BIBLIOflavors of the Month: December 2024
Books, films, plays, performances, and music.
Winter, in its purest form, is transformation—alchemy wrought by cold. Snow drifts from the heavens like a whispered promise, rooftops become cathedrals of frost, and the air, sharp and crystalline, forms every breath. It is a season of enchantment, where even the mundane is rendered remarkable. Nights sparkle as frost etches its fleeting artistry on glass, and woodsmoke mixes with the promise of mulled cider. This is the winter of dreams—a Disney winter, If I may, where every action feels like stepping into a tableau, where everything is cloaked in white and wonder.
But this year, snow escapes from me. I find myself not in the hills or woods, where such magic flourishes, but by the sea, where winter feels plain. The horizon stretches in muted tones—grey sea meeting grey sky in melancholic reflection. There are no snow-laden eaves or frosted windows here, only the starkness of not-so-cold air and the restless tide. Above the shore, a Christmas market presents a fragile kind of warmth. Strings of lights glimmer against the dark, and the scent of hot wine drifts on the breeze. Music plays softly as though it, too, mourns the absence of such magic. It’s not the winter I long for, not the enchanted tableau of my imaginings, but it is something—a flicker of light against the grey.
And so, in this peculiar winter of muted dreams, I turn inward. If the snow refuses to fall, then I must find its magic elsewhere: in books that transport me to frostbound worlds, in films that capture the shimmer of a snow-covered night, in the melodies that evoke the stillness of a starry winter sky. Winter’s wonder may be elusive this year, but I can still seek it in the quiet spaces where imagination takes hold.
This was a month I returned to familiar settings, revisiting old favorites rather than seeking out discoveries. It feels, in some ways, like reacquainting yourself with a long-lost friend—recognizable yet changed, offering revelations you missed the first time. If you wish to dive deeper with me, here’s a glimpse of the works that have occupied my December and will likely linger with me as the month unfolds—a long, long collection of familiar comforts and enduring fascinations.
Books
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Dickens’s ghostly masterpiece is no mere seasonal tale; it is a parable of redemption soaked in Victorian melancholy. The spectral visitations to Ebenezer Scrooge serve as a memento mori for us all, juxtaposing greed against goodwill, solitude against connection. Its prose is rich with a moral clarity that tops the Christmas cheer, reminding us that humanity’s capacity for change is perhaps its greatest virtue.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia) by C.S. Lewis
Beneath the wintry enchantments of Narnia lies an allegory steeped in the mythology of sacrifice and resurrection. Lewis’s prose whispers of childhood innocence while echoing the timeless conflicts of good and evil. The eternal winter imposed by the White Witch is more than a season—it is the stasis of despair, cracked by courage, faith, and sacrificial love.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas (Hercule Poirot, #19) by Agatha Christie
Murder at Christmastime: a contradiction so macabre that it borders on sublime. Christie’s Poirot unravels a familial web of trickery amidst the brittle delight of a Christmas gathering. The juxtaposition of holiday warmth with cold-blooded murder renders this an irresistible study of human frailty.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Hercule Poirot, #37) by Agatha Christie
A pudding concealing more than candied fruit; Christie’s narrative sparkles with wit as Poirot untangles a mystery as festive as it is diabolical. Here lies Christie at her most playful, layering deception and deduction with the charm of holiday traditions.
The Dean's December by Saul Bellow (will read for the first time)
This promises to be a deeply reflective read, exploring exile and existential reckoning amidst the bleak cold of a European winter. Bellow’s prose, if true to form, will undress the human soul with an unflinching gaze, threading personal alienation with broader societal decay.
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
A tale that shimmers with irony and tenderness... In this compact narrative, love is refined into sacrifice, and sacrifice blooms into beauty. O. Henry’s pen reveals that the treasures of the human spirit lie not in material wealth but in… Well, you’ll see about that.
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
This story is not merely a fable but a lament for innocence lost to indifference. Andersen’s little heroine, shivering against the world’s apathy, illuminates the darkness with her fleeting visions of warmth and love. A tragic hymn to the fragile beauty of the human condition.
The Holy Bible: King James Version
Although I’m reading and examining it only for research purposes, the archaic language resonates with an eternal gravity, lending Christmas its sacred depth.
