First things first

I love the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the lights and the decorations and the smells (cookies!) of the holidays. It annoys me to no end when retailers start pushing holiday wares and exuding forced Christmas cheer early in the fall, when we haven’t celebrated Halloween (or even Labor Day, in some cases!) yet. Once Thanksgiving has arrived, though, it feels as though Christmas is now “permitted.”

No doubt this is partly related to the fact that, when I was little kid, my dad announced that “once you see Santa [in the Macy’s parade, which we watched on television every year], then the Christmas season has officially begun.” Like most people, I reached a point during my childhood when I realized that my parents didn’t know everything after all. On this, however, I still think my dad is right. Maybe that’s why, even though every year I tell myself that “next year, I will start my Christmas crafts in July so I have time to get them done!” I just can’t just find the right mood for them before November.

I am especially fond of Christmas music, even the schmaltzy stuff (though the Muzak versions and midi files definitely rank low on that list). Even though I am somewhat allergic to the word God, I actually like the sacred music more than the profane. And I like the old music more than the new. I’ve nothing against songs about Santa’s travel itinerary, but when it comes to stirring the pot of emotions they don’t hold a candle to songs about the religious aspects of Christmas or rousing tunes about wassails and boar’s heads. It’s sort of like walking into a huge, old cathedral in Europe and just feeling the waves of belief that built and sustained this amazing piece of art and culture, even if you harbor no such faith yourself.

Every year after Thanksgiving I pull out our books of Christmas music and start doing my best to fill my house with decent renditions of those songs. But because I haven’t played them at all for eleven or so months, they don’t sound so good. I’m a fairly capable sight reader at the piano, but it still takes me a bit of practice before a song sounds just right.

So this year, I broke with my own tradition and took out those books back in October. Opening them up was like greeting old friends: King Wenceslas, Jeannette Isabella, the three ships that are ever sailing. The “Nuns in Frigid Cells” were there, too. And I made some new acquaintances, too: “Masters in This Hall” (an Old French tune with lyrics by William Morris), “A Day of Joy and Feasting,” “Whence Comes This Rush of Wings,” “Shout the Glad Tidings,” “Noel, Nouvelet!” (late-15th-century French).

It felt a little weird to be playing Christmas tunes on deliciously warm, Indian summer days. At the same time, it was kind of nice to get an early, totally noncommercial glimpse of the upcoming holiday. And now (especially after the piano tuner finishes his work this morning) I feel prepared for Christmas on at least one front!

Ze Frank is one of the most creative and interesting people I’ve ever come across. I first came across his website in 2000, I think, when this creation of his swept across the Internet.

He has all sorts of projects on his page. (This one and this one are two of my favorites.) Last month he wrote:

Laura wrote to ask if i could write a song to remind her to chill out when she got anxious. I asked people to sing along to a basic track and send me the results as audio files. After I had about 20 in total I mixed the results together to create the chorus of the tune (special thanks to everyone that sent in audio)

Here’s what he came up with.

It’s about time someone came up with a way to make the weather report this simple. Because really, isn’t that all we need to know?

There’s a theory that any movie could be improved by adding ninjas to it—even movies that already have ninjas. I’d like to add this corollary: there’s no song that can’t be improved by adding cowbells and Christopher Walken to it.

A new Joss Whedon project? Check.

Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and Neil Patrick Harris? Check.

And they’re all singing? Double-check.

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Let me own up to two things:

1. I watched a lot of MTV in the ’80s and was especially fond of a-ha’s “Take on Me.” (I own Hunting High and Low—and Scoundrel Days, too. On vinyl, even.)

2. Butt-related humor cracks me up.

So you can see why I think this (via John Scalzi) is just awesome:

Take a look at this music video by the Quebecois band Tricot Machine. The song is called “Les peaux de lièvres,” and the video is made up of 700 (yes, SEVEN HUNDRED) unique knitted scenes:

Girls Rock!

Indeed they do!

Wow, doesn’t this look like an amazing film? The trailer alone is impressive. How fabulous to see adolescent girls feeling confident and empowered—and not because of what anyone else tells them but because of what they accomplish and how they themselves feel about it.

