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Poetry, Stories and More, below something new every day
Gift Ideas and Western Christmas Books and Music for 2006 (separate page)
Poetry, Stories and More
See our 2006 Christmas Cowboy Poetry below
Our Christmas Art Spur project has a collection of poems inspired by
Jo Lynne Kirwood's drawing, "Bringing Home Christmas." Links to those poems are included below.
See a complete list with links to all the holiday poems posted starting in 2000 here.
You can view the yearly collections of classic and modern Christmas Cowboy Poetry from previous years: 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000.
The December 1 deadline has passed for Christmas and Art Spur poems submissions and for New Year toasts.
Features and More
Gift Ideas and Western Christmas Books and Music for 2006
Our ninth Art Spur piece offered to "spur" the imagination, as part of Christmas at the BAR-D, is poet, writer, and teacher Jo Lynne Kirkwood's drawing, "Bringing Home Christmas." Poems will be added during the season. Read more, along with the poems here.
There is a special edition of Jeri Dobrowski's Cowboy Jam Session column, with her extensive review of a new DVD, BULLRIDER, "a documentary on the winning-and-losing, living-and-dying world of Professional Bull Riders..." Read the review here.
The regular December, 2006 edition of Cowboy Jam Session is the second of a two-part series of "Rounding up Western Gifts." Some of her recommendations for under the tree include Ken Overcast’s recent CD, Montana in My Soul; Doris Daley's cowboy poetry CD, Good for What Ails You; and Wylie & the Wild West's award-winning Live! At the Tractor.
Read the December, 2006, column here.
In part one, the November, 2006 edition, some suggestions include Jane Morton's award-winning book Turning to Face the Wind, poetry about her family's Colorado ranch; Texas singer and songwriter Jean Prescott's new CD about—and mostly co-written with—ranch women, Sweethearts in Carhartts; the art of North Dakota's Western artist Kaye Burian, whose "Living the Legacy" painting was commissioned by the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association for their 75th anniversary; and more. Read the November, column here.
Cowboy Jam Session also appears in the Tri-State Livestock News and Cowboy Troubadour. Jeri Dobrowski welcomes submissions for consideration. Books, CDs, videos and event announcements should be sent to Jeri L. Dobrowski, Cowboy Jam Session, 1471 Carlyle Road, Beach, ND 58621. You can contact her at 406-795-8168 or by email.
more to come ...
Visit our Pards
For a number of years, for many, a part of Christmas at the BAR-D has been a visit to first Lariat Laureate Rod Nichols' dazzling presentation of his poem, "Christmas Comes to Line Camp," at his web site, in a special "web book" with music and entrancing graphics.
For 2006, Rod has added two additional books: "Little Britches, A Christmas Story," and "Christmas Poems," a collection of twelve of his Christmas poems.
Visit all three of Rod's Christmas books here.
Cowboy Miner Productions, publishers of the classic cowboy poetry of Bruce Kiskaddon, S. Omar Barker, and Henry Herbert Knibbs and others, along with many contemporary poets, has a holiday specials on many of their books. See the Cowboy Miner web site for details.
Marvin O'Dell presents two weeks' shows of Western music and cowboy poetry with a focus on Christmas, on his Around the Campfire show for the weekends of December 16 and December 23, 2006. The three-hour show is broadcast four times a weekend on the internet's Classic Heartland.
Among the featured artists for first weekend's shows are Dick Morton, Jean Prescott, Gene Autry, Stampede!, Michael Martin Murphey, Stephanie Davis, Tex Ritter, and many others. The second weekend features Curly Musgrave, Belinda Gail, Eli Barsi, R. W. Hampton, Jane Morton, Chris Isaacs, Dave Watson, Baxter Black, and many more poets and musicians.
See our feature about Around the Campfire here. See the show's playlists here at Classic Heartland.
Clear Out West (C. O. W.) radio has a Christmas program full of cowboy poetry and Western music that will air on the web starting December 26, 2006 (the show is broadcast on the radio the previous week). The program is broadcast to many radio stations and available for listening on demand from the Clear Out West web site.
Featured on the special Christmas show will be: Jean Prescott: "A Cowgirls Christmas Wish"; Chris Isaacs: "A Cowboy Christmas Prayer" by S. Omar Barker; R. W. Hampton: "Long Canyon Christmas"; Doris Daley: "Christmas in Alberta"; Don Edwards: "Every Day is Christmas in the West"; Waddie Mitchell: "A Cowboy's Night Before Christmas"; Yvonne Hollenbeck: "Old Fashioned Christmas"; and more.
