✶ A Very Haeckel Christmas
“Ernst Haeckel’s 1904 “Kunstformen der Natur” [Artforms of Nature] is a classic
of biological illustration. What is less generally known is that the artist started as a
Christmas card designer. The book was originally simply an album of holiday designs.”
So cute. Three cheers to John Holbo for coming up with this.

Christmas dawns, cold and bright, and we rise and craft our morning
with a decadent brunch in a warm kitchen. Guava mimosas with good
champagne, and strong tea. A mincemeat pie and bubbly for dear Flee,
in hopes that his spirit is wandering for a bit from house to house, taking
part in any joyful rituals his loved ones might muster – and we must!
The weird ancient symbolism is not lost on me, and so I must limn it here:
this is the dark season of death, where we struggle to bring back the light,
rally in the shadows and make merry as best we can to hold back the dark.
Light your candles, sing your songs, drink your wine – and celebrate what
we have: each other, a warm place to be, and the bright memory of those
who have gone on before us. Let their ghosts gather close to us, leave
something sweet out for them if you feel them draw near. It’s all we can
do, and something tells me it’s essential that we try. In hopes of bringing
a little of that cheer (or at least distraction!) to you and yours, here are some
tidbits to stuff in your stocking, and some deep wishes that all of you have a
safe and cozy holiday. Reach out to the people you love, and let them know.

✶ “The Hooded Congregation” – The Christmas Service of the Dead – one of my favorite stories from the
Time Life Enchanted World series, lovingly brought back to mind by the
sere ladies at After Dark in The Playing Fields. Enjoy the shivers!
✶ What the Dickens? – A Spiritualist’s Take on the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present & Future
“Yule is a haunted time of year. Beneath all the feasting and gift-giving lurks the primal fear
of deepening dark and killing cold. In modernized society we are insulated by false light,
false heat, and a material wealth that our ancestors could not have imagined. Yet still –
there stirs on these drear winter evenings some distant memory, genetic perhaps, of the
nearness of elemental danger. A century ago, that nearness was felt much more keenly.”
✶ A much beloved Polacheck family hexmas tradition is to listen to King Hepcat Lord Buckley’s rendition
of Scrooge – presented here for your pleasure with trippy beatnik animations:

✶ ‘Twas the Night Before Pogo (Thanks, Ebert!) and another one of our family favorites – Deck Us All With Boston Charlie
✶ Reindeer & Other Animals Get High On Magic Mushrooms, Scientist Claims
✶ A Creepy Monster of the Forest: The Albino, Vampiric Redwood Tree
✶ merry and bright – Hexmas wishes from Mlle. Verhext, who always does it up just right!
✶ Holiday Greetings From Siouxsie and Friends at Coilhouse
One of my favorite Siouxsie songs – Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant
✶ Gruss von Krampus! This makes me super-duper happy:

✶ Ah, thanks Boing Boing! This is how I want my hexmas to be: Peewee Herman + Grace Jones, frolicking in the Playhouse!

✶ Billy Bragg + Florence Welch do Fairytale of New York:

Florence & The Machine – Fairytale Of New York (Live BBC)
Uploaded by Henrietta-Aime-Fumer_Tv. – Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
Sitting near our magical tannenbaum, with my sweetheart’s head in my lap,
a fat cat snoozing on his chest, and our dogs pressed alongside us, I feel at
peace. I’m getting absorbed already in the copy of Patti Smith’s Just Kids that
I got for him and cracking up at finding pieces of smashed ornaments in the rug
from when he popped the champagne cork right at the tree. Everything outside
this warm room feels scary and fucked up, but for this moment – all seems right
with the world. We have to hold on to those fleeting moments, and to each other.
This is our great work, my friends: to walk tall through the fire, to keep on laughing,
and loving. Let’s all stick around for this next round, okay? I know we can make it good.
✶ My friend and most favorite songwriter Michael Hurley posted this winter wish today, and I
thought it too perfect not to share with all of you. It sums up my feelings exactly:
“Heretofor Here’s sending to all the people I know, both intimate and casual, and all the people
and all the creatures I don’t know who might receive it; the pure and healing love that thrives in
every heart rebounding and harkening the realms of all energies both terrific and terrible, and of
such as we are comprised; love in all the above, pure and going, one moment everlasting hello”

✶ Texas Hexmas
✶ Happy Hexmas!
✶ Imps of Winter
✶ send me your flowers of your december