Blog Rerun: J. R. R. Tolkien: The Father Christmas Letters

I'll be taking a couple days off to enjoy the holidays, but here's a blog rerun to tide you over:

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Father Christmas Letters (originally posted December 17, 2007)

Sometime in the 1920's, Father Christmas began writing letters to J. R. R. Tolkien's children. The letters came with his very own intricate drawings of the North Pole, elves, goblins, and of course Father Christmas's assistant: the North Polar Bear.

The letters tell the Tolkien children about all the yearly highlights and happenings in the North Pole. The North Polar Bear is always getting into scrapes. Like the year that he accidentally turned on two years' worth of Northern Lights:

It was the biggest bang in the world, and the most monstrous firework there ever has been. It turned the North Pole BLACK and shook all the stars out of place...

Father Christmas wrote these letters in his shaky handwriting every year for 20 years. I have a book that has some of the letters reproduced, in actual envelopes. You can pull out the letters and read them, just like the Tolkien children did all those years ago. Each year at Christmastime, I open up the envelopes and smile as I read about the adventures in the frozen North.

Apparently, there is a newer version that contains even more of the letters. I haven't seen it, but I don't think it has the pull-out letters (which are half the fun). It does have the gorgeous color illustrations, vividly intact. For Tolkien lovers like me, one version or another of this book is absolutely worth picking up.

Grab Bag Friday: My Favorite Holiday Treat, the Bowdoin Log

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope you have a cozy holiday with family and friends and lots of nice surprises. And I hope you get to have all your favorite holiday treats this year. Here's mine, dripping with homemade hot fudge that tastes almost *exactly* like my dad's!

The Bowdoin Log

Merry Christmas!

"Found in the Snow" photo by Just B

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll be away from my blog until mid-January, but in the meantime, have a wonderful holiday, stay warm, and give lots of hugs to your family and friends. See you in the new year!

Favorite Holiday Books & Music

Gift photo by Thomas Hawk

If you're frantically wracking your brain for those last-minute gifts, I've compiled a round-up of the holiday books & music I've written about in the past. Don't forget to check out the Alternative Gifts posts, too!

BOOKS:

• Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory
• J.R.R Tolkien, Letters from Father Christmas
• Robert Frost (illustrated by Susan Jeffers), Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
• Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Snowflake Bentley (this post also has a snowflake-themed Longfellow poem...bonus)
• Berkeley Breathed, A Wish for Wings That Work

MUSIC:

• Mahalia Jackson & Bing Crosby (not singing together...it's a 2-for-1 review)
• Bing Crosby & David Bowie (singing together!)
• My version of Silent Night
• Etta Jones & my I'll Be Home for Christmas iMix
• More Mahalia Jackson
• Emmylou Harris
• Band Aid (old school)
• More Etta Jones

Other Lists Worth Visiting:

• Mother Reader's fabulous 21 Ways to Give a Book lists
• Wild Rose Reader's *comprehensive* reviews and links to holiday picture books (a great place for recommendations for books about Hanukkah, too!)
• New York Times Books, Music, & DVD 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

Grab Bag Friday Movie Vault: Elf

Over the last few years, Elf has slowly made its way onto my list of favorite Christmas movies. It's that perfect blend of fish-out-of-water, mistaken identity, and slapstick humor that I love in a comedy.

If you haven't seen it (and you *should*), Will Ferrell plays Buddy, a human who has been adopted and raised by Santa and his elves. When he leaves the North Pole for the first time to look for his birth father...well, I'll just say that hilarity ensues!

Here are three of my favorite clips for your Friday enjoyment:

Buddy arrives in New York City:



Buddy gets a job at a department store "North Pole":



Buddy meets the department store's "Santa":

Alternative Gifts: My New Favorite Gift Card

There are some people who are impossible to buy for. The ones who already have everything under the sun, or who are so picky that even a basic black sweater makes them go "Ohhh, nice," and immediately look for the gift receipt (I admit to having this particular tendency now and again).

For these people, God created gift cards. And every year, zillions of those plastic gift cards from stores like Borders, Amazon, Best Buy, and iTunes fly off the shelves (or the net) and into stockings.

But don't you ever get tired of these gift cards? Don't you wish you could give a gift card that made a real difference in the world? A gift card for water in Africa, or a gift card for child immunizations? Sure, you can always give a donation to a worthy organization in the recipient's name, but what if your Aunt Martha isn't a Heifer Project kind of gal? What if she's always secretly dreamed of giving a micro-loan to a single woman starting her own business in Central America?

