For anyone who is looking for something suitable for the holiday season, here is a summary to date of the articles that feature Christmas and the New Year.
Christmas articles
King George V's Christmas speech features the first-ever Christmas broadcast by a British monarch. The King's speech was written by Rudyard Kipling.
An unusual Midnight Mass: the real spirit of Christmas? contains the moving poem Eddi's Service by Rudyard Kipling.
John Masefield and the magic of Christmas Eve is about Masefield's wonderful children's book The Box of Delights.
Cults and John Masefield’s Box of Delights highlights a a successful resistance to a recruitment attempt.
John Masefield’s Box of Delights and Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather lists some elements that these two seasonal books have in common, including an attempt to ruin the holiday spirit.
The Polar Express: a controversial Christmas film gives some opinions of the film that was my Christmas treat for 2004.
There is another side to Christmas: it can be more stressful and depressing than enjoyable, and it is often a time when sinister forces are abroad.
Unseen Influences at Christmas has something to say about depression and describes some disruptive incidents at Christmas Eve services.
Depression at Christmas covers some causes of seasonal depression.
Christmas pictures
Beautiful - and amusing - images can help to raise the spirits.
A lovely picture can be seen in A beautiful Christmas card; another of the bargain cards that I scanned is shown in Another beautiful Christmas card.
Some more lovely images can be seen in The Three Ships of Christmas; the seasonal article for the following year features The Twelve Days of Christmas.
There are also some seasonal pictures from Frank Kelly Freas.
New Year articles
Rudyard Kipling's New Year's Resolutions features an amusing poem he wrote for New Year 1887 about his good intentions for the years ahead.
Ringing out the old year and ringing in the new features Tennyson's poem Ring Out, Wild Bells.
Charles Lamb's sad words about the New Year also mentions bells. This article features his poem The Old Familiar Faces.
A little New Year poem from Ogden Nash contains his amusing little verse Good Riddance, But Now What?
Another beautiful old seasonal card from my collection:
