Season’s Greetings! We’re already several days into Hanukkah, are officially into the Christian Advent season, and narrowing down on the end of the year. I hope you’re making the most of it, regardless of what you’re celebrating!
Speaking of celebrating, Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm is doing just that today and has a post full of family joy!
In the meantime, in honor of the third day and fourth night of Hanukkah today, I thought I’d share a video with you from a cappella group Six13:
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks about our top ten list of cozy, wintry reads. Unsurprisingly, I’m going to focus my list on Christmas reads. (Readergirl3 also narrowed her topic similarly and we have a bunch of the same books in her list.)
Here are 11 of my favorites (once I got going, I ran long…)
Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales beautifully captures the nostalgia surrounding the holidays. If you can find the audio of Thomas reading it himself, it’s worth a listen. Similarly a staged reading of the text also makes for an enjoyable evening.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. Also has, as I recall, a decent 1980s made-for-tv adaptation.
The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggins: An overly melodramatic Christmas picture book about a sick girl and her neighbors from the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
The Polar Express, a picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, tells of a boy’s test of his faith. I first read this in French in high school, and it’s a beautiful read-aloud in any language.
My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins, gives you a dozen YA love stories in a range of genres from some of the top authors writing for teens today. Not all 12 stories were loved, but I could appreciate even the ones I didn’t.
Speaking of which, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! gives you three interrelated Christmas stories from John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson.
For many years, I did not enjoy Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but for the past decade or so, I’ve finally grown into it. I’m currently waiting on an audio version read by Jim Dale from the library.
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas is the source material for the original cartoon and the subsequent movies and may be one of the few times in history where the book and the adaptation are equally good.
It’s been nearly a decade since I read Connie Willis’ Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, but I’d totally read the sci-fi Christmas-themed collection of stories again (or, at least, most of them).
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg gives you everything you expect from a Flagg novel — lots of laughter, Southern charm, and quirky characters. I don’t know if Southerners enjoy her writing, but this Northerner sure does.
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, is a sweet YA romance set in New York City and features one of my favorite grandfather characters in recent memory. Plus, it told me that I could find copies of the OED at The Strand if I were willing to shell out for one.
How about you? What’s on your list of cozy, wintry reads?
Thanks for stopping by to open another “door” of the Virtual Advent Tour. Only three weeks until Christmas!
Today you get another post from me, and I thought I’d share a recipe that seems like it would be a good fit for making at this time of the year. It’s fast, requires only items that I think a lot of folks would already have in their kitchen, and is flavored with both cinnamon and nutmeg, spices that encompass all the good things I associate with fall and winter holidays. Way back when, I used to play host to a lot of friends on the weekends and used to try to come up with interesting things to serve them for brunch if we weren’t planning to head to the local diner, and this was a favorite. It comes from my favorite cookbook, Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book (a chatty collection of morning meal recipes that would make a fantastic present for someone who loves to cook):
Cinnamon Butter Puffs (makes about a dozen puffs)
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar (less if desired)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup milk
Topping
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Grease muffin tins.
For the puffs: Beat shortening, sugar, and egg in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add to the first mixture. Pour in the milk and beat until blended and smooth.
Fill the muffin tins about two-thirds full. Bake about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden.
For the topping (Have this ready to go when the puffs come out of the oven): Mix together the cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl.
Place the melted butter in a bowl just big enough to hold one puff (an ice cream bowl, maybe?).
As soon as the puffs are done, remove them from the pan. Dip them one by one into the melted butter and then roll them in the cinnamon-sugar.
Delightful when served warm with a cup of tea or coffee, but also tasty when cool.
That’s it from me. I hope to see you back here tomorrow, where we’ll be heading back to Letters from a Hill Farm. (Nan’s post will go live later in the day, so maybe check in after work tomorrow, rather than before.)
Welcome back to the Virtual Advent Tour! Today’s host is me!
