Thursday, December 24, 2020

Waxing poetic on Christmas Eve


Hallie Ephron: Christmas and poetry go together. When I was growing up, one of my mother's tradtions was reciting poetry after dinner as we lingered at the table. A writer and an English major, she knew so many by heart and over time I learned them too.

Here are some bits from favorite Christmas poems to enjoy on Christmas eve. I know you'll recognize most of them.

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
"’Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore

(Drawing by Jerry Touger)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die…
“Ring Out, Wild Bells” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (from In Memoriam)

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The word repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
"Christmas Bells" – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees; snow grew overnight on the roofs of the houses like a pure and grandfather moss, minutely -ivied the walls and settled on the postman, opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunder-storm of white, torn Christmas cards.
A Chid’s Christmas in Wales – Dylan Thomas (Okay, technically not a poem but worth committing to memory)

And here's Ogden Nash's wonderful "The Boy Show Laughed at Santa Claus" - read by Jean Shepherd


Are there poems that are part of your holiday traditions? Please, share them.

75 comments:

  1. These are great, Hallie. Thanks for sharing them.

    Sad to say, growing up, our holiday traditions didn’t include poetry [there was, however, a big family get-together on Christmas Eve].
    When the children were little, we read Christmas stories on Christmas Eve . . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What stories were your favorites?

      Delete
    2. Hands down, Chris Van Allsburg's "The Polar Express" . . . .

      Delete
  2. Thanks for sharing this Hallie. We read The Night Before Christmas during the month of December when I was younger with the family. Each of us would read one page of the book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a lovely tradition. Thinking of you, Dru... xx

      Delete
  3. Thank you, Hallie. I didn't realize "Christmas Bells" was written by Longfellow - I only knew it as the song.

    My sons would read/recite "The Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve, usually in the new flannel pajamas I had made them (carrying on a tradition started by my grandmother - is there anything nicer than new flannel?).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Xmas PJs! I used to get a flannel long granny gown. There was a store near us called Lanz and their granny gowns were the best. Now I can't sleep in a long nightgown - my feet get all tangled up in it.

      Delete
    2. I've had Lanz nightgowns! Also can't sleep in them...

      Delete
    3. I have all I can do to sleep in a short nightgown. The odd thing is it didn't used to be this way. Maybe I'm tossing and turning way more than I did years ago. i hate that feeling when I turn over and the nightgown doesn't!

      Delete
    4. Laughing! Like your legs are getting tied up in a tourniquet. And I have very little patience at three in the morning.

      Delete
    5. Flannel gowns or flannel sheets. You can only choose one. I opt for the sheets.

      Delete
    6. Same here, Gigi, flannel sheets but a nice slippery nylon nightgown.

      Delete
    7. I got Lanz nightgowns, too! I still remember some of the prints! But I haven't been able to sleep in a long gown since I was a child. I get all tangled up, too.

      Delete
    8. Flannel sheets! Toasty and cozy. I actually have flannel pajama pants and a over sized tee shirt.

      Delete
    9. I still sleep in Lanz nightgowns. They are incredibly soft, are about mid calf. So far I haven’t strangled myself

      Delete
  4. "The year is dying in the night"

    All I can say is thank God. I hope this year we can all see our children and grandchildren, all our families, even hug a friend or two. And get haircuts!

    This is the first year in my whole life that I haven't put up the Christmas tree. Neither Julie nor I felt like dragging all that stuff down from the attic. We have made sure our next door neighbor has stayed in for the month of December. It is unbearable to think of her spending this, the first Christmas since her husband died, alone. Last week was her birthday, and we had her over for an hour for dinner and cake, putting in a couple of leaves in the table so we could maintain that social distance. Tonight we will have her in for drinks and goodies: egg nog, sausage rolls, little mince pies, bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp, pastrami and cheese paninis, cut in finger food size, lots of prosecco, and a fire crackling in the fire place. We are due a big snow, but she only has to make it across the driveway.

    Tomorrow we are having a Robertson ham with scalloped potatoes, butternut squash, those beets I pickled last week, green beans from our garden that I froze in September, the ubiquitous green jello salad that Julie's mother always made to go with ham, and lots more prosecco.

    I won't be sad to say goodbye to 2020. Silly thing to say; who will? Let's hope and pray that 2021 will bring us the beginning of the end of the pandemic, vaccines for all, and a fumigation of the White House, followed by a much needed exorcism of the Oval Office.

    Merry Christmas to all. xox

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exorcism! I'll drink to that!! Yes, we're due an ginormous rain and wind storm. Again. Just finished drying out the basement in time for it.

