by Maria Hubert

Christmas Archives - Christmas Information, Facts, Legends & Customs

Christmas Archives, how it all began

By Andrew Hubert von Staufer

My wife, Maria Countess von Staufer (1945-2007) and I worked within the field of historic Christmas research for considerably more than 30 years. Basically we threw our respective careers out of the window when we married and concentrated on something that we both enjoyed and would fit in with raising our family. We worked on developing a career from Maria’s mixture of Yorkshire and Mallorcan traditions together my own Polish heritage, It wasn't easy.

I had been an air traffic controller & journalist while she was a Paris trained Cordon Bleu chef, qualified psychologist and former Franciscan nun. I met Maria on the Scottish Ski Slopes, I was her ski instructor, proposed within three days of meeting her and we were happily married in the very historic Catholic church of St Mary & St Michael Llanarth in beautiful Welsh Marches less than three months later.

Within a few years we were regular contributors to a variety of Radio & TV programmes, mounting exhibitions world wide, including originating a number of Christmas crib exhibitions and were creating specialist Christmas designs & sets for store windows, film production as well as theatre & church productions. Frequently I found myself pressed into service as Santa Claus.

Our basic tenet was that religion, folk custom culture and even the notion of society are closely entwined and we try to secularise it at our peril without stifling intelligent debate, or cutting edge research. That is not to say that we were in any sense overtly proselytising a Christian message or indeed ignoring a variety of co-existent religious and cultural influences.

Quite early on we had established excellent relations with Jewish, Moslem, Hindu and Buddhist groups all of which had adapted or enriched the sheer tapestry of worldwide Christmas celebration. Indeed that ethos has carried on into the next generation with our daughter Emma who worked for ten years in Japan, developing a marketing plan & themed exhibitions with a Christmas context, our eldest son Kazik has done a lot of original research into textual references to the Nativity from both Jewish and Moslem perspectives, while the youngest, Marijan is developing his PhD thesis in the spheres of politics, peace & reconciliation studies.

In 1991, we sold a considerable part of our then Christmas museum collection to the Felissimo Corporation of Kobe Japan, who to their credit have trained specialists who mount Christmas themed exhibitions and lecture on the life and work of my wife.

We still have a considerable archive of Christmas music and texts which have formed the basis of many books written over several years including such subjects as Jane Austen's Christmas, Christmas in Shakespeare's England and Wartime Christmas.

Maria died unexpectedly in Spain on September 21 this year following a routine operation that discovered a hitherto undiagnosed cancer.

The Christmas Archives website will continue to evolve with input from a wide variety of international sources.

 

Link to music - Polish Christmas Carol 'God is Born'

E verything you need to know about Christmas is here or will be here soon! While I cannot, single-handed, answer every question you have, the really unusual ones I will try to answer! - questions like the lady who wanted to know how to bring the magic of Santa into the teaching of her 10 month old baby's life without losing the real meaning of Christmas; or the pastor who wanted to know the English meaning of 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo', things which you genuinely cannot find elsewhere after searching the Net - then please Email me and I will answer your question.

See the Table of Contents (T of C) for a look at the structure of this Web site. It can be reached from every Web page by using the "T of C" button that appears at the top left or the 'site map' link at the bottom of the page. There is also a Search facility which can be used to find things within the Christmas Archives' Web site, or on the WWW. Click on Search at the top left of any page.

Christmas Weddings

Planning a wedding soon? Visit the page on Christmas in Mallorca to get some idea of the fantastic traditions there. Christmas begins on 1st December with the Christmas Markets, and the Advent services and Church decorating, and continues through to the 6th January with many of the stunningly decorated churches doing a play about the visit of the Magi, and the performance of the Sibil.la. The following Saturday starts the feast of St Antoni, and then St Sebastian, the city patron. Lots of parades and spectaculars for everyone.
If you would like to have your wedding between December and end January, please visit our sister site, MALLORCA-WEDDINGS.COM - the first company to offer weddings in Mallorca on the net. Fully professional service.

PRIEST HELPLINE This is a sister site set up by Countess Maria, who is a qualified Counselor for Clergy. Her completely confidential helplines for Roman Catholic priests appear on two sites where you can read Maria's credentials and find other counsellors too. One priest helpline is at www.WorldSociety.net, the other priest help line is on the Married Priests' web site at www.marriedpriests.org. This second help-line is frequently overloaded so an e-mail to both might be helpful for quicker response.

