Holidays Archives - Page 16 of 20 - View from the Front Porch

13 12, 2017

Christmas Vocabulary – Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

By judythemorgan|2017-12-14T13:51:04-06:00December 13th, 2017|Holidays, Wednesday Words|1 Comment

Mistletoe has always been a magical, mysterious, and sacred plant of folklore since the time of the Druids. This Christmas phrase refers to a tradition of kissing under a sprig of mistletoe that probably dates to the ancient winter festival Saturnalia.

In Victorian times, kissing under the mistletoe signaled a marriage proposal. When all the berries were gone from the original sprig, there could be no more kissing. If a girl remained unkissed at the end of the evening, she could not expect to marry the following year. Christmas mistletoe was then burned on Twelfth Night lest all those who did kiss under it never marry.

Another mistletoe kissing tradition dictates that a person standing under a ball of mistletoe cannot refuse to be kissed. Such a mistletoe kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and goodwill.

On the other hand, when a couple in love kiss under the mistletoe, it is seen as a promise to marry, as well as a prediction of happiness and long life.

The interesting thing is that a mistletoe plant is actually a parasitic and eating any part of it can cause poisoning. That’s why you find artificial mistletoe used in kissing balls today.

I love the romantic idea of meeting under the mistletoe for a kiss. Would you expect less from a romance writer?

To encourage the tradition, I decorate with two artifical mistletoe balls during the holidays. One is a very old plastic bell and the other a silk ball.

Whether you believe all the folklore or not, mistletoe balls can make for fun at Christmas celebrations when someone whispers “Meet me under the mistletoe.”

11 12, 2017

Christmas Music – the Customs and Traditions

By judythemorgan|2017-12-03T07:05:52-06:00December 11th, 2017|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Christian tradition and the liturgical Church calendar recognize the Christmas season from sundown on December 24 (Christmas Eve) through Epiphany of the Lord (January 6). Most of us celebrated the single day, December 25.

Songs of the season are a different story. Christmas music runs non-stop through store speakers beginning after Halloween. Satellite stations and cable networks devote channels to holiday-themed music and shows beginning at Thanksgiving.

For some that’s a good thing. For others, it’s too much. Personally, I’d prefer some Christmas carols and contemporary Christmas songs throughout the year instead of the over saturation.

There was a time before the fourth century when there were no Birth-of-Christ hymns. A songbook with carols only appeared after Christmas was formalized as a feast and fixed to Dec. 25.

In the 13^th century, St. Francis of Assisi organized nativity pageants featuring real hay, real animals, and, for the first time, real narrative songs. Christmas singing took on a life of its own, beyond the constraints of the sacred feast. Even drinking songs (much to the church’s horror) contained Yuletide lyrics.

Christmas celebrations and caroling died with the Puritan movement when Cromwell’s Parliament banned any secular observances under threat of fines. The restrictions crossed the Atlantic and settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony restricted Christmas caroling and festivities too.

The popularity of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol struck down the grim, Puritan-inflected holiday and led to the 20^th century festive, secular tunes. One of the most popular of those songs is “White Christmas,” composed in 1940 by Jewish Irving Berlin, who did not much care for the holiday.

Berlin’s tune, Bing Crosby’s rendition, and the 1954 movie by the same title ushered in carols, songs, and theatrical productions appealing more to the Yuletide mood than to the holiday itself.

Others holiday songs like “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas” followed. New versions of these old songs, secular and traditional, quickly emerged.

Whether we want to or not, we find ourselves humming or singing along with the old-fashioned melodies.

One of our family Christmas traditions was to gather around the piano and sing carols from the church hymnal. A tradition that now includes other instruments.

Christmas music listeners might distinguish between sacred songs (those with lyrics about Christ’s birth) and secular ones (Santa Claus, snowmen, mistletoe, elves, etc.) If you go wassailing or caroling, you make conscious choices on what to sing.

Whatever lyrics you choose, Christmas music anchors us in the past —before Shakespeare and Beowulf and all the eras in between—and fills us with the spirit of Christmas.

What’s your favorite Christmas song or carol?

8 12, 2017

An Early Gift

By judythemorgan|2017-12-07T08:26:40-06:00December 8th, 2017|Friday on the Miller Farm, Holidays, Miller Farm Friday|4 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

One of the nice things about living in one place for a long time is maintaining friendships.

My friend Greta and I have known each other since our oldest children were in elementary school. These “kids” are now 24. We have laughed and cried together many times. We still do.

Greta has gotten chickens from us and supplies fruit and vegetable scraps to both flocks. I bring surplus food to her from the volunteer work I do.

Last Saturday, upon returning from an early morning meeting, I discovered that Greta had dropped off a bag but not for the chickens.

It was a gift bag and in it were two pair of slippers – one for me and one for Rachel. They are wonderful!I love the slippers especially now that the weather has turned cold. However, I value the gift of friendship most of all.

30 10, 2017

Where did Halloween come from?

By judythemorgan|2017-10-05T10:20:13-05:00October 30th, 2017|Holidays|0 Comments

Halloween’s origin dates to The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland, United Kingdom, and France.

Celts believed the boundary between worlds of the living and the dead became blurred the night before their New Year, which is November 1^st.

On October 31^st they celebrated the festival of Samhain, lit bonfires, and wore costumes to ward off roaming ghosts.

In the eighth century Pope Gregory III designated November 1^st as a time to honor all saints and martyrs and incorporated some Samhain traditions.

October 31^st became All Hallows’ Eve and eventually Halloween, the secular, community-based events filled with craved pumpkins and trick-or-treat, that we celebrate today.

But why crave pumpkins?

An Irish myth about an old drunk called “Stingy Jack” is said to be the reason.

Can you guess why he was called stingy? Of course, because he never wanted to pay for his drinks.

Read the full story here or watch to the fun, spooky video below:

The Irish used turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets for their lights to keep Stingy Jack away and ward off evil spirits on All Hallow’s Eve. Pumpkins became the jack-o-lanterns when waves of Irish immigrants came to America to escape the Potato Famine. They quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out.

Oh, and one more tidbit of information about jack-o-lanterns. This advice comes from the antique dealer me, not the Irish storyteller. Be careful where you display your cleverly carved jack-o-lanterns. The base of a pumpkin can stay moist for days and will rot and stain wood or even marble. Put either foil or a dish with a raised edge under any pumpkins or gourds you display this fall. I’ve stained more than one old piece of furniture decorating for fall with gourds and tiny pumpkins.

3 07, 2017

Happy 4th of July – 2017

By judythemorgan|2020-06-29T10:42:04-05:00July 3rd, 2017|Holidays|1 Comment

This is one of my favorite family photos by my very talented photographer daughter. The two boys are her sons, John (with the flag) and Michael (leading the way).

You may have seen the photo on a highway billboard or in an airport or in a store ad. It’s one of her best-selling photos. I believe the photo sells well because it represents the freedom born with our great country on the 4th of July.

Like the two young boys running freely down the park path, our constitution grants to each of us freedoms not experienced anywhere else in the world.

We get to choose our path, we can run or we can walk.

It’s our choice.

20 02, 2017

Three Presidential Love Story Quotes

By judythemorgan|2019-02-03T20:50:06-06:00February 20th, 2017|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

It’s President’s Day. I thought it might be fun to look at love stories/quotes of presidents. In my day, we had holidays for Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) and George Washington’s birthday (February 22) instead of the singular day to honor all presidents. For that reason, I begin with Lincoln and Washington.

Teddy Roosevelt’s story touched my romance writer’s heart so I had to share it too.

~~Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln

Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS an illustration done shortly after they moved into the White House.

Mary Todd, the daughter of a successful merchant and politician, attracted the attention of up-and-coming politician and lawyer Abraham Lincoln. Her family did not approve of the match, but Mary and Abraham shared a love of politics and literature and a deep love for each other. When Lincoln won his Congressional seat in 1846, Mary joined him in Washington. Something unheard of at the time.

“My wife was as handsome as when she was a girl,” Lincoln once told a reporter. “And I, poor nobody then, fell in love with her, and what is more, have never fallen out.”

~~George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis Washington

The romance of George and Martha was hardly a wild passionate romance by today’s standards. By the time their engagement was determined, they liked each other a great deal. Eight months after their marriage, George Washington wrote to his agent in England.“I am now I beleive fixd at this Seat with an agreable Consort for Life and hope to find more happiness in retirement than I ever experienced amidst a wide and busthng World.”

Eighteenth century marriages were formed for ease of living. George and Martha chose wisely, perhaps more than they realized at the time. According to historians, they shared forty years together during which they grew to love each other with true devotion.

~~ Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Hathaway Lee RooseveltAlice was Teddy Roosevelt’s first wife. He wrote of her: “Sweetest little wife, I think all the time of my little laughing, teazing beauty, and how pretty she is, and how she goes to sleep in my arms, and I could almost cry I love you so.”

Unfortunately, their love was short lived. On Valentine’s Day in 1884, Roosevelt suffered a double loss. His mother died of typhus and his beloved Alice in childbirth. His diary entry for the day is shown above. Later, he penned this private tribute for his sweetest little wife.

