God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen - Annie Moses Band

A jazzy rendition of the song. A version appears on their recent Christmas cd, also featuring a dvd, both of which feature a better sound mix. This is a practically the same arrangement, however. The violin - viola trade-off toward the end of the song is amazing.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

I was checking out different choral performances of Christmas hymns on Youtube when I ran across this. Quite a different take on the hymn, but pretty cool nonetheless.

The Manger and the Cross

How proper it is that Christmas should follow Advent. For him who looks toward the future, the manger is situated on Golgotha, and the cross has already been raised in Bethlehem.

-- Dag Hammarskjold

The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha (where he was crucified) even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.

-- John Donne

Eleven

Her growing stomach struck me as grotesque.
Some other seed than mine engendered this:
Some stolen love, some alien, wretched bliss
Raped all integrity, all trust suppressed.
To consummate my pledge, by honor pressed,
Would violate that honor, transform kiss
To custom, love to duty, prove remiss
In truth, and make of joy a jest.
Exhausted by despair's fatigue, I slept
The torment of the God-forsaken dead.
I tossed and turned, or when I woke, I wept,
Until an angel stilled my fears, and said:
"Abandon doubt, and take this quiet boast:
The child she bears is by the Holy Ghost."

-- D. A. Carson, Sonnet Eleven, Holy Sonnets of the Twentieth Century

There are three types of people in the world...

...those who can count, and those who can't.

American Multiculturalism At Its Finest

My Greek Orthodox neighbors have a Moravian star over their front stoop.

Porky Pig sings Blue Christmas

We were listening to Christmas music on the radio today at work and I was reminded of the following. They used to play it on the top 40 radio stations around here when I was a teenager. It had me in stitches every time I heard it back then, so I Googled it and found the following on Youtube. I like the montage this person did, especially the appearance of the blue kazoo at the beginning of the kazoo solo.