Hello everyone,
The great grey curtain of encroaching winter is being hoisted this weekend, letting the kaleidoscope of Christmas peek through as we enter the holiday season. It begins tonight at Variety Cafe where we’ve been invited to participate in their Woodfield Christmas Tree Sale. We’ve never been a part of a Christmas tree sale before, but in our imaginations are sleighs of families pulling up singing ancient, near-pagan carols of joy. A bearded parson will pat everyone’s back with a Celtic, baffling, Catholic expression of worldly (yet otherworldly) happiness, and every window will be lit with candles. All sorts of sweet and tasty drinks will be on-hand at the cafe, some a good idea, others not so good an idea, and a lacrosse rink will form suddenly in front of the Masonic Hall where Masons, divesting their secrecy for a night, will descend the steps in their flowing robes, festively squaring the circle between a nameless architect and the true, revealing power behind creation. There will also be a night market of darling local vendors, and hot chocolate. The cafe is licensed, so you might even be able to indulge in some libations, which might make sense of this bizarre diorama.
Our silly dance into the season will continue on Saturday at the Fanshawe Pioneer Village, one of the few honestly beautiful places in London, Ontario. Their Holiday Market is happening from 10-4 and we are CERTAIN it’s going to be gorgeous. Maybe it’s because the village is near a lake. Maybe it’s because there are often few people there (liminal horror anyone?) offering a Souwesto Gothic imaginarium oozing with atmosphere. One thing we do know is that those pioneer village folks are SERIOUS. This Christmas event punctures the heart. We’ve been there at Christmas before and, whelp, it you’ve ever shed a tear at a Lucy Maud Montgomery story (whether it be Marilla’s heart softening or SPOILER ALERT Matthew dying in a wind-swept field) then you’ll be rendered a speechless, bug-eyed laddie by what these historians do with their village with bowers and bows.
Of course, we will be bringing books to both of these events as well. We will not just be there selling our ENTHUSIASM. Though, if that enthusiasm could be harnessed for power, the Energy Crisis WOULD BE SOLVED. We’ve been fired from jobs because of this unbridled enthusiasm, which translates to Fear in the hearts of the controlling, small-minded souls of the world. Either that, or we’re just irritating. It doesn’t matter.
IT’S CHRISTMAS IN THE VILLAGE!!!
A lovely, bookish soul just sold us a whack-tonne of practically new fiction. Piles, friends, piles of books that will make you shudder. So, here’s the plan. You bundle yourselves up. You trek out into whatever weather faces us tonight and tomorrow. You come stand, for an evening or afternoon, in the Frank Capra-esque light of old buildings, good people, and TWINKLE LIGHTS and buy some books and drink some hot chocolate. Jason’s family ate turnips—ONLY TURNIPS—for much of the winter in a cold, dark farmhouse, yet they somehow also had a Christmas tree. They were MISERABLE, yet they sang carols along the dark farm roads of Ontario. Make of that what you will.
We’ll be in a lit up old schoolbus beneath toques and blankets, selling beautiful books, cherishing excitement.
Much love,
Jason and Vanessa
