold air and balsam will expand from the tree into our living room. And, as in other years, it will be the best tree ever.
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evergreen
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*
under
snow prismatic
white distils to green
wintergreen and woodfern
clubmoss and conifer, chlorophyll
wedged into slim space between
earth
and
ice
~
© Jane Tims 2011
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