Advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas
Grinch Alert: This post and the ones to follow is all about Christmas. Proceed with caution!
Grinch Alert: This post and the ones to follow is all about Christmas. Proceed with caution!
Most humans love to fill their lives with traditions and stories - whether they’re passed on from ancestors, great grandparents, or new creations. Stories about how things came to be the way they are or about significant events and how we remember them. Consider any dinner party and you’ll find it stays alive through an exchange of stories – picking up an element from one and adding your own story containing said element. The conversation often lands up in a complete different place to where it started without someone having drastically altered the direction.
One particular story filled to the brim with traditions, and growing variants every time it comes around, is the story of how Christmas came to be. From the pagan solstice festivals, Yule logs and gifts, to the birth of Jesus, Midnight Mass and turkeys; Christmas has become a jolly old mix of religions and cultures, as well as the cause for much controversy, cheer and charity.
It’s the cheer and charity of it I'll be focusing on in Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales from now until the 5th of January, also known as the Twelfth Day of Christmas.
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” – Dr Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Using the well-known Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas (available on iTunes), I’ll explore the Christmas cost, Spirit, food (yes, there will be recipes) and gifts. Add a South African twist and Nick’s your uncle.
Check out Straight No Chaser's African twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas the video does not display below.
Check out Straight No Chaser's African twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas the video does not display below.
I should also mention a little big something called The True Cost of Christmas. It’s an annual commodity price index based on the current price of the twelve gifts mentioned in the song to illustrate how the cost of living, and Christmas, has changed. Where some hold that the cost needs to represent the cumulative cost of all 364 gifts (taking the repetitions in the song into account), others feel that one set of eight maids-a-milking and twelve drummers drumming is quite sufficient for the Christmas Price Index. My true love will also be getting twelve, more appropriate gifts. So I'll have a little price index of my own.
And on that rather superficial note, I'm also making at attempt at reading and "getting" Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to see how the words “price” and “meaning” are interchangeable when it comes to Christmas.
After all of that, hopefully I'll be able to make your Christmas start a little earlier and last a little longer
You're welcome!
After all of that, hopefully I'll be able to make your Christmas start a little earlier and last a little longer
You're welcome!
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” – Dr Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
*I consulted a number of websites for this series and have made the info my own. This one is really great for anything you want to know about Christmas and I’ll add the rest as they come up.
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