Winter Solstice Flamingos

The Holly & The Ivy
& the Winter Solstice Flamingos

This year, the Winter Solstice kicks in
on December 21 at 10:27 p.m. Eastern Time (USA).

The Zodiacal Sign of Capricorn kicks in
on December 22, thus we make the following
quick leap from flamingos to goats . . .

The Sun Capers

The sun capers
Down the goat's short sky.

Nothing fruits but
Holly, flowers but ivy.

Ehemeral
Tinsel, glass balls, whisky,

Crackers, signal
The birth of a god.

~ by U. A. Fanthorpe ~
from her book of Christmas Poems: BC - AD
given to us several Christmases ago
by Gerry's Auntie Jan,
the fashioner of our fabulous ~ St. Nicholas!

Autumnal Equinox Flamingos

Winter Solstice Flamingos

Merry Christmas Neighbor

Listen to Your Sons!

Living United

Coffee for Santa

Fun cards from MOMA!
See Santa's little "to go" cup?
I wish it were more brightly colored,
like a Starbucks holiday design!

2020

Previous St. Nicholas Day Posts

2009 ~ The Little St. Nick

2011 ~ Happy St. Nicholas Day!

2012 ~ Viracocha, St. Nicholas, Buller Clos

2019 ~ A Grim St. Nicholas

~ An Old Favorite from My Friend Jill ~

A Grim St. Nicholas

A Troubling St. Nick
Poster advertising The Museum of Communism
Prague, Czech Republic
Notice the helpful advice in the lower right corner -- "Above McDonald’s" -- yet another special feature of this already priceless poster, offering the perfect blend of ancient & popular cultures. I was immediately intrigued by the sight of this poster in the window, and visiting this totally eye - opening museum was one of the highlights of our visit, conveniently located right across the street from our hotel. However, we never did make it to the McDonald's.

One of the displays in the museum was an imitation corner store, showing how difficult it had been to buy household supplies. As part of the display, there were a lot of empty shelves behind the counter and a sign: "Maybe Next Month."

When I asked in the REAL (not imitation) gift shop if they had postcards of the St. Nick poster, the cashier said, "Maybe next month"! This was in October, and I was thinking in advance of buying a few dozen to send as Christmas cards when I got home; so at first I thought the answer implied that they might get more in stock in November, closer to the holidays.

Then Gerry McCartney said, "Remember the sign in the little store? Maybe it was a meta - answer!"

Previous Posts
on St. Nicholas

Where We Have Come

The Parish Church of St. Margaret of Antioch, Edgware

To the New Year
With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible

By W. S. Merwin
Author of The Shadow of Sirius
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 2009
Poet Laureate of the United States, 2010 - 2011

Thanks Barb McFadden for the poetic reference!

*******************

Where we have been . . .
The Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Worth

Worth Hall Lodge, Near Crawley

Cobham, Surrey

Heathrow Airport

Love, the Gift, is On the Way

Detail from On the Way with the Gift

This is not the typical snowy Belgium* village scene, so reminiscent of the bleak yet quaint mid winter, but take a close look at the dessert carried by the little girl: it looks like a Christmas Pudding to me! Everything about this painting -- the title, the guests bearing gifts, the implied hospitality, the flowers, the swans a - swimming, the custom and ceremony -- brings to mind Eleanor Farjeon's joyful carol:

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

~ Eleanor Farjeon ~
~ Sung by Marty Haugen ~

Here is the entire painting as Gerry and I saw it last January (2015)
when we visited the Groeninge Museum in Bruges:

by Emile Rommelaere, 1873 - 1961

And, in keeping with the season . . .

St. Nicholas Altarpiece, 1486-93
Oil on oak panel, 102 x 82 cm
Groeninge Museum, Bruges

Legend of St Lucy Triptych, 1480
Oil on oak panel, 79 x 183 cm
Sint-Jacobskerk, Bruges

Both by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy,
active in Bruges between 1480 and 1500

********************
*Also at the Groeninge:
The Meebrug in Bruges Covered With Snow
Flori Van Acker, 1858 - 1940

On the slightly less serious side:
American Tourist Photobombs Fake Medieval Portrait
at the Historium Bruges Museum

Christmas Quiz

Fuqua's first Christmas. No breakables this year!

For me?
A couple of Christmases ago, I filled out this Christmas quiz with my siblings and cousins. I had fun with the answers and even got a few blog posts out of them (links provided).

