Santa Lucia, the wheat of Santa Barbara, and other Christmas traditions

It's been a busy month. I've managed to knock out six wholesale orders (I think I'm getting faster at making the cards?) and am working on two more. I stopped by Puces Pop today (I didn't apply this time, since it's in the middle of my wholesale season, but I wanted to check it out), and then I'm going to Toronto on Tuesday for a whirlwind trip to visit and take orders from my wholesale customers there. I'm excited, although I'm not looking forward to the midnight bus trip there - especially with Quebec roads being as bad as they are. Last time, I woke up with blurry vision in one eye. I found out that one of my contacts had fallen out of my eye while I had been sleeping - not fun.

So by now, you're probably wondering what that green bushel is. As some of you may know, I love learning about traditions in other countries. I also love illustrating them in my cards, but apparently I'm the only person who likes them. In spite of this, I did decide to forge ahead with a Provencal Christmas tradition, the wheat of Saint Barbara. These seeds are planted in a small saucer around December 4th and reach their peak at Christmas. You're supposed to tie a red ribbon around the wheat as well.

I also like hearing other people's personal stories behind these traditions. My friend from Marseilles told me that she did this often when she was young,and one year, she decided to continue growing for the wheat after Christmas. By summer, she said, she'd grown a whole ear of wheat!

Another friend of mine from Sweden also told me about the time she was chosen to be Lucia for Christmas (the Santa Lucia card, below, was one of my first Christmas cards. Basically if you've read the American Girl you know what it means, but it's a Scandinavian Christmas tradition where the oldest girl in the family brings her parents buns and hot cocoa Christmas morning, wearing a wreath with candles and singing the Santa Lucia song). Anyway, my friend told me that she was supposed to sing a song, but she was so nervous with the hot candles and dripping wax over her head, that she ended up bursting out in laughter!