Will you be ‘de-decorating’ today?

So, it’s Dec. 26 – the day after Christmas. Is it time to “de-decorate?” This is the perfect weekend for some folks to just “get ‘er done.”

All the nostalgic holiday season decorations were fun to look at and enjoy. But now it’s time to pack up the artificial fir tree, Santas, snowmen, nativity scenes, Christmas village houses and stores, lights, ornaments and all the rest of “the Christmasy stuff.”

Let’s place them into the proper bins and boxes from whence they came…and tuck them back in their usual storage places, whether that be in the garage, attic, basement or wherever.

 

The weather should be conducive to pulling up stakes on the outdoor decorations as well. Being one of the first houses on the street to “go dark” after Christmas is not a bad thing. Or is it?

 

Deciding when to haul out and put up the Christmas decorations…and when to take them down is a personal preference.

But “the guidelines” have changed over the course of time.

Can you imagine waiting until Christmas Eve to put up your Christmas tree? 

That’s the way it used to be in jolly old England when Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert ruled the roost during the Victorian era (generally from 1837-1901.) They had nine children.

 

How hectic would that have been? A much better use of one’s time on Christmas Eve might be in attending a candlelight church service…and then “calmly” assembling and detailing toys for young children after they’ve gone to bed.

Terri Robertson (shown below), a senior editor at Country Living magazine in Birmingham, Ala., said: “Traditionally, the Christmas tree will stay up until the Epiphany on Jan. 6, which is the 12th day of Christmas, when the Three Wise Men came to visit Jesus.” (“The Twelve Days of Christmas” song begins with Day One on Dec. 25.)

 

“In medieval times, the decorations stayed out even longer – all the way through Candlemas on Feb. 2, the official end of the Christmas season on the Christian calendar,” Robertson said.

Jessica Van Roekel (shown below), a faith-based author based in Inwood, Iowa, explains that the Epiphany was a “time of revelation,” when God brought Jesus to life.

 

“Epiphany means ‘appearance or manifestation,’” Van Roekel said. “Many countries refer to it as ‘Three Kings Day,’ when The Magi visited the child Jesus.”

 

Candlemas is also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Feast of the Holy Encounter.

 

It’s a Christian feast day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple by Joseph and Mary, which occurred 40 days after the birth of Christ, said freelance journalist Mary Oelerich-Meyer (shown below), who is based in St. Charles, Ill., near Chicago.

 

“Traditionally, it involves the blessing of candles, symbolizing Christ as the Light of the World,” she wrote. “Observing Candlemas can be a great way to extend the celebration of Jesus’ birth each winter.”

 

“Though Groundhog Day is on Feb. 2, you can redirect your kids’ attention away from a creature looking for light to the Savior of the world, who is their light when things get dark,” Oelerich-Meyer said.

A favorite at-home activity with children is to gather and bless all of the family’s candles in the center of the kitchen or dining room table, she added.

“The candles do not have to match; in fact, using different-sized and shaped candles may remind us that Jesus’ light is for everyone.”

 

A practical concern in leaving Christmas decorations up through Candlemas is that few green cut Christmas trees can last that long.

Robertson said: “Most home and garden centers will tell you that the five-week mark is when a real Christmas tree will dry out and start to become a fire hazard.”

Some Country Living readers tell us that “they keep their artificial trees up year-round and change the decorations according to the season,” Robertson shared.

A former neighbor of ours, Donna G., just threw a bedsheet over her fully decorated artificial Christmas tree and let it be.

Snow globe became cherished emblem of winter

Snow globes have evolved into traditional Christmas season decorations, and many families have been collecting them for years.

The “snow globes story” appears to have originated in France in 1878.

A French glassware company exhibiting at the Paris Universal Exposition “showcased a group of paper weights of hollow balls filled with water, containing a little man with an umbrella.” The objects also contained white powder that fell “in imitation of a snowstorm” when turned upside down.

Elizabeth Gumport, a contributor to New York Magazine, reported: “For the next Exposition, in 1889, the French built the Eiffel Tower. They also produced tiny replicas of the Eiffel Tower, enclosed in glass spheres full of water and fake snow. Almost as soon as there were snow globes, there were snow globe souvenirs.”

 

However, Erwin Perzy of Vienna, Austria, is widely considered to be the proper snow globe “inventor,” albeit accidentally, Gumport wrote. 

Perzy owned a medical instrument supply business. He was asked in 1900 by a surgeon in Vienna to improve upon Thomas Edison’s electric light bulb (invented in 1879), in order to produce an even brighter light for use within the operating room.

