Classic Christmas Poetry page.Milton, Chesterton, Donne, Longfellow, Livingston, Herbert, Piper, and your's truly Sinter Knicker.
President Bush's Christmas Radio address today should make the critics happy. It makes many ASLaNdians glad (except for the fact that we are at war in Iraq). Here are excerpts:
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. As families across our Nation gather to celebrate Christmas, Laura and I send our best wishes for the holidays. We hope that your Christmas will be blessed with family and fellowship.
At this special time of year, we give thanks for Christ's message of love and hope. Christmas reminds us that we have a duty to others, and we see that sense of duty fulfilled in the men and women who wear our Nation's uniform. America is blessed to have fine citizens who volunteer to defend us in distant lands. For many of them, this Christmas will be spent far from home, and on Christmas our Nation honors their sacrifice, and thanks them for all they do to defend our freedom....
At this special time of year, we reflect on the miraculous life that began in a humble manger 2,000 years ago. That single life changed the world, and continues to change hearts today. To everyone celebrating Christmas, Laura and I wish you a day of glad tidings.
Thank you for listening, and Merry Christmas."
Indeed, have a Mary Christmas Mr. and Mrs. Bush
"Gov. Bob Riley's (R) greeting card features a Gilbert Stuart portrait of the Alabama Territory's first governor on the front. But the "Governor" mentioned in the card's message refers to the prophecy of Christ's birth:The articles has lots of pictures from the various Christmas, or "Holiday" cards, which the 50 US governor's sent to supporters this Advent. A related story by the same writers reports that:
"Out of [Judah] shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel," the card quotes from the New Testament book of Matthew.
Forget Red state vs. Blue state. For governors, the split that’s in vogue this season is between those offering “Christmas” wishes and those sending “holiday” tidings in their annual greeting cards.
So says a short editorial in the Arkansas-based Clanton Advertiser
If it were only this simple......A recent poll released by The Associated Press said that 86 percent of all people believed in Santa Claus as a child despite all the odds. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
The historical Saint Nicholas was venerated in early Christian legend for saving storm-tossed sailors, defending young children and giving generous gifts to the poor.
In recent years, church leaders have shied away from Jolly Old St. Nick because of how commercial the holiday has become. It also has some negative connotations because it may take some emphasis off the birth of Jesus.
However, having Santa Claus around as a symbol for the holiday season shouldn't be a bad thing. We should remember that he is a symbol of giving generously to the poor, not commercialism. If we remember that and teach our children about that, then we shouldn't worry about children believing in Santa Claus."
I have been meaning to post something about the fascinating ways in which CS Lewis wrote about Christmas, but have been too busy with my own shopping, and singing, and website building. Once again, Mr. Patterson, a journalist from Melbourne, Australia has come to the rescue in his excellent essay "Santa Gets Heave-Ho-Ho." ASLaN will delve into these writings in future posts, and at our website, but for now Mr. Patterson gives a worthy introduction to an aspect of Lewis that his estate's marketing team does not wish to promote!
ASLaN will try to get permission from the CS Lewis estate to publish the entire original essays. They are posted illegally online, but we don't wish to break any copyright laws. That is a crime worthy of the (mostly) American creators of the Santa Cult, who copied all the good things from Nicholas, but stripped him of his core -- a preacher and lover of Christ and a servant of men.C.S. Lewis wrote a fantasy about Christmas titled Exmas and Crismas.
One of the customs of the Exmas festival was sending cards and gifts.
Every citizen had to guess the value of the gift a friend would send him and send back one of equal value, regardless of whether he could afford it.
On the big day of the festival, the citizens would eat too much and become drunk.
Then they would feel ill and worry about the money they had spent.
There was also a non-commercial festival called Crismas, on the same day as Exmas. A few kept Crismas sacred, but they were greatly distracted by Exmas.
Culturally significant holidays develop both a religious meaning and a secular meaning.
Christmas can be a confusing mix of religious and hedonist symbols. So whose birthday is it, anyway?
Sometimes it's hard to tell. A Dutch survey a couple of years ago found that a third of the population did not know Christmas celebrated the birth of Jesus...
So, I have sympathy for the Melbourne pastor who has accused Santa of being a blasphemous stand-in for God.
