Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

What is your favourite Christmas movie? Perhaps one of the old classics of the 1940’s like “Miracle on 34th Street” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” or even more modern 1990’s classics from The Muppets Christmas repertoire? Long before, there was Santa Claus, the first Christmas movie Santa Claus was the creation George Albert Smith, a British pioneer  film maker. Produced in 1898, this short film was one of the first on any theme, not only Christmas. Because of its clever editing techniques it has been hailed a technical marvel of its age.  " What makes this treatment considerably more interesting than a conventional piece of editing is the way that Smith links the shots in terms of both space and time, by placing the new image over the space previously occupied by the fireplace, and continuing to show the children sleeping throughout (their bed occupies the left-hand side of the screen throughout the entire film). Santa then emerges from where the fireplace used...

 Handmade Christmas card - Wilma Simmons 2017  Christmas cards,  in many places,  are already a tradition of Christmas past. Many people have told me that they send electronic Christmas greetings now, but for just as many, sending and receiving Christmas cards is one the practices most enjoyed at this time of the year.  I still like to make my own cards which I find  a really fun part of the Christmas card tradition.... well,  perhaps not when I am behind  schedule and putting the last spot of glue on a card on Christmas eve!  Handmade Christmas cards - Wilma Simmons  Have you ever wondered  who sent the first Christmas card and when?  The first Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole and designed and   illustrated  by John Callcott Horsley in London  in 1843. The first card had three panels - the centre showing a family celebrating  with the outer panels depicting helpin...

Diary Doodle - Wilma Simmons 2017  It's THAT time of the year again.  For the last few years, I have posted a daily post for Advent, featuring some interesting and sometimes weird information about all things Christmas. You can always go back and have a look at these posts from previous years  by searching for the tags " Christmas " or " Christmas Countdown."  This year, I am going to explore the facts, the speculation, the stories and my interpretation of Christmas "FIRSTS" ...and today, 1 December, let's have a look at the first time Christmas was actually celebrated.  The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on  December 25th  was in 336 AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the  25th December . For at least three hundred years, birthdays were obviously not days of cel...