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both. I especially like printed tissue.

2. Real trees or artificial? Fake -- because they can hold more heavy ornaments.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? As long as I can hold out (somewhere between mid - January & Palm Sunday).

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but not as much as Irish Cream (see below).

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A boy doll, when I was in 4th grade (age 9); I never gave him a name -- just called him Boy Doll and still have him. Little did I know that one day I'd have two little blond baby boys who looked just like that doll!

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, about a dozen!

8. Hardest person to buy for? I used to say Gerry; but lately I have more good ideas for him than I do for Ben and Sam. Gone are the days of Brio & Thomas the Tank.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Sister - in - law Tina.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Maybe it was the Carolans Irish Cream Gift Tin -- with no bottle of Irish Cream inside -- just the empty tin. Symbolic?

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mostly snail - mail, with a few e-mail cards, photos, etc. thrown in for good measure.

12. Five Favorite Christmas Movies?

Starting at Thanksgiving with Home for the Holidays. Great cast including, Holly Hunter, Robert Downey, Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Geraldine Chaplain.

The House Without a Christmas Tree (Jason Robards)

The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas (1973 animation, narrated by Tommy Smothers, Barbara Feldon, Arte Johnson)

A Christmas Memory, written & narrated by Truman Capote, starring Geraldine Page

A Child's Christmas in Wales, starring / narrated by Denholm Elliott

and . . . one more . . . the musical version of Scrooge with Albert Finney.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I Christmas shop on a perpetual calendar basis! I have, in fact, already started for next year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Ask me no more questions, I'll tell you no more lies!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Tiny Mince Pies (my recipe).

16 Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "O LittleTown of Bethlehem," "Star of Bethlehem" (from the first Home Alone movie), and "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," especially the lines: "The world treats you mean Lord / Treats me mean too / But that's the way things are down here . . . "

One more: Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas" -- best anti - war / protest song I know.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? You know that song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas"? I think it means staying at home, in your own home -- if only in your dreams . . .

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yup -- even to include Bambi! This is a little joke in our family because when I asked Gerry what ornaments he liked, he pointed to a little Rudolph and said, "Well, I don't think much of this Bambi." Bambi! Can you believe? Haha! We're not going to let him forget that one for a long time!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? On top of our big tree is a tiny Nativity scene -- with it's own very even tinier star on top -- so I guess the answer is Star. We sometimes top the other tree with a St. Nicholas Bishop's Hat that Sam made for a school project a few years back. When growing up, we had a white plastic angel painted with gold details; a Christmas light fit right into her back and she was beautiful. Some years, my mom would let us keep her out as a night - light, even after we had put the tree away.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning (delayed gratification).

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Rarely annoyed . . . just dismayed at how extremely fast away the old year passes, even as I'm trying to clean the house and hang the greens and write the cards.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color: Oh so many! Lots of kitty - cat ornaments; a couple of 12 - Days sets; a couple of Nutcracker Suite sets; a couple of Alice in Wonderland sets; the kings & queens of England. I love them all! Occasionally I've been tempted to try a "theme" tree, but in the end I just have to cram it all in. As one of my neighbors said last year, "Now, that's what I call a stuffed tree!" That's the way I like it!

Who wouldn't want to find a giant kitten
in a bread basket under the tree?
"Little" Fuqua (10 mos old; 10 lbs.)
24. Favorite Christmas dinner -- a big ol' repeat of Thanksgiving: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes and marshmallows, stuffing, peas, cranberry relish. And for dessert: Nutcracker Sweet Chocolate Pecan Pie. And our four British favorites: Christmas Cake, Figgy Pudding, Tiny Mince Pies, and Sherry Trifle.

25. What do I want for Christmas? Funny, the year my family did this quiz (2009), I had just ordered eight pair of boots, tried them all on, returned five pairs, and kept my three favorites to wrap and put under the tree. What did I get this year? Three pairs of boots -- red, black, and brown! So, I guess I always want boots. I also like getting Christmas for Christmas: Christmas magazines, Christmas books, Christmas candles, Christmas stickers, Christmas tree ornaments.

26. Most likely to respond: We'll see!

27. Least likely: Bah, humbug!

Fuqua Watching For Santa

Additional quizzes . . .Possible ~ Plausible ~ Improbable

Quarantine Quiz Shows

Class of '75

Challenges: Special K & Ten Favs

["Christmas Quiz"]

"You're Out Walking"

"Take This Quiz!"