      Ann, if you stop back I'd love that recipe for green jello salad. Christmas needs a green jello salad.

      Delete
    2. Here you go, Hallie

      2 packages lime jello. Sugar free works fine
      2 cups boiling water
      Dissolve jello in boiling water and let cool
      Add 1 can crushed pineapple, drained
      1 small container cottage cheese
      1 cup mayo. If you are really into it, use Miracle Whip instead.

      Chill until set.

      This is sine qua non with ham in our house.
      Our house does not have wheels.

      Delete
    3. THANK YOU! Put it in a ring mold and garnish with bits of something red and it's a quasi-wreath.

      Delete
    4. Grandma used a similar jello recipe in the spring when she had ham for Easter dinner. Christmas dinner was red jello, probably raspberry, with finely chopped celery, mandarin oranges and I think maybe pecans. This was put in individual molds. On Christmas day, they were unmolded onto a iceberg lettuce leaf and served with a dollop of Miracle Whip.

      Delete
    5. Deanna, I think we had the same grandma

      Delete
    6. Ann: this grandma was from Oklahoma.

      Delete
  5. Hallie, thank you. I love The Night Before Christmas! It was one of the first poems that I memorized as a little girl and I can still remember the gorgeous illustrations in our picture book. Coincidentally, just the other night, I was trying to see how much of it I still remember.

    Merry Christmas, my friends!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We should do a Jungle Reds choral reading of it. I think I can cough up about 80 percent of it. Though there's some bits in the middle...

      Delete
  6. Thanks, Hallie, for posting these poems.
    Growing up, my parents reluctantly embraced some Christmas traditions (decorating a fake X'mas tree, turkey dinner, presents). I remember watching all the (now) classic X'mas cartoons on TV since many of them were staples since the 1960s: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

    But no poems or other shared Christmas stories.

    Both the city and province are recommending only household gatherings, and we are in official LOCKDOWN from Saturday for 1 month.

    Since I live alone, I am not going to burst another family's safe bubble or join in a Meetup group's X'mas dinner for singles.

    And I will be baking the wild game tourtiere (buffalo, elk) that I bought frozen from the local FM and having that with a salad for Christmas Eve dinner. And I will happily embrace the Icelandic tradition (Christmas book flood) of reading a new book, and eating chocolate and a hot drink tonight.

    So instead of cooking everything from scratch (as I normally do) I TREATED MYSELF by ordering in a pre-cooked, multi-course Christmas dinner for 2 (leftovers for me, yay!) and enjoying the booze and other decadent sweet treats this weekend.

    Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to the Reds and readers.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Grinch IS a Christmas poem! An epic one!! I almost included a quote from it, but it wasn't published until 1957 so it couldn't have been part of my mother's poetry memory bank though I read it with my kids.

      Delete
    2. OK, when I think about it, I agree with you, Hallie!
      Here are the opening lines:

      Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot.
      But the Grinch who lived just North of Whoville did not!

      The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
      Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

      It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
      It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.

      But I think that the most likely reason of all
      May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

      But, whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes,
      He stood there on Christmas Eve hating the Whos,

      Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown
      At the warm lighted windows below in their town,

      For he knew every Who down in Whoville beneath
      Was busy now hanging a hollywho wreath.

      "And they're hanging their stockings," he snarled with a sneer.
      "Tomorrow is Christmas! It's practically here!"

      Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
      "I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming!

      Delete
    3. There's a wonderful play on the Grinch in the Opinion section of today's Boston Globe. Not sure if you will be able to see past the opening but here's the link. It's priceless. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/24/opinion/visit-white-house-st-nicholas/

      Delete
    4. That is hysterical, Hallie! I only hope it is true!

      Delete
  7. Hallie, although--like mine--many parts of your childhood were not worth remembering, your memory of your mother reciting poetry has to be a cherished one.

    I am the oldest of the siblings, so I was the one that read “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, which is the original name of the Clement Moore poem. And then I read it on Christmas Eve to my own children. When Zak came along we started spending Christmas Eve together, and I read it to him, until the year he turned eight. Then he started reading it to us. This will be the first year of his life (he'll be 16 in a few weeks) we haven't spent Christmas together.

    I could probably also only come up with about 80% of it, though. Sad.

    Thanks to this blog, I think I'll ask Zak to read it to us tomorrow on our family Zoom Christmas. It's usually not easy to get him to engage, and this is just the ticket. Thanks, Hallie!

