It takes a village...

...to make a village. This village scene took shape last night only because I had help! Many thanks to the omnicompetent Joe Horner and his highly talented sister Lucy. Joe conceived and executed the snow effects and trees, assisted by Lucy, who assembled the snack bar to the right of the train station. The station was painted several years back by their father, Bruce Horner. I glued together and painted the bridge if that counts for anything.

On the Last Day of Christmas...

No, I have not forgotten about the Christmas train. In fact, this year I put two trains under the Christmas tree. I finished laying out the track and connecting the wires to it about four days ago. Here is proof:

Christmas Trains

Some of the parishioners decided that I needed a new train set for Christmas. I was very excited and planned to set it up around my Christmas tree. That finally happened last Sunday. I find it very soothing to watch on a cold winter's night.

Bad Christmas Music 2009

A few years back I started a new holiday tradition of compiling a mix CD of bad Christmas Music. The search for previously unknown nativity lows is always exciting. Last year, a chance visit to a thrift store yielded three CDs containing some real gems, including one featured in this year's CD: "The Reindeer Shuffle." Discount retailers sometimes make helpful contributions as well, such as the supremely annoying CD "Kidzbop Christmas" (don't look for it; you will be turned into stone). Why "Bad" Christmas Music? Here is a quick analysis. Much of these songs are bad because they try to do something well but fail. One laughs at them, but in the laughter a trace of pity remains, a sort of "there-but-for-a-microphone-go-I" holiday spirit. At the karaoke bar they would have earned their applause, and maybe a beer. Not so with the top tier of trash; namely, the Christmas songs performed, or deformed, by today's top-rated recording artists: e.g. Christina Aguilera and Lauryn Hill who made the cut for this year's CD. For these singers we have no pity, only a kind of wordless fear no longer capable of being described in writing since the death of H. P Lovecraft. Behind these songs lurks the invisible hand of way too much money. A children's choir singing Brian Wilson's "Little St. Nick" (cf. Kidzbop) is pure silliness, soon forgotten, a mere curiosity to be trotted out at parties when conversation lags, but Aguilera, backed by professionals, wailing and grunting her way through "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" -- this track alone could destroy what is left of Western civilization. Keep Christina out of Christmas is my motto.