The Five Most Essential Movies of Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas Community, Christmas Movies July 15, 2017July 15, 2017Christmas movies 0 Comment

By Lloyd Larsen — Guest Blogger on My Merry Christmas The history of film is slowly watering down the quality that was once fairly exclusive to Christmas. Recent releases with Christmas themes such as “The Night Before” has taken the once proud genre of Christmas and cast it as a suspect reason for even making a movie. That is why the following list of essential Christmas movies contains mostly older titles. Some will brand me old fashion. Or stubborn. Or maybe just old for doing it this way. But if you are a Christmas fan who guards closely not only the sanctity of the season but also holds high the standard of Christmas movie excellence you have to consider theseRead more

A Christmas Mission Accomplished

Jeff Westover Christmas Community July 11, 2017Operation Christmas Cheer 0 Comment

I have been waiting until our Christmas-in-July celebrations to tell this story. Last year we added several names to a project we call Operation Christmas Cheer. This is a simple little effort we make to reach out and send a little love to folks who could use it through our Christmas cards. These folks could be ill, maybe elderly, perhaps serving far away from home at Christmas or merely just experiencing a hardship. We make this little effort to try and lift folks a little in these situations. We received a name and address from one of our members on the Merry Forums. She explained to me that the person whose name she was sharing likely would not be awareRead more

Be Santa for Christmas in July

Jeff Westover Christmas Community, Christmas Events July 9, 2017July 9, 2017Santa's Sleigh 0 Comment

The greatest joy in Christmas is giving and for Christmas in July you can be Santa! For My Merry Christmas, that means Santa’s Sleigh — our little effort to give together for a few folks who need Christmas. And we will begin with ourselves: EVERY premiere membership sold on the Merry Forums goes 100% to Santa’s Sleigh. It’s our biggest fund raiser of the year and this year it goes through the end of the year. Did you know that you can gift a premiere membership? If you go to account upgrades in your Merry Forums account you can purchase a gift membership for anyone — even someone who already has a membership. That means you can select a membershipRead more

The Five Greatest Christmas Albums of the 1960s

Jeff Westover Christmas Music July 8, 20171960s, Christmas music 2 Comments

By D. Lon Nichols, Guest Blogger at MMC Many people consider the 1940s and 1950s to be the golden era of Christmas music. But to me the 1960s was a time when Christmas music broke out of traditional molds and brought us true classics. We hear more Christmas music from the 1960s on the radio these days than we hear of Crosby, Autry and Cole of the 40s and 50s. It is time to acknowledge that. One of the best of the 1960s came from Johnny Cash – an artist who’s rough edge was worn smooth by the message of his music. This was never showcased better than in his 1969 album, The Christmas Spirit. While I tend to shyRead more

Five Things the Christmas Shopper Should Know About Prime Day

Jeff Westover Christmas Shopping July 6, 2017July 6, 2017Amazon, Prime Day 1 Comment

The Internet has changed so many things when it comes to how we spend money. Amazon hopes that is true as it touts Prime Day, the third year in a row of what they are hoping is an annual shopping event that rivals Black Friday. That is their hope, but it will never be their reality. But for the savvy Christmas shopper – even a very forward thinking Christmas shopper – Prime Day can indeed become part of great Christmas in July celebrations. It begins by understanding what Prime Day really is and what it is not: 1. It’s a clearance sale Amazon is no different than any other retailer in the history of time. July is a dead salesRead more

MMC Celebrates Ugly Christmas Sweater Day

Jeff Westover Christmas Events, Christmas Trends July 5, 2017Ugly Christmas Sweater Day 0 Comment

The third Friday in December has come to be known as Ugly Christmas Sweater Day. That day this year falls on December 15th – and of course, My Merry Christmas will celebrate it. How? By giving you a way to showcase your ugly Christmas sweater. Yes, we’ll have those who will post up their pictures right to the Merry Forums. But we think a gloriously fun exhibitionist event like Ugly Christmas Sweater Day deserves something more. Stay tuned for those details. In the meantime, do a little research online into the art of ugly Christmas sweaters. It is a wildly creative event, one you can put a lot of fun into. We’re looking for ways to do this together, toRead more

Neptune, the Smiling Christmas Mutt

Jeff Westover Christmas Memories July 4, 2017July 4, 2017Christmas dog 0 Comment

By Tad Archer This is a submission from our Christmas in July event for guest blogging on My Merry Christmas. Tad chose the topic “The Christmas I Remember Best” as the theme for his blog post. To participate, please see this link. Mutt is a horrible name for a dog. But that was what we first named the scraggly looking thing because that’s what he was – a medium sized, wired-haired, brown-eyed, dirty dog. Little did I know that this dog would become the Christmas Mutt. He had followed us all the way from the school. We were walking home on a lazy summer afternoon was it was just too hot to play. The other guys teased him for howRead more

Hop on Santa’s Sleigh

Jeff Westover Christmas Community, Christmas Events July 3, 2017July 2, 2017Giving, Santa's Sleigh 0 Comment

Every year we engineer an effort that we call Santa’s Sleigh. Our simple goal is to anonymously give a little Christmas to families or individuals in need. Santa’s Sleigh partners with churches, service organizations, hospitals and charitable groups to reach out in a personal way without disclosing who we are. This is done through what we call the Spirit of Santa. The original St. Nicholas worked anonymously and did all he could for others without credit or attention to himself. All that mattered were the needs of others. That too is our modest goal. There are two ways you can help load Santa’s sleigh. First, help us connect with those who work with people in need. Whenever we help aRead more

12th Annual Christmas Card Exchange

Jeff Westover Christmas Events July 2, 2017July 2, 2017annual Christmas Card Exchange 0 Comment

We are pleased to announce the opening of our annual Christmas Card Exchange here on My Merry Christmas. This Merry Forums event was formalized in 2005, though we had loosely organized an exchange for some years before that on MMC. Many of the same names from our original exchange still participate in this great event. Imagine going to your mailbox every day from Thanksgiving forward and receiving cards nearly everyday until Christmas. These cards come from your Christmas friends from places all over the world. In my home it is a little like Christmas morning every day during the season to get the mail and see who sent today’s cards. It is a thrill that warms the heart and bringsRead more

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Author: Jeff Westover