So, this week we’ve chatted about holiday food, music, gifts, and traditions. Hopefully we’ve put you in the holiday spirit, and set the mood for reading Mistletoe Kisses. 🙂 I love hearing about everyone’s holiday memories and plans, and I hope to incorporate some of what I’ve learned into my own celebrations this year. (While hopefully managing to avoid the mall!)

Historical holidays may have seemed a bit more low-key and drab compared to modern ones. No lights (twinkling or otherwise!), little tinsel, no big-ticket items left by Santa. But they certainly had their own fun ways of celebrating, and one of those great traditions was Twelfth Night (or What You Will, to quote Mr. Shakespeare. Love that play…)

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel a bit let-down when January 2 comes around and life is supposed to go back to workday normal. (My birthday is also in January, which kept the excitement–and cake-eating–going when I was a kid, but now that I’m getting older it just makes me depressed!). Our ancestors may have had the right idea when they celebrated twelve day of Christmas, culminating in the fun of Twelfth Night.

It all evolved from the Roman Saturnalia festival marking the onset of the winter solstice, the time when the sun, having reached its lowest, darkest point, begins to rise again toward longer, warmer days (yay!!). It was a time of feasting, parties, and public festivals that the Church co-opted in the fourth century, using the winter solstice as the “official” day of Christ’s birth (Dec. 25). By the time of the Renaissance, Christmas Day opened an annual twelve day festival of celebration. (The word “Yuletide” actually means the period between December 25 and January 6). Large bonfires were set in village centers, and on Christmas Eve each family set a ceremonial Yule log in their own hearths. January 6, Twelfth Night itself, was a final frenzy of eating, drinking, and dancing before facing the rest of the long winter.

One of the traditions of Twelfth Night was a cake–an ornate confection into which a trinket, like a bean, a coin, or a little metal Baby Jesus, would be hidden. The guest who found the item would become king or queen of Twelfth Night. (One funny facotid I read said that by the 18th century slips of paper were often substituted for the trinket, so that inebriated guests wouldn’t choke on Baby Jesus). Martha Washington had a recipe for this cake that used 40 eggs, 4 pounds of sugar, and 5 pounds of dried fruit. I think it’s on the Mt. Vernon website if you’d like to give it a go. It would be great with Cara’s Christmas pie. 🙂 This was often washed down with wassail (an ale-based drink with spices and honey) or a drink called “Lambs Wool” (cider or ale, sugar, spices, and roasted apples). No wonder they choked on the hidden bean.

Twelfth Night also involved masked dancers (‘Mummers’) who cavorted through the streets and visited houses uninvited to wreal havoc and beg for drinks and treats. Other common Yuletide activities were horse racing, fox hunting, cock fighting, card playing, games like blindman’s bluff and nine-pins, and entertainments like mock sword fights (or maybe real, after dipping into all that Lambs Wool), jesters, acrobats, plays and singing. Twelfth Night was also the time to extinguish the Yule log, saving some of the charred remains to use for kindling next year’s log.

This sounded like fun to me! I’d like to use the cake, the Yule log, and the plays in my own holiday, while skipping the cock fights and fox hunting. And the choking.

We’ve talked about so many aspects of the holidays this week, it seems there isn’t much left to say! But since today is the last chance to win a opy of Mistletoe Kisses, tell us what your very favorute–and very least favorite–aspects of the holiday are. (My faves–music and food. Least–holday traffic. Why do people get so crazy on the road at this time of year? I coudl do without Tickle Me Elmos, too). Are there any historical traditions you’d like to use in your celebrations?

Have a great Thanksgiving next week! We will have a treat for you here starting Friday, an interview with bset-selling author Eloisa James. And thanks for stopping by our RR “salon” to help us get the holidays started.

All this week, the Riskies have been talking about the upcoming holiday season: How to deal with it, what they like about it, what they don’t like about it (Janet is our resident Scrooge, it seems, but she does enjoy a good concert).

On Monday, Diane brought up traditions, and I’d like to do the same. I grew up in an unconventional household (albeit with the requisite mother and father, no siblings), and our Christmases were . . . odd. Instead of traditional Christmas ornaments, my mother decorated our tree with seashells and porcupine fish she’d spraypainted gold and silver and decorated with rhinestones. We wrapped our gifts in newspaper and magazines, not wrapping paper, and our notes always had a stealthily-embedded clue as to what the gift was inside (my mother, however, was frequently Master of the Obvious, addressing presents of socks to me as “To Megan, From her feet.”)

I didn’t know any different, so when my boyfriend (now husband) started dating, I did what I’d always done at Christmas: Decorate my tree with random fun items, wrap in paper, write silly notes. I thought everybody did that.