I recently came across the GlobalGiving gift cards, and they are now my favorite gift card around. You buy the card, and the recipient can go online and allocate the money to the charity or charities of their choice. I like that you can send the gift cards via email *or* choose a pretty (and biodegradable!) physical card with a nice sleeve (free shipping on cards until Dec. 31).

For kids, there's a card called MarkMakers (still my favorite kids' gift around) that's essentially the same concept, but the website is more fun.

Click here to view more Alternative Gifts posts.

Grab Bag Friday: A Wish for Wings that Work

Does anyone else remember this? Oh, I *loved* it when it came out. Animated Bloom County? What could be better? I just put it in my Netflix queue to see if it will stand the test of time.

I still have the book which I love even more.

The Local Level: Stockings for Nursing Home Residents

One of my favorite traditions of the holiday season is the stocking program we participate in. Each year, one of the local nursing homes sends our church a list of all the residents and a short description of things each individual particularly likes (plus a list of things that are generally appreciated by all). Then we get to choose a name and create a stocking for that person.

This year, Kevin and I chose Ada. Our card read:
"Ada likes detailed coloring books of flowers and nature, cookies, and crackers."

Here's what we put in her stocking:

• An intricate butterfly coloring book
• Pepperidge Farm cookies
• A pair of extra fluffy, extra cozy socks (you know, the kind that make you feel like you're in heaven)
• A variety of Burt's Bee lip balms
• Neutrogena Norwegian Formula hand cream
• A copy of my new CD

This is such a great program. It's simple, fun, and brings real joy to an otherwise often dreary place. Some of our friends sat down as a family one evening to draw pictures and write notes to include in their stocking. Their kids were so excited to be a "Secret Santa" of sorts...it was *very* sweet!

Any group could contact a nursing home and arrange to do this: your office at work, your elementary school class, your Girl Scout Troup, Little League Team, PTO, even a group of friends or families in your neighborhood. Apparently, even your Motorcycle Club can get in the game. :)

Other ways you can help spread some joy at a nursing home this season:

• Get a group together to come sing carols
• Create cheery crafts and decorations
• Simply visit, chat, listen, play games...sometimes company is the best gift of all!
  

Ask your local nursing home...they'll be able to tell you exactly what would bring some cheer to their residents this year.

Alternative Gifts: Last Minute Ideas

Looking for some last-minute ideas on socially concious gifts?

Check out:

Seth Godin's review of Fair Trade Sports

My November Heifer Project review: Chickens are a real value!

Nothing But Nets Blog (You may need to scroll down a bit to see the page)

I'll Be Home for Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas songs ever is "I'll Be Home for Christmas." I love melancholy songs, and this one captures the longing for home in such a delicate, sweet way. Every Christmas, there are people we love who are far away, homes that are impossible to get to. This song is a reminder to hold those people and places in our hearts, and that they are a very real part of the season "if only in my dreams." The Bing Crosby version puts a lump in my throat every time I hear it. Especially this year, when the war in the Middle East continues to go on for so long, when so many people all around the world will spend the holidays in fear because of the constant threat of violence around them. Let's try to remember to keep our soldiers and all of those far and near who won't be "home" this season in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. Let us hope for they will find some comfort, joy, and peace during the holidays and in the new year.

I created an iMix here with all my favorite versions of "I'll Be Home for Christmas."

In particular, the longing in this version by Etta Jones will knock your socks off.

And the harmonies are haunting in this version by The Beach Boys.

Emmylou Harris: Red Dirt Girl

(No CD art because of technical issues today...sorry! Click here if you'd like to see the CD art.)

I want to know if anyone else feels this way about Emmylou Harris's album Red Dirt Girl: A friend of mine asked me why I like this CD so much and I said, "Because it gives me a Christmas feeling."

This might seem like a strange thing to say about a CD that is filled with songs about loss, exile, and dreams that never come true. But there's something about the breathy strength of Emmylou Harris's voice, and the warmth and fullness of the arrangements and the slight thread of hope that struggles to find its way to the surface of the songs. It reminds me of the part of Christmas that happens after after the anticipation and excitement of waking up in the morning, after all the presents have been opened, and after the inevitable scuffle or meltdown or two (no one ever claimed Christmas was perfect.) It reminds me of pajamas in the afternoon, the Christmas tree with opened presents strewn and abandoned underneath, and my family gathering in the kitchen, eating chocolates all day long, the warmth of the oven already filled with turkey.

I think in all our families, in all our lives, there are stories of loss, exile, and dreams that never come true. And it is strength, and warmth, and love, and hope that allow us to embrace those stories and pass them on and rise up and even move on. And so, in the anxious, waiting period before Christmas, I listen to Red Dirt Girl. And it feels like home.

Emmylou Harris Website
Emmylou Harris discography on iTunes
Emmylou Harris on Wikipedia