Twas the Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century" (2012) being Pamela McColl "smoke-free" edit of Clement Clarke Moore's poem

His name always makes me laugh. But to READ the name in print is almost more fizzy fun than to merely hear it said.What do people see when they see me sleeping in the third row of church? Do people see me as someone who gave what little energy they had to God? Or do they see someone lazy and disrespectful? Or should I not care and just be happy that I made it to church and that I can walk again? Sillence, Rebecca (2015). Gloucester History Tour. Stroud, Glos: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-4859-0. Deacy, Christopher (2016). Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the Secular, and the Sacred. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-106955-0. carry the reader through the story, daring us to disbelieve in the events which follow, and the ghastly phantoms which are about to appear. The author's voice is there at every turn. One part which gave this reader a bit of a jolt, is the arrival of the first Spirit when the curtains of Scrooge's bed were drawn aside. He was thus face to face with the apparition,

Look at that series of words (“squeezing, wrenching, grasping…”). They tell you everything you need to know about the man. I'm not sure I like “secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster” – we already get that. But what colourful, character-rich description. I LOVE the flint that doesn’t give generous fire! And that then leads to the passage about how the coldness WITHIN HIM affects his features. Brilliant. There is humour too, such as observing that a coffin nail would be deader than the proverbial doornail. Tiny Tim talks about going to church and says, “it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.” The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The scenes reveal Scrooge's lonely childhood at boarding school, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, who died young while giving birth to Fred, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr Fezziwig, who treated him like a son. Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle is shown ending their relationship, as she realises that he will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on the Christmas Eve that Marley died. Scrooge, upset by hearing Belle's description of the man that he has become, demands that the ghost remove him from the house.But enough of money matters, for now! What follows are a few random observations on this, the latest of my many readings.

Scrooge's chambers are "a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of buildings up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again." so let us follow scrooges (eventual) example, when he says ‘i will honour christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year,' and allow the christmas spirit be something we not only feel this time of year, but always.The next three staves introduce the three "spirits" - of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. And the final stave, which I defy you to read without a big fat smile on your face, describes Scrooge's redemption, which is all the more marvellous and outrageous because of his earlier spite and vituperation. Martin, Katherine Connor (19 December 2011). "merry, adj". Oxford English Dictionary. (subscription required) At first, I typed up lyrics and made full-size booklets for our guests but they often requested to actually read music notes! So this year, I decided it was time to make new mini booklets complete with actual songs. Canción de Navidad (2009). Un lindo film animado hecho por Disney. Una razonablemente fiel adaptación, con varias citas directas y estrellas como Carrey, Oldman y Firth actuando las voces. Destacan efectos especiales y escenas de acción que no necesariamente van bien con el libro. Recomendable mayormente para pequeños, y adultos con corazón de niño que no resientan desviarse un poco del texto. Christmas caroling became even more popular when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert and with the beginning of German Yuletide traditions. Many of the carols written during the Victorian period was fictional and for entertainment.