Anti-Santa pastor Steve McNeilly, of the New Life Christian Church, has naturally copped it for this view.
He's been called a Scrooge. One psychologist slamming the pastor said Santa was a "crucial part" of children's Christmas celebrations....The fat bloke in the red suit has as much to do with the Christmas story as the Easter Bunny...
Christmas celebrates the birth of a man who told the rich to tone down their opulence.
How does that sit with the overweight Santa delivering mountains of overpriced plastic toys to Western children? Their counterparts in Africa, Asia and Latin America are wasting away from AIDS and starvation.
So, why do we celebrate the birth of a Christ who told us to give everything to the poor by giving each other PlayStations and expensive trinkets?"
There's more, so read the whole essay. Bravo Mr. Patterson, you are in the running for our 2006 ASLaN Awards.
One "Ruvy," has got something groovy to say about Santa, from Israel. A writer for desicritics online, he grew up in Brooklyn, so he has first-hand memories of the madness of the Santa Cult as it is in the Apple. He writes, in "Ho, Ho, Ho: The Truth About Santa Claus:"
First I explained as well as I could that a commercial is an attempt to make us spend our money on something. After I thought I got that point across, I had to explain what stores do - that is to say that they sell merchandise - and that they use commercials to get people to buy their merchandise. Finally, I had to point out that if stores could not sell their merchandise, the owners would not be able to pay their bills, and they would lose their homes and have to sleep in the streets. Naturally, I also pointed out that the people who work in the stores would lose their jobs, and then they wouldn't be able to pay their bills and that they would also have to sleep in the streets. But, you know how five year olds are. You can't dwell on details too much.
Then I told my son how big department store owners some hundred and fifty years saw how they could make a fortune of money. They turned the Dutch Sinkt Niklaas - a wisp of a legend with a beard and long pipe who was not averse to dropping coal into someone's stocking - into Santa Claus, the jolly provider of gifts for all children. And why did they do this? So that the parents would have to fulfill their children's' expectations of gifts mysteriously coming into the house by Christmas morning. Santa Claus, I told my boy, was the biggest and best commercial ever invented in the last 150 years.
The astute Jew (Jews are people with a detector for false idols in their blood, mind you) then added:But, my only obligation is to my son - to make sure he understands what is in those sweet commercials with Santa Claus in them, so that he never has to get caught up in Christmas madness himself.
But today Japanese are eager consumers of all the trappings of Christmas and many Japanese cities outdo their British counterparts in their enthusiasm for the festivities.
Hymns and Christmas classics are played everywhere from gymnasiums to neighbourhood shopping streets.
Overtly Christian imagery is widespread and people greet each other with "Merry Christmas" rather than the more politically correct "season's greetings".
•Santa is not an American nor is he legally recognized for residency or occupational purposes in this country. Oblivious to this fact, millions of Americans delight in inviting him into their homes and allowing him to work unsupervised every year. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to his costume and demeanor."
By Jon Hurdle PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Santa isn't welcome in Hazleton because he's an illegal immigrant just like all the others the Pennsylvania town is trying to get rid of -- or so someone would have you believe.
A new Web site, http://www.nosantaforhazleton.com, says the town intends to keep Santa out this Christmas because he represents the illegal immigration the town council believes increases crime and burdens local services.
But the site is a hoax, created by someone in a bid to satirize a local law passed in July that has attracted national attention by imposing penalties on businesses and landlords to deter them from hiring or renting rooms to illegal immigrants..."
ASLaN says -- WAY TO GO HAZLETON! Watch the great ad. Punch line:
"This Christmas, Tell Santa He's No Longer Welcome."
(While the reason for this anti-Santa outbreak of sanity is not shared by the founders, board, sponsors, and supporters of ASLaN, the glorious outcome is the same!)As for the point about Moore and his children, my impression is that he loved them deeply. He clearly had a Christmas poem for them every year. I think it's just that one Christmas he slipped up and took credit for something the governess brought along. Then, when it went too public, he didn't know how to get out of the embarrassing situation.As Frost said (paraphrase/from memory) "Knowing how way leads on to way...."
