Christmas

Went for a walk in a park K and I used to go to, stiff breeze off the lake but good memories of a favourite spot cut the chill.

BCF’ readers have curated another excellent selection of carols. The discussion is enlightening. Add your fave in the comments we’ll play it ASAP.

Enjoy.

From Rosenmops the Rube – Cedarmont Kids – The Friendly Beasts

From ADD – The Beatles – Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

And as well … ELVIS PRESLEY, IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME pretty baby

From SC & Osumashi – Veni Veni Emmanuel – O Come, O Come Emmanuel

From Lord Dilligaf – I. Rejoice, Rejoice: Nowell: Dieus vous garde

From PA Cat – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings: Bach, Grosser Herr und starker König (Weihnachtsoratorium)

And also – Weihnachtsoratorium (BWV 248) : Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen

From Norman in New York – My Favorite Things

And Also – I’ll Be Home For Christmas

From testsubjectx1 – Christmas Metal Songs – Joy To The World [Symphonic Heavy Metal Version] – Orion’s Reign & Minniva

From – DCH – Sviridov – Snow-Storm

From Malcolm Y – Home Free & Texas Hill – Go Tell It On The Mountain

A warm welcome back.

Tonight with credit as always to BCF readers we have another fine collection of carols lined up for your listening pleasure.

Christmas is racing toward us. Enjoy.

From Billy – The Monkees – Riu Chiu

Also – Last Christmas & Feliz Navidad | Shania Yan Cover

From – Testsubjectx1 – Patty Gurdy feat. Fiddler’s Green – The Yule Fiddler

From Dana garcia – It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

From Steve & Crystal Vossos – Midwinter Nights

From X — Formerly IB_Joe – Melanie Penn – IMMANUEL, A Christmas Album

From Lord Dilligaf – 1 Isaiah’s Prophecy & The Sybil’s Prophecy (Iudicii signum)

From Appreciative Reader – Riu Chui

From quanga – Рождественская песня – “Nos Galan” (“Канун Нового года”)

From Rosenmops the Rube – In The Bleak Midwinter – Holst – Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short

Welcome back! We have another stack of amazing Christmas carols for you this evening. BCF readers clearly have good taste! Add your fave in the comments and we’ll play it in the first slot available in our daily installment through to Christmas Day.

Enjoy and thank you all for making Reader Fave Carols an annual highlight of our year.

From Norman – Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas (’68 Comeback Special)

And also – Apollo 100 – Joy

From Lord Dillgaf – Heinrich Schütz Christmas Vespers Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh

And also – Sheppard: Missa Cantate Chant for the Third Mass of Christmas – Gloria

And also – Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Messe de minuit pour Noël, H.9

From Kiki9 – Christmas Day

From PA Cat – Handel: Messiah, For unto us a child is born (Sir Colin Davis, Tenebrae, LSO)

From LittleRed1 – Down in Yon Forest

From Frances – Midwinter Nights

From Rosenmops the Rube – Mary Did You Know

And also …

Welcome back. List your faves in the comments and we’ll play them all through Christmas Day.

Enjoy.

From Moray – Jewels (When He Cometh) – as sung by Jack Marti

From Dana – Joy To The World by John Fahey

From Clink – Andy Williams: “O Holy Night”

From XC – (It’s Gonna Be A) Punk Rock Christmas – The Ravers

From Norman – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas | Meet Me In St. Louis

From Osumashi – CANNED HEAT – CHRISTMAS BLUES

From Lord Dilligaf – Praetorius – Lutheran Mass For Christmas Morning

From Mal – On to Bethlehem Town

From Appreciative Reader – Libera – Carol of the Bells

From Francis – Frank Kelly-Christmas Countdown (12 days to christmas)

It’s that time of year. St. Nick will be visiting and we’ll all soon be stuffed with turkey and good cheer.

Long time readers know the routine but to newcomers simply add your favourite carol in the comments and we’ll play your selection in the next 7 PM slot as we continue with new installments each evening through the Big Day.

I’ll get us started. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all!

I hope you have a wonderful day with family, friends and pets, even the nuisance kitties like Xavier, eat too much, maybe imbibe a bit too much and love lots.

