Wishing you all a happy festive season from all at Skylark Galleries!
December 09, 2022
Nativity scene by Vivien Phelan
I'll start with a few funny or not so funny things that have happened to me or friends over Xmas.
In my first married home we had very little furniture but all the family came to me for our first Christmas. We had no side tables for the drinks. I had a full-time job refilling the aunts’ glasses with alcohol. I couldn’t believe they drank so much until…our puppy’s legs gave way from under him and we found we had a drunken dog (no ill effects. He just slept the whole rest of the day)
When I was about 5-6 years old, we had real candles on the real Christmas tree. Unfortunately, one of the candles I put on the tree was not quite straight and the tree caught fire!
Where have I spent Christmas? One year it was in A&E with my daughter, who had an extremely sore throat and had to have a boil lanced. Very nasty.
Another Christmas was spent in the Sahara Desert with a camel train passing by in the night, looking for all the world like a nativity scene with the stars in the sky.
Cooking disasters can happen in any home, but the funniest I have heard is about the lady who was making a blancmange desert but she didn’t notice that two recipe pages got stuck together. The result was chilli con carne with a fruit and cream topping!
You are most welcome to tell us about your funny disasters - or celebratory days I haven’t read about.
Festive celebrations in December are many. List here just a few:
6 December is a Christian celebration of St Nicholas, the most relevant to me as a child. He is the Patron Saint of school children, so we were allowed to bring one present to school on that day.
8 December is Bodhi Day - a Buddhist celebration It marks the Buddha’s decision to sit under the Bodhi tree until he reached enlightenment. This day is also celebrated as the immaculate conception in the Catholic religion.
10 December is Hanukkah in the Judaism religion and 8th day of the light festival.
16 December is an Hispanic/ Christian holiday celebrating Mary & Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. It is also a Wicca/Pagan holiday, the believers celebrate the winter-born king, symbolised by the rebirth of the sun.
26 December, is the day the death of the prophet Zarathustra is celebrated by one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, Zoroastrian.
28 December is another Christian celebration, Holy Innocent Day. This day is in honour of the children killed by King Herod, who attempted to kill Jesus.
31 December is Watch Night, when Christians thank God for the safety they have had in the year.
Whatever your beliefs or otherwise, we wish you at Skylark Galleries a very Happy Christmas. We hope our artworks bring you joy. Many contain the traditional colours of the season – gold, silver, greens and reds – and make the perfect seasonal gift.