“Drawing upon a method used by shoemakers to make ‘quasi-spotlights,’ Perzy placed a water-filled glass globe in front of a candle, which increased the light’s magnification, and sprinkled tiny bits of reflective glitter into the globe to help brighten it,” according to Gumport.

“But the glitter sank too quickly, so Perzy tried semolina (a coarse flour from durum wheat) instead,” Gumport noted. “That didn’t quite work, either, but the appearance of the small, white particles drifting around the globe reminded Perzy of snowfall – and he quickly filed the first official patent for a snow globe, or a “Schneekugel” in the German-Austrian language (pronounced SHNAY-koo-gel).

Perzy called his invention a “glass sphere with snow effect.” By 1905, brothers Erwin and Ludwig Perzy were churning out dozens of handmade snow globes in their shop. 

Each contained a small model of the Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, in Mariazell, Austria, a Roman Catholic church that is “the most important Christian pilgrimage destination in Austria and one of the most visited shrines in all of Europe.”

 

The demand for snow globes snowballed.

The family-owned company is still operating as the Original Viennese Snow Globe Manufactory. The small business is now a tourism destination within Vienna. Erwin Perzy III and his daughter, Sabine Perzy, are presently running the business as a partnership.

 

Today, the company employs about 30 people, who produce and paint about 200,000 handmade and high-quality snow globes a year. All are glass and are filled with pure, alpine water from mountain springs.

 

Helen Soteriou, a business reporter with the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), recently interviewed the Perzys. Erwin III said: “A snow globe is a thing which gives some magic and enchantment to people.”

 

For the first 40 years of production, the miniature diorama inside always featured a church, but Erwin II, who took over from his father after World War II, introduced different designs, such as Christmas trees, Father Christmas and snowmen figurines, Soteriou said.

 

“Nowadays, kids have everything,” said Erwin III, “computers and lots of other electronic things, and our snow globe has nothing, no battery, no nothing. But when the kids come here, their eyes are wide open, they are enchanted, and everyone has one or two snow globes in their hands, and they are shaking them. That is a very nice moment for me.”

Sabine, who represents the fourth generation of management, said: “We can proudly say that our snow globes are bought all over the world. Since each snow globe is still handmade today, each globe is as unique as a single snowflake.”  

 

Snow globes’ popularity tied to epic Hollywood films 

Snow globe manufacturer Erwin Perzy III of Vienna, Austria, said the most famous snow globe that his family’s company has ever produced was a prop used in the epic American drama motion picture titled “Citizen Kane,” released in 1941.

This was Orson Welles’ first feature film. He was director, producer and leading actor. The movie was co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz.

 

Carole Rosenblat, a contributor to Atlas Obscura, tells us: “As the ‘Citizen Kane’ movie opens, Charles Foster Kane lies in bed, alone in the dark clutching a snow globe. Inside the globe is a wooden cabin covered in white.”

“After a minute, Kane whispers one of the most famous lines in film history – just one word – ‘Rosebud.’ His hand goes limp, and the glass globe falls to the floor and shatters.” Kane is dead.

 

Perzy said his grandfather, Erwin Perzy I, who started the business – the Original Viennese Snow Globe Manufactory – in 1905, created the snow globe, a one-of-a-kind piece, for the movie studio.

The snow globe reminded the main character of a quiet time spent sledding near his mother’s wooden boarding house, and that spirit of peace was in keeping with his family’s philosophy, Perzy III said.

“It’s a separate world inside a snow globe. It’s an escape,” he stated.

Maybe that’s why people enjoy owning them so much. More than a souvenir trinket, “snow globes are objects that evoke holiday cheer,” remarked Kim Hart in an article for Artsy.net.

 

“Snow globes are irresistible for their promise of brief, easy entertainment – plus the added visual delight of the whimsical miniatures found inside,” Hart wrote.

For the Perzy family, it’s been a journey spanning more than a century to perfect the snow globe manufacturing process.

Initially, snow globes consisted of a heavy glass dome that was placed over a ceramic figure or tableau on a black cast ceramic base, filled with water and then sealed. They were often viewed as functional paperweights.

All sorts of materials were used to try to create the snow or “flitter,” including bone chips, fine pieces of porcelain, sand, sawdust, particles of gold foil, non-soluble soap flakes and white plastic.

The water was “enhanced” by some snow globe manufacturers over time with the addition of a light oil, antifreeze (ethylene glycol) and glycerol, which had added benefits of slowing the descent of the snow.

