Today I have a specifically great Christmas gem to offer. You can now officially purchase my collection of Christmas short stories at Amazon as an e-book under the name It's Christmas, After All by A.M.Reitlinger The collection encompasses seven short stories, all related to Christmas in various aspects. Among them is a story of a woman who, through a box of chocolates finds back into life and happiness, or how a man's life changed after talking to a sewer rat to how three children try to manage Christmas without their parents. Intrigued? Well, follow this link and buy the e-book today to set the perfect Christmas mood (and give me the perfect gift of being a halfway accomplished writer). Also comment if you liked it (or not, but please be gentle). Also, visit the new Books Section on my blog (in the drop-down menu) to read a teaser of the first two stories. I hope you enjoy it and Pre-Merry Christmas!
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The past days I was sick and I hate that I never manage to stay healthy during all of winter but have to fend off a terrible cold, sneezing in a four-minute-interval and feeling like death warmed up. Anyway, I spent the past days in bed, too weak to write, but I will give you a treat for your ears today.
My favourite music in the world is Christmas music and I am sad that, apart from Christmas music, there is no such thing as Christmas music, if you get what I mean. Christmas music, compared to other music, is uplifting, musically mostly up to a very high standard and you feel great about it. There is a wide range of emotions included, but it is never making you feel sad or unloved, it is the perfect music - so perfect, indeed, that I find myself listening to it mid-summer if I need a little Christmas in my heart. I like to call myself the guru of Christmas music and each year at least a day or two are dedicated to hunt down the latest Christmas music and compile new playlists for this year's season. This year I will share my list of best albums, songs and singers with you and hope to get you in the right mood for Christmas by doing so. Christmas music, essentially, can be divided into carols, traditional songs, pop songs, children songs, choir songs folk Christmas and Jazz/Blues Christmas. Of course, there are many more sub-categories, but let's not delve into that or we will never get finished. Let's start with the best albums in this post, so you know what to order via Amazon tonight. I like compilations of Christmas music because they cover a wide range of styles and you can mix and match as you like; however, there are some Christmas albums definitely worth obtaining and I have listed them below. Mariah Carey Merry Christmas Mariah Carey has a fantastic voice and includes songs like "All I want for Christmas is you", "Here Comes Santa Claus" or "O Holy Night" and captures them with a gospel-like/soul approach, which is definitely worth listening to, especially if you're hosting a Christmas party. Among the songs are also less well-known ones like "Jesus what a wonderful child", which is really beautiful. Michael Bublé Christmas I love Buble's voice and his album is among the best Christmas albums I have ever heard. He sings in the style of Crosby and Sinatra, but brings a modern twist into it. Accompanying him is a big band, which makes the simplest songs sounds like a crescendo of awesomeness and festive feelings. Songs include "Santa Claus is coming to town" and "Blue Christmas" (one of this year's favourites songs). Celtic Woman All Albums (A Christmas Celebration or A Celtic Christmas) Celtic Woman is a group of female musical singers who have come together to produce beautiful covers of Irish songs, but they also have some Christmas albums which are really going to make your geese pimple. Especially if you're into musicals and schmalzty songs, you will love this album. They have beautiful, clear voices and are accompanied by classically Irish instruments like the fiddle, harp or bodhran. Among the classics like "Hark the Herald Angels sing" or "Little Drummer Boy" they also do renditions of more traditional songs like "The Wexford Carol" or "Christmas Pipes". It is a blend of folk and musical style and really worth listening. Pentatonix That's Christmas to me A complete different direction, Pentatonix are a complete a capella band (no instruments) and sing the well-known carols like "Hark the Herald Angels sing" with a pop-like arrangement, making it a perfect album for a Christmas party or if you want to raise the mood levels. Kate Rusby All Albums (especially The Frost is All Over and Sweet Bells) Kate Rusby is a folk singer from Yorkshire, England (and my favourite singer in the world) and she has an angelic voice with which she captures the most wonderful English folk Christmas songs like "I saw three ships", "The Holly and the Ivy" or "Here we come A-Wassailing" as well as original songs. Especially for cuddling into an armchair in front of a fire with a hot cup of cocoa, Kate Rusby's Christmas music will set the right mood for you, as her songs aren't loud or obtrusive but calm and yet uplifting. My favourite song by her at the moment is "Cold Winter" from the The Frost is All Over album, but she has just released a new album and there are some great songs on that one too (it's called Angels & Men). Glee Christmas Albums Whether you are a fan of the musical TV show Glee (I am not), their Christmas songs are truly marvellous and you will get a broad range of various songs sung by different singers on the same CD, which makes it a great Christmas compilation. The music as well as the singing is topnotch and I really love to listen to their music, especially when I have a party on. The American Santa Claus is, as nearly everything in America, actually based something European, namely on the historical figure of St. Nikolaus, who lived in the 3rd century A.D. and gave his money to the poor people.
