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Based upon real events in a blizzard at Bensalem, Pennsylvania, Christmas Eve, December 24, 1776, and the diary of Captain Thomas Rodney, who was there. I was there in a blizzard, too—But, 238 years later—so I could see for myself….Thomas Bonsall, Colonial militiaman, slogged though a blizzard toward the Delaware River. He’d cross with the others and attack Trenton from the rear in a military pincers movement. Speeches made by his officers had been rousing and the cause was just. He’d fight, they’d called out, “For freedom, boys! For freedom, and America!” It sleeted in the faces of the Colonials,...

Many people this holiday season will experience the joy of attending a local performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It’s the most implausible American tradition imaginable, an import from fin-de-siècle Russia straight to your hometown. It’s living proof of the capacity of music and the art of dance to leap the bounds of time and space and delight us forever. Perhaps some viewer’s own children will perform in it, and that’s part of the appeal. What theater goers don’t entirely realize is that they are watching something even more wonderful than what they see. In this one...

    ~The FReeper Canteen~ Seasons Greetings to all our Troops, Veterans, and their Families! May this Christmas and Holiday Season bring peace and happiness in your lives, the way you bring peace to our nation and into our lives. Ella Fitzgerald ~ Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Peggy Lee ~ The Christmas Song Nat King Cole ~ O Little Town Of Bethlehem The Roger Wagner Chorale ~ We Three Kings Suzy Bogguss ~ The First Noel The Philharmonia Orchestra ~ Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy Dean Martin ~ Winter Wonderland Glen Campbell ~ O Holy Night...

SHANGHAI — It took less than 24 hours for all the Christmas trees, lights and bells to disappear from a 27-story shopping and office complex in the Chinese city of Nanyang. Even the giant teddy bear at the mall entrance wasn’t spared, said Ma Jun, who works at a tutoring company in the building. “Everything is gone and cleaned,” she said. Christmas continues to be a shopping festival across most of China, with huge trees adorning shopping malls in Shanghai and Beijing, but a growing emphasis on traditional culture by the ruling Communist Party and the systematic suppression of religion...

A former commander of NATO said allies of the U.S. are asking whether President Trump was blackmailed by Turkey to pull U.S. military forces out of Syria. In a CNN segment Monday, Wesley Clark, a retired Army general and former Democratic presidential candidate, said there was no apparent strategic logic for the move that critics view as an abdication to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "You have to ask why was the decision made?" Clarke said on Christmas Eve. "People around the world are asking this and some of our friends and allies in the Middle East are asking, did...

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR/FOX 13) - Porch pirates are a common trend during the holidays, but one Colorado woman took matters into her own hands and refused to become a victim. Renee Abeyta was at her Lakewood home doing chores Wednesday afternoon when she received a notification from her Ring home surveillance system that someone was at her front door. She looked but didn't see anyone. Then, she searched through the recordings her camera captured, and saw an unknown woman grab a package from the front porch, and walk away. Abeyta walked outside and yelled, “Hey!” as she saw the woman...

December 25, 2018 The Nativity of the Lord – Christmas - At the Vigil Mass Reading 1 Is 62:1-5 For Zion's sake I will not be silent,for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,until her vindication shines forth like the dawnand her victory like a burning torch. Nations shall behold your vindication,and all the kings your glory;you shall be called by a new namepronounced by the mouth of the LORD.You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,a royal diadem held by your God.No more shall people call you "Forsaken,"or your land "Desolate,"but you shall be...

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

The Year Without Santa Claus

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

They were family living in building that was populated with important people from the old politic system, like retired politicians, rich and important people. It was about about one month after SHTF started, family stayed inside, did not know what to do, their apartment building was one of the few that gangs did not visit yet. They heard screams and pistol shots, always bad signs, then loud curses, and sound of fighting. Anyway, there was no too much time to do anything smart, while gang get to their floor, they managed to hide girl in one of the closets, and...

Father Frost didn’t drop presents off for Russian children on Dec. 25. And he won’t on Orthodox Christmas (Jan. 7), either. Rather, Ded Moroz and his lovely snow maiden assistant, Snegurochka, are attached to New Year’s Eve, which in Russia is the new year and the secular bits of Christmas like trees and presents all rolled into one. Initially, the Soviets tried to replace Christmas with a more appropriate komsomol (youth communist league) related holiday, but, shockingly, this did not take. And by 1928 they had banned Christmas entirely, and Dec. 25 was a normal working day. Then, in 1935,...

Norad Santa Tracker Live stream!

A wide range of illustrations of Nativity scenes.

Nine Lessons and Carols in binaural sound optimized for headphone listening

Monday on CNN’s “New Day,” former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, also a CNN contributor, discussed potential “unintended consequences” of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Host Erica Hill said, “As we have been reporting, CNN is reporting about so much being unknown at this point and the fact that the concern here is that perhaps the president doesn’t understand how complicated this is, and while a number of Americans support the move to pull troops back, just doing it on a whim could be dangerous.” Clapper said, “Exactly. I spent 13 years throughout my career...

2014 Christmas ad from Sainsbury’s – Christmas is for sharing. Made in partnership with The Royal British Legion, it commemorates the extraordinary events of Christmas Day, 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man’s land, sharing gifts – and even playing football together. The chocolate bar featured in the ad is on sale now at Sainsbury’s. All profits will go to The Royal British Legion and will benefit the armed forces and their families, past and present. Click for beautiful video.

A wide range of illustrations of the Adoration of the Magi.

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer and I must say prophet Alexander Solzhenitsyn. A statue was erected this month in a Moscow neighborhood to mark the anniversary of his birth with Russia's President Vladimir Putin paying his respects. Its a story that happens to take place in an around December 25th, 1949. Christmas Day in the Western nations, but not in Russia. However, it certainly is the Christmas season as it happened USSR style. Among other people in the story are the prisoners of the "best prison" in the Soviet Gulag Archipelago on...

The Christmas story begins in the town of Nazareth nine months before the birth of Jesus. Now, if any narrative ever cried out for attention to detail it is this one, so it’s worth taking a good look at this little town and what it might tell us about the nature and character of God. Nazareth is much more widely known today than it ever was in Jesus’ day. It is not among the sixty-three villages of Galilee mentioned in the Hebrew Talmud or the forty-five mentioned by first-century Jewish historian Josephus, who knew the area well. This was an...