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
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
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.
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.
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.
Welcome to the 2025 Holiday Season! For (pretty much) the rest of this month, I will be featuring photos, information, and posts of the season. It's all about snow, cold, and lights. Enjoy!
And as usual here at "Oh, By The Way," we kick off the month with one of the sweetest holiday songs ever, the wistful "Christmas Time Is Here" by the inimitable Vince Guaraldi for the original soundtrack to the classic Peanuts television special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
Peanuts actors from a 1968 TV Guide article. L to R: Sally Dryer as Lucy, Gail DeFaria as Peppermint Patty, Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Christopher Shea as Linus, and animator Bill Melendez as Snoopy
Micro to macro...but in between--
reaching out for that hand to hold--
reaching out for the star--
"On Being" by Max Cooper & Felix Gerbelot.
Max Cooper says: "I asked the public "what do you want to express that you feel you can't in everyday life?".
I hadn't expected too much to come back, but when I had a look after some months I was floored by what people had been submitting.
This database of thoughts and feelings became the source of the "On Being" album, installations and website (onbeing.maxcooper.net). Most of the tracks on the album concern themselves with a single quote, but for one piece, I wanted to tackle the feeling of the whole collection. There's so many beautiful, scary, funny, sad, horrific, mundane and absurd expressions of our shared humanity in there, there's a very particular emotional impact of reading through the collection. It's very hard to put into words because of that range of emotions it contains, but somehow music is able to capture all of that in a way that language cannot. That's what the piece of music is about. It started from the sound of Felix Gerbelot's viola, and eventually became the title track of the album."
Once again, we find ourselves approaching a holiday season with darkness and destruction in the fabric of our nation. Such challenges make us look to what we have in our own lives, close to us, and cherish those people, things, and places even more. On this holiday of gratitude, let's give thanks for the things that make us good, strong, honorable, and loving human beings. Let's give thanks to the people who bring light and calm and love to our lives and to the world. Let's give thanks for the generous actions and goodwill in our lives--whether done by others or ourselves--that strengthen the fabric of humanism and the choices to unite, protect, and find value in this existence, and which can combat the turbulence, pain, uncertainty, and darkness. Hold dear these things and live up to these ideals for which we are grateful. Let's find value in ourselves and others, and express this gratitude in our intentions, deeds, and words. Let's be grateful for the value of the human experience, love, and life itself.
As we eat our Thanksgiving meal, let us thank not an imaginary figure in the sky but those who are TRULY responsible--migratory agricultural workers--for helping to bring our food to our tables, through their numbingly long days of low-wage, backbreaking work.
I can assure you that Lil' Yachty is normally nowhere to be found in my music collection, but wow, this song created during his psychedelic-rock period is amazing. "The Paradigm" was heard over the closing credits of the film "Leave The World Behind."
Meet me at the bridge past nine
Turn off our phones if you need some downtime
Kick off your shoes and unwind
Relax your brain as you enter the paradigm
You are not dealin' with the typical
One of a kind
Super individual
I see the light
Forget about bills, ridin' them hills, dippin' in cheap thrills
Love in the mill, posin' for stills, poppin' them pills (ooh)
Doublin' down, devil's in town, it's tricklin' down
Ah
I am also loving this track "the BLACK seminole." from his release "Let's Start Here."
Sex symbol, the Black Seminole
A sex symbol, the Black Seminole
African Rambo with more ammo
Can't be escaped, I'm on every channel
What's wrong? What's wrong, Mr. Man?
Your eyes are low
And you're walking with both hands on your head
His response, he's on a clean, clean high
Both feet up on the ground
But his head's way, way, way up in the sky
The Black Seminole, a head general
This deep connection, a large interval
A black man with mouths to feed
Embracing equality throughout greed
No time to joke around, the kid is now a man
And the sadness is filled with remarkable sounds
This part, I've seen in my dreams
Love is not a lie, it just feels like a Tarantino movie scene
Clever collage artist Forestter Cobalt uses vintage comic books for his materials, cutting them up and rearranging certain elements into abstract compositions. What I love is that he retains the iconic comic book panel format...
Top to bottom: After Hours; Black Friday/Free Pony; Catalog of Mishaps; The Colony; Folk Horror; Impractical jokes; Insensible; July; Pleasure; The Punchline; The Void; Whatsoever
"Oh, By The Way" is my digital scrap book of things I like, things I would share with a close friend and say: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/ clothing or interior designer/ model/ singer/ actor/ gorgeous man… or, have you seen this video/ photo/ film... or heard (or do you remember) this song/ band... or, read this book/ poem/ inspiring quote... or, visited this place/ museum/ restaurant/ famous building... or, have you heard of this amazing new scientific discovery?”
I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. Sometimes I post cultural as well as personal observations, milestones, and remembrances. And just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.
Some of the photos, art, poetry, and prose are my own original work, credited with my initials, JEF. When it isn't, I always try to post links to the original source material, but often I find photos on the web that are not linked or other material that is not sourced. In these instances, I post them without malice since it is assumed that such things, by being globally posted on something as uncontrollable as the internet to begin with, are in the public domain. If you identify the source of an image that is not linked, please politely let me know (without accusing me of theft) and I will be happy to provide a link. If you are the owner of an image and would prefer it be removed, I am happy to do that as well.
I hope to inspire and entertain my readers with things that inspire and entertain me. There is a startling amount of beauty and creativity in the world and it enriches us all to participate in it.
All-time Favorite Films
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
After Hours (Hysterical, hair-raising ride through NYC at night)
Amelie
American Beauty (Alan Ball)
Baraka (Stunning, transcending—the "spiritus mundi" on film)
Belle et Bete (Cocteau)
Big Sleep, The (The epitome of film noir)
Bringing Up Baby (Hepburn & Grant—the epitome of screwball comedy)
Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The (Greenaway)
Crash (Cronenberg—DIFFICULT subject, not for everyone)
Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg—ultimate modern gothic horror)
Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway)
Easy Rider
Edward II (Derek Jarman)
Erendira (From magic realist Marquez’ brilliant short story)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film)
Fearless (Jeff Bridges—life and death)
Funny Bones (Leslie Caron, Jerry Lewis, and the brilliant Lee Evans)
Holiday (Hepburn & Grant)
Howard’s End (The ultimate statement of the unfairness of class systems)
