DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   The Christmas season in Italy starts early, with Advent, a 4 week religious time of prayer and ends on January 6th.  Eight days before Christmas a Novena is started.  That is a series of prayers said over a 9 day period (Santa gets a break in Italy).  Children get their gifts on January 6th, from La Befana , the good witch.  The story goes that when they were searching for the Christ Child, the Wise Men asked an old woman for directions and asked that she come along with them and she refused and to this day she roams the world looking for the Christ Child herself and must give out the gifts on the anniversary of the day the wise men finally arrived,  in the hope that the Christ Child will be in one of the homes and get the gifts she should have brought centuries ago...Of course in the United States, celebrating Italian Christmas traditions can mean getting gifts on both December 25th and January 6th.     It's always a good idea to keep the old traditions going.  There is

    Santa Claus gets a lot of attention during the holiday season.  He deserves it....rumor has it that he takes into account your wish list, helps you improve your behavior from naughty to nice and travels around the world in just one night to deliver all of those presents.  But how could he do all of this by himself???    As it turns out, Santa's not alone.  According to folklore, working hard behind the scenes and under the big guy's shadow are Santa's elves.  Typically under appreciated during the holidays, the amount of labor these tiny, mythical creatures clock in is pretty astounding.  We have to assume that much like Rudolph and his red nose, without the help of the elves, Santa could have a lot more stress leading up to Christmas and wouldn't be nearly as jolly.    But have you ever wondered what the life of an elf is really like?  Sure, there are a lot of stories and movies about Santa's elves...they're featured in everything from "Rudolph the

   Christmas is a festival of family traditions, celebrations, greetings and gifts, as it is world wide.  This is very much in tune with the sentiments of the Indian people, who love traditions and celebrations.  An occasion to get together, pray, feast, and enjoy each other's company, exchange notes with relatives and friends, and be blessed by the elders-these are all a part of any Indian's festival, whether urban or rural, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist or Christian.  Moreover, Indians have an affinity for Mother Mary and the infant Jesus, and they love to celebrate Jesus' birthday with the same fervor as they celebrate Lord Krishna's birthday on Janmashtami.  In most of the major cities in India, there is no disparity between a Christian and a non-Christian during Christmas.  Anyone and everyone will attend midnight mass in the local church.  They go to the House of God to pray and for blessings, which probably has more to do with spirituality than religion.    Th