I have five unique choices as gift recommendations for Christmas, comprising two cellos, two violins, and one piano. 1. I became aware of my first choice in late spring thanks to reader Frida Peeple. After reading my essay on Vivaldi’s cello concertos, she mentioned Croatian-Slovenian Luka Šulić’s Vivaldi project. I have since waited impatiently for [...]
Whenever The Imaginative Conservative asks me for Christmas gift recommendations, I think of P.G. Wodehouse. “The first rule in buying Christmas presents,” Wodehouse wrote, “is to select something shiny.” Why? “Because the wariest person will often mistake shininess for expensiveness.” […]
Christmas reads can be described in pairs it seems—single stories and collections, old and new, for readers young and old. You may have a few of these on your shelves, or you may be looking for gift ideas, a way to invest in the imagination, in the heart, or both. […]
It’s that time again. Another year is wending its way to a close and we’re all preoccupied with preparations for Christmas. This being so, I thought I’d offer my personal selection of books, published in 2019, which I feel would make good gifts for those imaginative conservatives in our lives. […]
For this Christmas, I suggest you buy your Imaginative Conservative a sapling tree. That tree could be a blue spruce that might grow up to be, even more literally, a “Christmas tree” someday, but it can also be a shade tree or a tree that will produce nuts for wildlife or fruit for the family [...]
Toys should reflect the innocent desire of children to know God by admiring His Creation. They should spark the imagination to desire marvelous and wondrous things. They should ultimately lead to the love of God and a desire for Heaven. For those agonizing over what to buy this Christmas for their toddlers, the wait may [...]
“Go on to the Useless Presents.” I think of that line often at Christmastime. It comes from Dylan Thomas’s “A Child Christmas in Wales.” A young boy implores the narrator to describe the kinds of gifts he received as a child. When the boy tires of hearing about the “Useful Presents”—scarves, hats, and such—he interrupts [...]
This Christmas I’m taking a leap of the imagination into the home of a family of imaginary conservatives. It is Christmas morning and I arrive, as if by magic, down the chimney, just as the family is gathering round the tree. Dusting myself off, I announce myself as the family’s long lost relative, Uncle Digory [...]
In this glorious season, I suggest you give the gift of a fine writing instrument. No imaginative conservative will be disappointed in receiving a new pen, which he can use to conserve the permanent things. As I reflected on our annual assignment of suggesting gifts for our imaginative conservative brothers and sisters, I struggled with [...]
Not unlike the times of Our Lord, we live in the paradox of a world in disorder yet under the appearance of order. Beneath the veneer of optimism and prosperity, many people experience lives of trial and suffering due to the lifestyles of frenetic intemperance they have adopted. […]
Imaginative conservatives love words, but we’re not an effete bunch, no sir. We know that the pen is mightier than the sword—but we respect swords, too. I suspect that our ancestors were better prepared for Christmas than we tend to be. Unless you’re the sort of person who breathlessly anticipates the holy day, like we [...]
Christmas gift recommendations are one thing, but what if I took you shopping for all things bookish? In the space of half-an-hour, we can visit five unique shops and spend as little or as much as we like without even buying a book. […]
It has been quipped that every man wants to be James Bond and every woman wants to be with him. If you really want to know James Bond you need to read Ian Fleming’s novels. They are ripping good adventure stories, just like the movies. However, the literary Bond also has a lot more seriousness [...]
Father Christmas and the Christian father share a domestic priesthood that presides over the Christmas mysteries. Christmas calls on fathers far and wide to take up the books of Christmas, to draw their children into a ring round fire or tree to be read to... When St. Nick drives his miniature sleigh full of toys drawn [...]