Music is so important to making my holidays what they are. I grew up in a household where a stereo was always on, and my dad has been a big proponent of making Christmas mixes since before I was born. So I thought today I’d share three songs for your holiday listening pleasure that I’ve encountered for the first time this year:
The first is a re-imagined “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” updated for a #MeToo world. While I agree with those who say that it’s not the original intention of the song’s writers to make it seem creepy, I think some of the actions described in the song, combined with the frequent age discrepancies between the male and female singers in the duet, hit a little too close to reports from survivors of sexual assault/harassment to make it a completely comfortable song for me to listen to. Your mileage may vary, and I respect that, but for others who’ve moved away from the song, this version from Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski may give you a way back in:
Phoebe Bridgers (with Jackson Brown) dropped this cover of McCarthy Trenching’s “Christmas Song” last week, and I can see it getting a lot of play at my house this year:
Finally, singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson lost both her parents in the last year and wanted a way to reclaim the holidays at a time that was so hard for her. This version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with Leslie Odom Jr. gives you an example of what you’ll find on her new album, Songs for the Season:
That’s it from me. Join us again tomorrow for the Virtual Advent Tour. And if you want to join in with the writing of posts, drop me a line in the comments and we’ll find you a date that works.
Welcome back to Day 2 of the Virtual Advent Tour! I hope you’re enjoying the weekend so far.
Today’s host is Bridget of The Ravell’d Sleave, whose family is commemorating a major milestone event today. Head over to her blog to read all about it.
Be sure to stop back tomorrow for our next stop on the Virtual Advent Tour!
If you’re enjoying the Virtual Advent Tour so far, consider joining our merry band of writers. You can find the current schedule on yesterday’s post. Just leave a comment letting me know what date you’d like to claim!
More holiday links:
Drops is doing their annual Christmas pattern giveaway through Dec. 25.
The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge is underway now through Jan. 6. In addition to reading holiday-themed books, there’s also a category for watching themed movies and for reading books with children.
Riveted is letting you read recently published YA novels for free on their site during the lead-up to Christmas with their annual 25 Days of Christmas celebration. I can’t endorse any of them personally, but there are several authors I’ve enjoyed on the list.
Welcome to Day 1 of the Virtual Advent Tour! I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving, if you celebrated it, and a great final week of November if you didn’t.
Today is the first day of December, and, as with any traditional paper Advent Calendar, it marks the first door of our 24-day calendar to be opened. What will we find behind each one? It will vary from destination to destination, so I urge you to visit each day to see what our bloggers have in store for you.
Today’s host is Nan from Letters from a Hill Farm, who has a fun post about a different type of virtual Advent calendar (and cards).
There is still time to sign up! We’d love for some more bloggers to participate. Wondering what’s involved? Go here. I think you’ll find we’re a supportive, enthusiastic bunch, so however casual or formal you want to go, we’ll be appreciative. Here’s the schedule as it currently exists:
1: Nan
2: Bridget
3: sprite
4: sprite
5: Nan
6: raidergirl3
7: Judith
8:
9: Rudi
10:
11: Kat
12:
13:
14: Judith
15:
16: Kat
17:
18: Jo Kay
19:
20: Constance
21: raidergirl3
22:
23: Rudi
24: Bridget
A few final notes:
I promised a badge and have one now in 1200px and 400px. Let me know if you want a different size or need help downloading them.
I am a night owl, so I’m writing these posts before I go to bed in the wee smalls and then scheduling them to go live between six and seven a.m. EST in the U.S. If posts are live at our destinations as I’m writing, I’ll share a direct link to that post and give you a teaser. If they aren’t, I’ll give you a link to the author’s blog and will try to update my post later in the day with more specifics. If there’s no Virtual Advent Tour post live when you stop by a site early (I know some of you are up way before the sun!), please check back later. It’ll be worth a return visit!
If you are a day’s destination and like to receive feedback/have conversations with your visitors, please make it as easy as possible to comment on your post. We like to leave you notes, but don’t always have access if you have to log into some other site, like Facebook or Gmail, to comment. Obviously, though, that’s up to you, because I get how annoying spammers are.
That’s it! See you back here tomorrow!
As I learn about other free or low-cost Advent events around the web, I’ll let you know. If you hear of others, leave me a note in the comments and I’ll promote them.
Courtney of Be More with Less is running her 31 Days of Gifts You So Deserve, an emailed Advent calendar of what looks to be quieter, low-cost suggestions for a balanced December.
Two knitting patterns where the instructions are given in short, daily chunks: Christina Campbell’s Project Peace 2018, which is a cowl supplemented by peace-centered posts at The Healthy Knitter, and Tricia Weatherston’s Advent Scarf 2018, which is a scarf comprised of Japanese stitches. (It started the day after Thanksgiving, so there will need to be some catch-up if you want to give this to someone on Christmas Day.)
