If you haven’t sent cards this year, or planned the perfect gifts. If you don’t have the perfect tree or the perfect family, for a perfect festive photograph. It’s okay.
If you don’t feel like watching your favourite Christmas movies, and you can’t source the energy to be merry and bright. That’s perfectly okay too.
No one should be measuring your ‘festive’. It must not become a badge of honour. Just hang on in there, finding any joy you can, in any little way.
And remove guilt and pressure, from your already overloaded Christmas list.
Because no matter how sparkly your advent, you can feel the sentiments of the season.
Your way.
Peace, love and goodwill to all.
Author: Donna Ashworth
Daryl Hannah had been swimming "mermaid" style with her legs bound together since she was a child due to her fascination with Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" story.
In the documentary contained on the 20th Anniversary "Splash" (1984) DVD, Tom Hanks recalled how the other cast members would drop French fries over the side of the tank to her as though she were a trained sea mammal as she couldn't leave the water while her legs were "shrink-wrapped." Hannah swam with the mermaid tail so fast that her safety team could not keep pace with her.
Hannah, a vegetarian, refused to eat real lobster for the restaurant scene. The crew scooped out the insides of real, cooked lobsters and filled them with a thick, tofu-like paste. Ron Howard said Hannah cried after each take over the deaths of the lobsters for their shells.
Many actresses either auditioned for or were considered for the role of Madison: Jodie Foster auditioned, but turned it down in order to play a character in "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984). Rosanna Arquette auditioned but had to back out.
Brooke Shields reportedly turned down an offer to play Madison so she could study French Literature at Princeton. Debra Winger reportedly wanted the role of Madison, but Ron Howard turned her down. Lisa Whelchel, due to her huge popularity as Blair from "The Facts of Life", also was considered for Madison.
Tanya Roberts also auditioned for the role of Madison, but she turned it down because she was busy working on "Sheena" (1984). According to the Biography Channel, Bill Murray and P.J. Soles were considered for the roles of Allen and Madison, but Murray turned it down. Before Hannah accepted the role, it had already been turned down by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Melanie Griffith, Genie Francis, Lynne Frederick, Fiona Fullerton, Diane Lane, Tatum O'Neal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sharon Stone, and Kathleen Turner. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Daryl Hannah!
It's not what you have on the outside that glitters in light, it's what you have on the inside that shines in the dark ..
~ Anthony Liccione ~
Artist Credit : Jungsuk Lee
He was called "filthy" because his skin was dark, unintelligent because he could barely speak English. When he arrived in this country, he was placed in a special class for immigrants. But, a few of his teachers saw something in the way he expressed himself, through his drawings, through his view of the world. He would soon master his new language. His mother had made a difficult decision to take him, his two younger sisters and a half-brother to America, seeking a better life for their family. They settled in Boston's South End, at the time the second-largest Syrian-Lebanese-American community. The family would struggle and the young boy would lose one sister and his half-brother to tuberculosis. His mother would die of cancer.
He would write, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
He was born in poverty on January 6, 1883 in what is now modern day Lebanon.
He believed in love, he believed in peace, and he believed in understanding.
His name was Kahlil Gibran, and he is primarily known for his book, "The Prophet." The book, published in 1923, would sell tens of millions of copies, making him the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi.
Published in 108 languages around the world, passages from "The Prophet" are quoted at weddings, in political speeches and at funerals, inspiring influential figures such as John F. Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and David Bowie.
He was very outspoken, attacking hypocrisy and corruption. His books were burned in Beirut, and in America, he would receive death threats.
Gibran was the only member of his family to pursue scholastic education. His sisters were not allowed to enter school, primarily because of Middle Eastern traditions as well as financial difficulties. Gibran, however, was inspired by the strength of the women in his family, especially his mother. After one sister, his mother, and his half-brother died, his other sister, Mariana would support Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker's shop.
Of his mother, he would write:
"The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word 'Mother,' and the most beautiful call is the call of 'My mother.' It is a word full of hope and love, a sweet and kind word coming from the depths of the heart. The mother is everything – she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness."
Gibran would later champion the cause of women’s emancipation and education.
He believed that “Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”
In a poem to new immigrants, he would write, "I believe you can say to the founders of this great nation. 'Here I am. A youth. A young tree. Whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon. Yet I am deeply rooted here. And I would be fruitful.'"
He would write in "The Prophet":
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”
"There are two kinds of freedom my dear: the freedom of having things exactly as you like them, and the freedom of knowing that in any moment, things are exactly as they must be,
just as there are two kinds of victory: the victory of getting what you want and the victory of accepting what you are given and not letting a difficult situation or person get the best of you or rob you of your peace."
@RedFox16 that resonates with me.
People are often intimidated or confused about how to work with spirits but what if you knew you've been taught how to work with spirits since childhood?