Today, the liquid inside each of the Perzy snow globes is pure alpine water from mountain streams found in the Alps. The flitter, however, is a secret mix of plastic and other materials designed to flurry for up to two minutes before settling on the bottom. 

The figures inside the globes are created by injecting plastic into molds created by a 3D printer.

Customers at the Perzys’ retail counter are invited to “give one of the snow globes on display a shake and watch as magical snow gently drifts over the charming scene inside. A delightful keepsake and world-famous memento, these classic snow globes are made of glass – not plastic.”

Today’s snow globes can include music boxes, moving parts, internal lights and even electric motors that make the flitter move so that it is no longer necessary to shake the globe. These models don’t impress Josef Kardinal much.

He’s just a regular guy who lives in Nuremberg, Germany, and has been collecting traditional snow globes since 1984. He has amassed the largest collection – 11,017 snow globes – on the planet, certified by Guinness World Records. The basement of his home is a mini-museum.

 

Kardinal approaches his collection with the care of an archivist and regularly maintains the globes so each still “snows” as intended, reported freelance journalist Lauren Beavis.

He said: “Snow globes capture memories, places and feelings. Every one of them tells a story.” 

 

 

There is no question that Hollywood films contributed to the “the mass popularity of snow globes,” beginning with “Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman” (1940), which featured Ginger Rogers.

 

A young Kitty Foyle launches a flashback scene when she shakes a snow globe containing the figure of a girl on a sled. Ginger Rogers won an Oscar for her role. As for snow globes, their sales zoomed by 200% following “Kitty Foyle’s” premiere.

 

 

Author Donald-Brian Johnson said “Citizen Kane,” the following year in 1941, helped snow globe sales to surge again. 

“Manufacturers were snowed under with orders,” he said.

 

“Rosebud” was the name given to the little sled on which Kane was playing on the day he was taken away from his home and his mother. It represents the simple joys and mother’s love that Kane knew as a child before he was separated from his family and thrust into a life of wealth and responsibility.

Top Christmas songs countdown continues….

The top 20 holiday tunes of all time, according to staff members at Billboard magazine, needs some “tidying up” on this end to comply with our “previously stated requirement” that the songs be among those that are likely to be played on the radio.

In this case, we’re talking about an adult contemporary station owned by Curtis Media Group of New Bern, N.C. – WMGV-FM: Magic 103.3 / 95.5.

Knocked out of consideration, therefore, are: No 18 – The Waitresses and “Christmas Wrapping” (1981); No. 13 – Ariana Grande and “Santa Tell Me” (2014); and No. 8 – Run-D.M.C. and “Christmas in Hollis” (1987).

 

With these “disqualifications” now out of the way…let the countdown resume:

No.20: Chuck Berry – “Run Rudolph Run” – 1958. The song was written by Berry but credited to Johnny Marks, due to Marks’ trademark on the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The tune’s melody is eerily similar to Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

 

Billboard’s Taylor Mims said: “There was a time when rock’n’roll and Christmas would have felt like conflicting themes, but Chuck Berry was up to the task of bridging them. 

With Berry’s signature guitar riffs, ‘Run Rudolph Run’ could melodically fit on any secular rock record, but his whimsical lyrics of ‘Rudolph whizzin’ like a shootin’ star’ make it a holiday staple.”

Be sure to take the freeway down.

 

No. 19: Bobby Helms – “Jingle Bell Rock” – 1957. Written by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, who were public relations and advertising executives, respectively. However, Helms and guitarist Hank Garland said they essentially had to rewrite the entire song, because it was so bad.

 

“Helms’ country influence and well-timed guitar twang make ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ a feel-good song that puts people in the festive spirit,” said Billboard’s Josh Glicksman. “The underlying sleigh bells ringing throughout the entirety of the song bump up the score a few notches.”

 

No. 17: Joni Mitchell – “River” – 1971. Mitchell wrote the song “River” for her iconic 1971 album “Blue,” expressing regret and longing after a breakup with Graham Nash, wishing for a frozen Canadian “river to skate away on” to escape her troubles around Christmas time. The lyrics famously capture a sense of personal responsibility for a failed relationship.

 

“There needed to be a song that embraces the sorrow of Christmas,” commented Billboard’s Thom Duffy.

 

No. 16: The Beach Boys – “Little Saint Nick” – 1963. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, two of the original five members of the band that formed in Hawthorne, Calif., in 1961.

