Christmas is the holiday I celebrate this time of year.
Whatever holiday you mark, across traditions there are ideas and celebrations to do with connection, love, and light, and hope for the coming year.

Photographs from three rather different places to go along with that idea

*a mailbox welcoming the season in the northwest Florida panhandle

*a Christmas tree, streetlights, and the lighted window in the steeple of First Parish Church in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts

*holiday star lights reflected in windows in Carlingford, County Louth, Republic of Ireland

for a bit of holiday reading to go along
listen in as three musicians share holiday music memories

consider music and quiet

as well as a thoughtful holiday recording

I’ve always enjoyed the Texas Christmas Tree which stands at the top of Congress Avenue in Austin during the holiday season. It is welcomed to town with an evening of carols and general festivity with people strolling up and down Congress to take in the holiday shop windows. The tree itself sends out a look of welcome, too, especially when you see it at night — exuberant and festive, just as a Texas tree should be.

Texas holiday music to go along

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis call Austin home. They are both top songwriters and singers, and at the holidays they often play a series of gigs including their favorite holiday songs. Hear a selection those on Happy Holidays, with tracks including Baby It’s Cold Outside and Christmas in Newport City.

Tish Hinojosa brings both Mexican and American sides of her Texas heritage to From Texas for a Christmas Night. There’s the gentle title song, which does evoke starry December nights across Texas, and Arbolito, a catalogue of the singer’s funny chats with her Christmas trees across the decades, the joyous song of hope Milagro, and a quiet reflection on the Holy Family’s journey in A la Nanita Nana.

For a different Mexican American look at the holiday season, top singers of Tejano — that rough mix of styles that flourish along the Texas Mexico border — offer their own takes on Noche de Paz, Frosty El Snowman, and a range of other songs on A Tejano Country Christmas

If mellow sounds at Christmas are your thing, native Texan Lee Ann Womack has you covered. On her album The Season for Romance she offers thoughtful versions on classic pop Christmas songs, along with a few you may not have heard before. My favorite of the bunch? Forever Christmas Eve.

With Christine Albert and Chris Gage, you feel as though you are sitting by the fireside listening to two very talented friends share songs of the season, funny, thoughtful, and gracious in music and in words. Their album, which includes River, Un Flambeau, and the reflective original title track, is called One More Christmas.

• Number of Americans traveling overseas: 30,300,000
  

(Or about 10% of the US population.)

• Percent that travel abroad for leisure: 85.4%

(Which means that most Americans abroad are not traveling on business. All that follows pertains to leisure travelers.)

• Percent that are first-time international travelers: 7%

(So stop pretending that you don’t know what you’re doing.)

• Average number of days in advance traveler decided to make the trip: 96.4
• Average number of days in advance traveler booked airline tickets: 66.4

(How are those spring travel plans coming along? And what are you thinking about in the month between the decision to go and booking that flight?)

• Average length of trip: 17.7 nights outside the US
• Percent that pre-book lodging: 44%

(These statistics make it seem like there are a lot of seat-of-pantsers out there, but 43% of all leisure travelers are visiting friends and relatives, so there’s less spontaneity and more couch-surfing going on.)

• Average age of traveler: male: 44.7 female: 43.1

(This is a strange statistic, actually, since most age data is expressed in terms of median, not mean. Means are influenced by extremes, so infants and oldsters could throw the number off. FWIW, the U.S. median age is younger — 35.2 for men, 37.9 for women.)

• Annual household income: median $95, 100

(Nearly twice the median US household income: $49,777) (But wait.)

• Percent that fly coach or economy: 81%

(That’s not rich enough to spend the money on an upgraded ticket. Average amount spent on airfare, per person: $1,012.)

• Average expenditure per visitor, per day: $70.

(This figure seems remarkably low to me, considering that the most common activities for leisure travelers are dining in restaurants (82%), shopping (74%). But maybe that number reflects  a lot of McDonald’s meals and shopping for fridge magnets .)

• Percent of adults that travel with adults only: 91%
• Percent of adults that travel with children: 9%

(Which means that if there’s a kid kicking your seat all the way across an ocean…)

• Percent that travel for religion or a pilgrimage: 1%

(…you might consider trying to boost this number, because fate has made you her bitch.)

Source: Profile of U.S. Resident Travelers Visiting Overseas Destinations: 2009 Outbound. The U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.

