Hats off!(on)

12/29 fifth day of Christmas Hanging on to Christmas the December pin Micah's mug “I’m hanging on to Christmas,” I tell my friends as we gather for our Wednesday morning conversation. I am a firm believer in celebrating all twelve days and this is just the fifth day. So I’m keeping the Christmas attire going…the red and green Yankee hat I wear every Christmas, and a new addition, it’s a swinging Santa, based on the design by Tod Radom for the December Uniwatch Pin Club.   And I'm drinking from the mug my  then 8 year old son Micah made for Christmas 1992. He wasn't quite ready for Micah so spent some time  calling himself Mike. He grew into Micah soon enough.... I see trees out on the curb already.   My father used to take our tree down during the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.   I’m partial to the older tradition where Christmas   doesn’t begin until the 25th.   And goes on until January 6th when we celebrate the visit of the three kings, or ...

 12/22 ready for Christmas My friends know by now that I do not approve of and will not wear so-called “fashion caps” that put team logos in random colors. I make a general practice with baseball teaks of only wearing hats that are worn in actual games. WIth one notable exception…every year I get out my Christmas Yankee hat in red and green. Just this one time a year and no other. The Christmas exception. Somewhere along the line, “Ugly Christmas sweaters” became a thing. The kitchy middle brow convention meant to add a touch of spirit to the season became a hip ironic affectation until it has once agar achieved give aways (SGAs). In 2015, the local Brooklyn Cyclones, New York Pennsylvania League farm team of the New York Mets, had a Christmas in July with an ugly Christmas sweater jersey sag. It certainly meets the requirements for ugly sweater.   So I have paired my Christmas Yankee cap with my Cyclones jersey.   It’s two days until Christmas.

12/20 advent Purple:   Because Advent Throughout the first three Wednesdays of Advent, for my Hats Off (On) adventures with my group, I featured purple….the traditional liturgical color for Advent. Noting that in my Presbyterian tradition, Advent with its “papist” overtones was a late arriver…only when I was in high school, mid-1960’s did we begin to explore its possibilities. My hat and shirt for the first week were both from the Uni Watch annual Purple Amnesty collection which took a lot of explaining. First, Uni Watch itself and how I got into a blog dedicated to the obsessive study of athletic aesthetics.   I explained how as a kid, I drew and colored every uniform I ever saw in a game I saw. How I continued to do this through high school. There was of course a corollary interest in logos and fonts. I suspect this played a role in my passion for liturgical vestments and their seasonal colors. Almost enough to get me to convert to the Episcopal church. Ultimately, the Angl...