{"id":8280,"date":"2021-12-02T01:03:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T06:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/?p=8280"},"modified":"2021-12-02T11:06:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:06:28","slug":"gathering-the-holly-or-your-december-book-of-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/gathering-the-holly-or-your-december-book-of-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Gathering the Holly, or Your December Book of Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Carlton_Alfred_Smith_-_Christmas_Eve.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Carlton_Alfred_Smith_-_Christmas_Eve-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Carlton_Alfred_Smith_-_Christmas_Eve-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Carlton_Alfred_Smith_-_Christmas_Eve-1024x615.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Carlton_Alfred_Smith_-_Christmas_Eve-768x461.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Carlton_Alfred_Smith_-_Christmas_Eve.jpg 1088w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Two days into the last month of the year, and here is your <a href=\"https:\/\/conviviobookworks.com\/Images\/December2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Convivio Book of Days Calendar for December<\/strong><\/a>. Last night, we lit our daily Advent candle for the first time, and opened the first window of our Advent calendar. The decorations in our house still revolve around leaves and pumpkins and Indian corn, but we will soon be bringing in the evergreens like fir and holly. Hence our cover star for this month: a watercolor from 1901 called <em>Christmas Eve<\/em>, which, in those days and for centuries before, was the day to first bring in those festive decorations. We rather like that slow approach, and that building of anticipation. The painting is by Carlton Alfred Smith, who, no doubt, appreciated these things, as well.<\/p>\n<p>We are on the approach to Christmas and to the solstice of midwinter: the nights grow darker and longer, just as they&#8217;ve been doing since the solstice of midsummer in June, but now we are approaching the zenith, and the longest night of the year. The midwinter gift bearers will soon be making their appearances in their traditional lands, beginning with St. Nicholas on the night of the 5th, who is accompanied in some of those places by dark companions like the Krampus, who we are about to meet in person. You can, too, if you are local and come see us on Krampusnacht at the American German Club west of town on Lantana Road. Here&#8217;s a list of the outdoor pop-up markets where you&#8217;ll find us these next couple of weeks before Christmas. If you come, please do say hello and introduce yourself. We have one job this time of year: to dispel the night. We do that with candlelight and with the lights of the season, and we do it with the light from within. A friendly hello is the essential first step.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/socialhouselw.com\/event\/holiday-night-market-festival-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HOLIDAY NIGHT MARKET &amp; FESTIVAL<\/a> at SOCIAL HOUSE<\/strong><br \/>\nSaturday December 4 from 6 to 10 PM at 512 Lucerne Avenue in Downtown Lake Worth Beach. Inspired by traditional European Christmas markets. We\u2019ll be in the outdoor courtyard with a large selection of our Advent and Christmas artisan goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, Shaker culinary herbs and herbal teas, and some of our textiles from Kei &amp; Molly Designs and Millie\u2019s Tea Towels.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americangermanclub.org\/events-calendar\/krampus-nacht\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KRAMPUSNACHT<\/a> at the AMERICAN GERMAN CLUB<\/strong><br \/>\nFriday December 10 from 7 to 11 PM at 5111 Lantana Road in suburban Lake Worth. Tickets required. It\u2019s the night before Christkindlmarkt and you should get a babysitter, because this one is for the adults. What once was meant to frighten youngsters into good behavior, Krampusnacht in Europe has taken a twist over the decades and become a fun night of mischief and dancing, as the Krampus of German legend rules the scene. Expect to see many Krampuses at this inaugural Krampusnacht celebration! Our largest pop-up shop ever, which will carry over into Christkindlmarkt the following two days, will include Advent candles and calendars, Christmas artisan goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, Shaker culinary herbs and herbal teas and soaps, Millie\u2019s Tea Towels, our new line of tea towels and reusable bags from Kei &amp; Molly Designs, market bags from Mexico, and more.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americangermanclub.org\/events-calendar\/christkindlmarkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CHRISTKINDLMARKT<\/a> at the AMERICAN GERMAN CLUB<\/strong><br \/>\nSaturday December 11 from 2 to 10 PM and Sunday December 12 from Noon to 8 PM at 5111 Lantana Road in suburban Lake Worth. A traditional German Christmas market. Tickets required. Our largest pop-up shop ever will include Advent candles and calendars, Christmas artisan goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, Shaker culinary herbs and herbal teas and soaps, Millie\u2019s Tea Towels, our new line of tea towels and reusable bags from Kei &amp; Molly Designs, market bags from Mexico, and more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/conviviocatalog.conviviobookworks.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>CHRISTMAS STOCK-UP SALE<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\nFor everyone else, there&#8217;s the Convivio Bookworks Christmas Stock-Up Sale. Spend $75 on anything and everything in our catalog, and save $10 plus get free domestic shipping: a total savings of $19.50. Just use discount code <strong>STREETFAIR<\/strong> at checkout. <a href=\"https:\/\/conviviocatalog.conviviobookworks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Click here to shop!<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0We always offer free domestic shipping when you spend $60 \u2013\u2013 no discount code is required for that. I think you\u2019ll be amazed at all you\u2019ll find that\u2019s new at our website, especially if you haven\u2019t visited in a while! Locals, you can choose Free Local Delivery at checkout no matter how much you spend&#8230; I&#8217;ll deliver on my vintage Raleigh bicycle in the 33460 zip code.<\/p>\n<p><em>Image: &#8220;Christmas Eve&#8221; by Clayton Alfred Smith. Watercolor on paper, 1901\u00a0<\/em>[<em>Creative Commons, via Wikimedia Commons<\/em>].<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two days into the last month of the year, and here is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for December. Last night, we lit our daily Advent candle for the first time, and opened the first window of our Advent calendar. The decorations in our house still revolve around leaves and pumpkins and Indian corn, [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,95,16,199,12,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8280"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8280"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8292,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8280\/revisions\/8292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}