Claus for celebration

Lights and turkeys and bells, oh my! Embrace the festive spirit with Amie Elizabeth White's A to Z of Christmas

- Amie Elizabeth White

A is for ADVENT. Early versions of the Advent calendar saw cupboard doors marked with chalk, God descending to earth on ladders (one rung per day) and Christmas clocks counting down, tick after tock. German publisher Gerhard Lang produced the first commercial Advent calendar in 1908, but it was our magazine’s Editor, Mark Hedges— and our then Art Editor, Phil Crewdson—who produced the greatest Advent calendar of all in 2007 and the most anticipated COUNTRY LIFE cover ever since.

B is for BELLS. From the ringing of bobtails to the resounding peal from church bells at Midnight Mass, a sense of magic lingers in every chime and echo. The jingling percussion accompanies many a Christmas song, but their guiding abilities go far beyond the music. In poor weather, bells would be attached to carriages to warn others and were used to guide horses through dark and blustery streets. Father Christmas’s sleigh bells were introduced in the 1700s in sketches of his horse-drawn transport.

C is for CHRIST CHILD, in whom Christmas began. He was born in a stable in Bethle hem, wrapped in cloth and laid in a lowly man- ger, yet the angels proclaimed him, shepherds adored him and Three Kings or Wise Men from the East followed a star that led to him. 

D is for DASHER, DANCER and DONNER, the three Ds of the original octet team of reindeer. In Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem