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A Christmas Story

12/28/2020

6 Comments

 
I spent most of December working on a brand new Christmas story, so it was handy to be posting the 'Holiday Smiles for the Day' with older photos all month, since it freed me up to work on the new one.  Enough of the story has been shot now, that with the hectic excitement of Christmas behind us, I can finally present the story here in a more relaxed pace.

The story is inspired by a little book I received in Sunday school some sixty years ago, on the very first Christmas after our family immigrated to Canada. The book was called Better Than Anything Else, written by Dutch, children's author, W.G. van de Hulst. I have always loved fairy tales and fantasy adventure stories, and the simple illustrations always spoke to my imagination.
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Each year I have tried to come up with some new stories for Christmas, and I've always wondered if I could create my version of this one, but much of it needed to be shot in the snow, and snow is never a given in December, and I didn't want to shoot it after Christmas only to wait ten or eleven months to post the story the following year. 

Plus, the main character was a little Princess, and I didn't have any of the other Royal characters I'd need. But with the addition of the Iplehouse FIDs to my collection this past year, I had an entire court of Medieval Royalty, a castle interior, and lots of horses, so I thought now that I actually had all the characters, I might be able to give it a try.  Then, as luck would have it, we had three gorgeous snowfalls the second week of December, that were perfect for all the snowy forest scenes.

​The dolls in this story are playing parts, like characters in a play...
The cast includes.....
Nami,
​as Princess Elora
Monica,
​as her Mother, the Queen
Lawrence,
​as her Father, the King
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Coco, as Hans,
​a boy from the Village
Leona,
​as his Mother
Owen,
​as Hans' Father
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Santa,
​as Nick, the woodcutter
Narae,
​as Nora, his granddaughter
Shadow,
​as Max, their dog
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The story was shot like a full length movie, but in 'still' form, and I will start posting it in short instalments here on my Blog, beginning tomorrow.  Afterwards, it will also be posted in several consecutive albums in Favourite Photos 2020, so it can be read in the proper order in its entirety if you want to revisit it later. 

​I'm really happy with the photos and how the story has come together, and I hope you will enjoy it too.  So stay tuned.....
6 Comments
Dorothy
12/28/2020 09:21:29 pm

Oh my goodness, I am so excited! I always wanted you to do a storybook and now you have. Yeaaa!

I love the backstory of the book. I still have my favorite Little Golden Book from childhood.

Reply
Martha
12/29/2020 06:01:11 am

It's not exactly a "book", but was inspired by one. I just thought it would be nice to do something entirely different for Christmas. Something more in keeping with the reason for the season. No Santas, no elves, no reindeer.

Reply
Andries Hibma link
12/29/2020 04:15:22 am

Hello, I read your interesting memories of Better than anything else. Magnificent. I have placed a link to my internet site www.wgvandehulst.com for all the lovely books. Kind regards, Andries Hibma

Reply
Martha
12/29/2020 06:05:18 am

The basic story always inspired me as a child. I loved Fantasy and adventure, and this book had an entirely new take on Christmas - the reason for the season, but in a fantasy story.

I didn't even bother to read the book before starting with my photo project, preferring instead to just work with my memories of it from decades ago. So the basic story is similar, but with all kinds of my own, new added details.

Reply
Donna
12/30/2020 12:01:54 am

I love the story behind your story, and the way you've presented your cast of characters. It's lovely too to have a story that presents the reason for the season.

Reply
Martha
12/31/2020 07:37:25 am

Thank you.

Reply



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    Author

    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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