What if our Santa traditions are actually spirit work rituals...
Is Santa real?.. kids believe he is... adults laugh at the suggestion, but the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Santa is a spirit, a syncretized version from different cultures and myths (as most spirits are). He has elements of St Nicholas, Odin, Krampus, and several others... Santa enters through the chimney, as all spirits (good or bad) do in folklore and fairy tales. Big bad wolf entered the 3 little pigs house by the chimney (that story taught you how to keep dangerous spirits out - fire). Harry Potter traveled by floo powder through the chimney... Spirits enter through the chimney.
What do we leave by the chimney for Santa?
Cookies and milk... offerings to the Spirit.
Especially when left by a mantle decorated with his image and the foliage of the season. Offerings are signs of welcome, gratitude and hospitality to the Spirit. Any magical practitioner will tell you that the fae spirits are particularly fond of sweet cakes and milk- that Jolly Old Elf.
Offerings are also left out as a form of payment for request made of the spirit and you were taught how to do that as well... did you write out your list of what you want Santa to bring you this year?
Spirit work is simple and that's the pattern. 1) petition the spirit- write your list. 2) leave an offering - milk and cookies are fine. 3) believe like a child.
We don't do our children a disservice by telling them about Santa. We do them a disservice by pretending that he's a flesh and blood being and that magic isn't real.
Santa Claus, as a spirit, is a real being and can still be petitioned just like he was in childhood. Now that you know that it's spirit work, what might you like Santa to bring you this year? 📜🎅🍪📜🎅🍪📜🎅🍪📜🎅🍪📜🎅🍪
Artist: Anastasia Lavru
Frau Perchta, the Terrifying Christmas Witch. Frau Perchta isn’t as well known as Krampus these days, which is a shame, because this Christmas-time goddess/witch/all-around-terrifying-gal deserves a lot more press. She’s a staple in the Alpine regions of southern Germany and Austria, but relatively under-the-radar in North America.
Frau Perchta was also known as Berchta, or Bertha, and has also been called “Spinnstubenfrau” or “Spinning Room Lady.” She is often depicted with a beaked nose made of iron, dressed in rags, perhaps carrying a cane, and generally resembles a decrepit old crone. But this old crone packs a mighty wallop…. and carries a long knife hidden under her skirt.
She also bears a resemblance to the Scandinavian goddess Frigga, and both of them share one obsession in common: spinning, specifically, and domestic neatness generally. Frankly, she’s pretty judge-y about the state of your home for a woman who dresses all in rags. Legend has it that you’d better get all your flax spun by Twelfth Night (January 6th), “for when the Christmas season was over, it would be time to set up the big upright loom, at which time you must have enough thread to warp it and start your weaving.”
And what’s Frau Perchta’s punishment for those lazy ladies who haven’t finished all their weaving? “In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, there were numerous tales of Frau Perchta trampling and even settling fire to the half-spun fibers.” And if should you really irritate her?
Like, say, not only is your flax not spun, but your house is a total mess (this domestic goddess/witch hates a messy house) and you’ve even failed to leave out a traditional bowl of porridge for her? Well, then her rampaging will extend far beyond your slovenly spinning room. She’ll do nothing less than steal into your bedroom, disembowel you and replace your guts with rocks and straw.
But Perchta does more than just check up on your spinning. Other legends equate Frau Perchta with the legend of the Wild Hunt, and say that she flies through the night sky attended by an army of lost souls, including the demonic-looking Perchten, her army of servants who are visually nearly indistinguishable from Krampus.
The only way to know for sure is context; Krampus rides abroad at St. Nicholas Eve while the Perchten tend more toward Epiphany, and the last three Thursdays before Christmas, also known as Berchtl nights or Knocking nights. Also among her army of the night are the souls of unbaptized children. Legend has it if you hear the wind and thunder roaring and rumbling through the mountains on the Berchtl nights, you’re really hearing the sounds of Perchta leading the Wild Hunt.
Another one of Frau Perchta’s names is Holle, a winter goddess who’s name means “shining” or “bright” — hence her association with Epiphany, the “Shining Night” on which the star of Bethlehem shone down.
Her dual nature is expressed in the fact that there are both “Evil” or “Ugly” Perchten and “Pretty” Perchten, both of whom you might find in a typical “Perchtenlauf” or Perchten run in the Alpine regions of Europe. The Pretty Perchten are all well and good, but honestly, I’m a bigger fan of the Evil Perchta, and she’s the one I love to fear in these days leading up to Christmas.
With every passing moment my anxiety mounts as I try to finish, if not all my spinning, all my housework and cleaning in time for the Christmas season. As I sweep and mop and clean and dust, I visualize the old crone sneaking into my kitchen late at night, running her withered, clawlike fingers over the baseboards and tops of the cupboards checking for dust.