I have no children, so I have no good expertise to bring to this. Apparently Moore's heavy hand didn't result in model children. His sons had reputations for chasing the maids. His daughter adored him, but that's the norm I think for fathers and daughters. And girls tend more to try to be good little girls and meet father's expectations. Clearly when the poem started becoming famous, his children were extremely proud of him. I often think how frightened he must have been of being caught by these loved children. It's actually very sad.
Sorry, Virginia, but you were lied to.
Worse than that, the counterfeit "Claus" that you and millions more were
sold on in the nineteenth century is now more objectionable then when you
were a little girl.
Back then Santa had the same spiritual flaws that his many "incarnations"
still have, but he hadn't been converted into the idolatrous and
secularized patron saint of the Self that he often is today.
Sure, the hucksters of your day prostituted the good myth Santa for
personal greed, but he still retained some humility. Now his favorite
color is certainly cash-green, and he doesn't appreciate alternative
worship on Christmas morning maligning his false profits.
Shockingly, his iconic image is now abused by adverts who want others to
discover the secrets in Victoria's underwear. Even dolls at FAO Schwartz
in New York wear leather straps, garter belts and little else. What, is
Santa now a ho?
He was on a binge when you asked him for gifts, but currently the obese
hedonist is given over to such avarice and gluttony that his co-creator,
Henry Livingston, Jr., would be shocked. (Alas, your generation also
thought that Clement Moore wrote "Twas the Night," but he actually
plagiarized it.) Indeed, if Livingston could have seen the ghost of
Christmas future I think he might have burnt the catchy poem before it
helped to fuel the Santa cult.
True, your era's version of our post-modern perversion was still
associated with the longing for good things like "faith, fancy, poetry,
love, [and] romance," but you were lied to nonetheless.
Yet if you asked me today, Virginia, I would still answer "Yes, there is a
Santa Claus, and his name is Saint Nicholas, from Myra."
Actually, the real Virginia O'Hanlon died in 1971, leaving behind 7
grandchildren. I wonder how many of their grandchildren know that the real
St. Nicholas lives on?
That man was a beloved bishop who was born around 280 AD, in what is now
Turkey, and his love for Jesus Christ and his concern for the poor,
especially children, earned him a sacred place in world history.
The Dutch brought him to New Amsterdam in their wooden shoes as
"Sinterklass," where capitalism and the literary skills of Washington
Irving saved him from near extinction after America's first war on
Christmas. That cultural struggle saw Massachusetts's Puritans trying to
outlaw celebrations on December 25,th and in 12 of the 13 colonies any
veneration of holy Nicholas was a serious Protestant sin.
Numerous websites and books have chronicled Nicholas' long, strange trip
in the new world, and how he was eventually kidnapped to the North Pole by
Madison Avenue. There is a growing, international movement of people,
however, who are learning to just say "No" to the Santa drug.
The latest of these groups is the Czechoslovakian, Anti-Santa.cz, started
this year by advertising copywriters who are fighting back against the
"marketing heretics for another crucifixion of Baby Jesus and the
importation of Santa."
"I protest if someone forces his imported implant in a red suit on me
while I'm at my Christmas Eve supper table," says one of the group's
founders, Petr Voborsky.
Regrettably, the modern pagan with supernatural powers was created right
here in the red, white and blue, so resisting him will be much harder, as
he holds a huge and well-guarded chunk of the Christmas market in the
imaginations of many.
The recovery of a true Turkish Christmas doesn't mean doing away with toy
drives or trees, or even eggnog and mistletoe. It also doesn't require
that parents stop reading great stories or fairytales to young children.
But even beloved Aslan's creator, C. S. Lewis, who understood the power of
myth to convey truth, called "Exmas" a "commercial racket," during which
gift-giving guilt trips "were forced upon us by the shopkeepers."
Hmmm...I don't remember those Christmas essays being promoted during the
marketing blitz for Narnia knick-knacks last Advent season?
So, dear Virginia's out there, it is time to ditch "The Claus," and to
follow St. Nick-to the Incarnation, where the Gift of salvation is still
given to man.
Do not seek him at Santa's usurping throne at the mall, in a worshipful
Hollywood account that ascribes glory to Santa, or in the magical but
temporary thrill of a gift under a tree.
