Softening the Season
The quiet hopefulness of humble flannel
Like last Christmas, I asked Wendy Elizabeth Williams to collaborate to write about Christmas traditions, this time about flannel and it’s place in everyday lives way back when. She has a second writing passion about fashion and fabric, you see, and I’m fascinated by this slightly more frivolous side of her writing, wanting to integrate her wonderful fashion talents into a Christmas story to remember. As is often the case, while compiling this post a pattern emerged where I felt like I wanted to respond to her thoughts, so I’ve interspersed my additions and commentary with her writing, making a pleasant conversational presentation we think you’ll love. My thoughts are italicized and hers are not. Thank you, Wendy, for giving us this gift. Merry Christmas friend.
Life is such a strange juxtaposition! Here I am, trying to write a collaborative Christmas piece on winter flannel pajamas, with my fellow Substack writer Cori Bren, and Holy Spirit, my writing coach, Who never leads me off into a ditch...leads me to...a WW2 photograph of USA 82nd Airborne Division troops during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944!! More on that in a moment.
For me, cotton flannel is the most comforting of all fabrics, being soft, cozy and soothing, hence why so often used in pajamas for cold weather. Little kids especially like flannel pjs. Winter is a hibernating time, yes?
Yes it is, Wendy. As a child, our family had a tradition of buying all 6 of us kids new flannel pajamas for Christmas. It was the one gift we were allowed to open on Christmas Eve, and so special because we got it early. We slept Christmas Eve away peacefully in their warm, cozy embrace. These weren’t made of today’s thin ‘ghost’ of flannel, but were thick and warm and heavy - like a brushed cotton hug. The photo below is us in our pajamas at Christmas 1969, before my brother was born. Forgive the condition of the photo. Am I the only one who’s hesitant to hand a family photo collection off to strangers to scan and restore? More like terrified. What if they accidentally destroy the originals?! No, thank you!
Look at the cover photo again. This war photo intrigued me when I first found it. There are a handful of US troops, in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, sitting around a campfire at night. The striking thing is...three of the soldiers, weapons at the ready, are SMILING, one with an especially broad grin on his face. The starkness is overwhelming. WHY would soldiers amidst a brutal battle, be smiling??
The cover version of this photo was found at The American Warrior site, in a post by John R. Bruning about the Battle of the Bulge and the almost inhuman, heroic efforts of the 82nd Airborne paratroopers to strategically turned the tide. I found it riveting.
Only I could come up with a question like this!
They could be miles away with from families who are putting little ones to bed, in warm flannel jammies...thinking about Christmas, amidst a terrible reality of war...or even planning to flee...
After reading John’s post, I share Wendy’s wonderings. Looking into it further, although flannel was hugely popular as a winter fabric, in 1944 the underclothes for both soldiers and civilians in the US and Europe were made of cotton or light wool. The wool was course to increase durability and lower cost. So, I’m not surprised that sleepwear was commonly made of flannel, which must have felt like pure love to the skin after the scratchier reality of those wools. Even now, many use flannel bedding in winter. I know I absolutely LOVE the plaid flannel duvet cover I bought this year. It came from Germany and is the softest, heaviest flannel I’ve ever encountered. It’s become my new favorite winter item.
Being the deep Christian and philosopher that I am...I began to simmer on the reality of war and the defense of freedom and innocence...and a battle fought close to Christmas.
Little kids love the presents under the tree...and hope for toys...and sometimes warm comforting flannel PJs!
Certainly people lived in the Ardennes Forest...and little persons and big persons wondering why the chaos descending??
I think of this huge battle, launched by Nazi Germany in Dec. 1944, in the beautiful Ardennes Forest of Belgium, where ordinary people lived, moms and dads and little ones in warm winter pajamas, with artillery screaming through the trees and I cannot comprehend the starkness of this lust for power...
And yet, there is the photo of the US 82nd Airborne soldiers smiling around a campfire amidst horrible war and disruption! How do humans get through this madness??
It’s been powerfully amazing to me how men of that period ran into the fire in defense of life. How many volunteered during WWII? 6.3 million of the 16 million US soldiers who served during this war were volunteers. To put that into perspective, the US population grew to 140 million by the end of the war. 12% served with roughly a third of them being volunteers. This group of smiling soldiers, sitting around the fire under what anyone would consider completely hopeless circumstances, went on to make a difference in that battle, which contributed to making a difference to the war, and therefore a difference to the WORLD - in that dark, cold, forest preparing to do what must be done without the support the allies planned for the campaign. It’s staggeringly human - brave beyond common comprehension, scratchy ill-fitting clothing juxtaposed against the loving flannel-warmed sleep in store for the families left behind at home.
I who have lost family members to war... cling to the humble routines of daily life and most importantly, to the Prince of Peace, at His humble birth in an animal stable, no room at the inn, indeed.
Too many of us have no room for the things of God in our lives...busy pursuing stuff and more stuff and influence and business as war.
Can we not, even for one day, set down our pursuit of stuff and remember God Who came down into this mess with all of us, amidst the human wars and became the prince of peace?
As a large family we didn’t have money for many gifts, and for many years there were no gifts at all. But, cutting the tree together, baking cookies, playing albums of Christmas carols, watching the silent blanketing of the world around us by new winter snow, hearing the Christmas story at the little church near us, and slipping into the warm love of flannel pajamas was the ‘stuff’ our Christmas magic was made of.
We certainly and desperately need God, now more than ever. Battles still rage, yes...but there are pockets of comfort, including God and His Son, little campfires in the dark, warm flannel pajamas and shared smiles.
Hold tight to your “pockets of comfort”. Merry Christmas from us to you. Share the Word and the love with everyone in your circle. Forget the seasonal platitudes, now at this moment in history, humanity needs the peace, the joy, and the hope that emanates from unconditional love. Bless you.
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Check out our Christmas story from last winter.
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Cori and Wendy, you had me in tears. I absolutely love this and what a blessing you both are. Wish I had seen this over Christmas, but alas, we were traveling in an old van to a small, humble Christmas tree farming town, in Oregon, to spend it with family. Which is, indeed, everything under the heavens. God, His family, our family, and love in it's simplest form. I love material too, textiles, etc., and completely related to the flannel pajamas, the warmth in the cold of days and war. Doesn't seem to end. But God continues to give us the ability to feel His wonder in beautiful, not so random ways. Thank you for this.
Wendy, you are cool! I enjoyed this!