Hosts Jim and Andy Nelson received the Western Music Association's 2006 Top Radio DJ's Award (previously, they've been named the Top Radio DJ's by the Academy of Western Artists).
See our feature about Clear Out West (C. O. W.) here. See the show's playlists here at the Clear Out West web site.
[photo by Stuart Johnson]
From host Chris Turner:
Comfort Food, Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes for Your Mind, Wyoming and the West's only live comedy and musical variety show is proud to welcome a very special holiday guest, Saturday, December 23, 2006. Senator Alan Simpson will perform the holiday classic... "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" joining Senator Al as our musical guest will be the Yellowstone Women's Barbershop Harmony Chorus. This week on Comfort Food the Comfort Food staff has written letters to Santa, The Heck's Angels have a special Christmas gift for Cody, Bob Crachet has a special request and more! Comfort Food is hosted by Chris Turner and heard live on KODI 1400am and KZMQ 1140am from 9-10am Saturday mornings. The show is performed before a live audience at the world famous Irma Hotel in downtown Cody Wyoming and admission is free... so come on down and take a bite out of Christmas.
See our feature about Comfort Food here. Listen to archived broadcasts at the show's web site, where you'll also find information about upcoming shows, photos, links, and more.
The C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, presents "Christmas with Charlie and Nancy," through January, 2007. The Museum describes the exhibit:
These wonderful holiday pieces are only seen once a year! Enjoy original Christmas letters, cards and notes sent by Charlie and Nancy Russell to close friends, in particular the Trigg family. Written and illustrated by Charlie Russell, these personal treasures of the past are part of the Museum's permanent collection, which boasts the most complete collection of Russell's Christmas works.
The C. M. Russell Museum web site includes information about Charlie Russell and about exhibits, events and more. The Museum Shop shop offers bronze reproductions, books, cards, and special Christmas items. Visit the C. M. Russell Museum web site for more information.
[image courtesy C. M. Russell Museum; further reproduction prohibited]
"A Cowboy Christmas," the December 20, 2007 show on the Heritage of the American West! stage, brings three rodeo legends together for a one-of-a-kind performance of the music, poetry and song of the Great American Cowboy. Multiple world bareback title holders and ProRodeo Hall of Famer's Bruce Ford and Marvin Garrett are joined by retired NFR pickup man Bill Larsen, also well known in cowboy poetry circles.
The pre-show exhibit and reception features "The History of Rodeo in the Black Hills" including the Russ Madison Collection. Madison started each of the three major PRCA rodeos in the Black Hills that are still in existence today. The show is also promoting raising scholarship money for the Black Hills Rodeo Scholarship Fund that benefits students attending Black Hills State University in Spearfish and who are members of the Yellow Jackets Rodeo Club.
See "A Cowboy Christmas" (pdf) for more information. And tune in on show night at Heritage of the
American West, live on the web, 7PM MT.
Produced and hosted by Francie Ganje, the show brings top talent from across the West to an appreciative audience. The show takes place before a live audience at the High Plains Heritage Center in Spearfish, South Dakota and is broadcast simultaneously on the web (archived web broadcasts are available).
See our feature about the Heritage of the American West here.
What better way to keep the spirit than by supporting the BAR-D with your donation? The holiday season is a good time to make a memorial donation in honor of someone who valued our Western heritage, to show your own commitment in a meaningful way, or to renew your annual support.
Our supporters sustain CowboyPoetry.com and make possible programs such as Cowboy Poetry Week, the Rural Library Project, and The BAR-D Roundup. There'd be no CowboyPoetry.com and no Cowboy Poetry Week or other programs without the essential support from those who care enough to make a difference.
Won't you join the others with your support?
Our not-for-profit organization, the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, Inc., sponsors the work we do at CowboyPoetry.com and our other programs. We've received generous donations of $10 and donations of $1000; and we are grateful for them all.
Read
some of our
supporters' comments
here,
visit the Wall of Support, and join in
and be a part of it all!
If you value CowboyPoetry.com, please give us your support. With your support, we can sustain the web site and continue to bring you our many features, expand some of those efforts, and take on new projects as we continue to work together toward our shared goals.
You can make a donation by check or money order, by mail (please use the form here for mail to PO Box 330444, San Francisco, CA 94133) or by a secure, on-line credit card payment through PayPal (a PayPal account is not required):
CowboyPoetry.com is a project of The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, a tax-exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Act. Contributions to the Center are fully deductible for federal income tax purposes.
As in all journalistic endeavors, no editorial preference is given to financial sponsors or supporters.
