Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! Thank you for your support and friendship.

That may be Xavier’s best photo yet, very candid.

Now grab some eggnog and a snack and enjoy Charie Brown’s Christmas.

h/t Kiki9

During the bleak winter of 1914, amid the mud, blood and chaos of World War One, an extraordinary series of ceasefires spontaneously occurred along the Western Front. In the 1960s the BBC spoke to some of the men who, over that exceptional Christmas period, decided to lay down their arms.

On Christmas Eve 1914, Rifleman Graham Williams, of the 5th London Rifle Brigade, stood out on sentry duty staring out anxiously across the wasteland of no man’s land to the German trenches. He had already endured months of the brutal violence, bloodshed and destruction that would come to characterise World War One, when something remarkable happened.

I fell in love with “Fairytale of New York,” the indelible Christmas song by the Pogues, before I’d heard a note.

I grew up in the boarded-up, bombed-out Northern Ireland of the Troubles. There wasn’t an abundance of galleries in Derry, where I lived, at the time, and my father would take me to a record store where the sleeves were one of my main early experiences of art. I’d spend hours escaping into the alien worlds of prog rock and heavy metal.

For a heartwarming Christmas tale, look no further than the medieval legend of St. Nicholas — a story of sex-trafficking, cannibalism and murder. The historical Nicholas is a hazy figure whose scant biography was embroidered in the Middle Ages. The twelfth-century Norman poet Wace wrote a colorful account of his life. It opens with the story that has informed the modern Santa Claus. Nicholas, we are told, took pity on a man who had once been wealthy but had fallen into poverty. The man had three daughters. Things were desperate — the man concluded that the girls had to be sold into sexual slavery. Nicholas visited the man’s house on three consecutive nights and each night threw gold in through an open door window.

Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy our reader faves. It’s been a wonderful year thanks to all of you.

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From Lightstream – Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

From Walt Whiteman – Kolyada with Father Roman …PT 1. The Trombone

From Lord Dilligaf – Renaissance Choral Music for Christmas

And also – Bach: Christmas Oratorio. Holton, Bär, Argenta, Von Otter, Rolfe-Johnson, Gardiner.

From Surele Surele – O Come, All Ye Faithful – The Petersens

From Norman in New York – The Salsoul Orchestra – Christmas Medley

And also – Offenbach- Snowflakes Ballet from Voyage to the Moon

And – Adam Lambert & Noa Dori singing ‘The Prayer’-David Foster

One more … Charice SMX Concert: Song #9 Duet “PRAYER”

From testsubjectx1 – Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Canon Rock

From headhunter9 – The Fab 4 – Hark The Herald Angels Sing

From X — Formerly IB_Joe – Rita MacNeil -The Season Will Never Grow Old

From SweetPea – Billie Eilish – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

From Dana Garcia – Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem – Christmas Time With The Judds

From kiki9 – The 12 Pains of Christmas

And also – Merry Christmas, Darling – The Carpenters

From SD Matt – Jihad Bells

Jihadists wish you all a Merry Christmas with their new song:
Jihad Bells 🎶

Volume up 🔊 pic.twitter.com/gvHaV5XoSu

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) December 19, 2023

For Kathy. I hunted down a copy and uploaded the video for her 11 years ago.

My favourite.

Every Christmas Eve local school children come to Holten and Groesbeek Canadian Military Cemeteries in the Netherlands to light a candle in honour of each soldier laid to rest. The act is both humbling and beautiful and serves as reminder to be grateful for the peace we enjoy. pic.twitter.com/mm3wi4tmnJ

— Wounded Warriors CAN (@WoundWarriorCA) December 24, 2023

According to French think tank @Fondapol, between 1979-2021, there were:

-Islamist terrorist attacks, 48,035
-deaths, 210,138
-explosives used, 43.9%
-military is the main target, 31.7%
-civilians, 25.0%
-police forces, 18.3% https://t.co/5APIudafYR pic.twitter.com/atkmkDBK8m

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) December 24, 2023

h/t Mauser

It happened in Italy a long time ago. The war was still at its height, but winter had set in, the roads were impassable and we were pulled out of the front line.

I was chaplain to a regiment which had been through a difficult period and the men welcomed the respite. There was some desultory shelling, but appropriately enough, as it was near Christmas, a measure of peace prevailed. We took over a small village, requisitioned a few houses, and settled down for a couple of weeks. I lived with the doctor and his unit in the Regimental Aid Post.

Welcome. I hope you are all enjoying Christmas Eve.

Some will sit down to a  feast tonight others on Christmas day. My home was a Christmas Day feast.

Joyful havoc ruled.

The day began with a mad pajama clad dash downstairs often before the break of dawn with a tipsy Dad leading the 6 boy charge.

I’m certain there were years when most of us didn’t bother changing into street clothes at all.

The kitchen was a one woman whirlwind. You did not get in Mom’s way as Christmas day kitchen tramplings were overlooked by the children’s aid of the time.

Our Christmas meal was basic and special. A giant turkey with Mom’s delicious stuffing (which she taught me how to make), and her cranberry sauce, raisin, apple, pumpkin pies, cookies, candies and chocolates galore, nuts of many types, mandarins and weird things like blood pudding your dad liked.

Yea we always had brussels sprouts the DEI hire of vegetables too which I think were made part of the traditional meal to remind us that hell existed.

Then there was Mom’s homemade Christmas cake. One year she washed out the crispers from the fridge and used those as her mixing bowls. I loved that cake but it can’t be duplicated.

I think Christmas dinner was the only meal I ever ate as a kid that didn’t include ketchup.

I remember coming home for Christmas one year so sick with the flu that the room started to spin when I walked in the kitchen and was overwhelmed by the heat and aromas.

I spied a bottle of whiskey on the table and proceeded to down 6 shots in quick succession, big ones. I slept till the early evening.

Still I was home for Christmas.

I loved making Christmas dinner for K.

Cranberries, a pie or two and prepping the stuffing the night before. It always felt a bit like my childhood all those years ago.

It is early morning now and I found Mr. Robot waving to me from the back of a bookshelf.

He is a Christmas ornament Kathy gifted me many years ago. I had forgotten about him.

I will take it as a sign from K & Xavier and I will keep him with us as we trod new paths.

 

Please enjoy our reader carols. This has been an especially fine year of selections, add your faves in the comments. We’ll have more on Christmas Day. My thanks to all.

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From Cyclist – The Shepherd – Frederick Forsyth – read by Alan Maitland from CBC Radio

From testsubjectx1 – Martina McBride – Please Come Home For Christmas

From Lord Dilligaf – Watchman of Zion

Also – Gregorian Chant Medieval Carols

And – Hodie Christus Natus Est – Christmas Gregorian Chant

And one more … Hodie Christus natus est – Sweelinck

From Appreciative Reader – In The Bleak Midwinter – Holst – Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short

From DCH – “Christmas Time’s A’Coming” by Bill Monroe

From Kiki9 – Who Put The Stump

From Norman in New York – La Sierra University Orchestra – “Fantasia on Greensleeves” by Ralph Vaughan Williams

From Surele Surele – for KING + COUNTRY – Little Drummer Boy

It is illustrative of the nonsense that now chronically afflicts our country and much of the Western world that the Canadian Human Rights Commission recently reported that statutory holidays for Christian celebrations, including Christmas, are “a form of discrimination” that is “deeply rooted in our identity as a settler colonialism state.” It is more accurate to say that the Human Rights Commission is a form of idiocy deeply rooted in our woke, politically correct foolishness.

Asked in an interview recently to name my favorite Christmas movie, I went through the usual routine of naming several candidates — new and old, mostly black and white — before inevitably getting to the point, the undeniable, the obvious: Frank Capra’s 1946 masterpiece, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Dec 23rd and excitement mounts.

Welcome back folks our friends have another fine selection of carols for your listening pleasure.

Enjoy!

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From Osumashi – Vince Guaraldi Trio – O Tannenbaum

From PA Cat – Do You Hear What I Hear – Martina McBride

From DavidInNorthBurnaby – Nothing But A Child

From Kiki9 – Paul Harvey ~ A Christmas Story: The Man And The Birds

From Surele Surele – The First Noel – Claire Crosby and Family

From X — Formerly IB_Joe – Good King Wenselas

From Osumashi – Good King Wenceslas

From Dana Garcia – Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss – The Wexford Carol

From Norman in New York – Leonard Bernstein – Mozart Schlittenfahrt (Sleigh Ride) 1967

And also … The Skaters Waltz – André Rieu

Welcome everyone to the start of a Christmas Eve weekend and a selection of Carols from BCF readers.

Post your fave in the comments, we’ll play it in the first available installment.

Thank you for making this a wonderful annual event.

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From Surele Surele – Chris Rea ~ Driving Home For Christmas

From DMB – Klaus Schwab presents: VaxxMas Hits ’23

From Norman in NY – Tchaikovsky Flashwaltz at Hadassah Hospital

From Lord Dilligaf – Une jeune fillette (Mélodie populaire – Arrangement Jordi Savall)

And also – Une jeune pucelle

And one more … Cantata « Herr, wie du willt, so schick’s mit dir » (Choral) : Das ist des Vaters Wille

From Frances – ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime / The Huron Carol

From Canminuteman – The Kinks – Father Christmas

And also – Pretenders – 2000 Miles

From BillyHW – Gaudete – The Gesualdo Six