Ayrılık Sevdaya Dahil (Separation Is Also the Part of Love) - Attila İlhan
İlhan’s poetry unfurls with the smoldering intensity of a winter fire, a lament for love’s inescapable melancholy. His verse is at once deeply personal and achingly universal, capturing the snow-laden silences that fall between lovers and the warmth that lingers despite separation.
Films
Carol (2015) Directed by Todd Haynes
A study in restraint, Carol lingers on the subtleties of desire. The soft, silent moments between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are where the film breathes, hinting at a world of unspoken yearning that lingers long after the credits roll. It is, in its essence, a portrait of love as a quiet rebellion against the rules of propriety.
Klaus (2019) Directed by Sergio Pablos
A surprising concoction of whimsy and warmth, Klaus peels away the often sentimental layers of Christmas myth to reveal an origin story beating with empathy and transformation. The animation is breathtakingly detailed, and the tale itself spins on a bizarre axis, one that might even leave cynics reconsidering the true spirit of giving.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Directed by Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson’s world is meticulously designed, with an exquisite, almost pathological attention to detail that creates a sense of lived-in fantasy. The Grand Budapest Hotel is both a rich visual confection and a meditation on the fragility of time and history. Every frame feels like a vintage postcard to me, filled with absurdity, wit, and melancholy.
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) Directed by Andrew Knight
There is a curious, almost haunting charm to this midquel, where magic rocks on the edge of a fractured, yet fiercely hopeful world. The film, though a far cry from its ancestor, carries with it a strange and powerful sense of nostalgia, where the familiar outlines of fairy tale wonder are tinged with sorrowful beauty.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Directed by Henry Selick
Tim Burton’s vision, generated in stop-motion animation, is a film that doesn’t simply straddle the line between Halloween and Christmas – it erases it entirely. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a darkly poetic exploration of identity and longing, a fantastical journey through a world where boundaries are fluid, and transformation is the only constant.
The Polar Express (2004) Directed by Robert Zemeckis
In its technological audacity, The Polar Express invites you to believe in the impossible. Yet, beneath the CGI spectacle, there is something undeniably melancholic about the pursuit of belief itself. The train, a metaphor for the path toward the ethereal, travels through the heart of childhood’s final, bittersweet passage.
Plays & Performances
The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is a carnival of the fantastical, where the boundary between dream and reality blurs with every pirouette. The music itself is a celebration of the whimsical, a rich reminder that, sometimes, the most sublime pleasures reside in moments of pure escapism.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Williams' masterpiece is a portrait of longing, delicate and sharp. The Wingfield family’s fragile hopes and despair are encapsulated in the luminous glass animals that mirror their own broken dreams. The Glass Menagerie is an emotional pit, tender yet unrelentingly raw.
Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson
A play that wields science with a quiet ferocity, Silent Sky explores the limitations imposed on women in the early 20th century through the lens of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. It is a starry-eyed contemplation on ambition, brilliance, and the way the cosmos might still seem silent to those who fight to be heard.
The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
The Winter’s Tale, with its strange mix of tragicomedy, is one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic works (+one of my favorites). It dances between the dark edges of jealousy and redemption, its arc between tempest and pastoral peace. There is a surreal, nearly miraculous quality to its final moments – where time itself seems to stand still to allow for forgiveness.
Music
If on a Winter's Night... by Sting - YouTube
"And the snow falls gently on the ground,
The children are sleeping safe and sound."
"The river is flowing, the river is flowing,
Down to the sea."
Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens - YouTube
"Put the lights on the tree,
And sing to the night,
Our hearts will never be the same."
Christmas Album by Frank Sinatra - YouTube
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light."
The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky - YouTube
At the end of this month, I’ll present my reflections and evaluations of the content I’ve shared with you today. Should you have any suggestions or inquiries, do not hesitate to pass them along. I thank you for reading, and offer you, though too early, my warmest wishes for the holidays ahead.
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Loved it.
There are so much to pick in this list.
Thank you!
It's a wonderful life and a Christmas story are two films I'll be watching. I still need to watch more Anderson's films. I do like Rushmore. Also other films for the month are Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Germlins all have Christmas vibes. Thanks for the recommendations on the books and films. Happy festivus for the rest of us! Also the Grinch who stole Christmas to watch or read for the kids. The holidays are here and now it starts.