    Tonight we'll have Lucy/Roberta's seafood pie for dinner, along with a Prosecco toast. Tomorrow I'm making the fruited pork roast I used to make for Christmas lunch when Steve's dad was alive. It has a pocket cut longwise that gets stuffed with dried apricots and cranberries, roasted garlic, and rosemary, and basted with the oil from the garlic and apple jelly (I'll use herb jelly this year). It is heavenly. With Christmas music all through the house all day long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Karen, that pork roast sounds sublime! You're inspiring me to suggest to my daughters a Christmas joint Facetime reading of at least one of these...

      Delete
    2. Those dishes are yummy choices for 2020, Karen.
      That fruited pork roast sounds divine. I have an abundance of other meats to cook post Christmas next week (lamb 3 ways) but I will definitely try and come up with my own version of that pork dish.

      Delete
    3. Karen, that roast sounds wonderful!

      Delete
  8. Also: I now realize why the narrator of the Christmas Story movie always sounded so familiar. Jean Shepherd was a local radio announcer, on and off, in Cincinnati throughout my childhood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES! He's the narrator of A Christmas Story which is based on his story. "I want an official Red Ryder, Carbine action, two-hundred shot range air rifle." "You'll shoot your eye out." And who could forget that leggy lamp. Ohio had him? And also Robert McCloskey whose drawings were pure poetry.

      Delete
    2. I loved Jean Shepherd. I had never seen A Christmas Story until Rick and I got married, and now I wouldn't miss it for the world.

      Delete
  9. Thank you for this, Hallie! Until you mentioned it I had totally forgotten about the year I read "The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus" to a large family gathering. How could I forget such a thing. Back then my son was only 2 and now my grandchildren are half grown but I'm going to have to read it again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a huge Ogden Nash fan... the limericks with his delightful drawings.

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. I should be better at passing it on! Working on it...

      Delete
  11. So lovely to read about so many traditions among the Reds. I don't have any add, certainly no poetry recitations in my house. Just good food, stockings, and time with books.

    A big thank you to everyone on this blog who has, over the years, given me the lovely tradition of early-morning conversation. I'm looking forward to more in the New Year. And may it truly be NEW!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel the same way, Amanda about this community.
      I had to take a digital detox for a few months this fall but I am glad to be back with my routine of reading and posting on the JRW blog first thing in the morning (often without coffee).

      Delete
    2. This is bringing me tears and a big grin.

      Delete
    3. Like Amanda and Grace, I'm all in for the tradition of connecting with Reds community every morning.

      Delete
  12. This is so wonderful! My stepfather read us a child’s Christmas in Wales every year, and the night before Christmas too.
    And we are having a very special first chapter on the first chapter fun today – – you all should come, really! Just join first chapter fun groups on Facebook… I will let you right in so you can hear it at 12:30 today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's the URL if anyone needs it: https://www.facebook.com/groups/firstchapterfun

      Delete
  13. My sister and I used to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the adults in our family on Christmas Eve, whether they wanted us to or not. Even back then I was putting on shows. In later years, Warren and I wouldn't miss the Christmas party thrown by our friend Joy. She was good friends with the actor John Hillerman and, when he'd come back to Texas to visit his family, he'd come to Joy's party to read "A Child's Christmas in Wales." Delightful!

    Like you, I am a big Ogden Nash fan, Hallie. Yet somehow I never ran across "The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus." Thank you for that delightful Christmas present!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That party sounds like it was a delight! I'm hoping I can get my granddaughter to participate in a reading tonight She loves to perform but usually it's cartwheels.

      Delete
    2. Gigi, I would have loved to have heard Hillerman read A Child's Christmas. The Dylan Thomas recording is available on Audible, so I may listen to that today.

      Delete
  14. Christmas Carol and Dylan Thomas, plus this, which I've consoled myself with all year:

    Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole!/To Mary Queen the praise by given! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, that slid into my soul.

    Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner

    The dishwasher died yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Requiem for a dead dishwasher. :-)

      Delete
    2. Death of a Dishwasher - as told by Margaret S. Hamilton

      Delete
  15. Merry Christmas Eve / Happy Christmas Eve

    Wonderful post this morning. I grew up reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It is a family tradition. I loved "Twas the Night Before Christmas" though I did not realize that it was a poem. Every year I read the book while listening to a homemade voice recording so I could listen with my cochlear implant speech processors and read at the same time.

    Amazing that you could find a YouTube video of Jean Shepherd. I tried to find the 1975's video of Sir Michael Redgrave and Bernard Bragg's A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas on You Tube. Wishing that I could find their video on YouTube.

