What Sears Meant to Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas News, Christmas Shopping , 6 Comments
What Sears Meant to Christmas

The news has been decades in the making: iconic retailer Sears is closing its doors for good this year. The effect of their loss, like that of Toys R Us, will not matter one bit to consumers. But the loss of Sears to Christmas history is worthy of note. Once upon a time Sears was the yearly watch-word for Christmas shoppers and Santa dreamers coast to coast. Kids everywhere marked the day when the Sears Christmas Wishbook would show up in the mail. Generations took their children to Sears to have their pictures taken with Santa. It was the placeRead more

Take a Christmas Survey

Jeff Westover Christmas News, Christmas Online 0 Comment
Take a Christmas Survey

Christmas surveys run the gamut but we are pleased to announce one with a very specific purpose in mind – it is about you. The survey drops today right here on MyMerryChristmas – and on other Christmas websites, podcasts and social media channels. Thousands are being exposed to these five simple questions for one special reason: What do you wanna hear this Christmas? That’s the question coming from a merry band of Christmas podcasters who are yearning to do something together this Christmas. We want to gather around the tree and toss around an idea – a topic, a merryRead more

Scary and Merry from Pentatonix

Rochelle Woo Christmas Music, Christmas News , 1 Comment
Scary and Merry from Pentatonix

Scary and merry is the theme of the first single to drop from the newest Christmas album coming out soon from Pentatonix. “Making Christmas” is a brilliant theme from the now classic film Nightmare Before Christmas. Coincidentally, that movie celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and the song, of course, is a delightful and frightful mix of both Halloween and Christmas. Watch: Pentatonix, who has made the hottest selling albums of this century (so far), seems to release a new Christmas album every two years. Christmas has been very good to them. But to be honest, Pentatonix has also beenRead more

Christmas on Social Media

Jeff Westover Christmas News, Christmas Online 0 Comment
Christmas on Social Media

Cecilia Johnson did not mean any harm when she did it. In late November of 2015, as a 9-year-old neighbor boy lay dying of cancer, Cecilia took up the cause of having Christmas cards sent to him. The boy had expressed a desire to fill his walls with Christmas pictures and this seemed a simple task to accomplish. Using her own home address Cecilia took to social media to spread the word. It very quickly worked. Several of Cecilia’s friends shared the post, the word was slipped to a local news station and within days the mailbox was full ofRead more

Great Christmas Gifts in the 1970s

William Werner Christmas Past, Christmas Shopping, Retro Christmas 1 Comment
Great Christmas Gifts in the 1970s

Christmas gifts in the 1970s were very different than the decades before. It was an age before computers yet an age when technology affected nearly everything in gift giving. You could give Dad a tie for Christmas. But why would you when you could give him a hot lather shave kit instead? The shaving industry in the early 1970s was rocked by two elements: the long hair and long sideburn trends of the late 1960s and the ever present Norelco electric shaver commercials on television. What could the traditional shave industry do to prop up sagging sales? First they triedRead more

Christmas at Valley Forge

Jeff Westover Christmas at War, Christmas History , 2 Comments
Christmas at Valley Forge

Picture it: George Washington leads his army of 11,000 men – a third of which he estimated did not even have shoes – into Valley Forge just before Christmas 1777. There, just days before Christmas on the 19th of December, the Continental Army and George Washington himself would find a way to reverse the course of the war. That Christmas was just the beginning of both an incredible tale of survival and redemption. Valley Forge was so named thanks to an iron forge owned by a family named Potts. It had been in their family for years. Washington selected theRead more

The Very Merry Dick Van Dyke

B. Francis Morlan Christmas Music 0 Comment
The Very Merry Dick Van Dyke

We have known for decades that Dick Van Dyke is a merry soul who can sing. But we have long lacked the great Hollywood Christmas musical or even Christmas music of Dick Van Dyke. We can’t say that any more. Now 92 and soon to be seen in screen again in the remake of Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke released a Christmas song in 2017 much to the delight of fans of all ages. “We’re Going Caroling” is an infectious little tune and the video of Van Dyke proves he still has the moves: The song, performed with Jane Lynch,Read more

The History of Pumpkin and Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas Foods, Christmas History 0 Comment
The History of Pumpkin and Christmas

When it comes to Christmas the United States can lay claim to few traditional elements of the season. Christmas trees came from Germany, Santa Claus came from Turkey, while Christmas pudding, eggnog and mistletoe all came from various places in Europe. America just adopted them all. Except for pumpkin. Pumpkin is one of America’s greatest contributions to Christmas. Wait, you say – pumpkin has nothing to do with Christmas in America? Well, hold on there, pilgrim. The pumpkin was, from the very beginning, a festive element in the Puritan Christmas. Wait, again, you say – the Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas,Read more

Mourning Dickens and Recognizing Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas History , 0 Comment
Mourning Dickens and Recognizing Christmas

June of 1870 is a month of incredible Christmas history. It was during this month that the Congress of the United States passed a blandly worded law making Christmas a legal national holiday and it was the time that the world mourned the passing of Charles Dickens. Christmas in America was an ancient tradition. Contrary to many modern historians and popular culture that tells us Christmas was a secular invention of the middle part of the 19th century, it is a well- documented  fact that Christmas was celebrated in America from the very beginning. What was the first thing ColumbusRead more

The Next Really Bad Nutcracker Movie

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies , 3 Comments
The Next Really Bad Nutcracker Movie

Sad to say this but our tradition of bashing yet-to-be-released movies of a Christmas theme continues. You could say we are compelled to put the screws to the new Nutcracker coming out this fall. Hollywood just gives us no choice. This time, as other times in the past, the maker of a holiday stinker is none other than Disney. Out now are some truly bizarre trailers of a butchered Nutcracker story that Disney calls The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. As discussed in a recently released edition of the Merry Podcast, the Nutcracker is a 200 year old tale writtenRead more