Today I offer you a pair of poems relating to modern-day Christmas tidings:

Published in 1977:

The Christmas Letter
    ~John N. Morris

Wherever you are when you receive this letter
I write to say we are still ourselves
In the same place
And hop you are the same.

The dead have died as you know
And will never get better,
And the children are boys and girls
Of their several ages and names.

So in closing I send you our love
And hope to hear from you soon.
There is never a time
Like the present. It lasts forever
Wherever you are. As ever I remain.

Published in 2012:

Christmas Mail
    ~Ted Kooser

Cards in each mailbox,
angel, manger, star and lamb,
as the rural carrier,
driving the snowy roads,
hears from her bundles
the plaintive bleating of sheep,
the shuffle of sandals,
the clopping of camels.
At stop after stop,
she opens the little tin door
and places deep in the shadows
the shepherds and wise men,
the donkeys lank and weary,
the cow who chews and muses.
And from her Styrofoam cup,
white as a star and perched
on the dashboard, leading her
ever into the distance,
there is a hint of hazelnut,
and then a touch of myrrh.

Finally, a quick reminder that it’s not too late to sign up for a spot in the tour to share your own holiday traditions and thoughts. Dec. 14-19 are all available.

Every Thursday, I share beautiful things from my past week. Here are three from this week:

1. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings performed on Tuesday night at the Lincoln Theatre in a show destined to go down in my top ten of all time, if not the top five. The band is tight. The backing singers, who also served as the opening act, harmonized amazingly. And Jones has an amazing energy and attitude that is apparent in her recorded music, but it springs to the fore when seeing her on stage. She strutted, she pranced, she worked her way through all the popular dances of the ’60s. She kept it real by coming out in fancy gold shoes, then asking someone to bring her her flip-flops when her feet started hurting, and then kicking those off, too, when she wanted to bop around stage. And then she opened her mouth and, oh! She belted out those songs as if not only her life depended on it, but also the lives of everyone in the building. All I can say is there’s a reason they call it soul music. The woman has just finished her second round of chemo in three years for a type of cancer that she shared her doctors tell her won’t go into remission. But, she said, doctors only know what doctors know. She declared that as long as her voice worked and she had a microphone, she would go on.

2. Every November the orchids that my late uncle gave me for my birthday several years ago start to bud. I always think that they’ll bloom for his birthday, while I’m away for Thanksgiving, but each time they hold off just a few more days and bloom instead when I get back to the office.

3. We get in touch with the landlord about a handful of plumbing issues and over the past week we’ve had our toilet, hot water, bathroom faucet, kitchen faucet, and countertop repaired or upgraded. It’s nice not to have to deal with any of those niggling problems any more.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

I started out the Virtual Advent Tour ten days ago highlighting a favorite Christmas special of mine, and today I offer you a second one.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is yet another kid-friendly special from Jim Henson, but this one leaves behind the familiar faces of The Muppets and instead takes us to Frogtown Hollow, where the Otter family, Emmet and his mother, Alice, struggle to make ends meet. She’s a washerwoman and he does odd repair jobs. But despite their poverty, they’re both relatively happy, sharing a love of music and fond memories of Emmet’s dreamer father. But when they hear about a Christmas Eve talent contest that would enable them to buy the other the Christmas gift they want most, they each secretly resolve to compete and win. In a twist on The Gift of the Magi, they each sacrifice not their own most valuable possession, but the other’s.

This makes it sound really depressing, but it’s not. Based on a 1971 picture book by Russell and Lillian Hoban (who also brought you the Frances the badger books), Henson aired the special first in 1978 on HBO and two years later on ABC. It includes music by Paul Williams, who wrote a variety of well-known pop hits from the 1970s, as well as the music for The Muppet Movie and the theme song for The Love Boat.

Apparently they’ll be showing this on ABC Family this weekend, but for those of us without access to that network, I offer you this version from YouTube (complete with the Interpol warnings not to illegally distribute it):

Today’s Virtual Advent Tour stop will be at heidenkind’s Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books. Heidenkind shares her favorite series you can stream at home during the holidays (or at any other point of the year). This is particularly timely for the knitters who are desperately trying to finish up their holiday gifts and anyone looking for something without a specific holiday theme to watch while wrapping gifts or addressing cards.

But first, I have another Christmas song for you. “American Noel” was written by Dave Carter and recorded by him and Tracy Grammer and is the title track off their 1998 holiday album, released by Tracy six years after Dave’s sudden and early death. Dave’s music often combined themes of spirituality and social justice wrapped in vivid storytelling. If you like this song, I highly recommend you track down more of their music.

Finally, a quick reminder that it’s not too late to sign up for a spot in the tour. Dec. 10-12 remain open, as does Dec. 14-19. I’ll be writing for all those dates that don’t get claimed.

We’re a third of the way through Advent already! (I apologize if you don’t find that news comforting.)

Today’s Virtual Advent Tour host is Aine Greaney. She’s got a lovely story about the happenings of one winter afternoon years ago.

A quick song before you go—The Chad Mitchell Trio’s take on a traditional Caribbean carol, “Virgin Mary”:

I’m really excited to be seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings on Tuesday. While the concert isn’t billed as a holiday show, I can’t help but think since she has a new Christmas album out that at least some of the songs will be from that.

Here are a few of the songs off the album, It’s a Holiday Soul Party, for you to enjoy, too:

A classic, reimagined:

An original, which appeared on my personal Christmas mix a few years back:

Since we’re now in the Hanukkah season:

This last one isn’t actually the song, but a little behind the music segment: