Archive for December 2021

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1 Partridge In Ye Old Pear Tree

This past weekend I got to spend a delightful weekend with dear friends in Tennessee. Since the poster event was a costume 40's Noir LARP party, we spent that Saturday morning laughing over costumes, walking around in each other's high heels, trying on ridiculous hats and clip-on earrings, doing each other's hair, experimenting with Russian, British, and

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2 Turtle Doves

By Christianna Hellwig with 2 Comments

Each year I like to pay a bit of tribute to one of the more sobering elements of the Christmas story. We're all familiar with Lully Lullay, the lament over the baby boys of Bethlehem and, in our grief over slaughter of dozens of innocents, we often forget, I think, what a heart-wrenching thing it must have

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3 French Hens

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

One of the singing traditions unique to North America is that of the shape-note singing tradition. This was a strategy that differentiated notes on the staff by shape in order to help non-educated people learn to read music. It went hand in hand with solfege which was simply the visual format. The handbook for shape note singers

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4 Calling Birds

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

I guess because the Bible talks about Shepherds being in the fields "that night" keeping watch over their flocks, a lot of people just assumed that Jesus was born in the dead of night. Maybe he was. Maybe there wasn't any space to lay him in the inn because they got there late and it was all

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5 Golden Rings

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

Here we go! Those of you who have been my friends for at least one past Christmas know I cannot let the season pass without sharing at least one carol by John Rutter. Even if it means recycling it must happen. However, I don't think I've shared this one before. Published in the '90s, this, like many

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6 Geese a Laying

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

Getting babies to sleep can be quite a tricky thing. This particular photo was taken after I had finally succeeded in getting my exhausted nephew to close his eyes and take deep breaths instead of bawling to me about all his troubles as he had been for the past hour. Experiences such as this have

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7 Swans a Swimming

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

Christmas personified. Is it a legitimate thing to do? I suppose what happens is one gathers the essence of Christmas and bundles it into a single individual. That's rather what Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas are supposed to be. My personification always materialized out of Charles Dicken's description of the ghost of Christmas present in A Christmas

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8 Maids A Milking

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

I really think everyone understates the shepherds in the Christmas story. Frankly I find the whole thing much more interesting than even the visit of the Magi. I love the fact that of all the people in and around Bethlehem that night, God chose shepherds, the lowest of the low, to be the first to know about

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9 Ladies Dancing

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

When you think of the birth of Christ, and that night spent with the newborn child lying in a manger, has the question ever presented itself: what was Mary thinking? I know it has for me. We're not Catholics, we know better than to worship Mary, but, it also behooves us to acknowledge that she was quite

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10 Lords a-Leaping

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

One thing I've begun to understand only recently is that there is a clear separation in traditional liturgy between Christmas songs and advent songs. Christmas songs speak to Christ having come while advent songs celebrate the preparation and look forward to Christ's coming. For example, "Silent Night" is a Christmas carol, while "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

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11 Pipers Piping

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

I have yet to do a set of these blogposts and have someone know all of the carols I post. I think there might be some sort of award for anyone who did. However, today you get a freebie. I'm sharing one probably everyone has at least heard of and has probably listened to multiple times. I'm

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12 Drummers Drumming Once More

By Christianna Hellwig with 3 Comments

Friends, this past Wednesday I had the tremendous pleasure of singing a traditional British Christmas carol service with the University Chapel choir at the beautiful, ancient cathedral of St. Machar. I cannot find sufficient words to express not only the beauty of it, but all the emotion swirling in my head throughout the event. Music speaks a language

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