Do seek him in the manger of your heart and in a house of worship that
honors the Messiah whom Nicholas adored. There you will find, of course,
sinners, but also bread and wine, gifts and givers, and songs of Christmas
joy: toys around the Tree of Life that will last for eternity.
This counsel should pass muster with the Anti-Christmas Liberties Union,
for it concurs with the Constitution, where the birth and Divinity of
Jesus is affirmed in the official words "The Seventeenth Day of September
in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven."
So friends, have a MARY Christmas, and a very St. Nicholas New Year!
Walter Skold is a librarian and poet from Freeport, Maine and the founder of
the International ASLaN Society.
Memo to Santa Claus: When packing your sleigh on Christmas Eve, Jim
Rosenthal would prefer that you passed him by. You need not bother with
Carol Myers' house, either. And please, if you know what's good for you,
stay away from Walter Skold's chimney.
No offense, but they would much prefer a visit by St. Nicholas.
It's a conflict as perennial as the shopping mall Santa -- what to do with
the North Pole's most famous resident on Christmas, a holiday that
celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. A small but growing band of
Christians has an answer: Dump Claus altogether and bring back the
original St. Nicholas.
St. Nicholas, a fourth-century Christian bishop in what is now Turkey, was
known for his charity and kind heart. As the story goes, he rescued three
poor women from prostitution by slipping gold coins down their chimney --
landing in their stockings drying by the fire - - so their father could
afford a dowry for each.
The bishop of Myra became the patron saint of seafarers and pawnbrokers,
brides and children. More than 1,200 churches are named for him, dedicated
to his persecuted faith and his good works.
Along the way, the Nicholas legend split into two camps -- one holds
special devotion for the pious priest, especially among Orthodox
Christians; the other thinks of him as just another version of Santa
Claus. Walter Skold wants to change that.
As founder of the "Anti-Santa Love Nicholas Society," Skold literally
thinks Santa should be "sued for consumer and historical fraud, and exiled
to Siberia." His disdain for Santa Claus runs so deep he willingly accepts
the label of "Grinch."
"I'm more than annoyed," Skold, 41, said from his home in Brunswick,
Maine, where Santa has been banned for good. "I honestly hate what Santa
Claus has become. People hear that and they think you're anti-children,
they think you're anti-gifts, anti- commercialism. But those are side
issues. The issue is that Christ isn't getting the glory."
So seven years ago, Skold founded his "loose-knit group of kindred
spirits" while serving as a missionary in China. He concedes he hasn't
made much progress because "anyone who hears anti-Santa thinks I'm some
kind of nut."
But there is an immensely serious side to Skold's campaign, and he is not
alone. A similar, although more serious, St. Nicholas Society was formed
two years ago in London by Jim Rosenthal, press secretary for the
archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.
Rosenthal's fledgling society has received Carey's blessing -- so much so
that Carey's wife, Eileen, presided at the annual Dec. 6 St. Nicholas Day
festival at Canterbury Cathedral. And devotion to St. Nicholas is catching
on throughout the Anglican Communion.
As Rosenthal sees him, St. Nicholas never rode a sleigh, although he
probably had a beard. The overstuffed red suit is replaced by a bishop's
regalia, complete with miter and shepherd's staff.
"We're not opposed to Santa Claus or Father Christmas or whatever you want
to call him," said Rosenthal, who is originally from Chicago. "But we
believe children should know his real name."
The origins of the modern Santa Claus are murky. Dutch immigrants brought
the tradition of St. Nicholas as "Sinter Klass," which had been grafted
onto the Kriss Kringle and Nicholas legends from Europe. Along the way,
Claus acquired a flying sleigh and reindeer. It wasn't until 1939 that a
certain red-nosed reindeer was added.
By 1822, he was immortalized as rosy-cheeked, "chubby and plump" in "
'Twas the Night Before Christmas."
It's not so much the person of Santa Claus that annoys Rosenthal, but the
commercialism he has come to represent.
"The secular verity compels us to buy and shop 'til we drop," Rosenthal
said, "whereas the Christian verity expressed in St. Nicholas is to enjoy
and share and maybe drop to your knees in prayer."
(Walter Skold)
