A Book of Christmas

[razzleccentric]

There is a book that I look at every Christmas Eve and have done for as long as I can remember. Before I could really read, I memorized every picture. The writing itself is a little overblown; I realize now that it's an almost anthropological study of Christmas customs. How my mother ended up with such a book I'll never know. But I still have it, crumbling dust cover and all, and I still read it on Christmas Eve when the real magic of the season is at its peak and the night is black and full of dangerous shadows that most people don't associate with Christmas... but I do, with much love.

"What is the colour of Christmas?
Red? The red of toyshops on a dark winter's afternoon, of Father Christmas and the robin's breast?
Or green? Green of holly and spruce and mistletoe in the house, dark shadow of summer in leafless winter?
One might plainly add a romance of white, fields of frost and snow; thus white, green, red - reducing the event to the level of a Chianti bottle.
But many will say that the significant colour is gold, gold of fire and treasure, of light in the winter dark; and this gets closer.
For the true colour of Christmas is black.
Black of winter, black of night, black of frost and of the east wind, black of dangerous shadows beyond the firelight."

- from "A Book of Christmas" by William Sansom, 1968

Comments

For the true colour of Christmas is black.

[bluestocking7.livejournal.com]

That's so cool! Especially that you still have it and read it.

I realized this year that the books I read every Christmas are so religious, but that doesn't usually bother me. ("Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and "The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas".) I wonder why I am so fervently anti-organized religion all year, and then I toss that aside at Christmas?

[folkchick3.livejournal.com]

I love that you still have that book and read it every year...

I think you might like the story I am hoping to finish today... it's a Christmas time slip story with lots of dark shadows in.

[folkchick3.livejournal.com]

Heres a tiny, dark Christmas piece by Neil Gaiman...it's all sorts of shivery, and Brrr.... you might like it!

http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Smoke+%2526+Mirrors/in/197/

[brock-fn-samson.livejournal.com]

I don't have a Christmas book, but it doesn't quite feel like Christmas if I don't hear Happy Xmas (War Is Over) at some point (usually driving home from seeing the fambly on Christmas Eve).

Just realized I didn't hear it this year, which may explain the funk I've been in for the last couple of days.