The Christmas Star & The 3 Magi

"The Appearance of the Star" by Giovanni Da Modena (1412)

The german astronomer Johannes Kepler proposed in 1604 that The Christmas Star followed by the 3 Wise Men to Bethlehem, was a conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C.

Joe Raymond  /  AP

Grant Mathews, a Notre Dame astrophysicist, points at a computer generated demonstration of the night sky around the time of the birth of Jesus Christ: an unusual alignment of the sun, Jupiter, the Moon and Saturn aligned in the constellation Aries while Venus and Mars were in adjacent constellations.

Mathews believes The Three Magi were Zoroastrian astrologers who would have recognized the planetary alignment as a sign a powerful leader was born.

A Christmas Silhouette Animation by Lotte Reiniger

Miley Cyrus

 "RocKing Around The Christmas Tree" 

The Brave Tin SoLdier by Andersen

The Fir Tree Story by Hans Christian Andersen

Listen, watch and read.  CLicK: 
http://www.speakaboos.com/story/the-fir-tree

The SteadFast Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen

Walt Disney used the Piano Concerto Nº 2 by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich

The Little Match GirL by Hans Christian Andersen

Canadian Jingle BeLLs

Christmas Tree Light Up: Rockefeller Center, Manhattan - New York City (USA)

This aproximately 75 year old Norway spruce tree, measuring 76 foot and weighting 12 tons, made the 70-mile trip to N.Y city on a tractor-trailer from Conneticut last month.

 It is decorated with 45,000 multi-colored LED lights and a 9 ½-foot-wide Swarovski star on its top.

The lighting up is part of a tradition started in 1933.

Spanish Nougat Recipe: Jijona, Spain

Trafalgar Square (London): Christmas Tree

This Christmas tree is usually over 20 metres tall and it´s typically a 50-60 years old Norway spruce, sent to Great Britain by ship.

It is a present to the people of Britain by the city of Oslo (Norway) since 1947, as sign of gratitude for the british support during the Second World War. 

Arabian Night: The NutCracker by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Walt Disney used this music in his FANTASIA film

Dance of the Sugar PLum Fairy (The NutCracker) by Tchaikowski

Christmas Lights: CoLdpLay

Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

The Night Before Christmas

It´s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (Song)

Christmas Tongue Twisters

Eleven elves licked eleven little licorice lollipops

Santa's seven sleighs slid sideways

Santas Sleigh Glides In The Sky

Santa's sleigh slides on slick snow

The ALL Canadian 12 Days of Christmas

Christmas Traditions Explained

MistLeToe by Justin Bieber

Why Do PeopLe Kiss Underneath the MistLeToe?

Balder, Norse god of the Summer sun, dreamt that he was going to die. His mother, Frigga, said that if he died so will everything on Earth. To ensure her son's safety, Frigga  went to all of the elements, animals and plants and asked them not to kill her son. 

But Balder's only enemy, Loki, made a poisoned dart with mistletoe and tricked Balder´s blind brother Hoder into shooting the arrow killing the Summer god.

For three days, all the elements tried their hardest to bring Balder back to life, but failed. 
But the tears that Frigga cried for her dead son changed the red mistletoe berries to white, raising her son from the dead. Frigga then  kissed everyone who walked underneath it out of gratitude.

In South Africa it´s called "bird lime" and voëlent in Afrikaans.

The sticky juice of the berries was used as adhesive to catch small animals or birds: ripe fruits were chewed until sticky, then rubbed between the palms of the hands to form long sticky strands which were coiled around small thin tree branches.

Christmas Jokes...

JINGLE BELLS

BATMAN SMELLS

ROBIN LAID AN EGG

THE BATMOBIL

HAS LOST A WHEEL

AND THE JOKER GOT AWAY

The Twelve Days of Chirstmas

The twelve days in the song start on Christmas Day (December 25th) or in some traditions on Boxing Day (December 26th) and end January 5th, the day before Epiphany .

This song was first published as a chant or rhyme in England in 1780 (without music) and its origin is french!

Jingle Bells

The Story of Thanksgiving

American Painter: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

The Landing of WiLLiam Penn

The First Thanksgiving

No More King: SchoolHouse Rock

Horrible Histories: Colonisation

The Landing of the Pilgrims

Anonymous, 1820

History of Thanksgiving Day

The Mayflower and Speedwell in Dartmouth Harbor

The Pilgrim Fathers Rap

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey: 12 February 1554.

The painting shows the last moments of seventeen-year old Jane Grey proclaimed Queen of England after the death of young King Edward VI a Protestant like her. 

She reigned for just nine days in 1553;  Mary Tudor the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, had her convicted of high treason and sentenced to death in the Tower of London.

Henry VIII of England on Horseback 

Henry VIII, second Tudor dynasty king of England and Ireland  (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) is known for his 6 marriages: Catherine of Aragon. Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.
He is also responsible for the separation of England from the Roman Catholic papal authority, but also for the union of England and Wales.

The Queen´s Foot Guards

Traditionally, there are 4  guards in front of Buckingham Palace and St. James Palace when the Queen is in residence and 2 when she´s away.  
There are 5 regiments of Foot Guards: Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh. 
They stand still for no more than 10 minutes at a time, are on duty for 2 hours and then rest for 4. 
All Summer, the Queen´s Foot Guards in London, England wear their red tunics. 
The grey coats are used in the Winter because of their larger length and thickness.
The 1.5 lb/45.7 cm bearskin hat used by the guards is intended to make them appear taller and scary; they are made from real "culled" Canadian brown bears. 
The bearskin hats were first used in 1815, after Napoleon´s defeat in the battle of Waterloo.