Almost Winter, Almost Christmas
Of Christmas Cards and Bees
Christmas Preparations
This is not a how-to guide with helpful tips on getting everything done, with downloadable Advent calendars whose doors open to reveal a time-saving task each day (December 15: Make cookie dough & freeze it. This way your family won’t eat all the cookies today & you’ll maybe remember it in time for Easter.) There are talented people who create lovely resources to help you prepare for the holidays, and chances are I have given them my money over the years, to mixed results on my end. If you are in search of organization and timeliness, look elsewhere. You do not want life hacks from someone who wraps all the gifts in the wee hours of Christmas morning. (Not a humble brag. Those hours are full of self-reproach and lots of Irish coffee.) Let’s just say I’m more of a dreamer than a doer for these big holidays.
While I have not been decorating the house nor putting up the Christmas tree as yet, I have been going down rabbit holes on the history of some of our most beloved Christmas traditions. If you enjoy esoteric facts to throw into conversation at your next family get-together, and have the strength to suffer the ensuing eyerolls, then you’re in the right place. I got your back, friends.
Christmas Cards
If you know us in non-internet life, and have not received a Christmas card from us since 2015 (probably?), rest assured that you are still on a list somewhere. I think Christmas cards are a lovely tradition, one I kept up quite faithfully for years in fact. I’m thrilled to receive holiday cards in the mail, and admire those of you who send them. I’m the first to bemoan the lost art of letter writing, in between scrolling Instagram and neglecting to answer e-mail.
Why are Christmas cards a tradition in the first place? They began as a less time-consuming way to send Season’s Greetings than the handwritten annual Christmas letter, which itself had exploded in popularity with the creation of postal stamps. The idea has been attributed to Sir Henry Cole, who in 1843 ordered 1000 cards from a London printer. (Am I the only one who thinks it was perhaps Dame Cole who came up with the idea? She who was developing carpal tunnel by writing all those letters?) Demonstrating the universal truth that people will always find something to criticize, the illustration was attacked for encouraging underage drinking (I guess they missed the background images of charity). Other than that, the public loved the idea, and Christmas cards became the new tradition (to the great relief of Mrs. Cole).
The Christmas card didn’t take off in the U.S. until 1875, and started with a minimalist approach: a bright painting of a flower and the words “Merry Christmas.” Mass production of cards didn’t start here until 1915, when they took their recognizable form as 4 x 6 inch folded cards with envelopes. The same business, run by the 3 Hall brothers, started printing gift wrap 2 years later.1 The company was eventually renamed “Hallmark.” Over the years, Hallmark held competitions for card designs and contracted with well-known public figures to create artwork. Within these illustrious ranks were Norman Rockwell (1948-57), Jacqueline Kennedy (1962, which quickly sold out), and Salvador Dalí (1947-60).2 Guess whose were the most controversial?
Only a few of his designs were pulled from shelves in response to consumer outcry. Dalí’s artwork went on to grace American mailboxes and mantelpieces with such delights as Christmas Tree of Butterflies (1959).3 None of his designs are sacrilegious, despite the pearl-clutching; Dalí was a convert to Catholicism and brought his own style to a sea of sentimentality in the card aisle. Make Christianity weird again, I say.
Santa Lucia Day
St. Lucy’s feast day is December 13, which was the date of the winter solstice under the Julian calendar. I wrote more about it here. We’re nearing the darkest day of the year, but then the light will return. Here are this year’s photos:
Bee Sighting
A few days after our first snowfall, there was a warm, windless Sunday thaw with direct sunlight on the hives. It was near 50℉ and there were bees flying out from 4 of the 5 hives (and I heard buzzing in the 5th). They didn’t fly far, just enough to do their cleansing flights. Bees won’t poop inside the hive, and they rarely leave their huddle during the cold months, so a warm day is a literal relief for them. They also take the opportunity on those days to remove their dead. So a bunch of dead bees outside a hive after a thaw is a positive sign of life within. As the sun dropped low, the bees returned to the safety of the hives, to their winter cluster near the honey stores.
The whole hive knows they will survive only if they shiver together. Some of them in the shivering cluster will die of old age. Had they hatched in the flowering season, their labor for the hive’s survival—harvesting nectar and pollen from as many as two thousand flowers a day—would have killed them in four weeks or less… But hatched on the cusp of winter they may live six months. They will know only the dark hive, the press of their sisters’ bodies. They will never fly, never fall into a flower.
—Gayle Boss, All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings4
Next time: the history of Christmas carols & holiday candies🤓
How does mid-December find you? Are you decorating or preparing food for the holidays? Do you send Christmas cards? If you’re planning to send out 1,000 like the Coles, might I suggest a social media post instead? And happy 249th birthday to Miss Jane Austen on December 16th!
—Erin, in Michigan
Our favorite Advent book, with vignettes about the natural world and woodcut illustrations You can purchase it here through our affiliate link: https://bookshop.org/a/82081/9781612617855 We earn a small commission from your purchase, at no additional cost to you.
I was chipping away at Christmas cards today, which reminded me to come back around to your post again! My interest is SO PIQUED about the history of Hallmark, thanks to you - I had no idea Dali did a design?! Incredible.
A friend gifted me "All Creation Waits" this Advent (not sure how I didn't own that one yet, haha!), and the bit about the bees is so poignant. Thanks for your beautiful reflections.
Erin, thank you for your post! It could (partially, anyway) have been written by me: the Christmas cards, the wrapping of gifts in the wee hours. This year I kind of have it together, as far as gifts go ... and possible Christmas cards/newsletters. We'll see what comes together when all is said and done. The one lovely thing about returning to my Catholic faith, is that Christmastide can last 40 days. So, my usual tardiness is no longer tardy :).