Tired of giving predictable but practical gifts such as guidebooks and iTunes Gift card?

Then check out these practical and fun Christmas Stocking Stuffers that will have the traveler in your life smiling all the way to the airport.

Mini Travel Umbrella

Fun and stylish mini umbrellas that are guaranteed to not only keep you dry but also turn heads.

Just the thing to brighten up the baggage claim area.

TSA Approved Locks

Protect your luggage and keep airport security happy!

Motion Sickness Wrist Bands

Cheer up those who suffer from motion sickness with these colourful wrist bands

For more fun Christmas gift ideas, head over to online travel accessory stores such as Flight 001, Anne Taintor, and Stylish Nomad. 

But you’d better be quick as time is running out for ordering and receiving products before Christmas. 

In Ireland this time of year, the light starts to fade by four in the afternoon, and sunrise comes after nine o’clock in the morning. Sometimes well after. At the time I’m writing this, the island is experiencing its coldest winter in more than forty years. In the midst of this comes the light and celebration of Christmas, a time of family and connection, whether your Irish family happens to live in Galway, Derry, Perth, Calgary, Sydney Mines, or Albuquerque. Part of the celebration is music. All, Irish or not, are warmly welcomed to share in that. Take a listen to these recordings, and do so yourself.

Cherish the Ladies have looked at this holiday season through two albums. The heart of On Christmas Night turns in the song The Castle of Dromore, a winter lullabye of sorts from Irish tradition, with quiet, understated lead singing by Heidi Talbot. There are at least two Castles Dromore in Ireland that I know of, probably more. The warmth within and winter winds without work as a fine image whatever the landscape, however. As they often do, the women of Cherish offer a program that mixes songs with jigs, reels, and in this case, carols as well. All are top players, led by founding band member Joanie Madden on flutes and whistles. A good place to hear their instrumental style is on the set that moves from the holiday song Ding Dong Merrily on High through to Con Cassidy’s. The Holly and the Berry, another song from the Irish tradition, finds the women trading leads by verse in the singing. Talbot handles the lead on the varied holiday sentiments of The Little Drummer Boy and Silent Night, which she sings in both English and Irish, with understated and thoughtful grace,

A Star in the East the second Christmas album from Cherish the Ladies, finds them with a different lead singer, Michelle Burke. She puts a fine and robust spin on the carol The First Noel, and the contemporary song by Robbie O’Connell, All on a Christmas Morning. As before , the ladies wind carols and tractional tunes into sparkling instrumental sets including one that begins with God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen closes with O’Connell’s’ Welcome to Parliament. Madden reads from poet Patrick Kavanagh’s A Christmas Childhood, which is paired movingly with In the Bleak Midwinter. Madden and guitarist Mary Coogan put their own bit of Irish twist to the African American spiritual Rise Up Shepherd and Follow, while Burke and all the band members playing in support of her have good fun with a take on the rush of things at the holidays, Home in Time for Christmas.

For their Christmas album Fine Winter’s Night, Matt and Shannon Heaton also choose a mix of song and tune, both traditional and original. Matt does a fine job with lead on the Wexford Carol, which dates back to the twelfth century. Shannon handles lead on the title track, which is a song about, among other things, finding joy in the sometimes harsh times of winter. Shannon plays flutes and whistles, Matt plays guitar and bouzouki, all of which are shown to good effect on a number of tunes, including Christmas at Mount Horeb. They both sing lead and offer fine harmony as well. You’ll hear those aspects of their work on the gently funny story of Julius the Christmas Cat, in the tale of a Victorian Christmas evening in Boston in First Snowfall of December, and in the reminder of the steadfast hope of the season in Fisherman’s Lullabye.

Narada’s Best of Celtic Christmas is one of those rare compilation albums that works. It is a two disc set. One disc, called The Night Before, comprises the music of the Ireland based group Dordan. As you might expect from that name, the songs and tunes evoke both the excitement and the hushed anticipation leading up to Christmas itself. The other disc is a collection of tracks from a range of artists. Cathie Ryan starts things off with a thoughtful take on It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. Kathy Mattea, Natalie MacMaster, William Jackson, The Boys of the Lough and Altan are among those who add their ornaments to the many branches of this Celtic tree of music. Fiddler Bonnie Rideout brings things to a close with a rousingly Scottish take on Adeste Fidelis.

Good companions all, for seasonal gatherings and quiet moments of reflection.