"Grown-Up Christmas List"

Natalie Cole sings "Grown-Up Christmas List."

      "Grown-Up Christmas List" (sometimes titled "My Grown-Up Christmas List") is a Christmas song composed by David Foster (music) and Linda Thompson-Jenner (lyrics), and originally recorded by Foster (with singer Natalie Cole on vocals) for his 1990 non-holiday album River of Love. Though it was also released as a single, the song was not a hit upon its first appearance. 

      The song is about a visit with Santa Claus by an adult who does not ask Santa for anything material for Christmas, but rather nothing but good things for all humanity.

      The original version by David Foster with Natalie Cole also appeared on Foster's 1993 holiday set, The Christmas Album.

      In 2003, former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson performed "Grown-Up Christmas List" on the show's Christmas special, which resulted in renewed airplay of the song during the holiday season that year.

The Hans Christian Anderson Christmas Village

       This woman is so cute; she reminds me of my daughters. In this film she shares a bit of Danish Christmas tradition. If your in Denmark during the Christmas holidays, the Hans Christian Anderson Market is a lovely place to visit and celebrate some old-fashioned Christmas cheer.

"Good King Wenceslas"

Vintage sheet music of "Good King Wenceslas" lyrics included, CC.

      Wenceslas was considered a martyr and a saint immediately after his death, when a cult of Wenceslas grew up in Bohemia and in England. Within a few decades of Wenceslas's death four biographies of him were in circulation.

      These hagiographies had a powerful influence on the High Middle Ages conceptualization of the rex justus, or "righteous king"—that is, a monarch whose power stems mainly from his great piety, as well as from his princely vigor.

      Referring approvingly to these hagiographies, the chronicler Cosmas of Prague, writing in about the year 1119, states:

"But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you; for, as is read in his Passion, no one doubts that, rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched."

      Several centuries later the legend was claimed as fact by Pope Pius II, who himself also walked ten miles barefoot in the ice and snow as an act of pious thanksgiving.

      Although Wenceslas was, during his lifetime, only a duke, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I posthumously "conferred on [Wenceslas] the regal dignity and title" and that is why, in the legend and song, he is referred to as a "king". The usual English spelling of Duke Wenceslas's name, Wenceslaus, is occasionally encountered in later textual variants of the carol, although it was not used by Neale in his version. Wenceslas is not to be confused with King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia (Wenceslaus I Premyslid), who lived more than three centuries later.

The Irish Rovers sing "Good King Wenceslas"

More About "Good King Wenceslas:"

• The Original Words to "Good King Wenceslas"
• Good King Wenceslas Christmas Program
• Good King Wenceslas, The Song and the Story

Oreo Cookie Balls

      Our daughter, Natalie, loves a package of Oreo cookies. But, she loves Oreo balls even more! These cookies are real crowd pleasers at Christmas parties and, yes, they are fattening beyond belief. These cookies are  incredibly easy to make. 

More Recipes Made With Oreo Cookies:

• Cookies 'N Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies 
• Desserts Made With Oreo Cookies
• 15 Creative Ways to Use Oreos
• Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Juno reviews Oreos for the first time...

Sandbakelse Cookies

Sandbakelse and their tins.

      Sandbakelse are sugar cookies from the nineteenth century Norway. The dough is pressed into tins, and then baked in an oven. Sandbakelse or 'Sandbakkels' (meaning sand tarts) or 'Sandkaker' are a Norwegian sugar cookie. They are a Christmas tradition in many families. 

      Sandbakelse are made of flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and almond extract - possibly with vanilla or cardamom. After the dough is mixed and cooled, it is pressed into fluted tins. After ten minutes in the oven, popping the cookies out of the hot tins is best left to adults. 

      In 1845 a recipe for sandbakelse appeared in a Norwegian cookbook, but they were not widespread until later in the 19th century. They became popular later than the similar krumkake because sandbakelse required fine flour, which wasn't yet widely available. Emigrants took their tins and recipes west across the sea, where sandbakelse remain an "old-country" Christmas tradition for many Norwegian-Americans.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of soft butter
• 3/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup blanched almonds finely chopped
• 4 unblanched almonds finely chopped

Procedure: Cream the butter, sugar and egg white together and then stir in the remaining ingredients. Chill the dough for a few hours. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pull the dough apart in chunks and press it firmly into the sandbakelse tins. Do not unmold the cookies. This cookie dough must bake inside the tins for approximately 12 minutes. Remove the molded cookies from a cookie sheet and let the molds cool. Tap the molds against a wooden bread board to unmold the sandbakelse.