Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!!

Some time the middle of December when houses are beautifully decorated and lit our neighborhood begins looking for a yearly visitor. He always makes his showing driven by our local Fire Department in a decorated, well lit, vintage fire truck. Jolly Old St. Nicholas! You can hear the sirens blocks away and Santa's happy "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!! booming over the loudspeakers. This year the driver stopped for a few minutes so I could get my picture.

The fire truck is preceded by a police car with lights flashing and volunteers on foot handing out candy canes. Bringing up the rear is another police cruiser with lights flashing and more volunteers on foot.

Doesn't matter how young or old you are, Santa is always a welcome sight!! We look forward to it every year. This event inspired the poem that follows.

Merry Christmas and God Bless You!!


Vintage Fire Truck Christmas
By Carol Glitschka 12/05

In the middle of December
Kids wait for him to appear
Decorations are up, lights are hung
They strain their ears to hear..

And then one night the sirens wail
Piercing the stillness of night
Not to worry, please stay calm
It will soon come into sight.

You see the flashing blue lights
Approaching down the street
Excitement, not fear abounds
It’s an annual Christmas treat.

“Ho, Ho, Ho and Merry Christmas”
Drift across the winter air
While happy Holiday songs
On the loudspeaker blare

The bright red, vintage fire truck
Bears a sight meant to tickle us
It slowly climbs the neighborhood hill
With Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.

The windshield, hood and ladder rails
Are strewn with multi-colored light
And Santa dressed in white and red
Smiles and waves dispelling fright.

Adults have smiles across their face
Children wave and jump up and down
Volunteers on foot give candy canes
And nowhere can you find a frown.

It’s a happy Christmas tradition
Looked forward to each year
Designed to lighten the spirit
And distribute Holiday Cheer.

I Hear The Sound of Winter

We had our first snowfall a week before Thanksgiving and the first thing I thought of was how quiet and still it becomes when everything is covered with that soft, downy blanket of white. It inspired this poem.

I also remembered the watercolor painting I had done years ago that gives me that calm, unhurried, peaceful feeling when I view it. I thought the two would go well together.

I Hear The Sound of Winter
By Carol Glitschka, 12/05

I hear the sound of winter
It’s stillness all around
The softness of each snowflake
As they muffle trees and ground

The reflective crystal glow
Puts all nature on display
Pristine, untouched and soft
It beckons, come and play!

Against the velvet Prussian sky
I watch them gently float
A million stars from heaven
Apply their winter coat

I hear the trickle of the stream
It’s edges sparkle bright
Flakes mingle with the flow
And voyage out of sight.

Angles take on roundness
You can hear the stillness grow
The world at rest in winter
Beneath it’s cape of snow.

Blair House Christmas Ornament

This is a pictorial record of a christmas ornament I painted in 1993 for the Blair House in Washington D.C. The theme was green, red and gold and the wooden piece was heart shaped. The finished piece had Holly leaves and berries on one side and a three dimensional heart shaped wreath on the other with small gold bulbs and a red ribbon. It hung on the Christmas tree in the Blair house that year and is kept in their permanent collection.

The first step was sketching thumbnail drawings of ideas for a design. Once I hit on a design I liked the process was as folows:

The wooden heart was painted a bright Christmas red and then gold-leafed, overlapping layers of torn gold leafing were glued to the heart leaving some of the red basecoat showing. The heart was then varnished and antiqued with a dark brown to tone down the red and gold.

Holly and berries were painted with oils on one side and allowed to dry and cure.

The opposite side was textured around the edges of the heart with modeling paste to create a wreath. Small bulbs were hand rolled and glued to the dried wreath along with a hand shaped bow. The wreat, bulbs and bow were painted.

The piece was given several coats of semi-gloss varnish for protection.