"Monday: Pop Quiz"

"Talk to Me"

Viracocha, St. Nicholas, Buller Clos

This German Buller Clos seems to fall somewhere
between ancient and modern,
along the middle of the Santa Claus timeline
In addition to the familiar lineage of St. Nick -- from the original 4th Century St. Nicholas of Myra to our contemporary incarnation -- I often wonder if his spiritual roots might be tied laterally to those of the much more ancient and enigmatic Viracocha : "Through all the ancient legends of the peoples of the Andes stalked a tall, bearded, pale - skinned figure wrapped in a cloak of secrecy . . . Viracocha, Foam of the Sea, a master of science and magic who wielded terrible weapons and who came in a time of chaos to set the world to rights" (see Fingerprints of the Gods, by Graham Hancock, p 46).

All of Hancock's sources suggest a similar appearance for the widely traveled Viracocha -- always the beard, the staff, and the long cloak; always venerable, wise, kind and mysterious. Always sounding a lot like -- and this is my conclusion, not Hancock's -- Santa Claus! I'm not kidding!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Viracocha

One and the same?

The connection rings true to me. Hancock may not agree with me, though I mean his work no disrespect; quite the contrary! And quite in keeping with my proposition, poet Richard Eberhart writes of a Mexican Santa who, consistent with my connection, seems a perfect blend of Jolly Old St. Nick and the prescient Viracocha. Surely, without ever saying the name, Eberhart's poem captures the soul of Viracocha. Mystical, apocryphal, legendary, walking through the ages, the Once and Future Santa Claus brings not just toys but light and reason:

Santa Claus In Oaxaca
Nothing seemed so incongruous
In this Christian country of Indians
In bright clothes, Indians part Spanish
And tourists neither Indian nor Spanish,
In the warm dusk in a place of bells
When the cathedral rips again the harsh sound
Of every quarter hour, and then the full hour,
Next to the Marques del Valle Hotel,
And in the square the noisy band goes off
Like a jubilant series of firecrackers,
The firecrackers shot off by Mexican young and old,
Where every breath taken is compassionate,

Nothing seemed so incongruous
As to see Santa Claus in the hot lands
In red cotton garments, trimmed in white,
His bearded face impersonal but appealing,
Walk awkwardly through the square of Oaxaca
Followed by popping strings of boys and girls,
Mothers with babes mangered in red rebozos.
Where are you going, Santa Claus, walking?
Are you going to the ruins of ancient Mitla?
A gentle Zapotec explains the tombs of Mitla.
This Zapotec survives, but gone is the last fierce Aztec.
Are you hastening to see where the future would go?

~ Richard Eberhart
(poem can also be found in
A Christmas Treasury
Selected by Stephanie Nettell)

Gift of Love ~ Counted Cross Stitch
{here & Buller Clos, above}

Happy St. Nicholas Day to All!
And thanks to my sister Peggy Carriker Rosenbluth
for these beautiful handmade presents from years ago!

Christmas Eve on the Train

"I knowed that Santa would find me out!"
As I have a mentioned before on my Fortnightly Blog (No One With A Nose / Wise Fool / Ode to Josef), when Ben and Sam attended St. Peter's School in Philadelphia, they were required to memorize and recite a poem every month. They both jumped right in, declaiming one long narrative after another right from the start. "Christmas Eve on the Train" was one of Sam's earliest choices, and one for which he was awarded the monthly declamation prize.

It was my idea that Sam give this particular poem a try because, as a child, I myself had loved to hear my Grandma Lindsey recite it. She must have learned it from the above clipping that my mother found among Grandma's papers, many years after her death. We pieced it together as best we could, though a few segments were missing.

I never knew my grandmother to actually read the poem from the clipping or from any other source -- only to recite it word for word from memory. Her spoken version always closed with the penultimate stanza, " . . . And so he came to the little maid / In an emigrant's disguise." As you can see, this is also where the above clipping (which includes neither author nor title) concludes, so perhaps that's all she ever knew.

Despite my many Christmas books and poetry anthologies, I have yet to encounter this poem anywhere, other than my grandmother's recitations; her crumbling clipping, and -- more recently -- on the internet, where I learned of the last stanza and the author's name with the aid of Google. It was extremely gratifying to realize from my search results that I am not the only one with fond childhood memories of "Christmas Eve on the Train." I can close my eyes and hear once again my grandmother's soothing voice as if it were yesterday:

Santa Claus On the Train
On a Christmas Eve an emigrant train
Sped on through the blackness of night,
And cleft the pitchy dark in twain
With the gleam of its fierce headlight.