According to tradition, you have to put your boot out on your window sill on the night of the 5th and, if you've been a good kid all year, St. Nikolaus will fill it with clementines, nuts and candy (and sometimes a small gift). The naughty children, however, will only get ash and coal (see, like Santa Claus). As we are talking Austrian traditions here, there must be, of course, a satanical counterpart to the nice St. Nikolaus, and it is called The Krampus. I know, you will think of the horror movie, which I have never seen because I wouldn't be able to sleep for a month, but the actual Krampus actually stems from pre-Christian Alpine traditions. On the fifth of December, it is tradition in schools and kindergartens that St. Nikolaus visits the children and gives them chocolate, whereas the Krampus accompanies him to hit the naughty children with a rod (most schools have dropped the Krampus part, for obvious reasons; however, my dad told me how when he was in a Catholic boarding school for boys, the Krampuses actually really hit the children hard and mercilessly). The Krampus looks rather off-putting (to sugar-coat it) and has a distinct similarity to the Percht (see previous post), even though they are completely different. He usually is dressed in red and black or white and has a terrible mask with glowing eyes, a long tongue and horns (in Austria, we like our children traumatised). In Austria, on the fifth, you shouldn't leave your house when you don't want your legs smacked with a rod because Krampuses are running around, frightening people - even though, the tradition of Krampuses has considerably diminished and they don't play a massively big part anymore these days. In my family, we have always celebrated on the sixth. We got our St. Nikolaus bags in the morning and then, at school, we would travel to St. Nick's times with our school-owned time machine (which were actually just tables with a large cloth spread over it and my mum using an African drum-like instrument to set the mood. Arrived in St. Nikolaus's land, we met the real St. Nick (which was my dad), and he told us the story of St. Nikolaus and distributed sweets and when we went home, each child found a small St. Nikolaus in one of their boots. I really like St. Nikolaus and pity the countries which do not celebrate it because it means more sweets and gifts and excitement and is a great milestone on the long way to Christmas. Before we delve into the whole St. Nikolaus business, let's talk about the advent wreath.
As far as I know, this is a tradition celebrated mainly in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and it started yesterday, so let me introduce it to you. Fir tree wreaths are a common sight around Christmas, but in Britain and America, they are usually hung at the door, embellished with bells or ribbons. However, in Austria, we have four candles on them, each one for one of the advent Sundays leading up to Christmas. Traditional wreaths have mostly golden or red bows and candles on them, but you will find a wide variety of wreaths now, including stone or glass wreaths (which are terrible, but some people prefer the dead to the living, I guess). In the first picture above you can behold my beautiful one for this year, hand-made by my mother and truly festive, emanating this wonderful Christmassy scent and I have also included some others, so you can see how diverse they are and might get inspired for your own one next year... Historically, the advent wreath stems from the 19th century in which the Lutheran theologian Johann Hinrich Wichern introduced the wreath with initially 20 candles to shorten the time to Christmas for the children and have a sort of countdown to Christmas - which is now mainly covered by the advent calendars. Wichern looked after very poor children, who constantly asked when Christmas would be (hasn't changed that much, has it?) and they lit a candle every Sunday closer to Christmas. The wreath with only four candles evolved over time (presumably because it was simply easier and cheaper) and soon the Catholic church joined in with the tradition, even though the first four-candle-wreath was only hung in 1925 in a Catholic church. Austrians are so obsessed with their Christmas advent wreaths, they actually have a poem going with it, which goes as follows: Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt. Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier, Dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür. Which translates loosely to: Advent, Advent, a light to present, First one, then two, then three, then four, Then Christchild is in front of your door. Christchild, by the way, is our Santa Claus, but I will elaborate on this topic with a funny story later this advent and hope you will stay tuned. Today I drove to Linz in Upper Austria to visit the Christmas markets with my sisters, mother and two other family members. It has become kind of a tradition to meet up with them for going to the Christmas market each year and with my great-cousin having had a baby nearly two years ago, we travelled to Linz where she lives to make it all easier for her.