She creeps through the house like a mad Martha Stewart crossed with the Grinch Who Stole Christmas… and if I should fail in my housekeeping…. well!
Let’s just say it really motivates me to pick up around the house.
So this January 6th, instead of bemoaning the fact that Christmas is over, why not celebrate “Perchtentag” by telling your kids they’d better clean up their rooms or Frau Perchta will come and disembowel them in the night. Kids love that sort of thing.
Happy holidays! May Frau Perchta smile upon you!
In our third installment of Christmas In Context we're going to look at the tragic backstory to an American Christmas carol that is a true classic.
This carol almost always is printed, recorded, and sung without the key verses that give it its context and reveal it to be a much more poignant statement on the season than we imagine.
The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (photo left) wrote "Christmas Bells" (the carol we call "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day") in 1863 in a depression over the death of his wife, Francis (top right) who died from burns after her nightgown caught fire; and the severe wounding of his son, Charles (bottom right), who enlisted without Longfellow's blessing during the Civil War.
The poem reflects both his sadness over the war that was tearing his family and his country apart and the state of the world in general, his own personal pain, and his continuing hope in the power of his God.
He wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1863, after Gettysburg, but before it was clear that the war was turning, and there still remained no end in sight.
When we sing the song today, we almost always leave out some of the key verses explaining Longfellow's motivation for writing it, and so here it is with the missing stanzas restored:
~*~
I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come, The belfries of all Christendom Had rolled along The unbroken song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way, The world revolved from night to day, A voice, a chime, A chant sublime Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth The cannon thundered in the South, And with the sound The carols drowned Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent The hearth-stones of a continent, And made forlorn The households born Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head; "There is no peace on earth," I said; "For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men."
Restoring the lost context of the grieving husband and father seeking some comfort from his pain gives us a window into the complex layers of emotions that Christmas can bring. Far from watered down and shallow, the meaning of this carol - at least for Longfellow - is rich and hopeful, and while the original inspiration for the context is long gone, the depth of emotion behind it still can resonate with people today, and it is worth remembering.
I never knew the true origin of Rudolph. How beautiful! A quick read…🎄❤️🎄🦌
As the holiday season of 1938 came to Chicago, Bob May wasn’t feeling much comfort or joy. A 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward, May was exhausted and nearly broke. His wife, Evelyn, was bedridden, on the losing end of a two-year battle with cancer. This left Bob to look after their four-year old-daughter, Barbara. One night, Barbara asked her father, “Why isn’t my mommy like everybody else’s mommy?” As he struggled to answer his daughter’s question, Bob remembered the pain of his own childhood. A small, sickly boy, he was constantly picked on and called names. But he wanted to give his daughter hope, and show her that being different was nothing to be ashamed of. More than that, he wanted her to know that he loved her and would always take care of her. So he began to spin a tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose who found a special place on Santa’s team. Barbara loved the story so much that she made her father tell it every night before bedtime. As he did, it grew more elaborate. Because he couldn’t afford to buy his daughter a gift for Christmas, Bob decided to turn the story into a homemade picture book. In early December, Bob’s wife died. Though he was heartbroken, he kept working on the book for his daughter. A few days before Christmas, he reluctantly attended a company party at Montgomery Ward. His co-workers encouraged him to share the story he’d written. After he read it, there was a standing ovation. Everyone wanted copies of their own. Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years, at Christmas, they gave away six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to shoppers. Every major publishing house in the country was making offers to obtain the book. In an incredible display of good will, the head of the department store returned all rights to Bob May. Four years later, Rudolph had made him into a millionaire. Now remarried with a growing family, May felt blessed by his good fortune. But there was more to come. His brother-in-law, a successful songwriter named Johnny Marks, set the uplifting story to music. The song was pitched to artists from Bing Crosby on down. They all passed. Finally, Marks approached Gene Autry. The cowboy star had scored a holiday hit with “Here Comes Santa Claus” a few years before. Like the others, Autry wasn’t impressed with the song about the misfit reindeer. Marks begged him to give it a second listen. Autry played it for his wife, Ina. She was so touched by the line “They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games” that she insisted her husband record the tune. Within a few years, it had become the second best-selling Christmas song ever, right behind “White Christmas.” Since then, Rudolph has come to life in TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, greeting cards and even a Ringling Bros. circus act. The little red-nosed reindeer dreamed up by Bob May and immortalized in song by Johnny Marks has come to symbolize Christmas as much as Santa Claus, evergreen trees and presents. As the last line of the song says, “He’ll go down in history.”🎵🎶
We don’t know when our last day is….but I live mine like it’s today
Good quotes @safensecure4u2
One thing Walt Disney loved to do was "plus" attractions. "Plussing" was a term Walt used when he and his Imagineers made an attraction, a film, or a short, better. They would add things to it to make the overall experience more enjoyable for the guest or viewer. Walt was always looking to plus Disneyland, as he famously said the park would never be competed as long as there was imagination left in the world.
