In Iceland, they celebrate Christmas Eve with a tradition of jólabókaflóð, the âYule Book Flood.â People give books on Christmas Eve and spend the evening reading, preferably with chocolate close at hand. Sounds like a great idea to me!
Itâs easy to have your own Yule Book Flood with Louisiana books this year, which has brought us so many big, beautiful volumes â one good thing to come out of 2020! Visit your favorite indie bookstore â shop local! â and stock up on chocolate. Santa, your book bag runneth over.
Beautiful coffee table books
âAfro-Creole Poetry in French from Louisianaâs Radical Civil War-Era Newspapers: A Bilingual Edition,â translated and introduced by Clint Bruce, with a foreword by Angel Adams Parham (Historic New Orleans Collection, $40) is a fascinating look at the world of the free people of color who contributed poetry to African American newspapers. The introduction is illuminating and draws the reader
Every child, naughty and nice alike, knows that Santa Claus makes his home at the North Pole.
But for a generation of local children, the jolly old elfâs Crescent City headquarters was at Piffetâs, a âvariety and curiosityâ store that, especially during the holidays, was as synonymous with Christmas in 19th-century New Orleans as Mr. Bingle is now.
âThe name was associated with what was considered one of the largest toy stores in the South,â according to a 1922 article in The Times-Picayune. â⦠Promise of a toy from Piffetâs would quiet the most fretful child.â
That 1922 article went on to recount a two-line, only-in-New-Orleans lullaby that was said to be deployed frequently to lull children to sleep: âGo to sleep, baby, and donât you cry; Iâll buy you a toy from Piffetâs by and by.â