Apparently not. My husband’s family is EXTRA-traditional when it comes to Christmas, which means the ornaments are perfect, the wrapping paper is Hallmark and there are no funny edges where the paper didn’t quite meet, and the notes are addressed “To Megan, Love Scott.”

In case you couldn’t tell, I do miss the funkier Christmas of my youth, but I’ve grown to love my in-laws’ traditional celebration (especially the HANDMADE DONUTS ON CHRISTMAS EVE!). When my son gets a little older, though, I’m going to get some seashells and start writing some sly notes on his gifts.

Do you have any idiosyncratic holiday celebrations? How do you feel about trying to introduce new traditions to your family? And can you believe THANKSGIVING IS NEXT WEEK?!?

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

Aaargh! It’s almost upon us, roughly slouching…

But while I am trying to ignore the Christmas Beast, at this time of year there’s one very important thing to do in preparation for the holidays and that’s to book tickets to a Christmas performance. I know we’ll all be playing our favorite Christmas CDs (or listening to the BBC’s live satellite broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols) but I urge you to get out to a real, live performance. (And by the way, the performing arts enhance the economic and social wellbeing of the community, do all sorts of good things for kids and adults, and live performance does something for you that DVDs or CDs can’t. Check out this list of reports from the Cultural Alliance of Washington, D.C. You’ll need to scroll down to Reports and Studies. Some are local, some national. And it costs about the same as a ballgame, sometimes less, to go to the opera or ballet.)

Check out what’s going on in your area. If you’re interested in traditional music and folklore, you might want to catch a performance by the Christmas Revels.

Or how about the Nutcracker? Gorgeous music and costumes, wonderful dancing, and an erectile Christmas tree!

My favorite Christmas music is Handel’s Messiah and I have fond memories of performances in England with a thumping big local choir and imported soloists (preferably with a Welsh bass). One of my most memorable Messiahs was performed in York Minster. It was freezing cold–literally. I don’t know how the orchestra kept their instruments tuned. The entire audience wore coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. The conductor announced extra cuts that would be made so we didn’t freeze to death, and at intermission we all shot out to the pub for something to keep us warm (ginger wine for me, thanks). But it was a fabulous performance in a breathtakingly beautiful setting, a memory I’ll treasure all my life.

The Messiah has been performed continuously ever since its Dublin premiere in 1742, although it was associated earlier on with Easter more than Christmas. George II started the tradition of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus. Here’s some more to read about the Messiah.

Do you have a holiday tradition that involves attending, or taking part in a live performance? Have you sung in a chorus, or danced in the Nutcracker, or been a ballet mom? What music do you like to listen to over the holidays?

Janet

Like Diane, I feel a bit torn about doing a holiday theme this week. But it isn’t really too early to think about holiday gift-giving. Or about snagging a Christmas anthology for oneself for that matter. 🙂

My goal every year is to lower stress, increase joy.

One way my family has de-stressed Christmas is by making a mutual agreement NOT to exchange presents with extended family members. When we get together Christmas morning at my parents’ house, these are the rules. Every adult gets something from his or her spouse; every child from his/her parents; the grandparents can do what they want for grandchildren (they would anyway).

It’s easy on time and budget and best of all, a radical strike against the nauseating commercialism imposed on our culture during the holidays under a false guise of increasing family closeness.

Still… there are some things I want for Christmas, of which I’ve duly informed my personal Santa (he happens to be Jewish but does a great job in the role anyway).

This year, I’d love a copy of the 10th anniversary limited edition DVD of Pride & Prejudice, with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. As an alternate (I always have to give Santa choices) I would happily take a DVD of Persuasion, with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds.

The Research Nerd in me would like Life in Wellington’s Army, by Antony Brett-James and/or Wellington’s Rifles, by Mark Urban, among others. Sharpe videos are always a good idea, though Santa always wonders why I find them so intriguing. Santa does not share my passion for . . . um, history.

I’ve also informed Santa of the gaps in my collections of Laura Kinsale, Loretta Chase and Judith Ivory. I’m giving a copy of Julia Ross’s latest release, Clandestine, to my best friend and asking for one myself (will pick it up after Christmas if need be). I’d also like to try something by Anne Stuart. I have met her at conferences and enjoyed her warmth and humor and it’s positively a sin that I haven’t read one of her books yet.

Gourmet coffee, chocolate, candles, and artsy earrings always work for me, too.

Now for my dream wish list item: a Pause Button to make everything stop for a while so I can catch up. On manuscripts, house projects, my TBR list. Maybe I’d even take some time to paint my toenails…

So, for another chance at one of those 3 autographed copies of MISTLETOE KISSES, let us know any or all of the following:

What is your holiday shopping strategy? Any tips for stress reduction? What’s on your wish list? What’s your dream gift?

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice, Best Regency Romance of 2005
www.elenagreene.com