The Angel Tree

The 22nd Day of the Advent Calendar

©️ Metropolitan Museum of Art

Today is the 22nd day of Advent and the fourth and final candle has been lit on the Advent wreath.

It’s called “The Angel Candle”, a symbol of the greeting of an angel to frightened shepherds announcing the birth of a child, as told in the Book of Luke:

Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Men.

©️ The Chrysler Museum

The painting above, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, (1833-34) is a famous depiction of the story by Thomas Cole, the acknowledged founder of the Hudson River School. It is his largest canvas.

The Angel Tree

When I was still in New York, I would often meet my brother Michael, who is a painter, at the Met.

He worked there for many years and we’d have tea or coffee in the Met cafeteria and then I’d wander around the galleries.

No matter how many times I’d seen “The Angel Tree” over the years, it always took my breath away. Even in pictures, it still does.

The Met continues a longstanding holiday tradition with the presentation of its Christmas tree. The magnificently lit, twenty-foot blue spruce looms over a vivid eighteenth-century Neapolitan Nativity scene, surrounded by an abundant array of lifelike figures with silk-robed angels hovering above.

— The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I’ve attached a link that has beautiful individual photographs of the figures of the crèche and every angel, you can find the photos here: The Angel Tree.

Back here on Earth

I talked to Michael today and told him I was writing about the tree, and our discussion turned to what our favorite treat was when we’d have coffee in the Met cafeteria.

It was crumb cake — just as heavenly, in its own way! (This is a reach, I know :)

I was thinking that this recipe for Crumb Coffee Cake from the 1931 Joy of Cooking that I made a while ago would be nice for breakfast over the holidays.

Photo: Jolene

Here is the recipe:

Some notes:

• I baked the crumb cake in a quarter sheet pan (13"x 9" x 1")

• Cooking time was 20-25 minutes and I rotated after 10 minutes.

Enjoy! While looking at Angel pictures!

Part 5:Writer’s thoughts on the Holidays

Katherine Gleason

Oh, wow, I totally forgot that my father's aunt, who lived in California, used to mail us homemade fruit cake. She even grew the fruits. No one else in my family would eat it! More for me! After she passed, I started making the Eggless, Milkless Spice Cake from Joy of Cooking as a fruit cake by adding fruits.

Dartanyan

at

Dart's Board

Every Christmas up until her passing in 2022, my grandmother would bring the extended family together again for a gift exchange, a meal, and fun times. A micro tradition within that macro tradition was the serving of wassail, fresh hot and cidery. Memories of entering the home to steam, cinnamon, nutmeg, apple in the air. I certainly enjoyed it, even from a young age, though I was one of the few who did. Sometimes no one else had any, and sometimes everyone partook for the holiday spirit, only to remind themselves why they should've skipped it as usual like in the year before. If there was one more invariable act to share here: my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother would sequester themselves at some point in the event to sit down at the piano in the living room and attempt to perform Christmas-themed classics. They were a fine family of singers, but their sight-reading was specious, and their piano playing even moreso.

They were aware of this, of course. The attempt at “music” was a running joke. The perennial challenge was how close they could get the damned pieces right. One daughter would play the low notes, the other the high notes, clinking along clunkily while their mother failed to get the lyrics out through laughter. Each off note sent shudders through the rest of us who sat as a captive audience just a few feet away. My dad often chimed in with a mock dog’s howl to add to the jest; the veritable tomato thrown toward the troupe on stage. After mercifully ending the puckish ordeal, they’d turn around to a standing ovation, pulp on their smiling faces. Gosh, I miss those times. 🎶 🍅

Day 22 of “The Little Town” Advent Calendar — cleaning windows and floor before Christmas

See you tomorrow! 🧹 🪣 Jolene