December 2025
Posted by Penny Musco onPark News
The Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site not only preserves the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but also the center of operations for General George Washington during the Revolutionary War's Siege of Boston.
Every December, the site holds a Holiday Open House, this year on Friday, December 12. Early birds arriving from 1:00-4:00 p.m. (last entry is at 3:45 p.m.) avoid the crowds. Those entering between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. (last entry at 7:45 p.m.) enjoy a luminaria display on the grounds, as well as live harp music.
The following day, Saturday, December 13, free 30-minute Holiday House tours take place beginning at 11:30 a.m. and running every half hour, with the last entry at 2:30 p.m. No-cost reservations are necessary, and they go quickly.
As part of the America’s 250th celebration, the park conducts a series of programs on George Washington, once a month through April of next year.
But back to Longfellow. Among many other poems, he’s known for one he wrote during the dark days of the Civil War, “Christmas Bells.”
Here’s the background to the verses: Longfellow’s oldest son had enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. He received a severe bullet wound, and returned home for a long convalescence.
This sorrow came on top of the death of Longfellow’s wife two years earlier. During that Christmas of 1863, he wrote: “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays! But the dear little girls had their Christmas-tree last night; and an unseen presence blessed the scene.”
The next year, Longfellow penned “Christmas Bells.” The poem not only reflects his family’s but the entire country’s turmoil over the conflict dividing the nation. And it still speaks to us today, as we face personal and national crises, reminding us to listen to the hopeful, joyful ringing of bells, mindful of that “unseen presence" in our lives:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The household born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
December’s subpar parks review
Unless my son-in-law gifts me with a new Subpar Parks calendar, this will wrap up the reviews for 2025. “Mysteriously silent and lonely” is one visitor’s assessment of Kobuk Valley National Park. Perhaps because of its extremely remote location in northern Alaska (no roads go there; for the final leg, you must use an authorized air taxi.) The park’s sand dunes are the largest active ones above the Arctic Circle.
Caribou are usually seen in the fall.
If solitude is your cup of tea, you’ll find it on the trails, floating along the Kobuk River, and camping in the middle of nowhere.
Lots of Inexpensive Christmas titles!
Get Pelican Publishing Group's new Christmas-themed contemporary and historical e-novellas for just $.99!! And, ahem, mine also is on sale for the same price right now. Little treats just for yourself!
The Unseen
“We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Faith in a nutshell.