Linz is a really nice and cosy city, offering anything one needs with an alternative and hip flair. We first drove out to the Traun castle in whose court was one of the markets. It was a really nice little market, even though you had to pay entrance. There were some stands scattered around the court with illuminated trees and ornaments on the roof finishing off the Christmassy atmosphere. We strolled through the stands, drinking disgusting punch and Glue Vine (it really was disgusting) and then headed into the castle, where more stands awaited us. Lovely goods from hand-made candles to bags to wooden carved pieces were on offer; however, there was one stand that I thought was particularly interesting. We approached it and creepily real dolls were strayed all over the stand, some lying in cribs, others on cushions. Some had their eyes closed, some looked at you, which was even creepier. We all know, dolls are creepy and only weird people collect them beyond the age of ten (I'm sorry, but it's true); however, I reckon we have all come to terms with these horrible horror movies dolls with curls and huge, blue eyes, but this was a completely new level of freaky. The dolls looked entirely like real babies (see pictures), but it was explicitly stating that they were no toys and cost between 300 and 500 Euros! This made me think. You wouldn't buy it for a child, nor play with it, so you would end up having a real life baby lying in your house, but it wouldn't be real. This is entirely freaked out, if you ask me as the only scenario coming into mind would be a person who buys a real-looking doll and pretends it is a real child, and that person has SERIOUS issues and should rather spend the money on a psychiatrist. Moving on, ensuing, we drove back to the city of Linz and visited the Christmas market in the Volksgarten, which was an entirely different idea of a market. While the Traun market had been idyllic, traditional and quiet, the other one was a mixture of a fun fair, a Christmas market and a southern market as you would find in Italy or India, for instance. The best thing about market two was the food. Generally, food is the most important thing about a Christmas market and the Innsbruck market offers a fantastic range of food including crepes to Kiachl (a kind of doughnut thing), to hot dogs, potato curls or chocolate coated fruit. The second one in Linz had a wonderful range, similar to the above given. However, it was freezing cold, colder than you can imagine and I was slightly pissed off because I was wearing my brand-new Jack Wolfskin winter shoes which were promised to keep warm to up to minus 10 degrees. We had just zero degrees and my feet were freezing after only two hours, 130 Euros down the drain. Regarding an experience we had on the first market, I would also like tell you about an Austrian tradition, which is called "Perchten". Perchten are hideous-looking creatures which look like monsters and have cowbells attached to their furry costumes (for, usually, a human hides underneath the costume) and they are associated with fate and the souls of the dead and with sweeping out the bad energies and bringing in good ones. The male Percht is often depicted as the devil and the "schiachest" (uglies) and the female Perchta as the "schianschte" (the most beautiful). The Perchten surface during the midwinter time and the processions are usually held in early December or late November. Sadly, over the years, Perchten processions have been used by complete morons to seize the opportunity to frighten people and slap them with their rods, which led to many cities banning the processions altogether. The procession we watched was really peaceful and quite entertaining, if not slightly frightening. Christmas markets are an essential part of the Christmas experience and I like both, the traditional calm ones and the flashy exciting ones - as long as the food is good. It's the first of December and, therefore, Christmas Season is officially on! I hope you all had a lovely first item in your advent calendars, may it be chocolate, tea, sex toys, Playmobil or what else you may find in an advent calendar these days.
