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.
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Lovely to have this post on the Steemit Worldmap. Thanks so much @steemitworldmap. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
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What a lovely Post. I love your postmodern approach. I remember when John Lennon died. I was in grade 6 and lived in St Albans in the Western Suburbs. My dad came home from work and he looked super sad and told us what had happened full stop in the world that we live in today I am not sure that a celebrity death would have such an impact upon us maybe I'm wrong. They really were of an Era and I remember my dad playing Yoko Ono. They were more Stones fans though. Although my mum did really like The Beatles.
Christmas in Australia has its own distinctive flavour doesn't it question mark so different from the rest of the world full stop the neighbours across from me I have actually taken all of their car bodies a way which is a minor miracle in itself. I know they have done it to make room for the Giant Christmas decorations. I still haven't taken my fairy lights down from 10 years ago. That's about the extent of it for me stop fairy lights will be around are the best.
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Thanks SO much @riverflows. Yes, looking back now it was an absolutely amazing era. Change was key. We all wanted Change. The transition from 'Love me do' to 'Give Peace a Chance' ~ Both songs about love but such a radical departure: One lovely and light and on the sentimental side ~ The other, having lived through the Vietnam War era and really wishing for inner and outer love and peace to bring about change.
I was already in Sydney on the day we heard that John Lennon had been shot. I can still remember how surreal it all was. I was in the city and strangers were recognizing those who they knew also felt the loss.
Yes our Aussie Christmas sure has its own distinctive flavour. So totally different to our European and US brothers and sisters. Being summer rather than winter, it seems ridiculous to maintain the traditional English Christmas. But we do. Although many are breaking free of it these days. And so many traditions from people coming here from all over the world are most likely being absorbed by us as well. Which I love.
I hope your neighbours don't want you to bring back all their car bodies after things go back to 'normal.'
Fairy lights ARE definitely the best. Where do you have them? !tip
♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
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He, my fairy lights are strung around a statue of Lakshmi, and my chook pen!
Lol, I"m sure they'll add more cars to their collection. Par for the course for living rurally!
Thanks for your amazing reply.
It's going to be strange this year as my (English) husband and (part English) son will be in the Uk and I'll be here, in Victoria. Hubby is looking forward to a 'normal' Christmas - we'll be eating fresh vego food by the beach likely, but also have a German style Christmas Eve, though with my Nana now passed it's only the time we meet that is trad. I wonder what'll happen when my folks go. Makes me sad, but I'm in a melancholic mood. x
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Wonderful way of uniting Lakshmi and your chooks @riverflows.
Given the choice of the beach or the cold ~ Even though I love the visuals of snow and mist, I know where I'd prefer to be on Christmas Day.
It's hard being separated from family, especially on Christmas Day ~ But it sounds like your Christmas and Christmas Eve will still be special.
I used to go to Melbourne for Christmas until a few years ago and now I usually spend the morning in the Bush and then later go to a Christmas gathering with friends.
Feels totally weird talking about Christmas at the moment. It really wasn't the intention I set out with ~ I just thought the red balls looked almost surreal in the tree. Funny how one thing leads to another when writing.
Thinking about it now: It's been a VERY long time since I've been to any of the public Christmas events in Sydney or looked at the window displays. Might be interesting to photograph. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
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Ohmmmmmmmmmyygooodness!! So beautyfull Ally :) <333 Is that a locust tree? :D
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Thanks so much @thereikiforest. The violet in the background is from Jacaranda trees. I'm not sure what the other trees are. The leaves are actually an amazing lime green colour, but I toned down the green and the violet in the image to accentuate the red of the baubles. !tip ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
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