Merry Christmas

A Christmas Carol

by G.K. Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,

His hair was like a light.

(O weary, weary were the world,

But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast

His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the kings,

But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,

His hair was like a fire.

(O weary, weary is the world,

But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary’s knee,

His hair was like a crown,

And all the flowers looked up at Him,

And all the stars looked down.

20 thoughts on “Merry Christmas”

  1. Merry Christmas to you and your entire family; and also to everyone here: bloggers, commentators, lurkers and trolls. Beautiful poem, and beautiful painting (I hope Tim J. consider posting a Christmas painting of his, too).
    What’s (/was) your movie for today? I had intended to watch The Bells of St. Mary’s again, but I came back too late from Mass and wouldn’t be able to finish it before my disruptive relatives arrive.

  2. Merry Christmas to you and your entire family; and also to everyone here: bloggers, commentators, lurkers and trolls. Beautiful poem, and beautiful painting (I hope Tim J. consider posting a Christmas painting of his, too).
    What’s (/was) your movie for today? I had intended to watch The Bells of St. Mary’s again, but I came back too late from Mass and wouldn’t be able to finish it before my disruptive relatives arrive.

  3. No movie today. It’s a Wonderful Life yesterday. Over the weekend, March of the Wooden Soldiers; before that, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Coming up in the next few days, The Nativity Story and the Chuck Jones version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

  4. A very VERY merry Christ-Mass to all.
    SDG, your holiday Movie list sounds almost identical to ours. Which version of A Christams Carol do you like best?
    Matheus, I haven’t actually ever done a Christmas painting, as such.
    I’m hoping to change that soon, though.
    Meanwhile, I posted an image of Botticelli’s Mystical Nativity at Old World Swine, which, it turns out, was a favorite of G.K. Chesterton.
    http://timothyjones.typepad.com/old_world_swine/

  5. The very little known children’s movie “The Box of Delights” done by the BBC in the 1980s is, by far, my favorite Christmas movie. It has special effects akin to their Narnia series, but if they don’t improve upon the Masefield novel and perfectly hit the spirit of an old-time Christmas, nothing will.
    But I like many of the classics too – Holiday Inn, the children’s play segment from the The Bells of St. Mary’s, White Christmas, IaWL, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (Rankin-Bass), Nutcracker, and I have fond memories of The Nativity Story and need to see it for the second time.

  6. More regarding the Box of Delights: Amazon has it (all 5-star reviews), and the second lead character is Blessed Raymond Lully (many alternate spellings) of medieval Spain/Catalonia/Mallorca who shows up in early 20-th century England.

  7. SDG, your holiday Movie list sounds almost identical to ours. Which version of A Christams Carol do you like best?

    Heh. Well, the version that’s gotten the most play in our house the last couple of years is… Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. :‑) Of course, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen Mickey’s Christmas Carol … and the Animaniacs episode A Christmas Plotz isn’t bad either — though it pales beside the surprisingly reverent Little Drummer Warners.
    I know, I know, you mean the live-action, full-dress classic productions. The big question, of course, is: Sim or Scott? They both have strong points, and I’m afraid I haven’t rewatched them enough to have a favorite! I like some things about the Stewart version too, though it falls short of classic status on production oddities (like the Jawa eyes on the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come).

  8. What I really want for Christmas is not seeing nutty trolls getting their 15 minutes of fame at our expenses anymore. Having prevented the kooky rad-trad to get the zero tolerance he deserved only encouraged him to pass off himself as fundie to “test” the Vatican II Catholics; and, as anyone may guess, he will come back to deceive everyone again. I humbly suggest SDG that he doesn’t postpone doing what he knows he will do sooner or later.

  9. Matheus, I feel your frustration, and you are very possibly correct about our latest troll. I try to err on the side of tolerance and give a body enough rope to hang himself (or not) before pulling the floor out from under him.
    Whether our latest troll was, as you very plausibly suggest, a kooky rad-trad posing as a fundie, or, less plausibly, a fundie posing as a rad-trad, I sense the possibility of a genuinely conflicted soul who attacks the beliefs of others because he is afraid of losing faith himself. I could be wrong about that.
    Either way, I will look to post something in the not-too-distant future on, well, my total worldview, and where the Catholic magisterium fits into it. Perhaps that will be of interest, dare I hope help, to our gadfly.

  10. What were those random(?) posts of the letters x and y all about in the P. Z. Meyer thread, recently? Did I miss something?
    The Chicken

  11. …I sense the possibility of a genuinely conflicted soul who attacks the beliefs of others because he is afraid of losing faith himself.

    Trolls are, by their very nature, troubled individuals thirsty for a little bit of attention. I of course have compassion for these people, and much more for those who also happen to be crazy. My point is that trying to appease them doesn’t do them any good and only prompts them to escalate their “creativity”.
    What were those random(?) posts of the letters x and y all about in the P. Z. Meyer thread, recently? Did I miss something?
    I have no idea, either. I thought it was another agnostic brownshirt making a point about the original subject of the post. Then bill912 apparently noticed it and started teaseing the person, from what I could gather.

  12. No, it was the only way I could get to the last page without hitting the “next” button a couple of dozen times. I’m too computer-illiterate to use the suggestion I was given, grateful though I am for the advice.
    “Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.”

  13. Say, SDG, are you planning to see/review Slumdog Millionaire? It’s certainly not children’s fare, but I thought it was an interesting and good movie, with a sad look at some of the harder parts of life in India today (or over the last decade or so, if seen somewhat through the gauzy haze of childhood), and yet in many ways it is a happy movie. I had the strong sense of being on an emotional rollercoaster, and I’d be interested in your, or anybody else’, comments about it.

  14. …I’d be interested in your, or anybody else’, comments about it.

    Dear Hans
    I’ve just read Barbara Nicolosi’s comments about the movie (scroll down), which don’t give me much hope about it. The tralier made it look very good, in my opinion.

  15. Thanks, Matheus. That’s an interesting, and surprising, review.
    I have to say that, knowing just a little about India and with a title like Slumdog Millionaire, I didn’t expect “the rip-snorting, feel good movie of the year.” (Was she looking for Bride and Prejudice??) My impression, from Indian colleagues and students (though not specifically in reference to this movie) and other sources, is that the real (possible) horrors a child growing up in the slums of Mumbai or other large cities in India have been somewhat papered over. (Hence my use of the phrase “the gauzy haze of childhood”.)
    On the other hand, I once had a student from Calcutta who rejected utterly the notion that there was any significant poverty in her city.
    Sorry, I don’t mean to turn this into a discussion of poverty in India (though children born into poverty do have a certain relevance in a Christmas discussion), but all this has been by way of saying that I am more than a little puzzled by her review.

  16. Dear Hans
    She is a very good writer, and very, very funny. Even if I can’t really judge the merits of her review, not having seen the movie, I think I do get the point she made (being a third world dweller myself, not from India, though). There’s something inherently disturbing about the kind of “aesthetic of poverty” that’s common on that kind of movie and that explores the poor either for the sake of political partisanship, or to sensitize the public in order to make profit, without doing any actual good to the poor themselves. Coming from hollyweirdos, who doesn’t exactly know that much about poverty, the whole thing becomes really pathetic.

  17. Matheus, I see your point, but I didn’t (and still don’t, having reread it with that in mind) get that from her review. If I had, I would be less confused by it. Still, nobody’s required to like any particular thing.

  18. Hi SGD,
    I see you also review movies.
    Were you going to be reviewing the new movie “Doubt” with Phillip Seymour Hoffman?

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