This will be our second year decorating a Yule log. Last year, I got out all of my collage supplies and we made a really beautiful log with all sorts of glittery adornments and sparkly ribbons. It wasn’t until we got ready to put a match to it that someone (and it certainly wasn’t me…) suggested that just maybe all that plastic-y stuff might put out some pretty noxious fumes. Good point. So—we undecorated most of our log prior to burning it. Lesson learned.
I wanted to post the photo we took of it (before un-doing it) because it really was beautiful. So I looked in my highly organized filing system (which is to say, the bin under the table in the spare bedroom where I toss everything that I’m going to organize soon…someday…eventually…maybe, hopefully before I die…) but strangely enough, wasn’t able to put my hands on it. So I guess you‘ll just have to take my word for it.
Anyway, now with the benefit of that experience, this is how I recommend you do it: [Read more...]
On Christmas Eve in 1966, the president of WPIX-TV in New York, Fred Thrower did the unthinkable. For three hours—commercial free—he aired footage of a fire burning in a fireplace. He didn’t have much good programming on tap anyway, so he made the decision to show a close up of a cheery fireplace, complete with Christmas stockings and a flaming Yule log as a “Christmas card” to his viewers, and particularly those apartment dwelling New Yorkers with no fireplaces of their own.
There are plenty of recipes out there for Yule logs. The trouble is, most of them are jellyroll-type cakes, which means you have to do the whole “roll the still-warm cake up in a towel” thing to get the right shape, etc. It seems like a lot of trouble, and I’m always afraid I won’t do it right and the cake will break… In short, the whole thing was just too intimidating for me.
Those cold gray winter days can get you down, no question. We’ve recognized that for a long time, calling it “cabin fever” or the “winter blues.” And now, at least in its most serious state, there’s an official term for it: seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Associated with depression and seasonal variations of light, SAD is believed to affect some half a million people between September and April. 
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? When we’re trying to make our way out of a long, dark space, that’s what we all want to know, isn’t it? And that, in essence, is what the tradition of the Yule log is all about…
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