Tag Archives: Christmas

My Favourite Haiku – Nobuko Katsura – September 25, 2015

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Arco, Italy

Christmas –
this sadness of being a wife
when did I first feel it?

© Nobuko Katsura

I think there isn’t a wife (or husband) alive that hasn’t felt  this sadness at least once. Why? Because:

Prince Charming
without a magic sword
a husband

© G.s.k. ’15

Carpe Diem My Favorite Haiku By … #4 Buson’s sleep with “daki kago”

Morning Haiku and Waka – December 19, 2014

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Christmas Stocking_smallred stocking
alone on the mantle
no children 
awaiting presents
Christmas memory

the stocking
ghost of Christmas past
filled with love

© G.s.k. ‘14

This is the original haiku I used for inspiration for this post, a Sparkling Stars from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:

Christmas stockings
hanging above the fireplace
awaiting presents

© Chèvrefeuille

Wordleing – Malengine Malediction – November 4, 2014

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Malengine Malediction

Now, curtsey when you meet the master –
Follow the game rules and don’t despair,
The aftermath will bring you the answer
To the question you ne’er asked.

“Malengine malediction” (you’ll hear the master wail)
“Swear ne’er go near the zombie mash!
And when stalking the castle keep –
The ghoul must walk next to the old bat …”

“The most important rule to know,
Which you must always remember,
Don’t debase the scrawny black cat,
For she’s your magic succubus!”

“When the werewolf and the ogre wail …
Throw your shoe at them … but I swear,
T’is better to honor, the gargoyle in his lair
And the Jabberwocky’s sacred tree.”

Once the game is over my dear,
Curtsey once again and then,
We’ll eat hot flambéed plum pudding
And open all our gifts …

We’ll have such lovely holiday fun!
A right rum scary Halloween …
uhm … I mean …
We’ll have a merry Christmas day!

Mindlovesmisery’s Menagerie’s Weekly wordle:

1. Curtsey 2. Debase 3. Game 4. Answer 5. Plum 6. Real 7. Swear 8. Shoe 9. Aftermath 10. Malengine (evil machination, deceit) 11. Stalk 12. Master

Weekly lqw wordle

ghoul, bat, wail, ogre, succubus, zombie, werewolf

Christmas…1974

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Christmas tree music box

Christmas tree music box

Back in 1974, I lived in Asmara, what was then Ethiopia.  Because it’s on a high plateau, it has one of the most wonderful climates in the world…eternal spring.  Cold enough in the “winter” to wear a light jacket in the evenings.

It was my first Christmas in a really warm country since back in the mid 50s when I was a kid: I spent 3 years in the Philippines where my father, who was in the USAF,  was stationed.

I’ve always had this thing for Christmas and the tree with all the decorations.  Of course, there were no proper trees to be had, but I was able to find a close imitation, a cypress tree, at the tree nursery which suited me to a tee.

I made paper gingerbread men, tiny gift packages and other ornaments to decorate the tree.  They had to be light weight because the branches were just too subtle and bent under the weight of my real glass ornaments!  I strung the lights first around the center of the tree.  Again it was a blessing that the Italian Christmas lights weren’t like the big  American lights with their splendid but heavy light bulbs.  And then I frosted the tree in tinsel icicles.

I made a fireplace too, out of heavy cardboard, covering it with brick designed contact paper and creating an artificial fire with papier-mache logs, colored tissue paper, a small fan to make the “fire” move and a small red-orange light bulb for warmth…there I hung the stockings that I’d made. and put candles on the “mantle”. Of course I made oodles of colored chains out of construction paper and hung them in upside down arches on the ceiling as well as around the doors and windows

My rocking chair sat by the fireplace, and I’d sit there as my kids played on a rug on the floor, listening to Christmas carols, just pretending it was snowing outside.  I read them the “Night Before Christmas” and “A Christmas Carol” but they were little bits and I don’t think they followed the stories very well.

We had friends over very often and and everyone admired my little flight of imagination and illusion. On Christmas Eve we had a party.  Popped sparkling wine at mid-night and exchanged gifts.

Once they had all gone home..”Santa” came to put the kid’s toys under the Christmas tree.

I remeber it as the happiest Christmas we’d ever had or would have together, because for ideological reasons too complicated to explain here it was the last Christmas celebration with a tree we had until 1987, when I again began to put up the Christmas tree…but that is another story.

Twelve Days of Christmas…uhm…

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I’ve been seeing lots of posts recently about that great glory, the Twelve Days of Christmas.  I’ve also seen that people are posting now great blogs about the twelve days of Christmas when in fact, they should  probably be entitled…Twelve Days before Christmas.  Because, uhm, the twelve days of Christmas in the song began on December 26th.

In the middle ages, Christmas Day was a holy day not a feast day.  On the day of Christ’s birth, people prayed and meditated.  Sometimes people fasted that day or at least didn’t eat meat.  The festivities began on the Feast of Saint Stephen the 26th of December and went through to the 6th of January – Epiphany. Epiphany was the day the three Magi came to give gifts to baby Jesus as the story goes. 12 Days of feasting…based upon many old pagan festivals which the church defused by integrating them into the great Christmas festivities.

Times of course have changed…many things have been forgotten and not only the old pagan festivals.  Even in America, until around the late 1800s Christmas celebrations were discouraged believe it or not and for many was not considered a holiday at all.

Just thought you’d like to know 😉 and now…for a musical interlude!

And do you have something to share about this wonderful season.  Perhaps you know something about the “old” religions and their festivities?  I’m a sponge for new knowledge and love to learn more!

Have a nice day…I’m off to put up the Christmas tree!

Christmas Tanka

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Santa Bandit
2 Santa Bandits
Hang-gliding Santa

Christmas Tanka

Love all the tinsel
Colored lights and soft snow flakes
Christmas trees, stockings,
But not these modern Santa’s!
Preferring sleigh and reindeer.

Written fro Melba Christie Poematic’s Tanka Challenge