Wherever you are around the world, from New Hampshire to New South Wales, Quebec City to Kuala Lumpur, we wish you the merriest this December 25th. Mark is having a quiet Christmas, but he was here last night for what has become an annual tradition at SteynOnline:
CHRISTMAS EVE LESSONS AND CAROLS
with Mark and his guests
Thank you for your many kind comments about the above. As John, a bona fide Kiwi cleric, writes from Christchurch:
After a whole month of Christmas services and Masses for others, I sink into Mark Steyn's Christmas like a warm blanket. Thank you. It's Christmas now.
Thank you, vicar. Thomas Shepstone, a Pennsylvania Steyn Clubber, says:
Absolutely beautiful, Mark! Thank you very much! Merry Christmas!
Bob Loblaw enjoyed the opening number:
Starting off with a Christmas song sung in French was a very nice international touch... beautiful production 🎄
— Bob Loblaw 🇺🇸 (@BobLoblaw555) December 25, 2024
And one more:
Wonderful, as usual. Loved the Bachmans' rendition of We Three Kings especially.
— Linda Edwards (@LindaEd67) December 25, 2024
Many other listeners enjoyed the return of Steyn Show favourites such as Patsy Gallant, Peter Noone and the above-mentioned Randy Bachman to our Christmas Eve observances. Here are Randy and Tal running their carol down on camera:
We congratulate Tal and Randy on becoming the father and grandfather respectively of a brand new baby girl just a few days ago. And, while we are welcoming new life at this joyous season, another Steyn Show mainstay, Eva Vlaardingerbroek (who read the Lord's Prayer on our Christmas broadcast two years ago), evened up the numbers and brought forth a little boy:
Merry Christmas everyone! ❤️
For our family the most wonderful Christmas gift imaginable came early this year: Our beautiful son Filippo Leonard was born on December 19th. We are in good health and so grateful to God. Life has never been more radiant.
Lots of love!
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) December 24, 2024
Nothing like the mewling of newborns on their first Christmas morn. We send all our best wishes to Tal and Koko and Eva and Francesco.
If you're partial to the Bachmans, here they are on last year's Mark Steyn Kinda Christmas Show with some ad hoc takes on seasonal staples that Randy says he only does "for Mark".
On the subject of Christmas music, here's Mark talking to the composer/lyricist Hugh Martin about one of the loveliest ballads in the seasonal songbook:
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Steyn's Serenade Song of the Week
If you like your rhymes without tunes, here's a seasonal entry to Mark's anthology of video poetry (because, at Yuletide as at any other time, video poetry is where the big bucks are):
THE OXEN
by Thomas Hardy
If you've left it too late for a genuine English Plum Duff, here's a délice de Noël that requires rather less preparation time, as long as you have the ingredients to hand. A few years ago, on The Mark Steyn Christmas Show, Denis and Agnès from his favorite boulangerie, the Owl's Bread in Mansonville, Quebec, were bearing Steynwards the gift of a wonderful bûche de Noël when it was seized at the border by the crazed fanatics of US Homeland Security - the ones who let all the rapists and murderers into the country but are right on top of it when it comes to pâtisserie.
But Steyn is not a man to take his dessert orders from the federal government. Click below to watch:
As William Housey tweeted:
Listened, learned, laughed, and imagined eating that French pastry.
Some things shouldn't be left to your imagination, William. Hop in the car and treat yourself to one of Denis' bûches de Noël. It's worth the drive (or flight, or ocean voyage). Two years ago, because of his Yuletide heart attacks, Mark was in southern France for Christmas, and, despite his doctors' advice, was pining for a bûche. As his daughter-nursemaid will confirm, even amidst the glories of Provence he could not find one to match that of Denis and Agnès in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Even though Denis is an authentic Frenchman, that is impressive.
It's become a tradition each December at SteynOnline to offer Christmas editions of our Tales for Our Time audio adventures. Click below to hear Mark reading Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Conan Doyle, O Henry, Jack London, Lucy Maud Montgomery ...and some fellow called Steyn:
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
The Little Christmas Tree
by Mark Steyn
Little Women at Christmas
by Louisa May Alcott
All the World Is Wandering in the Wood
by Stephen Leacock
The Gift of the Magi
by O Henry
A Klondike Christmas
by Jack London
Christmas at Green Gables ...and Beyond
by L M Montgomery
A Merrie Old Christmas
by Washington Irving
Do you like detective fiction with a seasonal twist? Steyn has a couple of Christmas whodunnits for you:
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Queen's Square
by Dorothy L Sayers
And, if all that still leaves you with time on your hands, click on the links below for a cornucopia of Yuletide delights from the Santa Steyn grotto - carols and lessons, movies and memories:
THE PERFECT "PERFECT CHRISTMAS" BOOK
and of course...
BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE
Mark will be back on Boxing Day with a musical special. Don't miss it!