In 1958, Walt wanted to plus The Jungle Cruise in Disneyland. He tasked my friend, Disney Legend Bob Gurr, with designing a pair of rhinoceroses that would charge the Jungle Cruise boats, with one on each side of the boat. Now, these were the days before audio-animatronic animals were invented, so everything needed to be built in a more rudimentary way. Bob needed to use things like cams, drum timers, and switches in order to get the realistic movement that he wanted.
Bob tried a few different things, then settled on a design where the rhinos were on timers so that when the boat got close, both would charge the boat. Then, as the boat started to leave the scene, the machine Bob had designed would reverse them, moving them backward to their original starting positions along the river's banks. When Bob's boss, Vic Greene, saw Bob's design, he told Bob that he would need the rhinos to charge the boat, then stop, spin 180 degrees, then the machine would take them back to their original starting positions where they would spin around again, getting ready to charge the next boat. 😲
Well, as Bob has said in his book, "Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer", that was a MUCH more complicated machine to build, but he gave it the ol' college try! Bob built a machine for the rhinos that did exactly what his boss wanted and it was actually installed in The Jungle Cruise! For weeks or months, those two rhinos would rush from the banks of either side of the river, scaring the guests aboard the boats. The problem was, the spinning mechanism did not work as predicted! Jungle Cruise Skippers started seeing the rhinos charge the boats, butts first! 😆😂 The poor Disneyland guests were getting mooned daily, so the folks that made those kinds of decisions, probably Walt himself, decided to take out those charging/mooning rhinoceroses! 🤣
In the same book, Bob talks about his most successful and realistic mechanical animal he ever made for **Disney, and he says it was the mountain sheep that he designed for the Pack Mules attraction in Disneyland. Apparently the sheep was designed so that when the pack mule cart would pass a certain rock, the sheep would pop out from behind that rock to startle the guests. Well, it worked really, really well, but it didn't startle the guests. It did startle the heck out of a poor donkey, though! 😬
The mechanical sheep was installed and, when the very first donkey of the day stepped up to the rock and the sheep popped out, the donkey got spooked, reared back, and then started running down a hill, dragging the rest of the donkeys an the startled wagon full of guests off with it! 😳 The effect was shut down. Then, attraction operators tried it again three weeks later. When that same donkey got to the rock where the sheep was again ready to go, he stopped and wouldn't cross in front of the rock. The sheep was apparently uninstalled the next morning, but Bob said it's the best animal he's ever made because it fooled a donkey! 😁
Thank you so much for reading this one!! 🙏❤ I don't think you can get the Bob Gurr book in print these days, but you can definitely get it on Kindle! It's much more of Bob talking about his life and career than it is Disney, but there are some great Disney nuggets in there! Thank you again for reading, and have an amazing day!! 🙏❤🙏
**Edited to Add: Did you know that Bob was the guy who designed the original King Kong figure for Universal's Kongfrontation?!?! That one is is most famous animal figure, I'd say!! 😁
@MissAdventurous as I am currently experiencing a terrible case of the holiday fridays, I feel personally attacked.
The cuetlaxochitl flower is native to Mexico.
This is a sacred flower that was colonized and written off in history as a "discovery" of Joel Poinsett's in the 1800's.
Joel Poinsett was a slave owner who promoted white supremacy and slavery in his travels and in his political career. He has also been responsible for the displacement of many indigenous peoples along the way by forcibly removing them from their native lands.
The Cuetlaxochime originally had nothing to do with christianity or Christmas, they were a sacred plant used in ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Huitzilopochtli during our winter solstices. They were also used for medicinal and healing purposes to cure sicknesses, aid the flow of breast milk, as well as for dyeing fabrics.
Reverse the harm by calling our xochime by its original name, Cuetlaxochitl, and correcting those around you.
Pronunciation: Kwetla・so-cheetl
✨
These are the original lyrics to "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" as written for the 1944 film "Meet Me In St. Louis".
When she read them, Judy Garland refused to sing them because she thought they were so dark they'd make Margaret O'Brien (pictured here with Garland in the scene), the young actress playing in the scene with Garland, cry for real, so Garland made the songwriters change the lyrics to the ones that appear in the film.
But these are the first original lyrics to the song:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, It may be your last, Next year we may all be living in the past; Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Pop that champagne cork, Next year we may all be living in New York; No good times like the olden days, Happy golden days of yore, Faithful friends who were dear to us, Will be near to us no more; But at least we all will be together, If the Lord allows, From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow; So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.