Twelfth Day of Advent - Glad Tidings

Day 12 of Advent

(Swallow dibs from The Huron Carol)

Glad tidings - the Huron Carol exhibit at the museum at St. Marie Among the Hurons, installed 5 years ago, will be extended for another 5 years commencing January 1.  It is truly an honour.

More music here, an epiphany - in Advent yet!

Eleventh Day of Advent - Jack Frost

Day 11 of Advent

(Jack Frost, from The Illustrated Fairy Gazette, Winter Edition)

Another fairy for the tree,  with a dash of frost and sparkle. 

Tenth Day of Advent - Teddy Bears Christmas

Day 10 of Advent

What is on your tree?  Along with all the proper ornaments I also have dolls from my childhood, chandelier prisms, favorite cards, silk roses and a number of paper ornaments that my child and I have made together over the years, never to be thrown away!  (In Grandmother's Tree Avril wrote about a particular paper Santa that had been in a family for many years, "the wisest and oldest inhabitant of the tree".)

The Santa Bear kit has now joined the Etsy shop.

Happy Advent - 10 days already!

Ninth Day of Advent - A fairy for the top of the tree

Day 9 of Advent

(paper novelty from The Illustrated Fairy Gazette, A Christmas Celebration)

 Here's a little fairy for the top of the tree,
and here is how that tree is getting on,

with joyful traditions, trifling indulgences, happy anticipations, music and merriment, hearth and home, sparkle and fairy dust - and all of it on Santa's shoulders.  No wonder he needs helpers.

(And not to forget, the giveaway)

Eighth Day of Advent - Fun and Games

Day 8 of Advent

(Mother Ginger and Cubs, from Woodland Nutcracker)

"A huge grizzly bear skated to the foot of the thrones and curtsied.  She blew six times upon a whistle and from beneath her great red and white skirt emerged six cubs with hockey sticks. With Mother Grizzly as referee, the cubs skated a mock practice session.   They chased one another, misbehaved, and two were even sent to the penalty box.""

(© Avril Tyrrell 1999)

(This one was a coin toss: Tchaikovsky or the Hockey Night in Canada theme music,  both being well-loved and traditional! )

Seventh Day of Advent - Visiting

Day 7 of Advent

(The Bears Cottage, Woodland Nutcracker)

"Long ago, far away from highways and city lights, where bright stars touched the tree tops and forest roots touched the edges of frozen lakes, a woodland family welcomed relatives and friends to a Christmas Eve party in their cosy island home.

 Softly falling snowflakes drifted into the cottage as the guests arrived."
(© Avril Tyrrell 1999)

Sixth Day of Advent - Letters to Santa

Day 6 of Advent

(Santa's Helpers, from The Illustrated Fairy Gazette - A Christmas Celebration)

What do you want for Christmas?  Something that would fit in a stocking or a box under the tree, or one of those presents that only the heart knows? 

I remember being read A.A. Milne's "King John's Christmas" as a child (and where else would a youngster learn the marvelous phrase "supercilious stare"?).  We were caught up in sympathy and optimism as King John's list got longer and longer, and  fading hope as it dwindled to only "a bright red India-rubber ball" - which he did get, after all.  A sigh of relief from us children.  Thank you Santa (and A.A.Milne).