MERRY CHRISTMAS THREAD (post your favorite songs, carols, family traditions, childhood memories)

[Liz]

This thread is lovingly dedicated to the members, friends and supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union.

My sincerest wish for you is that the universal peace and love exemplified by the birth of the Christ child will fill your hearts with joy at Christmas time and on everyday of the year.

[mplsconservative]

Me bad. I'm taking things too literally today. I've been up with a sick child since 4:30 this morning who is sorely disappointed our travel plans to his grandparent's house may have to be canceled.

Yes, the ACLU types do need the spirit of Christmas more than anyone, and I thank you for posting this thread.
Merry Christmas to all and God's rich blessings to each of you in the coming New Year!

[retrokitten]

My cousins daughter started this exact same tradition when she was 4, too! LOL!

My grandma used to bake a ton of Christmas cookies. All different types. I can't tell you two gifts I recieved when I was little, but I sure remember grandma's cookies! This is the tradition I try to keep alive in my family. I've been a baking fool the last few days and still have more to do before Christmas Eve. I miss her, but this makes it feel like she isn't too far away.

[tutstar]

We have a stocking with Jesus name on it. We each write down on paper what of ourself we plan to give to the Lord the coming year. The next year we read what we wrote the previous year to see how we did. These are personal and we don't read them aloud to each other.

We have also done the birthday cake for Jesus.

[tutstar]

We also read Luke 2 Christmas morning and pray before opening any packages.

[flashbunny]

When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time & feed it & so on for the following Christmas.

But by the time Christmas came around,we sort-of thought of the turkey as a pet...

--- so we ate the dog...

Only kidding! It was the cat

(Originally told by David Letterman)

[tutstar]

me too, I'm gonna cry!

[r9etb]

The one that still shouts "Christmas" to me: my dad used to come in as dressed as Santa on Christmas Eve. The first time I was when I was two, and he handed me some new wooden blocks (those ones that are red, yellow, blue, etc.) I can still remember their taste and smell of those blocks.

[cyborg]

Well before my dad died on christmas eve, my mom and I would decorate and all that. The real event was staying up all night baking sweet bread,black cake, rolling out roti and making curry chicken. This is all the while drinking copious amounts of Guinesse stout and playing christmas music from her country.

[Squantos]

Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa
Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the
truth, is there a Santa Claus?


Virginia O'Hanlon


Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the
skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They
think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little
minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are
little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in
his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured
by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.


Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and
generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to
your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world
if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no
Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance
to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in
sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world
would be extinguished.


Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You
might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas
eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming
down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign
that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those
that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on
the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.


Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and
unseeable in the world. You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what
makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world
which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the
strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love,
romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal
beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world
there is nothing else real and abiding.


No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years
from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue
to make glad the heart of childhood.



Editorial by Francis P. Church
As published in the New York Sun,
December 1897


Francis P. Church's editorial, "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus"
was an immediate sensation, and became one of the most famous
editorials ever written. It first appeared in the The New York Sun in
1897, (over) a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949
when the paper went out of business.


Thirty-six years after her letter was printed, Virginia O'Hanlon recalled
the events that prompted her letter:



"Quite naturally I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed
me. But when less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn't any
Santa Claus, I was filled with doubts. I asked my father, and he was a
little evasive on the subject.


"It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how
to pronounce a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we
wrote to the Question and Answer column in The Sun. Father would always
say, 'If you see it in the The Sun, it's so,' and that settled the
matter."


"Well, I'm just going to write The Sun and find out the real truth,"I said
to father.


"He said, Go ahead, Virginia. I'm sure The Sun will give you the right
answer, as it always does."


And so Virginia sat down and wrote her parents' favorite newspaper.


Her letter found its way into the hands of a veteran editor, Francis
P. Church. Son of a Baptist minister, Church had covered the Civil War for
The New York Times and had worked on the The New York Sun for 20 years,
more recently as an anonymous editorial writer. Church, a sardonic man,
had for his personal motto, "Endeavour to clear your mind of cant." When
controversal subjects had to be tackled on the editorial page, especially
those dealing with theology, the assignments were usually given to Church.


Now, he had in his hands a little girl's letter on a most controversial
matter, and he was burdened with the responsibility of answering it.


"Is there a Santa Claus?" the childish scrawl in the letter asked. At
once, Church knew that there was no avoiding the question. He must answer,
and he must answer truthfully. And so he turned to his desk, and he began
his reply which was to become one of the most memorable editorials in
newspaper history.


Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in April,
1906, leaving no children.


Virginia O'Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor
of Arts degree at age 21. The following year she received her Master's
from Columbia, and in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school
system, later becoming a principal. After 47 years, she retired as an
educator. Throughout her life she received a steady stream of mail about
her Santa Claus letter, and to each reply she attached an attractive
printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas died on
May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, N.Y.


Stay Safe Liz..............Happy Holidays !

[onyx]

A childhood tradition that I shared with my own children and now with my g-children: decorating the birthday cake for baby Jesus. The little ones "help" decorate it and we all sing "Happy Birthday" to sweet Jesus. Each child then offers Jesus his/her own prayer.

A merry and blessed Christmas to you, Liz. You are such a good friend and I treasure your friendship.

[GeekDejure]

"Mare Eeek Wrist Miss"

There!!! Now that can't possibly upset any of those wacko, thin-skinned, feeble-minded, Ann Tee Kris Chin, Dee Verse City, Ace See Ell You Bass Turds, can it ??? ;-))

.

[retrokitten]

me too, I'm gonna cry!

Don't cry. If you cry I will cry and then someone else is going to cry and so on. LOL!

[Liz]

Beautiful. Thanks again for posting.

[Liz]

What a precious tradition. One we should all take up. I may just go out and get a birthday cake for Christmas Eve dinner.

Thanks for being so special to me and to all of us on FR.

[MamaB]

Mark Lowery {sp} also does this and it is a great song.

[Liz]

We have a stocking with Jesus name on it. We each write down on paper what of ourself we plan to give to the Lord the coming year. The next year we read what we wrote the previous year to see how we did. These are personal and we don't read them aloud to each other.

Simply lovely tradition.

[Liz]

Come on and share. Whatcha baking?

[Quilla]

One of my mother's sisters always made and mailed us Honey Balls (Struffoli) each Christmas. Before my Aunt passed away several years ago, my younger sister visited her and was given the family recipe. She and I now alternate making them each year.

HONEY BALLS

Mix together until dough forms:
4 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 stick melted butter

On a floured surface, pinch off pieces and roll into worms just thicker than a pencil. Slice worms into small pieces forming balls. Fry a couple of handfuls at a time in hot oil (they will double in size) until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Place inside a lined tin, generously pour honey over them. Mail half to me. ;-)

Merry Christmas Freepers and Friends!

[Liz]

Amen and amen.

[Liz]

LOL. Good one.