Earrings with a Bubbly Personality

I think these were originally sold as wine charms, but champagne tends to cloud my memory.

Happy Hogmanay! Lang may yer lum reek!

Yes, I've Got the Time

Did you remember to spring forward?

I mix and match these timepieces and wear them as earrings or on a chain as a necklace. They were actually meant to be scrapbooking or wine charms.

No Two Are Alike

Christmas is over, but these snowflakes are fancy enough to wear at dressy New Year's events, too. Last in the mini collection of snowflake earrings. Yep, I hang out with a lot of flakes.

Kwanzaa Kontinued

Kwanzaa means "first fruit" and is celebrated between Christmas and New Year's. Fortunately, I have all these first fruits from which to choose. Yes, they are Christmas ornaments. Believe me, I've worn worse things in my ears.

Kwanzaa Means "First Fruit"

I have no fruitcake earrings (yet), but I have a veritable cornucopia of fruit earrings.

Not to Poop on Your Nativity Scene...

But have you heard of El Caganer?

El Caganer is a popular figure in Nativity scenes in the Catalonia area of Spain. "Cagar" means "to crap." El Caganer is a figure with his pants down around his ankles having a poo. Generally, he's not placed at the center of the Nativity; he's probably hiding behind a bush somewhere nearby, making it fun for the kiddies to spot him.

You might think I'm full of it, or that this is some sort of modern anti-Christian prank, but El Caganer has been a figure in Nativity scenes since the mid-1600s. He's so popular now, you can get celebrity El Caganer figures, such as President Obama.

Why? Historians and poop psychologists speculate. Is he meant to remind us that Jesus was born human and all that entrails? Is he a cautionary device to warn us that Christ can arrive any time, even when it's least convenient?

These possibilities cannot be eliminated, but it is commonly believed that El Caganer's purpose is to fertilize the earth for the Nativity, to ensure a good harvest and/or general good luck for the coming year. Therefore, it's the LACK of El Caganer's presence in a Nativity scene that often creates a public outcry in Catalonia.

I googled for "El Caganer earrings" and found none. Surely they must exist. If anyone is going to Spain and could bring me back a pair, or even just a real El Caganer figure, it would bring me loads of joy.

Good King What's-his-ass

"Good King Wenceslas looked out
on the Feast of Stephen..."

The Feast of St. Stephen is a public holiday in several countries (Germany, Ireland, Italy, and many more) and is celebrated on December 26 (or 27 by the Eastern Orthodox folks). St. Stephen was the first martyr of the Christian church, having been stoned to death after being charged with blasphemy against Judaism.

December 26 is also known as the more secular Boxing Day in many countries; however, if Christmas or December 26 falls on a weekend, sometimes Boxing Day can officially be observed on the following Monday or Tuesday. Controversy over the origin of the name of Boxing Day is described by Snopes.com.

Boxing Day is traditionally when the lord of the manor presented gifts or bonuses to his servants. It may now be observed with the giving of gifts to those who have provided service throughout the year, such as a tip for the paper boy, or by donating items or money to the poor.

The legend of Good King Wenceslas definitely involved giving items to the poor. If you read the lyrics of the Christmas carol, Wenceslas went out into the cold with a servant to deliver meat and fuel to those less fortunate. The servant was about to succumb to the cold but was miraculously warmed by walking in the footsteps of his master. King Wenceslas was actually a duke in his day but was canonized a saint and also posthumously conferred the title of King by a Holy Roman Emperor.

Regarding the earrings in the photo, I got them off eBay and am relying on the honesty of the seller/maker that the art is actually a rendering of St. Stephen. The earrings are made from dominoes. I once had a tiny pair of plastic boxing gloves that I could fashion into earrings for Boxing Day, but I haven't seen them lately. I'd be pleased to wear a pair of Christmas present earrings for Boxing Day, too, or two turtle dove earrings if my true love gave them to me, as today is also, of course, the second day of Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Jesus, Mithras & Invincible Sun!

Despite the different paths our lives took after college, my college roommate and I still exchanged Christmas gifts for several years. She was/is a church-going Lutheran whose Jewish husband converted to Lutheranism before they married. Because they lived in West Palm Beach for a time, and because there are a lot of Jews there, she was able to hook me up with some cool earrings (Sedar plates and menorahs) to augment my holiday earring collection. One year I decided I'd like to have a real menorah and figured she'd be a good person to ask. Our email exchange, though, took a strange turn....