Here is the website for the film (which hits theaters on March 7), if you’re interested in more info.

Our tree is up. We’ve baked five different kinds of cookies (with lots of help from Sylvia, who is an expert stirrer and cookie-decorator…so what if the sugar-cookie snow man’s buttons are in the middle of his face instead of his chest, right?). All cards and packages went out in the mail last week. And I finally finished this Christmas-tree-shaped hat for Sylvia. I love this pattern (though in future renditions I think I’d make the red border at the bottom a bit longer) and the yarn I used (I heart Lamb’s Pride bulky).

I knit all of it last winter but had the hardest time keeping the I-cord evenly spaced while attaching it to the hat, so I put it aside out of frustration. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and after about five attempts managed to get the I-cord “garland” on the tree nicely. Sylvia wore the hat last weekend, when we went to a local farm (it’s a county park that’s a working farm—one of our favorite places to visit) to see Santa. She was a bit wary of Santa, but utterly enamored with the candy cane he gave her.

In addition to holiday knitting, I’ve also been playing Christmas carols on our piano a lot lately. We have a few Fireside books (Folk Songs, Favorite American Songs, and Song Book of Birds and Beasts; interestingly, that last one was collected and edited by Jane Yolen, whose Owl Moon is one of Sylvia’s favorites) but, aside from a few pieces in those books, didn’t have much holiday music.

When Jan was growing up, his family had a book called A Treasury of Christmas Songs and Carols that he loved. So we poked around online and managed to find a used copy on sale. It arrived a few weeks ago, and we’ve really been enjoying working out way through it. It’s a retired library copy, so it has the library binding. But the pages are totally pristine. Our copy is the seventh printing of the first edition, from 1955, so the composer dates always make me do a double-take. “The Three Ships,” for example, has “Alfred Noyes (1880- )” and “Colin Taylor (1881- ).”

There’s a huge variety of songs in this book, which is divided into sections: “British and American Carols,” “Carols from Foreign Parts,” “Christmas Hymns and Chorales,” “Especially for Children,” “Christmas Solo Songs,” and “Christmas Rounds and Canons.” I’ve found lots of old favorites in here and made some new friends, too. But the one that always brings a smile to my face is this one, penned by Henry W. Longfellow to a traditional tune:

“Nuns in Frigid Cells”

Nuns in frigid cells
At this holy tide,
For want of something else
Christmas songs at times have tried
Let us, by the fire,
Ever, ever higher
Sing, sing, sing
them till the night expire

I mean, really: who doesn’t think of nuns in frigid cells when they think of Christmas, right?

Talk Like a Pirate Day is on September 19 this year (and every year, actually). Are you ready?

It’s one of my favorite holidays (should we start a letter-writing campaign to get Congress to declare it a national holiday? hmmm…). I wrote about pirate-speak and pirate-knitting last year. I still haven’t gotten around to trying my hand at the “We Might Be Pirates” hat, but I do spend a lot of time listening to pirate music.

Crafty Crafty has a nice list of pirate-related knitting projects. Those of you who are speedy with the needles might be able to crank out one or two before the big day. (Me, I’ll just start planning ahead for next year…)

Arrrrrr!

Yes, it’s that cool.

Jan and I are always on the lookout for “kids music that won’t drive parents and other adults insane.” I am horrified to admit that my house contains its share of Raffi CDs. Sylvia likes them all right, but she seems to prefer kids music along the lines of They Might Be Giants, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Burl Ives, all of whom have recorded “kids music that won’t drive parents and other adults insane–unless said parents and adults can’t stand alternative or folk music, of course.”

Several months ago, I heard of Captain Bogg and Salty, a band from Portland, Oregon, a kids-music band that sings pirate-themed songs. OH MY DOG (as our friend Gina likes to say). We celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day in this house, so finding music along those lines has been a real treat. Sylvia got one of their CDs for Christmas (after her parents dropped several hints to Santa)–it matches the three different toy pirate ships she has–and we’re planning to get the rest for her collection soon.

They even have a music video, which you can check out here. Arrrrrr!