Red-Headed Woodpecker
New for 2013 is Inge-Glas' Red-Headed Woodpecker Christmas ornament. Inge Glas No. 1-094-13. 5-3/4" tall.
Feeding on a tree festooned with greens, the Red-Headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is a particularly charming member of the Inge-Glas bird collection. The Inge-Glas glass-blower family of Mueller-Blech has always been known for their production of glass birds. Birds are symbols of joy and happiness and are said to be messengers from God.
The Cornell University Lab of Ornithology provides thorough information on this majestic bird:
"The gorgeous Red-headed Woodpecker is so boldly patterned it’s been called a “flying checkerboard,”
with an entirely crimson head, a snow-white body, and half white, half inky black wings. These birds don’t act quite like most other woodpeckers:
they’re adept at catching insects in the air, and they eat lots of acorns and beech nuts, often hiding away extra food in tree crevices for later.
This magnificent species has declined severely in the past half-century because of habitat loss and changes to its food supply."
Their status is "Near Threatened."
Cornell's "encyclopedia of birds" page on the Red-headed Woodpecker even includes the opportunity to listen to their calls. Click through to their site to hear four different calls. "Red-headed Woodpeckers give all kinds of chirps, cackles, and other raucous calls. Their most common call is a shrill, hoarse tchur, like a Red-bellied Woodpecker’s but higher-pitched and less rolling. When chasing each other they make shrill charr-charr notes."
We are more than pleased that Inge-Glas has chosen this year to add the Red-Headed Woodpecker Christmas Ornament.
Margarido - Woman on a Donkey - the Eighth (8th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
Margarido, The Woman on a Donkey – Femme sur l’ane (French) – is number 8 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. She is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions.
Stemming from the early Christmas play, the Pastorale of Antoine Maurel, Margarido and her husband, Mr. Jourdan, are symbols of the middle class. She is infamous as a woman with a very bad temper, a gossip, and one who nags her husband. In the Pastorale, Roustido belatedly, as a latecomer, and in the middle of the night, beckons the couple to scurry to the Stable. There exist other references to Margarido arriving early at the Stable, literally travelling on the heels of the shepherds (the first to hear the angel's cry). Either way, Margarido comfortably and proudly rides her donkey, while trying to hurry along her husband as he trudges along beside them. Daniel Foley compares her to an "old duchess."
To shelter herself from the sun, she wears a wide-brimmed black hat over her white lace headdress and carries a basket filled with an offering, perhaps a gift from her garden or a cake, for the Christ Child.
Bird - Mouth-Blown Glass - #1 Figural Christmas Ornament
The hand-blown glass Christmas ornament of a bird
is the most common figural ornament. Birds are symbols of the messengers of God and love. And, of course, one cannot separate them from trees. Which makes them, in turn, the ideal Christmas ornament. They really are more than charming nestled amongst the branches of an evergreen. We have been known from time to time, to have a small, additional tree devoted simply to birds: hanging birds, clip on birds, birds on nests, woodland, etc. It has always just felt right that they should have this tree of their own.
Early glass blowing families in Germany commonly perfected one or two individual ornaments (the church, pine cones, etc.). Inge-Glas' Mueller family became known not only for the number of different bird ornaments that they made, but also for their artistry in creating them - something they are famous for to this day. Interestingly enough, in 1992, Klaus Mueller-Blech of Inge-Glas, met and then married Birgit Eichorn, also of a German glassblowing family. The Eichhorn family, like the Mueller family, specialized in birds. Inge-Glas, combining the two families, enjoys a collection and an expertise larger than any other company. In fact they have more than 700 antique bird moulds.
Customs records show that common song bird ornaments first came to the United States in the 1870s. The Peterkin's Christmas Tree, a charming children's book by Lucretia P. Hale, listed a variety of ornaments used in the 1870s, to include bird-cages and birds sitting on their nests. In the early 1880s, F.W. Woolworth exported Inge-Glas's hand-blown birds to America.
The bird is one of the traditional 12 ornaments of the Bride's Tree Set - they bring the bride happiness and joy. We offer some 35 different bird ornaments at any given time
and on nests,
As the Inge-Glas Legend card says: "Ornaments depicting birds have long been a favorite of the Mueller-Blech family. These beautiful creatures motivated generations of Mueller-Blechs as they created glass ornaments in the family workshops. During the cold winter months in Germany, glassblowers often kept birds in cages to offer them shelter. These birds gave craftsmen companionship and inspiration for creating new ornament moulds. Birds are symbols of happiness, especially during Christmas. In Germany, it is believed that birds assist Santa in watching the actions of little ones to ensure they are good."
As the birds bring joy to us at Christmas, it is indeed fun to think of them at Christmas - Christmas for the Birds!
Toy Shop Advent Calendar and Christian Ulbricht Christmas Toys and Ornaments
This is the first year we have offered the Toy Shop Advent Calendar -
an old-fashioned toy store filled with teddy bears, cars, books, a baby buggy, dolls, rocking horses, the Three Kings with their camel, an elephant, and page, blocks, a Shepherd with his sheep, trees, a wonderful Bavarian Angel, a Christmas Pyramid, birds, etc., etc. It is simply charming. Glitter-dusted. 11" x 12" and Made in Germany. A delightful way to count-down to Christmas.
Many of Christian Ulbricht's classic Christmas ornaments from Seiffen, the Christmas Capital of Germany, are of toys.
Supreme among Ulbricht's Christmas toys is a Santa, available both as an ornament and a toy alone - a roly poly toy to be wobbled like a weeble on a table top - the Wackelmensch.
