Wherever you are around the world, from New Hampshire to New South Wales, Quebec City to Kuala Lumpur, we wish you the merriest this December 25th. Mark is having a quiet Christmas building up his strength for his New Year trial in the District of Columbia, but he was here last night for what has become an annual tradition at SteynOnline:
CHRISTMAS EVE LESSONS AND CAROLS
with Mark and his guests
Thank you for your many kind comments about the above. From Wanda, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club from California:
Thank you for a lovely Christmas Eve.
Our pleasure, Wanda. Judy Warner, a Maryland Steyn Clubber, agrees:
I listened to your Lessons and Carols just now while waiting to go and sing at midnight mass with the choir. What a wonderful thing you have created; who else would think of doing it this way?
Thank you, Judy. If you enjoyed Tal Bachman's performance of "Joy to the World", here he is running it down on camera:
If you're partial to Tal, he will, as always, be presiding over the Crow's Nest on the upcoming Mark Steyn Cruise. Meanwhile, here he is with his dad (and Canadian rock colossus) Randy Bachman on this weekend's special Mark Steyn Kinda Christmas Show with some ad hoc takes on seasonal favorites that Randy says he only does "for Mark".
On the subject of Christmas music, here's Mark talking to the composer/lyricist Hugh Martin about one of the loveliest ballads in the seasonal songbook:
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Steyn's Serenade Song of the Week
If you like your rhymes without tunes, here's a seasonal entry to Mark's anthology of video poetry (because, at Yuletide as at any other time, video poetry is where the big bucks are):
THE OXEN
by Thomas Hardy
It's become a tradition each December at SteynOnline to offer Christmas editions of our Tales for Our Time audio adventures. Click below to hear Mark reading Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Conan Doyle, O Henry, Jack London, Lucy Maud Montgomery ...and some fellow called Steyn:
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
The Little Christmas Tree
by Mark Steyn
Little Women at Christmas
by Louisa May Alcott
All the World Is Wandering in the Wood
by Stephen Leacock
The Gift of the Magi
by O Henry
A Klondike Christmas
by Jack London
Christmas at Green Gables ...and Beyond
by L M Montgomery
A Merrie Old Christmas
by Washington Irving
Do you like detective fiction with a seasonal twist? Steyn has a couple of Christmas whodunnits for you:
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Queen's Square
by Dorothy L Sayers
And, if all that still leaves you with time on your hands, click on the links below for a cornucopia of Yuletide delights from the Santa Steyn grotto - carols and lessons, movies and memories:
THE PERFECT "PERFECT CHRISTMAS" BOOK
and of course...
BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE
Mark will be back on Boxing Day with a musical special. Don't miss it!