    Diana

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, I'd love to hear that. If anyone finds it, post a link.

      Delete
  16. What a wonderful treat! Thank you, Hallie. Our family reads The Night Before Christmas every year, with an accompanying Hallmark book with pop ups. That books is tattered after all these years, but precious. Wishing you and all the Reds a joyful and healthy holiday season and a much better 2021!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lovely tradition! Especially precious the ones that are well worn.

      Delete
  17. No poems in my holidays traditions but thank you Hallie for sharing yours.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Other than singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, poetry did not play a part of the family holiday. This year Nome St has already celebrated Yule (December 21), and Bodhi Day, (December 8). My pre teen reading was heavily influenced by Mad Magazine, to the point I can remember Twas the Night parodies better than the real deal. Now to all of you you do celebrate this season, may it be Merry and Bright and May all your Christmases be multicultural.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How could I have forgotten:

      Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
      Walla-Wall Wash, and Kalamazoo
      Nora's freezing on the trolley
      Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo

      Walt Kelly wrote it and and it ran in MAD.

      Delete
    2. Indeed he did! I have the entire cast of action figures from the Pogo strip, missing only Miss Hepzibah, on my mantle.

      Delete
  19. Hallie, what a terrific post today. I grew up reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve. As an adult, I discovered A Child's Christmas in Wales, and have read it every Christmas Eve since. I read it to Kayti when she was little but I don't think she's carried on the tradition. I usually try to read A Christmas Carol (although not aloud!), too, and maybe this year I will actually manage it. One blessing for me in this very strange year is that we don't have to go out to the big family party on Christmas Eve. It is such a treat for me to stay home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're expecting a wicked (local term for it) storm... more wind and 1-2" of RAIN on top of inches of packed show. Hoping we don't end up with a flooded basement or worse, a power outage.

      Delete
    2. We have the same storm in Ontario, Hallie. The heavy rain has already started and will last until tomorrow morning. Since the ground is frozen, we will probably get some localized flooding, and a Green X'mas (sigh). Fingers crossed for NO POWER OUTAGES!

      Delete
    3. oh my goodness, that is horrid Christmas weather to be having, Grace and Hallie. So sorry! Here in Manitoba we have minus 22 degrees Celsius (cold in Fahrenheit, too, whatever it is) but bright sunshine. With the right outer gear, it's delightful. Hang in there.

      Delete
    4. Yeah, the storm also includes weird wild temperature swing. A high of +9C (48F) today rising to +12C/53F Christmas morning. Than a sharp drop to -11C/12F. So rainfall warnings today, and then a FLASH FREEZE probably Christmas evening. Yeesh.

      Delete
  20. Love the poems, Hallie. The lines from Longfellow and Alfred, Lord Tenneyson remind me of some of the Christmas music Dad used to play when we were only 2 kids instead of 5. Although he’s the one who brought home a little 45 recording of Trosclair reading The Cajun Night Before Christmas when there were 5 of us. Oddly enough I plan to make a crawfish pie tonight. First attempt. The past few years I’ve offered up all kinds of finger foods in lieu of a Christmas dinner. It was a traveling meal I’d take to Mom’s while she was with us. Family and neighbors would drop in to eat, drink, and visit, at her apartment or at our house now. We’ll still be laying out the snacks but only for us this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. we usually have a houseful, too. But we have much to be grateful for.

      Delete
  21. I'm about to leave for one of my most important, multi generational Christmas traditions, decorating the church. This year's decorations will be much less since the service will on Zoom but the ancient Nativity figures are waiting for placement in front of the altar. We are putting a couple of trees in the church for the first time in years and we can only do it because of the pandemic and having no one in the sanctuary beside our priest. Later this evening I will return to church for my second tradition, for the late service (7pm which is not late at all but this pandemic has new rules for every thing), sit in the little side chapel, away from out priest, and turn out the lights when Silent Night played. Peace to all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds so lovely. For years I sang with a choral group (alto in Handel's Messiah) and we sang in local churches. Music in that vast space is magical.

      Delete
  22. No poem as such, but Christmas music is a big part of my Christmas tradition.

    ReplyDelete
  23. When the kids were little, I always read A Visit From Saint Nicholas before shooing them off to bed. (The one night a year when little kids are eager to go to sleep!) Then, for many years, we would listen to a recording of A Christmas Carol. My favorite version was done by Sir Patrick Stewart.

    Now? It's the poetry of, "Welcome to the party, boys," for us. :-)

    ReplyDelete