She was beautiful in face and form, and lovelier still in spirit; As a flower she grew, and as a fair young flower she died. Her life had been always in the sunshine; there had never come to her a single sorrow; and none ever knew her who did not love and revere her for the bright, sunny temper and her saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure, and joyous as a maiden; loving, tender, and happy. As a young wife; when she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her—then, by a strange and terrible fate, death came to her. And when my heart’s dearest died, the light went from my life forever.

How does your love story compare to these presidential love story and quotes?

28 12, 2016

Honoring Christmas

By judythemorgan|2016-11-27T20:39:19-06:00December 28th, 2016|Holidays, Wednesday Words of Wisdom|0 Comments

Today’s words of wisdom come from the novella Charles Dickens wrote in December 1843.

Dickens also published two other Christmas stories, but A Christmas Carol was by far the most popular having never been out of print. It’s also been adapted many times to film, stage, opera, and other media.

Dickens divided his novella into five chapters, labeled “staves” or song stanzas or verses, in keeping with the title of the book. The short tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s strange night visitors continues to send a message that cuts through all the trappings of the season and straight into the heart and soul of the holiday.

Dickens described Christmas as “a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

This description became known as the “Carol Philosophy” and Dickens strove to live accordingly for the rest of his life.

Wouldn’t honoring Christmas by opening shut-hearts and thinking of others as fellow-sojourners on the same path, not another race of creatures, be an excellent way to end this holiday season and begin the new year?

26 12, 2016

Goodbye Christmas 2016 – 8 Tips for Packing Decorations Away

By judythemorgan|2016-12-23T08:28:36-06:00December 26th, 2016|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas. Are you removing the Christmas decorations today? Or, do you wait until Epiphany or Twelfth Night?

Either way, the tree must be unadorned. The things we carefully placed to put us in the holiday spirit must be stored until next year.

Exhaustion has swallowed the enthusiasm we experienced setting up and the task of taking down decorations can be depressing. Still, the job must be done and being systematic with undecorating can make the decorating task go faster next year.

Try these eight tips to ensure everything you take down this year is in good condition and ready to be displayed next year.

Start by deciding whether you’ll use the Swiss cheese method or devote an entire day to the task. Me, I prefer the Swiss cheese method. I gather things into one spot before I begin loading my plastic containers.

Dismantle holiday displays and pack them up according to specific areas of the home.

Store decorations in plastic containers marked with the location for the decorations.

Launder fabric items before you put away. Always make sure the items are completely dry before packing them up. Oversized zip-top bags or vacuum bags work perfectly for storage. Or place folded items in one plastic container.

Bows made from wire-edged ribbon should be gently loaded into plastic containers. Wads of tissue paper stuffed in the loops will help keep their shape while in storage. Even if they get a bit smashed, they can easily be refreshed for next year.

Wrap fragile ornaments in tissue paper or bubble wrap from holiday deliveries and gifts if you did not save the original packaging for storage. Plastic ornament boxes with dividers are a great investment. It makes undecorating the tree go quickly and delicate ornaments are well protected.

Light strings, either indoor or outdoor, should be wound and stored in individual zip-lock bags to prevent tangles.

Outdoor displays should be covered in large, heavy-duty contractor bags that can be used more than once.

Can you add any tips you have for undecorating? If so, share in the comments.

25 12, 2016

The Christmas Scale

By judythemorgan|2016-12-24T08:28:40-06:00December 25th, 2016|Holidays|0 Comments

This is my all-time, very-favorite Christmas video. I can totally relate to the young narrator and rejoice with him in understanding what his Momma meant.

If you have a piano around round your house, give the C scale a try. Play the C scale starting on middle C playing up to the next C. Then play the scale again starting on the 8th note. As you play the scale back down, pause on the 1st note, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th. That’s the good news today.

Merry Christmas!

14 12, 2016

Making Holiday Memories

By judythemorgan|2016-11-27T15:57:41-06:00December 14th, 2016|Holidays, Wednesday Words of Wisdom|0 Comments

This picture was snapped many years ago after the gift unwrapping. The grands are sharing their gifts with the others.

We never hurried to clear the chaos of twenty family members tearing into their gifts. The room was often covered in wrapping paper and ribbon and you had to tread carefully.

Once everyone had their gifts open then they’d huddle to examine the treasures each had received. Such fond memories of the young ones excited about their gifts.

Do you rush to clear the clutter after gift unwrapping? If you do, why not linger and enjoy the moment.

I’m so glad we didn’t rush AND that we snapped such great photos. Be sure to capture the memories.