{"id":634,"date":"2023-12-15T07:52:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T07:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/?p=634"},"modified":"2023-12-05T21:54:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T21:54:30","slug":"ilona-cole-guest-author-story-160","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/15\/ilona-cole-guest-author-story-160\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 160"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Classic Carolers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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My beloved husband Hal was searching for some unusual Christmas decorations for his library. We had seen at Molback\u2019s Nursery\u2019s gift shop these wonderful Victorian Carolers, dressed in garments from the 1800s, beautiful, handmade and nostalgic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were going to put together several adults and children, to have a large group of carolers. They could decorate some of the shelves or stand in a group on my Hal\u2019s desk. It would make a colorful decoration for Christmas, but also would tell the stories from the 1840s, 1850s and up to the 1950s when caroling was very popular again here in the United States of America, but the original clothing, of course, had dramatically changed by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we found out these beautiful, handmade figures were hard to find, but we found quite a few at Wright\u2019s Nursery in their large gift shop. In order to get a nice colorful group together we kept on adding new ones every Christmas. We ended up adding children to the adults, which made it more complete, thinking that whole families are going out into the cold, crisp night to sing Christmas carols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many traditional caroler costumes are based on 1840s-1860s fashions with large skirts, puffy sleeves and a cape for warmth, but there are two other, equally delightful periods, perfect for caroling costumes: Medieval\/Early Renaissance and the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each costume era has a different feel and provides its own creative and comfort advantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Hal and I made it a special day, picked during the weeks before Christmas for \u201chunting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made it a challenge that day to find at least one couple or maybe two children. We were happy when we ended the \u201chunt\u201d with some more of these beautiful handmade figures and my Hal\u2019s library looked awesome and festive with these lovely carolers on the bookshelves among all the books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Christmas eve and Christmas day, when we would have guests coming through our home, we would display them in a half circle on my Hal\u2019s desk, opposite a white flocked Christmas tree or a basket with two beautiful large pink or white poinsettias in it. Playing old, original Christmas songs in the background made this scene from Victorian times complete and our guests, as my Hal and I did, enjoyed this warm and lovely scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had given some away as Christmas gifts after I moved and downsized, but now it is time to gift the rest to friends or family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dearest Hal is no longer with me, and these beautiful figures are a painful reminder of what no longer can be, so I will give the rest away this coming Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another painful moment for me, parting with something precious, that was my Hal, my love, and my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Classic Carolers My beloved husband Hal was searching for some unusual Christmas decorations for his library. We had seen at Molback\u2019s Nursery\u2019s gift shop these wonderful Victorian Carolers, dressed in garments from the 1800s, beautiful, handmade and nostalgic. We were going to put together several adults and children, to have a large group of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 160”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}