With Christmas Season having commenced, I want to dedicate a daily post to a Christmas topic until the 25th and hope you will enjoy reading about it. Today, I want to write about advent calendars because we all could open the first door today and I guess it was as exciting for you as it was for me. I love anything to do with Christmas and advent calendars are no exception, of course, but, as already mentioned above, there is a myriad of possibilities to choose from and I could imagine parents getting a panic attack when it comes to choose one for their child these days, but I will tell you about my extensive knowledge regarding advent calendars, which ones to choose and which ones not and how to increase the joy of them. I remember that as a child, I always had these nostalgic advent calendars with sparkly pictures of a Christmas scene where, behind the doors, you would only find a picture of a fat angel or a reindeer. I cannot recall I was ever unhappy with these, but, honestly, they are kind of bullshit and if you are not gifting your great-grandmother, I would strongly advise against getting one of these for anyone you know - especially not children. They might pretend to like them (if you've trained them well enough), but they will envy every child with a proper calendar. Now, what is a proper calendar? Chocolate always works, in my humble opinion; however, there is a wide range of chocolate calendars to choose from. I have had Milka, Lindt, Kinder and Smartie calendars and my favourite has always been, and is up to this day, the Kinder advent calendars. I, personally, LOVE Kinder chocolate and especially the Mini Kinder calendars only provide one tiny piece of chocolate per day, so you don't start your day with a stomach ache (still, I prefer the big ones with the Ü-Eier in them). My man and I also started such a calendar in the past years and we bought little gift bags at IKEA for the occasion, but Depot also have great little bags for such a purpose, or, if the gifts are a little bigger, you can also get twenty-four little stockings (see picture) and hang them up to create a prolonged feeling of Christmas gifting. I don't really know when we switched to chocolate calendars, but I know I was pretty happy when we did so. In the beginning, we had the ones with a flat, tiny piece of chocolate, but our calendars grew in breadth and width over the years and it all culminated in a family advent calendar where each one had to buy a sweet or a little gift for one family member (we are five, so it works out nicely until the 25th) and you could open once in a couple of days, but you got bigger and nicer things (like snow globes and cuddly socks). If I ever have children, I will do it the same way because it means you are not only gifted, but also gift someone else and is a specifically joyous moment shared between a family. For a while, we were all really keen on Playmobil advent calendars and I guess they are available for pretty much any bigger toy brand (though I must admit a Barbie calendar must be HUGE). We liked having Playmobil calendars up into our twenties (and occasionally we still get them today) because usually you end up with a Playmobil manger in the end, which is much cooler than a stomach full of chocolate and a pound gained in weight. I think about getting one every year, but normally decide to go with a normal Kinder one in the end because there are so many teeny weeny parts with Playmobil which I usually lose before the manger is even assembled. There was another calendar which piqued my interest very much this year and that was a tea calendar. You get one tea bag of a different flavour each day and can drink it as your morning tea, which sounds utterly wonderful. However, as I am a hardcore black tea drinker in the morning, I ultimately decided I could only have such a calendar if it was only various flavours of black tea - so probably next year. Then there are the kinky ones like the one from Amorelie.at - a sex toy online shop. They have a calendar surprising you every morning with a sex toy, but as the morning is the last time I think of sexual activities, this one wouldn't really be for me, but, hey, maybe next year when my man and I decide it's time to spice up the Christmas time with something other than spiced wine. See, this is the most wonderful thing about advent calendars, you get to choose annually and can try out everything you want, so indulge in your first of December treat (or hopefully you already have) and keep updated with the latest Christmas updates on Floating the Boat. |
Angie
Writer. Editor. Blogger. YouTuber. Freelancer. Traveller. English fanatic. Archives
October 2023
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