DEC2021

BRISTOL • BRIDGEWATER • ALEXANDRIA • HEBRON • PLYMOUTH - 10,000 Circ.
2021 VOL. 2. NO. 1
Postal Customer
DECEMBER
Holiday
“Mrs. Claus” Brings a Special Gift to Bristol
By William NiemaN
BRISTOL - This holiday season, after a year’s absence because of the pandemic re- strictions, Mrs. Claus is visiting Bristol. She will be at the Minot Sleeper Library at 11am on December 10th. Santa’s wife will be wearing a health pro- tecting face mask even though her elfin blood gives her natural antibodies to protect her from COVID variants. She wears the mask to set a good example for the many parents and chil- dren who will be enjoying her return appearances.
I had the privilege of inter- viewing Mrs. Claus without her face mask...and what a surprise was in store for me! But more of that later. For now, allow me to provide some context and history to the recent appear- ance of Mrs. Claus as a rela- tively new cultural icon.
I think it’s fair to say that until this millenium, women have been kept from the public spotlight. Their contributions,
and there have been many, were made from behind the scenes. Like women in gen- eral, this has been true of Mrs. Santa Claus. Mrs. Claus was never mentioned in the earli- est holiday season of gift giv- ing. Perhaps this was because old Saint Nick was a cleric, a Bishop who was probably cel- ibate. So, its stands to reason there was no Mrs Claus. As late as the 19th century, when Mrs. Claus finally did begin to appear, she played no promi- nent role in the celebration of the holiday season. In Clem- ent Clarke Moore’s beloved poem “TwasThe Night Before Christmas” published in 1823, Mrs. Claus wasn’t mentioned. Even the children most likely “snuggled into their beds” by mommy were not dreaming of mommy’s cookies but of the writer’s fairyland morsel called “sugarplums.” Oh, not coin- cidentally, that classic holiday
MRS. CLAUS
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Choral
Concert
Honors
the Angels
Among Us
PLYMOUTH - The Pemige- wasset Choral Society (Pemi Chorus) will be performing its holiday concert “Snow Angel” for an indoor audience for the first time since December 2019. The chorus and their enthusias- tic audiences have highly antici- pated returning to its traditional New Hampshire venues in Gil- ford, Franklin, and Plymouth. Music Director Will Gunn has programmed a concert of both familiar and new seasonal works, highlighted by composer Sarah Quartel’s “Snow Angel.”
“We dedicate our perfor- mances to the “angels” who have made it possible for us to sing to-
CHORAL CONCERT
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