Sparkling balls. Red.
Sway with the early morning.
Gentle breeze. Soft blue violet Wisteria.
Where has 2018 gone? Nowhere. It is still here. ~Ally.
The first signs that Christmas is approaching are already here.
These brightly coloured sparkling baubles are hanging down from a tree, living on the nature strip of a nearby street. Soon decorative lights in the forms of Father Christmas and all his reindeers, Christmas trees and candy bars, will transform these quiet suburban streets into a Christmas festival of party lights.
Another year over, a new one just begun.
~John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
A very condensed history of Glass Baubles.
Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, by Hans Greiner (1550-1609) who produced garlands of glass beads that could be hung on trees.
Other glassblowers in Lauscha began producing glass baubles in a wide range of designs and soon, the whole of Germany began buying Christmas glassware from Lauscha.
Lauscha began exporting its products throughout Europe in the 1840s, after a photograph of Queen Victoria's Christmas tree decorated with glass ornaments and baubles was published in a London newspaper.
Then in the 1880s F. W. Woolworth discovered Lauscha's baubles during a visit to Germany and consequently made a fortune by importing the German glass ornaments to the United States.
By the 20th century, Woolworth's had imported 200,000 ornaments and topped $25 million in sales from Christmas decorations alone. By 2009, the Christmas decoration industry had ranked second to gifts in seasonal sales. Source: Wikipedia.
In 2011 Americans spent $6 billion on Christmas decorations. This marks the highest amount ever recorded by the National Retail Federation, which started tracking the information back in 2005. Source: Business Insider.
For rich and poor ones, the road is so long.
~John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
For yellow and red ones.
Let's stop all the fights.
~John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear.
~John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
When I was a kid, growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne, our Christmas wouldn't have been quite Christmas without joining the bumper to bumper traffic, to cruise along the Boulevard in Ivanhoe ~ Delighting in the magical fairy lights that decorated all the houses and gardens there.
Since those very early days of open street light displays, residents in small regional towns and the suburbs of the major cities all over Oz seem to be going to greater and greater lengths to impress with their own dazzling shows.
As an example, the owners of this house in Preston, a suburb of Melbourne, have choreographed their Christmas lights to flash to music from 'The Greatest Showman.'
Happy Xmas ~The War Is Over.
The tradition of Christmas is celebrated in many different ways. For John Lennon and Yoko Ono it wasn't just a time for beautiful glass baubles but a time when we could also look at the state of our world, recognize all its ailments but choose to celebrate and affirm and be a beacon of peace.
Happy Xmas ~ War Is Over was released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. The lyrics by John and Yoko were set to the traditional English ballad Skewball. Wikipedia.
Originally a protest song about the Vietnam War, Happy Xmas ~ War Is Over has since become a Christmas standard, frequently covered by other artists and appearing on compilation albums of seasonal music. Genius
So this is Christmas.
And what have you done?
Another year over.
A new one just begun.
And so this is Christmas.
For weak and for strong.
For rich and poor ones:
The road is so long.
~John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
As my final image for today, I'd like to share one of my favourite images of John and Yoko.
SONY Mark2 A7: 35 mm:
Photographs licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Terms of Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike.
- This ShareAlike license will allow you to reproduce and/or manipulate these images even for your commercial purposes.
- You are required to attribute me, Alison Lee Cousland as the designer/artist.
- You also need to be willing to license any of your new creations that make use of these images, under the identical terms IE allow others to reproduce and/or build their own art upon your art, as well as granting their right to commercial usage.