In a crowded car, a noisome place,
Sat a mother and her child;
The woman's face bore want's wan trace,
But the little one only smiled,

And tugged and pulled at her mother's dress,
And her voice had a merry ring,
As she lisped, "Now, mamma, come and guess
What Santa Claus'll bring."

But sadly the mother shook her head,
As she thought of a happier past;
"He never can catch us here," she said.
"The train is going too fast."

"O, mamma, yes, he'll come, I say,
So swift are his little deer,
They run all over the world today; -
I'll hang my stocking up here."

She pinned her stocking to the seat,
And closed her tired eyes;
And soon she saw each longed-for sweet
In dreamland's paradise.

On a seat behind the little maid
A rough man sat apart,
But a soft light o'er his features played,
And stole into his heart.

As the cars drew up at a busy town
The rough man left the train,
But scarce had from the steps jumped down
Ere he was back again.

And a great big bundle of Christmas joys
Bulged out from his pocket wide;
He filled the stocking with sweets and toys
He laid by the dreamer's side.

At dawn the little one woke with a shout,
'Twas sweet to hear her glee;
"I knowed that Santa Claus would find me out;
He caught the train you see."

Though some from smiling may scarce refrain,
The child was surely right,
The good St. Nicholas caught the train,
And came aboard that night.

For the saint is fond of masquerade
And may fool the old and wise,
And so he came to the little maid
In an emigrant's disguise.

****************

And he dresses in many ways because
He wishes no one to know him,
For he never says, "I am Santa Claus,"
But his good deeds always show him.

by Henry C. Walsh, 1863 - 1927

My Personal Christmas Library

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Presents from Gerry's Auntie Jan (1997):
Red Wooden Shoes, Inscribed "Ben" & "Sam"
and an Amazingly Detailed Bread Dough St. Nick

AN EDUCATOR'S PERSPECTIVE
ON THE QUESTION OF SANTA CLAUS

Dear Editors,

I am old and weary, beyond my years. Some of my friends in the English Department say there is no humor, no heart, no faith, no optimism in the department. My colleagues say, "If you see it in the DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER, it must be so." Please tell me the truth.

~Virginia

Virginia,

Your friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of skeptical times. They do not believe except they read and hear and feel. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by the meetings, the memos, and the mumbling in the halls. All minds, Virginia, are susceptible to littleness. In this great department of ours, one is a mere insect, an ant, in intellect as compared with the boundless world about us, as measured by our many intelligences capable of grasping the whole.

Yes, Virginia, there are humor, heart, faith, and optimism in this department. They exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your job its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be this department if there were no humor, no heart, no faith, no optimism. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would no childlike faith then, no poetry, no prose, no romance enough to make tolerable this job. We would have no enjoyment, except in meanness, bitterness, and pessimism. The light with which our profession fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe this department has humor, heart, faith, optimism! You might as well not believe in teachers. You might get your colleagues to listen in at all the classroom and office doors on any given day to catch the spirit, but even if you did not see the spirit, what would that prove? Nobody sees humor or heart or faith or optimism, but that is no sign that there are none. The most real things in education are those that no one can see. Did you ever see teachers dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they do not. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart each other's theories and think you see what makes the thesis, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest, not even the united strength of all the strongest that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, prose, and love can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No humor, heart, faith, or optimism in the English Department. Thank our lucky stars; thank all gods and goddesses! They live and live forever. A thousand semesters from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 semesters from now, these will continue to make glad the heart of this and every college and every student, professor, and administrator in the land.

******************************
I came across the above academic rendering
back in the 90s when I worked at the
Community College of Philadelphia

Click here to read the history and text of the original

The Little St. Nick

Sam, Ready for Holidays Around the World (Sixth Grade)
St. Nicholas Day: time to set out our red wooden shoes and fill them with dreidels (combining holidays!), along with two sweet little Waiting for Santa Sisters from my friend Etta, an elegant bread dough St. Nick, made by Gerry's Auntie Jan (in the mirror you can see that even his back is finely detailed), and a couple of St. Nicholas picture postcards collected over the years from our friends in Holland. When the boys were little, these friends also sent us some realistic looking St. Nick shaped chocolates. I set them out on the table to admire and after a few days, Ben (only 4 at the time) said, "When can we eat those priests?"