Orna-mental

By contrast to yesterday's earrings, these mini ornaments were not sold as earrings, but it's really easy to slip hooks on them and match them to my outfit.

Merry Christmas!

I've Got Balls

Sadly, the red glitter on these earrings has scraped off over the years. They really were sold as earrings, I promise.

O Multiple Ambiguous Winter Holiday Tree

Christmas trees...a misnomer, another custom stolen from pagans by Christianity.

Where did the custom of decorating evergreen trees originate and why? It depends on who you ask.

Protestants may tell you it was all Martin Luther's idea. The story goes that Marty was traipsing through the woods one snowy evening and was overcome with the beauty of the snow and moonlight glistening from the evergreens. So he brought a small tree into the house to replicate the scene for his children, adding candles to simulate snow glistening on the branches, or the starlight at Jesus' birth, or the general beauty of God's creation, or the light of truth or something. It's a nice thought (whichever rationale you prefer), but it has no basis in fact, no evidence at all.

Yule Love the Ashen Faggot

Happy full moon lunar eclipse winter solstice!

Yule is the celebration of the winter solstice. First I read a rumor that the word derives from a word meaning "wheel" (wheels are associated with the sun), but then I read that the word "Yule" is not even of Indo-European origin. It's so old it actually predates the wheel. So as far as anyone knows, the word has always just meant "the winter solstice." In particular, it refers to the old Germanic and Scandinavian celebrations associated with solstice.

The winter solstice (in this hemisphere) is the longest night and shortest day of the year. Numerous civilizations have held festivals in its honor. Some think of it as the sun's birthday or reincarnation, when the sun overcomes death and the days once again begin to get longer. Because of the sun's ability to overcome death, there are sometimes rituals associated with spirits of the deceased. Because the sun was also so vital to agriculture, Yule celebrations often involve fertility rites. For many cultures, the solstice marked the beginning of the new year, so there are also rituals to invoke luck, love, prosperity, fertility, and general wishes for the coming year. Such is the nature of the Yule log.

Snowmen or Doughboys?

Last in the snowmen earring mini collection.

Tree Clippings

I like having clip-on earrings among my collection -- in case I am suddenly asked to act in a soap opera scene in which I must take a phone call. The soap opera divas always wear clip-ons for telephone scenes.

Io, Saturnalia!

Cast off your togas!

Saturnalia was a festival celebrated in Ancient Rome for a few days in late December, beginning on the 17th and sometimes lasting through the 23rd. (Emperors attempted to contain the number of days with varying degrees of success.) Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture. I am not sure why his festival was scheduled on December 17, but there was another festival for his wife, Ops, goddess of sowing, reaping, and fertility, two days later that got incorporated. Another holiday, Consualia, for Consus, the god of stored grains and seeds, was celebrated on December 15, which was the end of the autumn sowing season. The changing calendars (Roman, Julian, Gregorian) further confuse the issue of dates and holidays, and so it should not be surprising that some Saturnalia customs have been merged into our modern Christmas.

What's Better than Snowflake Earrings?

Snowflakes in 3D!

Second in the mini collection of snowflake earrings.

Snow Trio

Second in the mini collection of snowmen earrings.

When I was three years old, Mom says I fell asleep in the snow. I was doing snow angels, and it was just so comfortable!

These Earrings Seemed Like a Good Idea

"Do your earrings light up?" they always ask.

"Only when I'm turned on," I always say.

Got the Tree Up

First in my mini collection of Christmas tree earrings.

Gold Flakes

Still trying to work my way into the Christmas earring season subtly with these gold flakes.

Bell-snickle?

I'm ashamed to admit I have no real Belsnickel earrings. Bells will have to do. The angels love it when I wear these.

Happy St. Nicholas Day! I hope you weren't visited by the Krampus last night!

The Belsnickel Is Coming!

Don’t forget to put your shoes out!

December 6 is St. Nicholas Day, otherwise known among my relatives in western Pennsylvania as "Belsnickel." On the eve of St. Nicholas Day, children should put out their shoes (on the hearth if they have one), and St. Nicholas may come to fill them with candy or little gifts in the night. But only if the children have been good. Otherwise, some quite terrifying things could happen.

Beady Little Snowmen

These earrings help me ease into the Christmas season. They're kinda subtle. Plenty of time for tacky later.

A Goya Can Dream

What would be REALLY awesome is if these menorah earrings actually lit up and I could control how many candles were lighted on a given day. Chappy Chanukah!