Have you ever done it? Looked up high at the spire of a cathedral and exclaimed, “Let’s climb to the top!” Up you go, dragging your feet over the endless stone steps, clinging to a centuries’ old railing, glancing down from dizzying heights, and gazing … Read more
What do Sugar Plums have to do with plums? The answer is: not as much as you might think, although modern recipes do include the plums used for prunes as an ingredient. I personally was relieved to learn that the “visions of sugar plums dancing … Read more
My fondness for Ottorino Respighi’s Lauda per la Nativitá del Signore (Lauds for the Nativity of the Lord) comes from personal experience. Despite a wealth of musical opportunities in my life, few chances arose to play in ensembles. But those I did have are etched … Read more
I enjoy the writings of Joshua Gibbs. His penchant for making a wham-bang point through gentle storytelling means the message percolates in me long after the book’s pages are closed. So it is with the first essay “A Better World” from his 2020 book about … Read more
We don’t hear the verb “hark” much these days. People say “Listen up!” or “Pay attention!” But not “Hark!” “Hark” began actually as a hunting term. The verb hark was recorded as early as 1200 AD, taken from the Old English heorcian, meaning to hearken … Read more
People did some serious Christmas shopping this weekend! We even went to the mall, albeit to pick up an online order as part of my personal campaign to stop feeding the Amazon Beast. It was lovely to be in a big, decorated store and to … Read more
My anxiety at December’s rapid passing changed when I learned to regard today as “Advent’s Third Sunday” rather than “Oh no, Christmas is seven minutes away, and we’re not ready!” Advent grants us space and time. It allows us to forego the frantic twists of … Read more
If you’re European or British, it’s not a question of if you’re going to drink a hot mulled beverage at this season of the year. It’s a question of which hot mulled beverage, where, and with whom? Steaming-hot mulled beverages define the season. They are … Read more
Perhaps you have a battered sentimental object that comes out only at Christmastime. Maybe it’s something that family members gently ridicule, or urge you to toss away? Mine is a wooden toy soldier whose name, for some reason, is Wally. He’s about two feet tall, … Read more
If asked to name the biggest fictional Christmas villains, you might pick Scrooge and the Grinch. Scrooge, Dicken’s fascinating character from the 1843 story A Christmas Carol, leaves the bigger footprint, of course. He belongs not just to Christmas: Scrooge can show up year-round in … Read more