It took a treat bribe to get Xavier even close to our wee Christmas tree for the pic.

The minute I set the camera down he assumed a near perfect pose. Now he’s fallen asleep there.

Do you see the copy of Seventeen magazine?

It’s the December 1984 issue.

I came across it a short time ago while sorting through documents that belong to Kathy’s late Grandmother Mae.

Among the hard hitting journalism of articles such as “Gorgeous Guys: Are they great to date?” is a piece by one Kathy Shaidle – “Christmas Lists of a Feminist Past.”

I am not sure even Kathy remembered her Grandma had kept it, stashed as it was deep in the credenza where family documents were stored and frankly avoided.

A lovely thing to appear for Christmas. Like a gift in fact.

I will I think publish it in a pdf format later.

Merry Christmas!

She points out easily overlooked but illuminating particulars

Body aches, chills, fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath: for the third time since the COVID pandemic began, I’ve either got the damn thing or some other malady with very similar symptoms. It’s unpleasant, it’s uncomfortable, and, above all, it’s a big, big bore, if only because it makes it a lot harder to get writing done and, even worse, may put the kibosh on our usual family Christmas. Lingering in bed these last couple of days, I’ve shuffled back and forth between consciousness and unconsciousness, and at one point I found myself trapped in that tiresome no man’s land between the two, where one’s mind churns out an exhausting series of bizarre and disjointed thoughts — although “thoughts” isn’t exactly the right word for them — that make no sense whatsoever. In other words, pretty much the sort of stuff that Joy and Whoopi say on The View every day when they’re supposedly wide awake.

Merry Christmas Everyone! Welcome to the Christmas Day edition of Reader Faves! Thank you all for participating, you make it great fun every year.

Enjoy!

Whitney Houston – Do you hear what I hear from Kiki982

Christmas Must Be Tonight | The Band from headhunter9

Hallelujah Chorus, from Messiah | The Tabernacle Choir from Norman_In_New_York

Mary did you know? from Sweetpea

Snoopy’s Christmas vs. The Red Baron – The Royal Guardsmen from kkruger71

Andy Williams – It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year from kiki982

And also … Kenny Rogers – Christmas Everyday

And… Johnny Mathis – It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Plus … White Christmas

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Silent Night, holy Night) by MoonSun from Malcolm Y

Martina McBride – O holy night from bargogx1

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

We have reached the second Christmas of the war, and we are keeping it with what heart we may. No confidence in the rightness of our cause is lacking, nor has doubt emerged about the ultimate issue of the struggle. What penetrates men’s souls today is not concern for their personal fate, or even for their country’s, but a sense, borne in on them with sombre force as this festival comes round, of the tragedy of the conflict in which millions of human beings are still locked on the day when the message of peace and good will to all mankind should be sounding from every pulpit and rung out by the bells of every steeple.

The Ardennes Forest is located in Belgium and Luxembourg and extends into France and Germany. It’s a sparsely populated region of rolling hills and thickly wooded forests, known for picturesque valleys and charming cities, whose shops and cafes and bike paths have slowly grown around ancient citadels and castles and 13th century churches.

In December of 1944, it was an area of intense fighting, as the Allies fought back against a German offensive – the Ardennes Offensive – that would come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. The German plan of desperation in the face of Western advances was to split the Allies where they were purportedly weak. As said by Adolf Hitler himself: “A blow here [at the Ardennes] would strike the seam between the British and Americans and lead to political as well as military disharmony between the Allies.”

Via CG via Hotair.

Crosby likely did not know who Bowie was, while the Thin White Duke hated Little Drummer Boy, and nearly walked out. And yet magic was made

In 1977, few would have put Bing Crosby and David Bowie in the same room. Crosby, 74, was an old-school entertainer, a man famous for dreaming of a white Christmas. Bowie, meanwhile, had spent so long living on a diet of milk and cocaine that he couldn’t remember making Station to Station the year before. And yet, somehow, this odd couple wound up recording one of the best-loved – and most unlikely – Christmas songs ever made.