I want a hippopotamus for Christmas is one of those quirky songs that is both sweet and hilarious. I’ve gone for the ‘original’ version with a twist. Make sure you watch to the end. Gayla Peevie sings as a ten year old and then again, today, in her seventies. I am reminded of this song whenever I see advertisements asking me to adopt an animal and can’t help wondering how the postman (or Santa) would feel about delivering a snow leopard or a whale… Or for that matter what the neighbours would say!
Today’s picture is a somewhat recoloured picture of a toad or frog (I can’t remember what biologist daughter said) which arrived in our garden. Needless to say, the original was not wearing a hat.
The Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky is a traditional Christmas entertainment. I love all the music but instead of the Overture or the possibly more popular Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (which admittedly evokes thoughts of the fairy on the Christmas tree) I thought I’d go for the Dance of the Mirlitons. The tune was hijacked by a chocolate advertisement some years ago and given new words including ‘everyone’s a fruit and nut case’ and referring obliquely to the sweets found in Christmas stockings. I always find these words running through my head when I hear the tune even though I’ve never been keen on the chocolate being advertised! There are various explanations of the term ‘mirliton’ but most agree on shepherds and all reference flutes so I chose a lovely rendering by an American flute quartet.
In other news we now have our fairy lights on all over the place. The picture has no conceivable connection to the music – it’s just a winter icon by roxicons. It’s frosty here but there’s no snow yet.
Last year Charlie Cochrane treated us to her favourite Christmas music during Advent, on WordPress, Dreamwidth and Facebook. I enjoyed the posts so much I wanted to do something similar. I’m intending to post every day in December with my favourite ‘winter’ music. I loved some of the carols Charlie posted but I’m trying not to have the same list though there might be an overlap here and there.
I start feeling festive after my husband’s birthday at the end of November. Then there’s the run-up to my daughter’s birthday which takes place at the Solstice. I find the Solstice a magical time for that reason as well as the significance of the shortest day etc. I celebrate Christmas as a kind of family/solstice/saturnalia type of festival then it’s a countdown to New Year. Coming from about as far north in England as you can get (the Northumbrian side of the Scottish border) I tend to take New Year quite seriously!
As I developed my list I became aware that it was extremely Eurocentric – there’s one Australian song, and a few American ones but that’s about it. I think, for me personally, the solstice is a time for looking at our forests and wild places, so while I normally like to be more inclusive, in this case I’m a native of the north. I’d love to see the choices of someone from another part of the world or even another part of UK.
Not all my choices are by any means religious though there are one or two carols. I hope there’ll be something for everybody to enjoy. I’ll collect the full list in a pdf on my website at some point so you can refer to it if you want any links again.
I usually listen on Spotify (apart from gazing at The 2 Cellos) but I’ve used YouTube links assuming most people can access that wherever they live. I’ve used illustrations for each post either from my own photographs or from icons by LJ/DW icon makers. Today’s picture is by roxicons.
Now taking a deep breath for tomorrow and remembering to post every day…
Jay's World 