Happy St. Nicholas' Day! In some traditions, this is my Name Day, so it's a special day for me.
Today there are two "stories": a poem and a non-fiction picture book. The poem is Jest 'Fore Christmas by the Children's Poet, Eugene Field. Field lived only from 1850 to 1895, and left a wife and eight children. Fortunately for them, as soon as he married he had arranged for all he earned to be sent to his wife, because he believed he had no head for money. You may know some of his other poems, such as Wynken, Blinken and Nod, and The Duel (The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat).
The book I chose was Christmas on an Island by Gail Gibbons. I got this book from the library, and for some odd reason there are no images of the cover available on the Internet. So to liven up the page I found this lovely picture (and craft idea for the crafty among you) called Sea Angel, posted on Flickr by someone who goes by the handle Monheganmoments. Check out this person's photos, s/he has some other wonderful ornaments made from seaside finds.
Of course the song for St. Nicholas' Day is Jolly Old St. Nicholas. I wasn't able to find out much about this song other than that it was "often credited to Wilf Carter". Wilf Carter was a Canadian country singer also known as Montana Slim, although he was born in Nova Scotia. He was famous for his yodeling, although there's none in this song. At the time, the only recording I had of this well-known song was an instrumental by the Mouldy Figs, a Minnesota-based old-time jazz band. It comes from their album Have Yourself a Mouldy Little X-mas and has a fine, raucous, good-times sound. 
1 comment:
I love Gail Gibbons, but I can't remember having seen that book. I'll have to look for it.
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