DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   When Virginia O'Hanlon, an 8 year old girl from New York City, sent a letter addressed to the newspaper The Sun in 1897, she asked a very simple question: "Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?"  In what must have been a surprise to her, the question was answered quite frankly.  After calling out Virginia's "little friends" for doubting the existence of Santa Claus and being clouded by an age of skepticism, the writer of the article, Francis Pharcelius Church, replied, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".    Today, children all over the world are still asking the same question as Virgina did.  So who exactly is this Santa Claus guy, and why would he cause so much skepticism among boys and girls?  Is he some kind of magical figure?  How could one person cause so much excitement, doubt and even concern?    This Santa Claus guy appears to be pretty secretive about his operations.  Along with Mrs. Claus, elves and a certain

    Brits who follow tradition for celebrating Christmas in England will put up their trees precisely 12 days before Christmas, and take them down precisely 12 days after Christmas.     Each and every member of the family, by tradition,  stirs the pudding with a wooden spoon from east to west.  This is intended to represent the honorable Three Kings.  Then, the family drops a silver coin into the pudding mixture before it is cooked.  The lucky person who gets the coin when the pudding is doled out,  is supposed to be in line for wealth, health and happiness.  if they keep the coin, that's a start toward the wealth....unless they happen to be the same family member who produced the coin in the first place, of course.        English folks started decorating their trees in 1841, after Prince Albert arranged for a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle to be strewn with lights, as a gift to Queen Victoria and their children.  This carried out a long time tradition

    Christmas movies come in a variety of genres.  From musicals, to drama, comedy to animated.  Here is a list of what I think and hopefully you will to, of some of  the better  Christmas movies to  watch and enjoy every Christmas season. Some are entertaining and meaningful, while others are just fun to watch and bring a big laugh out of you and puts a great big smile on your face.   Just by looking at the movie DVD covers,  you start reminiscing about your favorite parts  and what the movie meant to you and how it made you feel.  opping it into the DVD player with all of the excitement,  just as if it were first time you've seen it. White Christmas (1954) - World War II ends and army buddies Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye form a song and dance team and hit the road.  The end up putting on a program to help their ex commanding general with surprises for him and them. The Nativity Story (2006)- In my mind this is the best depiction of the events surro

   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 tradition