 

“This enduring hit, which shares melodic and rhythmic elements with the group’s ‘Little Deuce Coupe,’ gives a holiday slant to The Beach Boys’ trademark harmonies and penchant for lyrics about classic cars, this time around envisioning Santa’s sleigh as a candy apple red hot rod,” reported Billboard’s Jessica Nicholson.

She makes notice of “the group’s reedy, sugary harmonies mixed with sleigh bells and a glockenspiel at times.”

 

No. 15: Judy Garland, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – 1944. Written in 1943 by Hugh Martin, this song was introduced by Garland in the 1944 MGM musical “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

 

Garland promises her kid sister that they’ll “muddle through somehow” as their family plans to move away from their beloved hometown,” wrote Billboard’s Katie Anderson. “A lot of people can relate to this melancholy-yet-hopeful ballad delivered with Garland’s reassuring, velvety voice.”

 

No. 14: Andy Williams – “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” – 1963. Written by Edward Pola and George Wyle.

 

“Andy Williams’ declaration of love for the holiday season is the unofficial theme song for Christmas,” wrote Billboard’s Rania Aniftos. “It embodies what makes Christmas so special: time spent with family, snow on the ground, mistletoe at cocktail parties and an overall sense of joy. It truly captures the ‘hap-happiest season of all.’”

Aniftos said the song is “the most schmaltzy” of all the Christmas songs. “From gushing over the ‘parties for hosting / marshmallows for toasting / and caroling out in the snow’… it’s like Santa flew in on his sleigh from the North Pole and wrote the song himself.”

 

No. 12: Elvis Presley – “Blue Christmas” – 1957. Written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson, “Blue Christmas” was first recorded by Doye O’Dell. It was “popularized” the following year in three separate recordings – by country artist Ernest Tubb, by musical conductor and arranger Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra and chorus and by bandleader Russ Morgan and his orchestra.

Presley cemented the status of “Blue Christmas” as a rock’n’roll holiday classic in 1957, bringing attention to the backing vocal group, the Jordanaires.

 

All it took for Elvis to claim the song, according to Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger, was “one quivering ‘I’ll… have… a… bluuuuuuue… Christmas… without you….’”

(Personally, this is one highly overrated Christmas song that I can do without.)

 

No. 11: Vince Guaraldi Trio – “Christmas Time Is Here” – 1965. Written by Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson for the 1965 CBS television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which was one of the first animated Christmas specials produced for network television in the United States.

Two versions were included on the album “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – an instrumental version by the Vince Guaraldi Trio and a vocal version by choristers from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Rafael, Calif.

 

Unable to secure a credible lyricist, Mendelson sat down at his kitchen table and wrote “Christmas Time Is Here” in about 10 minutes. “It was a poem that just came to me,” Mendelson said. “Vince got a bunch of little kids together to sing it.”

 

Billboard’s Joe Lynch said: “Like Charles Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’ comic strip, the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s music is suited for everyday Americana without personifying it. It’s a loving, heartfelt tribute to Christmas that doesn’t kowtow to its commercial expectations.”

Another of the Vince Guaraldi Trio songs from the Peanuts’ TV special, “O Tannenbaum,” checked in at No. 62 on the Billboard all-time list of favorite Christmas tunes.

 And one more song that should have been included is the high-energy number titled “Linus and Lucy.” Music critics say “Linus and Lucy” has become “one of the most recognizable instrumental compositions in American popular culture.”

 

“It has been closely associated with the Peanuts characters, particularly Snoopy, whose animated dance sequences helped solidify the piece’s connection to joy and nostalgia.”

Furthermore, “the composition is widely regarded as Vince Guaraldi’s signature work and is a staple of jazz education.”

 

No. 10: Donny Hathaway – “This Christmas” – 1970. Written by Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor. She was a postal worker in Chicago who jotted down the original lyrics during a huge snowstorm in 1967, while “thinking of the holiday refrains of Nat King Cole, and singing to herself.”

 

She became “associated with” Hathaway through a home remodeling contractor who was doing work for each party…and connected the dots.

Phil Upchurch, a guitarist and songwriter, said the Hathaway-McKinnor song is “absolutely the premier holiday song written by African-Americans.”

Billboard’s Gail Mitchell commented: “Soul pioneer Hathaway’s prodigious talents as a songwriter, arranger, musician and vocalist perfectly capture the joy, fun, blessings and love that embody the spirit of the holiday season, set to an upbeat groove.”

“Hathaway’s original is a heartfelt holiday anthem for Black America that’s since become a popular modern standard,” she added.

No. 9: Bruce Springsteen – “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” – 1982.