We had so much fun playing with him last year, we decided to carry him specifically, plus Ulbricht's Santa Wobbly Ornament and his Mushroom Wobbly Ornament.
We also offer Ulbricht's simple and classic Christmas ornaments - natural wood - primary colors -
Toy Train
his Teddy Bear 
and his Toy Soldier
The toys of Christmas from the Toy Shop to your Christmas tree. Enjoy!
The Knife Grinder - the Fifth (5th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Knife and Scissors Grinder - Le Remouler (French) - L'Amoulaire (Provençaux) – is number 5 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions.
He wears an apron of hide, holds a knife, and has a watering can in place for use in sharpening his knives on his grindstone.
He is known in the folklore as Pimpara and for being one of the "cheapjacks," otherwise called beggars, tramps, or gypsies. He travels the roads selling his services, dipping into villages on his way. From village to village he enjoys taking with him the local gossip, embellishing as he goes. Entertaining he is and ever so cheerful. The villagers, in fact, invest in his cheerfulness. He does not make that much money, so he is given a little tip in the form of a "chicoulon," a little glass of drink. Everyone looks forward to seeing him.
In keeping with his being a "cheapjack," there are references to his bad temper and evil ways. "Some santon makers have created a knife grinder with a truly devilish look, because this itinerant tradesman does not enjoy the best of reputations." And the folklore has it that seeing the Christ Child softens him and that in fact the miracle he receives upon arriving at the Stable is to be cured of his drunkenness. (Foley, p. 120)
The Knife and Scissors Grinder derives from one of the most famous Provencal Christmas plays, Antoine Maurel’s Pastorale. He is one of the oldest Santons characters. Daniel Foley writes that Leon Simon (1845-1916), a professional sculptor and a member of a famous Santonnier family, was the first to create a Santon in commemoration of the Knife Grinder.
The Miller – the Sixth (6th) "Essential" Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Miller– Le Meunier (French) – Lou Mounie (Provençaux) is the sixth most favorite Santon on the list of the top 20 Santons included in the creche by the Provençal people - see our earlier post, the Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions.
His inclusion in the Santons creche originates with early productions of the nativity story, in the Creche-Parlante and in Antoine Maurel's Pastorale. In the Creche-Parlante (itinerant/travelling, puppet-shows, also known as the "speaking creche") the Miller, dressed in white and covered in flour, and his counterpart the Chimney Sweep, dressed in black and covered in soot, put on quite the show. A highly comical tussle between the two results in each becoming grey, or sometimes the Chimney Sweep comes out white and the Miller ends up black. Either way, the moral is that good and bad are easily confused.
The Miller always wears his white cotton cap (a symbol of his trade). Known for his laziness and by the name Langesse, he provides the flour for the daily bread and, thus, is truly important to all in the village. He is said by some to have been among the first to hear the angels call. He hurries to the stable with a large sack of flour on his back to give to Mary.
He is available on his donkey
and he is also represented in the Santons world by the Windmill (available in all 4 sizes) and the gifts from the Miller, available in Size #2.
The Windmill is typical of Provençal windmills with its large sails standing proud atop a hillside. To many in Provence, the Windmill and the Miller remind them of Alphonse Daudet's windmill in the town of Fontvieille, and, of course, of the delightful book by Daudet read widely at the turn of the 20th century, Letters from my Mill.
In his 1959 book Little Saints of Christmas: The Santons of Provence, Daniel J. Foley provides a rather delightful Provençal legend depicting the miracle received by the Miller:
"The miller is one of the most important men in the village. He grinds all the flour for the bread. His livelihood depends on the whims of the wind to produce the power that turns his mills. He is continually in a state of confusion.
For days his mill has been silent, as there has been no wind to turn the sails. Everybody has brought grain to be ground and some of the housewives are already feeling the pinch as they need the flour to make bread and cakes to help celebrate the New Year. The bakers are in despair due to the demand of the travelers who are passing through the village on their way to Bethlehem for the Kings' census. The miller is beside himself and feels that only help from Heaven would be of any avail.
In the middle of the night he is awakened by a loud noise. At first he thought it was his wife snoring, but he soon discovers that the mill is turning rapidly and all the grain has been ground into flour. He was too busy at the time to figure out what had happened.
Later his neighbor told him of the Divine Birth. Then he knew it was the Lord who set the windmill in motion.
The miracle gave him plenty of flour to load up his donkey and head off to offer the sacks of flour as his gift to the Holy Family."
Roustido - The Man with the Lantern - the Seventh (7th) "Essential" Santon for a Provençal Creche
Roustido, The Man with the Lantern – Homme à la lanterne (French) – is the seventh most favorite Santon on the list of the top 20 Santons included in the creche by the Provençal people – see our earlier post, the Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes offered by My Growing Traditions.
Roustido derives from Antoine Maurel’s Pastorale. In the Pastorale, he is a friend and neighbor of Margarido and her husband Mr. Jourdan. Roustido is older and hard of hearing. A former notary, he is sometimes portrayed with a hat - see Size #1 - rather than his night cap (Sizes 3, 2, and Puce). As a notary he is also associated with a red umbrella, although the Carbonel studios have not used the umbrella with any of their Roustido Santons.
He is late to hear the shepherds call. One of the few remaining in the village in the middle of the night, he uses his lantern to go to Margarido and Mr. Jourdan in order to rouse them. Once at the stable he greets the Holy Family with a doff of his cap.
