Christmas Every Day

An adaptation of a North Carolina folk tune by John Jacob Niles (1892-1980), the American balladeer and collector of folk music. Niles is said to have paid the young girl whom he first heard singing the song 25¢ to repeat it until he had written it down. Among his other songs are “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” and “Jesus, Jesus Rest Your Head”. Late in life he turned to art song, writing oratorio and music based on the poetry of the mystic and monk Thomas Merton.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,

How Jesus the Savior did come for to die

For poor or’n’ry people like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus, ’twas in a cow’s stall,

With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all;

But high from God’s heaven, a star’s light did fall

And the promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,

A star in the sky or a bird on a wing

Or all of God’s angels in heav’n for to sing —

He surely could have it, ’cause He was the King.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,

How Jesus the Savior did come for to die

For poor or’n’ry people like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

A 1990 religious tract from North Carolina shows Santa Claus in the form of a devil. It includes a poem called “Ho! Ho! Ho!”:

The devil has a demon,

His name is Santa Claus.

He’s a dirty old demon

Because of last year’s flaws.

He promised Jack a yo-yo,

And Jill a diamond ring.

They woke up on Christmas morning

Without a single thing…..

One day they’ll stand before God

Without their bag of tricks.

Without their red-nosed reindeer

Or their phony old Saint Nicks;

For Revelation twenty-one,

Verse eight, tells where they’ll go:

Condemned to everlasting hell,

Where there’ll be no Ho! Ho! Ho!

One of the major Italian magical Gift-Bringers is the Befana, a kindly witch who visits children on the eve of Epiphany (her name is a corruption of Epiphania). During the fascist period from 1922-45, the dictator Benito Mussolini supplanted the broom-borne crone as the provider of all good things for Italy’s little ones.

Medieval legend says that St Nicholas saved three daughters of a poor man from lives of shame by dropping bags of gold into their stockings. From this came the tradition of setting out a stocking or shoe during the Christmas season for the Gift-Bringer to fill it with treats and presents. Given Santa Claus’s usual means of entry, the fireplace was the logical location to hang up one’s stocking, as can be seen in Clement Moore’s 1821 “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”:

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,/ And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,/ And laying his finger aside of his nose,/ And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

However, placing a stocking by the window, at the foot of one’s bed or by the family crèche also have their supporters. For a time, after the middle of the nineteenth century, the stocking was eclipsed by the Christmas tree as the place to find one’s presents but in many families the two have long coexisted with small presents and candies being put in the stocking and larger gifts ending up under the tree.

In England and in British Commonwealth countries such as South Africa or Australia, it is customary for a pillow-case to serve as a stocking. In some areas the receptacle is called a “Santa Sack.”

The Christmas season in Latvia seemed  to bring about premature beard growth in children.