It’s been quite bright and occasionally sunny today, not exactly a classic crisp and bright December day but more cheerful than yesterday’s damp grey. It it has been, however, rather cold, but it is December after all. And then it rained later.
When I collected the smallest grandchildren from school yesterday, the older one asked me if I had an advent calendar. Well, I told her, I do in fact have an advent calendar but I had forgotten all about it. It must have been last year that I acquired this rather fancy advent calendar. Comprised of two Christmas tree shaped pieces that slot together and fix onto a cardboard stand, it has a series of ‘decorations’ to be added to the ‘tree’, fixed onto little cardboard ‘hooks’. So when we arrived home we went up to the attic bedroom to look in the cupboard where stuff like Christmas decorations are stored. Behind boxes of Christmas lights, baubles, nativity scene figurines, we found a large white envelope and re-erected the tree. All the decorations came in a separate sheet, the decorations to be pushed out as needed. And they had been stored in that fashion but, having been released once, they were all now loose in the large envelope and we had to match up the shape of each decoration to its numbered slot on the original sheet. I suppose we could have hung any old random decoration in the designated spots on the tree but somehow that went against the spirit of advent calendars. It would have been like opening all the doors on a chocolate-filled advent calendar and eating it all in one go. Besides the nine-year-old wanted to do it properly. Advent calendars have come a long way since I was a child and you opened a door each December day to reveal … drum roll!!!! … a Christmas related picture! Nowadays, as well as chocolate treats, you can buy advent calendars with Lego figures to build, mini Christmas jigsaws to complete, beauty products and jewellery. If you are really ambitious you can make a personalised advent calendar, one with little boxes that you fill with selected small gifts for every day. It’s all a little over the top, not to say expensive!
Here comes some Christmas trivia. It seems that Father Christmas as we now know and recognise him was developed in late Victorian times but the personification of Christmas has been around for a lot longer. Here is a 1848 depiction of Father Christmas crowned with a holly wreath, holding a staff and a wassail bowl and carrying the Yule log.
But English personifications of Christmas were first recorded in the 15th century, with Father Christmas himself first appearing in the mid 17th century in the aftermath of the English Civil War. The Puritan-controlled English government had legislated to abolish Christmas, considering it popish, and had outlawed its traditional customs. Royalist political pamphleteers, linking the old traditions with their cause, adopted Old Father Christmas as the symbol of 'the good old days' of feasting and good cheer. After the monarchy was restored in 1660, Father Christmas's profile declined but his character was maintained during the late 18th and into the 19th century by the Christmas folk plays later known as mummers’ plays.
He didn’t have much to do with children and the bringing of presents until some time in the Victorian era. And I have heard that his red coat and long white beard were pretty much an invention of the CocaCola company, who wanted him to match their cans. Before that he wore green, it seems.
CocaCola like to match things to their image. My girls’ high school was close to the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, which has hosted big golfing events on a number of occasions. Nearby is a well known local landmark, a completely round house.
One year, legend has it, when a big golf event was going on, CocaCola offered to pay a large amount of money to paint the house to look like a can of Coke. The owners refused.
So it goes.
J
Yesterday my friend Colin gave us this link to an article about the retired Spanish King Juan Carlos. It seems our royal family is not the only one to have embarrassing members causing mayhem. I find it rather sad that Juan Carlos had come to this. I remember discussing the restoration of the monarchy with my A Level Spanish classes and the feeling of great optimism. Juan Carlos, brought up under Franco, was expected to continue with a Franco-style regime and yet when the 23F coup took place in 1981 he was reported to have sat up all night, accompanied by his young son, now King Felipe, persuading the generals to stand down and let democracy run its course. Rather a shame to end up in disgrace.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment