We finished Christmas here almost a day ago, and it is nearly the end of Boxing Day. Or post-Christmas shopping day. Not that we did any shopping: our family were still here and our children from down the road came. I also went for a long drive with my son to collect a friend who had mistaken how long his hike would take and needed picking up. I was expecting to have a coffee out, but had forgotten how early the cafes generally close here - at three o'clock for most, just when you want a cup of coffee.
I also enjoyed Malory Towers, LIR, and remember Darrell and others with some tenderness. I was talking to my 10-year-old grandson, a great reader, and mentioned that the Noddy books were very popular when I was a child and he said, "They still are," which rather surprised me. When his 6 year old brother brought me a Noddy book to read I had forgotten how wordy they are.

Christmas Eve 2023  on a cold dank morning  - and not sure all is well. But here goes. To anyone tuning in here for a mo, anyway,  Happy Christmas and Peace on Earth............ P.

Tuning in is apt Priscilla because it's the music which is one of the best things about Christmastime. 

Off the top of my head, I could probably name at least 20 Christmas carols which might feature in any given carol service. And there are probably about 3 times that number of Christmas songs which are popularly played around this time of year. The term ‘any given’ is used loosely because the constraint of time often means that carol services cannot feature 20 or more songs but more likely edit the number down to a manageable figure. Thus, there are the services of ‘12 lessons and carols’ etc which invariably leave some people disappointed because their favourite carol wasn’t sung.

There are also several cover versions of popular Christmas songs. For instance, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (originally recorded by Harry Reser and his Orchestra in 1934) has been covered more times than one might care to imagine. Similarly, Christmas carols are often known to different people by differing melodies. For example, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a Manger and In the Bleak Midwinter each have 2 famous tunes by which they can be sung. 

The development of a Christmas carol was often a long and convoluted process with a poem or folk song evolving until finally crystallizing (in most cases in the 19th Century) when the tune and words were put together in a published carol. The term 'Christmas carol' is used quite loosely in that it includes Advent carols such as O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni Emmanuel!) from 1710, Christmas carols such as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (1815), St Stephen’s carols such as Good King Wenceslas (1853) and Epiphany carols such as We Three Kings (1857). Meanwhile Gabriel’s Message (1892) often sung at Christmastime actually refers to the Annunciation which is observed on the 25th of March. Then there are carols which transcend linguistic boundaries such as Stille Nacht (1818) and Il est né le divin enfant (1819). Some people are often surprised by the date of that French carol, assuming it to be a few hundred years older than it is.
    
Many carols, of course, are very ancient such as Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful) while others are surprisingly modern such as Ding Dong Merrily on High which was only written in 1924 (although admittedly to a 15th Century French melody). Ding Dong Merrily on High is also noteworthy in that it is one of the very few popular Christmas carols which has been written since the First World War. John Rutter’s Shepherd’s Pipe Carol (1966) would probably be another example.

But by and large, the 19th Century was the golden age of Christmas carol composition. And yet those living in the 19th Century didn’t really get to appreciate this as it was an ongoing process at that time. It’s the same with popular Christmas songs. In America the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s were the golden age of Christmas song writing while in Britain the 1970s and 80s were the heydays. In other words, those who first heard I Saw Three Ships sung in 1833 would have had to wait until 1871 to hear See, amid the Winter’s Snow. In the same way, those hearing Bing Crosby sing White Christmas in 1942 would have had no knowledge of Shakin’ Stevens singing Merry Christmas Everyone in 1985. Looked at that way, therefore, be they Christmas carols or Christmas songs, it is we today who are living in a golden age if only because we have the gamut of those wonderful 19th Century Christmas carols and 20th Century Christmas songs.

So, whether you’re listening to Personent Hodie by Jacobus Finno (1582) or Underneath the Tree by Kelly Clarkson (2013) here’s wishing you all a Merry and Musical Christmas!

Enjoying much music even when having had my full of X-mas tunes this last month, I wish a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year for all.

Take care.

Talking about Christmas carols, or in particular just one, I've recently reread Dickens' Christmas novella, and yet again I have been left with the same nagging question. In the scene where Scrooge is taken to see the Cratchits' present-day frugal Christmas, they have just a scrawny goose, while of course at the end of the story the reformed Scrooge provides them with a turkey, and not just any turkey but the biggest in the shop:

"It's Christmas Day", said Scrooge to himself. "I haven't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow."
"Hallo," returned the boy.
"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired.
"I should hope I did," replied the lad.
"An intelligent boy," said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy. Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize Turkey: the big one."
"What, the one as big as me," returned the boy.
"What a delightful boy," said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck."
"It's hanging there now," replied the boy.
"Is it," said Scrooge. "Go and buy it."

Dickens then presents an ideal of a sumptuous family feast, the sort of convivial Christmas repast that all up-and-coming Victorian families aspired to. However he glosses over a significant problem: the poor Cratchits wouldn’t have had an oven in which to roast the gift that Scrooge had given them. Like the rest of the community they would have relied upon the local baker to cook their Christmas dinner. This is made clear when the second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to observe the Cratchits' home:
"And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own ..."

The baker would have fired up his oven early on Christmas morning and in place of the usual loaves would, on this day and as he also did most Sundays, have loaded his bread oven with all the joints, poultry, pies, tarts, stews and other dishes from the households in his neighbourhood and, for a few pence each, baked them altogether. However by the time Scrooge had bought and arranged for the prize turkey to be delivered to the Cratchit's home (it was so big he had to hire a cab) it is likely the baker's oven would almost certainly have been already sealed up and steadily cooking everything within. Even if the baker could be persuaded to open his oven up to put in a late arrival, the bird was so enormous that it would drop the temperature so much that everyone else's Christmas dinners would be delayed and moreover it would itself never cook in time. You can just imagine Mrs Cratchit's shock when the poulterer arrived mid-morning on Christmas Day with Scrooge's surprise gift: "Good Lord! Bless you Mister Scrooge but whatever I am supposed to do with this huge bloody bird?"

So how I wonder did she get the turkey prepared and cooked by mid-afternoon, which is when Scrooge visits the Cratchits' house and is welcomed in to share their Christmas dinner? She couldn't boil it - the laundry copper was already being used to cook the Christmas pudding - while jointing it to cook in front of the coal fire in the main living room was also unlikely to be successful, as Mr Micawaber found when he when he tried to cook a leg of mutton in front of the fireplace in David Copperfield's lodgings. But perhaps it's just better left as one of those Christmas mysteries. As Scrooge himself observed, "The Spirits ... They can do anything they like. Of course they can."

Neither turkey nor goose for me this year. There's only myself - I've not got my Doggy-Dog to share with now, nor indeed even any pussy-cats - and accordingly I didn't bother to go to the shops until Christmas Eve morning. Nevertheless I did manage to pick up a free-range capon, nicely reduced by 20% as it was getting close to the sell-by date. It's quite a big bird, rather bigger than my needs and will provide for quite a few days' meals, but at least I think it'll still fit in my oven.

On that note I'll join in by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. And now I reckon it's time for a wee glass of port before I set about stuffing my big boy ... provided a slightly camp double-entendre is not too risqué for Christmas morning.

Just joining my fellow Res Historians in wishing everyone a Happy Christmas.

Bit late, but Happy Schadenfreudefest to all. Thank God it's over for another year!