Priests are our first port of call when we have a problem - but who helps the priests when THEY in turn have problems. This has been Maria's lifelong work, and now she is offering a voluntary service on the two helplines. Canonical, transitional or left. Unfit, old, young. There is help for you.

WORLD SOCIETY is an interesting new venture. It has been introduced to encompass all those things of interest to the von Staufers, which does not relate directly to Christmas - there is still much work to be done on this site.

If you wish to order Maria's own Christmas titles go to MARIA'S BOOKS on this site to read the reviews and order.

Maria's completely private and confidential Priest Helpline resides on World Society too.Go to World Society and click onto the Christmas Tree baubles to visit these exciting new sites.

You can now also read about a fascinating new ski - SKIRIDER ™ .

Researchers, professors and students note, the Christmas Archives International Web site is growing, and will be maintained all year. The pages will grow, and be more useful. I shall be adding to a page of World Christmas customs which I hope will be the most comprehensive there is - but that is next year! Please visit and enjoy the pages I have prepared for your enjoyment this year............

The exclusive images from the photolibrary are available as Christmas cards. They can be signed by Countess Maria if you want. They can also be printed with your personal message/address etc if you order before mid-November.

To see these cards and for details of how to order, please click onto the photogallery now...


For anyone who likes Christmas and all its customs, but does not share the Christian beliefs, please read on, you will find everything here relating to British Christmas social customs and traditions.

For those who enjoy the whole of Christmas with its Christian elements, this site will please you too, especially when I get all the links sorted out! The Polishworld Site has so many fantastic links, many to religious pages and pictures of the unique Polish Creche, the SZOPKA.

IF YOU HAVE CHRISTMAS INFORMATION TO SHARE

If you have a background from one of the countries of the British Isles, and you have a custom not listed here, I would be delighted to hear about it. contact us

If you would like to share information about Christmas or join the discussion of Christmas resources, history, and web sites, please call back soon when we shall have our very own Forum here.

Here are some of my favourite sites. You will find many more in the pages listed above:

A WORTHY TRIBUTE

This site was originally set up with the enormous help of Walt Howe, whose site on Internet skills you can access here. He is a great guy, and I admit that I could not have done this site without him. Sadly I have not heard from him for two years now, and do not know what happened to him. The site remains a tribute to his patience and many hours of unpaid work on my behalf. I miss him greatly. THANK YOU WALT FOR YOUR GREAT HEART... IT WAS A PLEASURE TO KNOW YOU.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO OUR SPONSORS AND HELPERS

Fees & Subscriptions for Personal and Specific Requests and Information

This site is now being managed by Flash Granny, who has come to my aid. But as I must now pay for the services provided, I regret I shall not be able to continue providing information on request free of charge.

There will be a small donation of $2 or €2 per message answered please.

Once you have made your payment you will be directed to a page where you can ask your question.

These requests take up many hours of my time, which I have given freely up to now, as I enjoy being able to find that elusive bit of information! Sadly I am a working lady, and cannot continue, now this great Internet family has grown so much, to spend anything up to five hours a day answering you all! I think that the small fee is not too much to ask, and any institution or school may subscribe for a small annual fee of £15 or $20. For this fee all your students may request information and be sure of an answer.

($20 annual fee - schools etc)

Information Centres, Media groups etc who will benefit financially themselves from the use of the information, please contact us for a quote which will depend on the level/use of information required..

Thousands of Pages and Links of Free Information

The information which is not subscription-protected and readily available on the site may be used freely PROVIDING A WRITTEN REQUEST IS MADE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT MADE TO THE SITE. I shall continue to upload information, making this site a primary source of material for all educational, religious and social use.

Family-Friendly - No Offensive Material

The site is family friendly and checked through several links deep for offensive material. However as the Internet grows daily, we would be grateful if anyone finding any such material on a link from this site would contact us immediately.

Jinglebell Junction award
Christmas Gifts With Heart Web Site With Heart Award
Proud Winner of the
Christmas Gifts With Heart

Christmas Web Site
With Heart Award

To get in touch with me or share Christmas information, contact us.

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