Daily Posts
Something
every day, along with selected classic and
contemporary favorites from past years' celebrations
December 2006
1st In what's become a tradition at the BAR-D, we start the season by sharing a modern classic, a BAR-D favorite, Christmas Waltz, by Buck Ramsey. That poem seems perfectly paired with Jane Morton's few spare lines, which multiply in the spirit they evoke, in her poem Memories of Place.
2nd Hal Swift tells of a Christmas Hayride, and from a past Christmas, we have Yvonne Hollenbeck's Virginia, I Believe.
3rd The classic A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer by S. Omar Barker fits a first Advent Sunday, along with C. W. Bell's Two Burros.
4th We have The Christmas Trail by Badger Clark—a classic in every sense—and, from a past Christmas, a tribute to the master from Rod Nichols in A Badger Clark Christmas. Mike Puhallo adds to the mix with this week's "Meadow Muffin," Merry Procrastination?.
5th Slim McNaught offers A Christmas Thought, which goes well with a classic by Canada's Rhoda Sivell, Happy Days, and from a past Christmas celebration with Country Christmas by Sam Jackson.
6th Today's poetry comes from the north side of the Medicine Line. British Columbia's Mag Mawhinney paints a picture with her Winter Range, a fine companion to Albertan Doris Daley's A Christmas Prayer, from an earlier Christmas at the BAR-D.
7th Santa shows up today in two poems from the Upper Great Plains: South Dakotan Don Hilmer's The One Runnered Sleigh, and Montanan DW Groethe's A Charlie Creek Christmas, from a past Christmas posting at the BAR-D. And Santa also makes an appearance in an Australian classic, Banjo Patterson's Santa Claus in the Bush.
8th S. Omar Barker wrote of Shepherds of the Range, a poem that makes a good mate to Joyce Johnson's A Lonely Christmas.
S. Omar and Elsa Barker
photo © S. Omar Barker, reprinted with the permission of the estate of S. Omar Barker,
further reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited.
9th A variety of poems celebrate the season: Angel in the Window by Jack Burdette; A Christmas to Remember by J. S. Hurst; The Ol' Man In Red by Ted Risberg; Cowboy Pirate of the Rio Grande: A Christmas Treasure Tale by David Althouse; and No Room at the Inn by Al Mehl.
10th We have a number of poems for a Christmastime Sunday: A Cowboy's Christmas Thoughts by Bobbie Hunter; Just Celebrating by Gail T. Burton; Iowa 1842 by Jim Cardwell; and In Every Cowboy Heart by Catherine Lilbit Devine.
11th Bruce Kiskaddon's poem, The Christmas Tree, goes well with our Christmas Art Spur, with poems inspired by Jo Lynne Kirkwood's drawing of "Bringing Home Christmas." The first two poems are The Kissin' Tree, by Slim McNaught and Bringing Home Christmas, by Yvonne Hollenbeck.
12th Cowboy artist and writer Will James (1892-1942) wrote about cowboys and Christmas in his 1927 book, All in a Day's Riding, in a piece called "The Cowboy Calendar; December—The Winter Camp." Favorite South Dakota poet Elizabeth Ebert shares a poem, Mitten Christmas, that simply sparkles.
13th Written over a half century apart, both S. Omar Barker's Empty Saddles at Christmas and Robert Dennis' Art Spur poem, Bringing Home Christmas, pay tribute to Americans serving their country.
14th We have two favorites from past BAR-D Christmas celebrations, from two Arizonan's: Carole Jarvis' Desert Cowboy's Christmas and Audrey Hankins' Christmas at the Ranch. Paul Kern's Art Spur poem is Bring 'Er Home, and Glen Enloe carries on yesterday's theme as he writes about a Blue Moon Christmas.
15th Arthur Chapman's classic Christmas Shopping at Cactus Center is full of the town's usual mischievous spirit. Two poets share their annual poems: Rodney Nelson's Up Sims Creek was written to readers of his regular column, and Chuck Larsen's The Makin' of Christmas is his 2006 Christmas poem. For Art Spur, Al Mehl contributes A Cuttin' Horse and Don Hilmer offers Bringing Christmas Home.
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6th Today's assortment of poetry includes an old BAR-D favorite, Jay Snider's Santa's Helper and new poems: Clark Crouch's Christmas Wish; Lincoln Rogers' Christmas Message; John Silveira's Cowboy Christmas; and Donna Penley's The Christmas Tree Angels.
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7th It's a Yuletide Sunday full of poems, starting with a favorite selection from a past BAR-D Christmas celebration, Michael Henley's The Gate Cut. And there are new poems: Deanna Dickinson McCall's Gifts in the Hay; Jody Strand's Shepherds; Tamara Hillman's Cowboy/Country Christmas; Ken Whitecotton's A Christmas Tale, and an Art Spur poem from Clark Crouch, Christmas Blew In.