Written in 1934 by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, the song was first recorded by banjoist Harry Reser and His Orchestra. It was covered the same year by Eddie Cantor and became a hit. Another version was recorded by George Hall and His Orchestra, with vocals by Sonny Schuyler.

The song has been since been recorded by more than 200 artists, including Neil Diamond, whose raucous recording of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” was the centerpiece of his 1992 “The Christmas Album.” 

Neil Diamond and his wife, Katie McNeill Diamond.

(Hence, Billboard’s determination that Springsteen’s version is the very best needs to be accompanied by a giant asterisk.)

 

No. 7: José Feliciano – “Feliz Navidad” – 1970. Feliciano, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, wrote what he calls the “first ever bilingual Christmas song” in the middle of the summer in Los Angeles, because he was feeling homesick for his native land.

 

With its simple, heartfelt lyrics – the traditional Spanish Christmas/New Year greeting “Feliz Navidad, próspero año y Felicidad” (“Merry Christmas, a prosperous year and happiness”), followed by text in English words “I wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart,” it has become a Christmas classic and has gained popularity around the world.

 

(In our family, the holiday season officially arrives when the first notes from the 1967 “Tijuana Christmas” album blare through the speakers. Songs were performed by a group called The Border Brass.)

 

No. 6: Brenda Lee – “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – 1958.

Written by Johnny Marks (shown below), he asked 13-year-old Brenda Lee to record his song. She willingly obliged. 

The recording session featured Hank Garland and Harold Bradley on guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano, Boots Randolph on saxophone, Bob Moore on double bass and Buddy Harman on drums.

“The rockabilly accents gave this record a timely quality back then, and now are charmingly retro,” said Billboard’s Paul Grein.

 

No. 5: Bing Crosby – “White Christmas” – 1947. Written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical “Holiday Inn,” the song was performed by Bing Crosby and fully embraced by American troops during World War II.

 

Crosby’s 1947 re-recording of “White Christmas” is the version that best reflects Berlin’s “deft lyrical detail and simplicity,” according to Billboard’s Joe Lynch. 

“‘White Christmas’ is a melancholy, even elegiac, meditation on the simple things that make life worth living,” Lynch said.

 

No. 4: Wham! – “Last Christmas” – 1984. 

Written, performed and recorded by Wham! member George Michael without the participation of the other member of the British duo – Andrew Ridgeley. The song is much loved by many.

George Messenger of Potomac, Md., is not among them. A contributor to the National Review, a conservative magazine based in New York City, Messenger said George Michael “seems to have a unique talent for ruining Christmas music, and ‘Last Christmas’ is the worst of all.”

“Something about the premise of the song is incredibly frustrating to me, and to be honest, strikes me as utter nonsense,” Messenger wrote. “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart / But the very next day, you gave it away.” What does that mean?

 

No. 3: Nat King Cole – “The Christmas Song – 1961. Written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé, “The Christmas Song” (commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” or, as it was originally subtitled, “Merry Christmas to You”) was first recorded by The Nat King Cole Trio in 1946.

 

Cole continued to tinker with different arrangements for the song, eventually settling on a stereophonic version in 1961, with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.

Billboard’s Katie Anderson remarked: “With a voice like hot chocolate poured over a lush string arrangement, there’s only one word for Nat King Cole’s recording of ‘The Christmas Song’ – warm. The definitive version of the classic…wraps listeners up in a thick wool blanket as they sit fireside roasting chestnuts, even as it invokes ice-cold images of Jack Frost and Eskimos.”

“It’s no wonder that the song is generically titled ‘The Christmas Song,’ because it perfectly encapsulates the best of Christmas music with its sense of homey familiarity and cozy warmth.”

 

No. 2: Darlene Love – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – 1963. Written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. 

This is the song that David Letterman invited Love to sing once a year on his show, beginning in 1986. Her appearance became one of Letterman’s “favorite Christmas traditions,” an annual event for as long as his show aired (through 2014).

“Love’s signature song is a layered, lush pop symphony from first note to the last,” said Billboard’s Melinda Newman. “The song wraps itself around you like a warm, flannel Christmas blanket.”

 

No. 1: Mariah Carey – “All I Want for Christmas Is You” – 1994. Written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff. The New Yorker magazine said the song is “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon.”

 “‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ is all about wanting a significant other more than anything for the holidays,” said Billboard’s Heran Mamo, “and Carey somehow manages to capture that warm, fuzzy feeling with statements like ‘I don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree’ and ‘I don’t need to hang my stocking there upon the fireplace.’”

“Carey’s wish list remains focused on receiving the ultimate gift: love.”