An Ounce - For Your Consideration

Christmas Greetings. The way folks seem a bit nicer, and happier at Christmas time. Reaching out to friends and family has seldom been more important than it is today.

 Christmas greetings used to be sent to distant contacts in the form of a Christmas card. It was pretty much the only way. Travel was more difficult, a phone call was expensive, so the Christmas Card was a common and standard way to share a smile with others.

 The first commercially made Christmas card was put together in 1843.  Even today around 1.5 billion old-fashioned Christmas cards are sent each year. 

Unfortunately, It’s a little late to send a card now, Unless you hand-deliver it – with some cookies! That’d be great! Heck, you don’t even need to include the card...

In the words of the entertainer and Storyteller Burl Ives, ‘Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, it’s the best time of the year’ – well it is, except that as a result of live Christmas trees drying out and catching fire there are 10 deaths and just over 15 million dollars in damages every year. SO – Remember to water the tree!

Oh, and just for good measure you should also barware the decorating thing. 

And More....

Why is it that as soon as Halloween is over the Christmas displays show up at the stores? And as soon as Thanksgiving in full swing Christmas music invades the radio stations. 

 It’s not that I’m against these trends, Though it occasionally brings out the humbug in me a bit - I just wonder why all the hype and craziness. 

 Christmas seems to have such a big personality it takes over everything around it.  Because of that Christmas is more than a day – it’s a season.

So, Christmas has become a season I will define for myself. And, I in doing so I have been set at liberty. And, am so much more able to enjoy – or – ignore what the rest of the world is doing.

For me – it is about family, friends, and love. It is about generosity, time, and gratitude. And, whether you are a believer in Christ or not, it is a great season to chose and share joy and kindness.

 So, go on, especially you grinches! 

Chill, stop stressing, opt out of some of the craziness.

Go enjoy the holiday season! 

Do it your way!

Have some fun – celebrate, love, watch football, eat too much!

And, allow others the right to enjoy it their way too.

The Santa we have become familiar with in the US gets around with a very unique, and perhaps archaic, mode of transportation. 

 Santa Clause cruises in an open sleigh pulled by reindeer.

 At first glance, this seeming plodding and obsolete mode of transportation may seem impractical. But, it appears there is something very high-tech or even magical about it that we don’t fully understand.

An early mention of this fantastic mode of transport and delivery was made in 1812 by Washington Irving. While writing a revised version of the ‘Complete History of New York’, Mr. Irving, under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, writes that Sanit Nick rides over the tops of the tress – but he makes no mention of how.

There is s recent tradition that started in the south-eastern United States in the 1900s. I really can’t pin it down any more accurately than that, but I have witnessed it. Allow me to tell you the story.

The Bible account of the Birth of Christ includes visits to the Babe from several folks. The shepherds for one, and then the wise men.  'Wise men come from afar'.  But, there's a little different interpretation of one of the words in that phrase that is injecting a little fun into the nativity. 

Listen for yourself and see what I mean.

At the Birth of Christ in Bethlehem, of Judea, the meridian of time, the event was heralded in many ways. Among them, signs in the heavens such as angelic hosts, and by a New Star.  Well, Something like it is happening again!

Even now those two planets are getting closer together, and remain close through Christmas. Best time to see it. About 45 minutes after sunset in the western sky on December 21st

 Use of a smartphone app (many of which are free), especially one that can pinpoint where You are on the surface of the earth, will help you where to look to see the Christmas star.

 If nothing else, such an amazingly rare phenomenon can help make this a great Christmas, and a great year. There is no one else alive today who can say they have seen this spectacular Christmas miracle with their own eyes. 

She was born way back in 1940. This adorable little black girl was born prematurely. She weighed in at 4 ½ pounds and was the 20th of 22 siblings. Born in the segregated south her future would not be predicted as stellar even if she did survive.

But, survive she did.

She grew from poverty and obscurity - to greatness. Described as gracious and soft-spoken, Skeeter blazed a trail in athletics and in society that cannot be forgotten. 

The satellite Santa Tracker we enjoy now was made possible as the result of a misprint in a newspaper in 1955.

 The once dominating American retailor Sears decided to publish a phone number, in a Christmas ad, for little children to call Santa. The kids could call, with their parents listening in, to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. A much more modern version of the whole writing a letter 2 months ahead so it could get to the North Pole in time.

 Well, as murphy law says, if anything can go wrong it will. And it did. Somehow the phone numbers published in the ad were not the number to call Santa. It was the wrong number. Instead of Santa, the kids had a chance to talk to the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD.

The legend of the Stockings. And, by the way, if you find this one a little misogynistic it not my fault, you’ll have to take it up with the folks who perpetuated the story.

 Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, a very poor man was left to himself providing for 3 daughters. Unfortunately, they lived in poverty and had no money for doweries for the girls, which was apparently a very important thing at the time. Could get them ‘married-off’ without a dowry.

 Generous old St. Nick was aware of this tough situation the poor and aging father of 3 daughters was in, and late one night provided a very generous solution.

Santa Clause – Saint Nick - Has morphed quite a bit over the centuries.

The fourth-century Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas, gave away his abundant inheritance to help the needy, and rescue women from servitude. OK -Generous maybe -but probably he was a pretty sober guy – not what you’d call jolly. 

His name, in Dutch, was Sinter Klaus, which later morphed into Santa Claus, and over time soften into the well-loved character we know in the US.