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8th From a Christmas past, Jane Morton tells about Christmas Turkeys (also the subject of today's Picture the West) ranch and we have another old favorite from Virginia Bennett, Ramona's Christmas Box. Paul Kern's impressive A Cowboy Country Christmas includes photos; and Rod Miller's Stopping By Woods has a unique take on the Art Spur theme.
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9th Today's selections start with a BAR-D favorite classic, "that lively gaited sworray," The Cowboys' Christmas Ball, written by Larry Chittenden in the 1890s. Jo Lynne Kirkwood's beautifully expressed, illustrated poem, Christmas in the County, comes from her 2006 Christmas card; her 2005 illustration is the subject of our Christmas Art Spur. Diane Tribitt adds her elegantly written Bringing Home Christmas to the Art Spur poems.
20th A classic S. Omar Barker poem from the Cowboy Miner collection, Draggin' the Tree, fits with our Art Spur theme. We have a favorite from a past Christmas, Bob Schild's Santa Comes Calvin', and Bob's good friend Pat Richardson has a new holiday poem, Here's to the Cowboys. Joyce Johnson shares a ranch story in her Art Spur poem, Bringing Home Christmas.
21st Poet, writer, and cowboy D. J. O'Malley wrote Busted Cowboy's Christmas in 1893. We have two old favorites from previous BAR-D Christmas celebrations: Colen Sweeten's Christmas Beneath the Stars and Dennis Gaines' Jim Quarternight's Gift. Rodney Nelson offers an evocative Christmas poem, Christmas on the Prairie, and Rod Nichols' Art Spur poem, Bringing Home Christmas, speaks to the spirit of the season.
22nd Robert Service wrote about The Trapper's Christmas Eve, and, in his best-known poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, the action takes place on Christmas. A line from "The Cremation of Sam McGee," inspires Michael Henley's Art Spur poem, The Promise. Jane Morton's poem considers The Spirit of Christmas.
23rd Will James' comment about how " Christmas comes as just another day" for working cowboys echoes in today's selections, in S. Omar Barker's Three Wise Men, Alf Bilton's Even on Christmas Day, and in a special BAR-D favorite from a past Christmas celebration, J. W. Beeson's Christmas Serenade.
24th We welcome Christmas Eve with Rod Nichols' The Christmas Corral and LaVonne Houlton's Joseph, along with a special selection from another Christmas at the BAR-D, The Star and a Humble Cowboy, by Dee Strickland Johnson ("Buckshot Dot").
This year's Christmas Art spur was graced with Jo Lynne Kirkwood's drawing, "Bringing Home Christmas," and it comes to a close with her own poem, Mesquite Magi.
And, a special note from a friend of the BAR-D seemed just right to share on Christmas Eve, which is also a time we remember those lost to us this year, including John M. Janssen, Charley Hendren, Roberta Green, Bill Ramsey, Joe Beeler, Glen Rafuse, Sidney Connell, Jake Copass, Stan Remick, Buck Page, Kevin O'Farrell, Michael Raymond Murphy, Jim Martin, and Suzie and Tressa; along with all the friends and poets no longer with us... but never forgotten.
25th Merry Christmas! We ring in the day below with Bruce Kiskaddon's classic poem, "The Old Time Christmas" and the late Joelle Smith's image of "Santa Claus."
Our weekly Picture the West feature has a photo from Diane Tribitt's ranch and her Christmas message.
From the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry and CowboyPoetry.com, we send out our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, hopes for Peace on Earth, and our thanks to you all—readers and writers alike—for being a part of the BAR-D.
The Old Time Christmas
I liked the way we used to do,
when cattle was plenty and folks was few.
The people gathered frum far and near, and
they barbacued a big fat steer.
The kids tried stayin' awake because,
they reckoned they might ketch Santa Claus.
Next mornin' you'd wake 'em up to see,
what he'd been and put on the Christmas tree.
It was Christmas then fer the rich and pore,
and every ranch was an open door.
The waddy that came on a company hoss
was treated the same as the owner and boss.
Nobody seemed to have a care,
you was in among friends or you wasn't there.
For every feller in them days knew
to behave hisself as a man should do.
Some had new boots, which they'd shore admire
when they warmed their feet in front of the fire.
And the wimmin folks had new clothes too,
but not like the wimmin of these days do.
Sometimes a drifter came riding in,
some feller that never was seen agin.
And each Christmas day as the years went on
we used to wonder where they'd gone.
I like to recall the Christmas night.
