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| Our Fontanini set in the center, Bellringer can be seen on the upper right, and just to his left the birch wood Advent Calendar. |
Today I started one of my favorite personal Christmas traditions, rereading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It truly is a classic, every year I wonder anew at its insight, clarity, and humor. I prefer, these days, to listen to an audiobook, Jim Dale's reading, available here to download for free. He gets exactly the right tone and emphasis for Dicken's poetic prose and humor.
I was reminded tonight of some of my other traditions. Most aspects of Christmas fascinate me, but growing up I especially loved the Nativity scenes, the Advent Wreath, and the Advent calendar.
As a kid, I asked my mother if I could be the one to set up the Nativity scene each year. We had a very old, special set that belonged to her mother, and had lived through several floods of the Ohio River. Each year I would set up the scene carefully, placing the animals in their proper places, ect. It's long been obvious to me that this was part of my fascination with toy soldiers. In fact, in college I made it a personal quest to track down and create my own Nativity scene in 25mm scale using roleplaying game figures. It took a few years (oddly, the most difficult part was the sheep!) but eventually I got all the needed pieces.
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| My 25mm Nativity scene, built from gaming miniatures. It is currently being repainted and the stable redesigned. Sorry about the bad quality picture, its from the mid-1990s. |
My wife's grandfather also loved Nativity sets, he had a Fontanini set (the 5 inch scale figures). Each year, we would buy him a new piece for the set for Christmas. After he passed, we inherited the set, and have proudly displayed it every year, in the same hand-made stable he built for it.
I also loved Advent, because of course, it counted down to Christmas. As an altar boy I enjoyed lighting the candles in the Advent wreath each Sunday, and I loved doing the same at home for Sunday dinner. I thought it was interesting that the wreath's colors were purple and pink, so different from the "standard" Christmas palette of red and green. Sadly, we just don't have any room for an Advent Wreath in our tiny place.
In the same "counting down" theme I loved Advent calendars. We had a very old, but fragile paper one, each day had a paper door, you opened it revealing a little Christmas seen inside. I really can't explain how it survived as long as it did. A few years back, my wife and kids surprised me with a more permanent calendar. It is beautiful, wooden, shaped like a Christmas tree with birch bark background and little drawers for each day with a festive picture on it. Each year, we stuff with drawers with candy, and on days when we remember, we take the candies out and eat them.
Below is the next Christmas letter, featuring Bellringer and Frau Perchta again.
🎅No. 1 Santa Claus Lane
Christmas Town, The North Pole
Dec 24th, 2011
Dearest Ren & Tori,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Luckily, you both made the Nice List this year, but Jingle, the head elf in charge of the Nice List, tells me that it was a very, very, very close call! You are two of my favorite children; I would hate to deliver coal to your home next year instead of presents! I’ve warned you of this before… I know you will both try very hard, because you are good children! And I have discovered that maybe it is not all your fault!
Do you remember that evil old witch, Frau Perchta, who used to follow me on Christmas Eve to punish wicked children? Long ago I found her secretly punishing good children and banished her from Christmas Town. She has lurked about causing mischief ever since, a couple years ago, she even stole the naughty list, but Bellringer stole it back.
Well, she has found another way to cause mischief, a scary way. Bellringer was herding the reindeer on the tundra nearby when he spotted her far off, walking across the tundra. Using his elf-magic he followed her, thinking she must be up to know good. And by Mistletoe she is!
Frau Perchta lives in a small house now, Bellringer followed her there. It is very ugly and twisted, and surrounded by twisted, evil snowmen she uses as guards. Bellringer carefully crept past them, invisible from his magic, and found Frau Perchta inside stirring a potion in a huge black cauldron, and chanting, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air; Double, double toil and trouble!” Bellringer realized that Frau Perchta is casting spells to make children act naughty!
Bellringer rushed back to Christmas Town to tell me of her plot. It makes me quite sad, but I cannot stop her. Magic cannot really make anyone act naughty; it just makes them angry and makes it easier for them to be naughty. I am Not Allowed by the Laws of Magic to interfere. But I can warn good children like yourself, that when you feel angry, when you feel rage, that is Frau Perchta’s work, she wishes to make you act naughty. Do not give in to her! I know you will.
Enough gloom! I am sure you will be having a merry Christmas, my reindeer asked me to thank you for the magic oats you leave for them, Rudolph especially says thank you to Ren, he knows how much you love animals!
Bellringer has promised to give you this letter. I hope you enjoyed it, as well as your presents tomorrow. Please do write me, I greatly enjoy your letters!
‘Til next year
Santa Claus
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