Monday, December 8, 2025
Sunday, December 7, 2025
O, Tannenbaum 2025
I love winter and the tradition of the decorated and lighted tree. When I was a little boy, it always felt so connected to the time of the year, the elements, the snow and darkness. Even then, I sensed the pagan roots of this tradition and now that I am an adult, I love it even more.
Descended from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and from Pagans and Druids from all over Europe, the tree is an expression of the season: deciduous trees, plants, flowers, and crops die off (or go dormant) while the pine remains magically alive, the only thing that stays green in the natural world (the Latin word sempervirent = evergreen) at this time of year. It only makes sense to honor the earth, the season, and the fir itself by bringing it inside to decorate and echo the look of the land.
This is the time of the Winter Solstice, short grey days and long dark nights, where twinkling stars are visible for so much longer. As an homage to the winter sky, lights are put on the tree, again echoing the natural world. It’s also reminiscent of the bonfires many different pagan cultures lit around the countryside to ward off the darkness and chill; lights on the tree bring some light and warmth to this lifeless time of year, and speak to a time when the days will eventually grow longer, the planet will again tilt, and summer will return.
I hope you get to enjoy a seasonal tree of your own this winter.
Happy Holidays!
JEF
Descended from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and from Pagans and Druids from all over Europe, the tree is an expression of the season: deciduous trees, plants, flowers, and crops die off (or go dormant) while the pine remains magically alive, the only thing that stays green in the natural world (the Latin word sempervirent = evergreen) at this time of year. It only makes sense to honor the earth, the season, and the fir itself by bringing it inside to decorate and echo the look of the land.
This is the time of the Winter Solstice, short grey days and long dark nights, where twinkling stars are visible for so much longer. As an homage to the winter sky, lights are put on the tree, again echoing the natural world. It’s also reminiscent of the bonfires many different pagan cultures lit around the countryside to ward off the darkness and chill; lights on the tree bring some light and warmth to this lifeless time of year, and speak to a time when the days will eventually grow longer, the planet will again tilt, and summer will return.
I hope you get to enjoy a seasonal tree of your own this winter.
Happy Holidays!
JEF
Saturday, December 6, 2025
Friday, December 5, 2025
BEAUTY: Painting For Winter--Chris Long
For winter, here are the exquisite snow scenes of artist Chris Long...I love how he uses many colors to capture the sense of snow. Gorgeous...
Top to bottom: Clear and Cold, 4PM; Cold Sunset; From Afar; Snow, 1AM; Midnight; Southern Colorado #36; Sunrise Near Stowe, VT #4; Winter Backyard Oaks III
https://www.chrislongpainter.com/
Top to bottom: Clear and Cold, 4PM; Cold Sunset; From Afar; Snow, 1AM; Midnight; Southern Colorado #36; Sunrise Near Stowe, VT #4; Winter Backyard Oaks III
https://www.chrislongpainter.com/
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Happy National Cookie Day 2025!
Today is National Cookie Day! It is no coincidence that it falls in December, just in time for holiday cookies!
My first clear memory of winter is connected to our house on West Main Street, in a picturesque village on the Oatka Creek in upstate New York. My mother hung wreaths of red, crinkled cellophane with a single tiny red bulb in the front windows. We had a fireplace and my mother and father helped me make a long chain of loops cut from colored construction paper to hang from the mantle. Mom made her Christmas butter cookies and I associate their warm, safe smell and luscious, enveloping taste exclusively with Christmas. We mixed white frosting with food coloring to make red and green and I got to frost a few cookies, and then sprinkle on the multi-colored decorations. I ate several before bed each night with a glass of milk and it was heaven. And of course, Santa had to have some on Christmas Eve so my mom and I would leave a little plate for him—and a carrot for the reindeer.
Mom’s Christmas Butter Cookies
Sift together three cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder and half of a teaspoon of salt. Then cream together one cup of butter and three quarters of a cup of sugar; stir in one unbeaten egg, two tablespoons of milk and one and a half teaspoons of fine vanilla extract and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a third at a time. Chill the dough for one hour. Roll the dough onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Roll to one-eighth of an inch thickness. Cut with holiday cookie cutters and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them five to eight minutes at 350*, watching carefully. Frost and decorate. Enjoy.
My first clear memory of winter is connected to our house on West Main Street, in a picturesque village on the Oatka Creek in upstate New York. My mother hung wreaths of red, crinkled cellophane with a single tiny red bulb in the front windows. We had a fireplace and my mother and father helped me make a long chain of loops cut from colored construction paper to hang from the mantle. Mom made her Christmas butter cookies and I associate their warm, safe smell and luscious, enveloping taste exclusively with Christmas. We mixed white frosting with food coloring to make red and green and I got to frost a few cookies, and then sprinkle on the multi-colored decorations. I ate several before bed each night with a glass of milk and it was heaven. And of course, Santa had to have some on Christmas Eve so my mom and I would leave a little plate for him—and a carrot for the reindeer.
Mom’s Christmas Butter Cookies
Sift together three cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder and half of a teaspoon of salt. Then cream together one cup of butter and three quarters of a cup of sugar; stir in one unbeaten egg, two tablespoons of milk and one and a half teaspoons of fine vanilla extract and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a third at a time. Chill the dough for one hour. Roll the dough onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Roll to one-eighth of an inch thickness. Cut with holiday cookie cutters and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them five to eight minutes at 350*, watching carefully. Frost and decorate. Enjoy.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House 2025
Once again, the magical Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House in
London will be open for tours this holiday season!
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
If you live in London or will be there during the holidays, you have a chance
to see the Christmas Installation in person through the 11th of January 2026.
Admission times sell out quickly. Check the website for more
details.
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