The tops of the mountains capped with white.
The stars so bright they seemed to blaze,
and the foothills swum in a silver haze.
Them good old days is past and gone.
The time and the world and the change goes on.
And you cain't do things like you used to do
when cattle was plenty and folks was few.
Bruce Kiskaddon, from Western Poems, 1935
Santa Claus
© 1999, by Joelle Smith. Used with the kind permission of Sally Smith and Rosenbo Print Company
Further duplication prohibited.
A Special Year-end Message
This past year, did you find something at CowboyPoetry.com that interested you? Did you visit for poetry, news, event information, features? Was your own poem included at the BAR-D? Was your local gathering announced, or were you a part of a gathering report? Did we share your news with our many readers?
If so, please consider a renewal of your support, or make your first donation, perhaps in memory of someone who valued our Western heritage.
All that happens at the BAR-D is made possible by the essential contributions of generous supporters: CowboyPoetry.com; Cowboy Poetry Week and its annual Western art poster; The BAR-D Roundup compilation CD; and the Rural Library Project that distributes posters and CDs to rural libraries. We've received generous donations of $10 and donations of $1000; and we are grateful for them all.
Please give us your support, which will let us continue to bring you our many features and programs.
the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, PO Box 330444, San Francisco, CA 94133) or by a secure, on-line credit card payment through PayPal (a PayPal account is not required):You can make a donation by check or money order, by mail (please use the form here for mail to
CowboyPoetry.com is a project of The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, a tax-exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Act. Contributions to the Center are fully deductible for federal income tax purposes.
As in all journalistic endeavors, no editorial preference is given to financial sponsors or supporters.
Read
some of our
supporters' comments
here,
visit the Wall of Support, and join in
and be a part of it all!
Christmas Events
See our complete Events list here
and
Voleta Hummel's Western Music calendar hereBelow are dates and announcements we've received for holiday events; most are from the event organizers...
through December 9, 2006
Nation Finals Rodeo (NFR) Cowboy Christmas Gift Show Las Vegas, Nevada
December 1, 2 8, & 9, 2006
A Christmas to Remember Wild West World, Valley Center, Kansas
December 1-3, 2006
The 18th Annual Cowboy Christmas Poetry Gathering Wickenburg, ArizonaRead Rusty Calhoun's report on the 2001 event
Read Yvonne Hollenbeck's report on the 2004 event
December 1-3, 2006
Christmas at Fort Concho San Angelo, Texas
December 1-3, 2006
see news story here
Old Fashioned Cowboy Christmas Medora, North Dakota
December 2, 2006
Oroville Frontier Christmas Oroville, California
December 2, 2006
Buffalo Bill Historical Center Holiday Open House Cody, Wyoming
December 7-10, 2006
5th Annual Sass Convention and Wild West Christmas Las Vegas, Nevada
December 8, 2006
Country Christmas Cabaret Kamloops, British Columbia
December 8, 2006
Michael Martin Murphey's Cowboy Christmas Ball
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
December 9, 2006
Booth Cowboy Christmas Cartersville, Georgia
December 9, 2006
Comfort Food Radio Christmas Special Cody, Wyoming
December 12, 2006
Riders in the Sky Christmas Show Wild West World, Valley Center, Kansas
December 15, 2006
Larry Chittenden Cowboy Celebration Anson, Texas
See our feature on Larry Chittenden and his famous poem here
December 15-16, 2006
Annual Cowboy Christmas Ball Alto, New Mexico
December 16-18, 2006
Around the Campfire Radio Christmas Show
see more above
December 17, 2006
Curly's Cowboy Christmas Victorville, California
December 20, 2006
Heritage of the American West Cowboy Christmas Show Spearfish, South Dakota
Live on the web, 7PM MT
see more aboveSee our feature about the Heritage of the American West here.
December 23, 2006
see more above
Comfort Food Radio Christmas Show Cody, Wyoming
December 23-25, 2006
Around the Campfire Radio Christmas Show
see more above
December 26, 2006
Clear Out West (C. O. W.) Radio Christmas Show Pinedale, Wyoming
see more above
With special remembrance of those who left us this year... Bill Ramsey, Joe Beeler, Glen Rafuse, Sidney Connell, John M. Janssen, Charley Hendren, Jake Copass,
Stan Remick, Buck Page, Kevin O'Farrell, Michael Raymond Murphy, Jim Martin, Roberta Greenand
Suzie and Tressa
See the links above for holiday news and more; our regular News Since the Last Newsletter is here.
See a complete list of all the holiday poems posted since 2000 here.
See the list of all the poems at the BAR-D here.
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