Entries by Jeff Westover

Lies and Legends of It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s A Wonderful Life is heralded as the greatest Christmas movie of all time. In fact, it famously ranks in the top ten of the greatest of all movies of all time. That is pretty good considering that publishers hated the original story when it was written, that the movie studios of Hollywood rejected it […]

The Fake Stuff of Christmas

The debut of The Christmas Show of My Merry Christmas explores the Fake Stuff of Christmas: plastic snowmen, polyester Christmas trees, chrome stars, and resin Santa Claus’ are just the tip of the fake iceberg. We delve in to the bogus date of December 25th, that Christmas does not begin with the Baby of Bethlehem […]

Introducing The Christmas Show

Introducing The Christmas Show of My Merry Christmas – an all-new look at Christmas through music, history and tradition. It is not the Merry Podcast. But it is not far removed from it either. Instead of putting MyMerryChristmas-For-Your-Ears out there on podcast platforms and streaming channels we are bring it back home – to MyMerryChristmas.com. […]

The Christmas Movies We Want

The biggest news in Christmas movies seems to be the sequels or remakes of Christmas movies we have seen before. A Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Polar Express are all making headlines for possible sequels in the works. When was the last time a Christmas remake or sequel did anything other […]

Why Leon Day is Celebrated Over Two Days

The annual recognition of Leon Day is still in its infancy. Less than 30 years old, Leon Day began as an Internet marker of the half-way point to Christmas — a countdown to the countdown to Christmas celebrated in online communities, message boards and forums dedicated to celebrating Christmas in the mid-1990s. It is now […]

Christmas Stamps for 2024

The United States Postal Service has released information regarding their 2024 offering of Christmas stamps. The new stamps sell for $0.73 each, reflective of postal price increases put into effect in July. The new stamps shown below go on sale September 14, 2024. That is a full three weeks earlier than new releases in years […]

A Glimpse of Christmas 100 Years Ago

The best part of looking back at Christmas 100 years ago is that we see both change and lasting tradition. As with many things, only Christmas gives this unique perspective. In 1924 Calvin Coolidge was president, the average income was about $2,200.00 and the average home cost about $7000. Consumer products that were launched during […]

Sneaking Christmas

Many are the ways of sneaking Christmas. It is heralded by some, booed by others. For the critical media, it’s something called Christmas Creep and they drag it out every year. Right after Christmas-in-July is over the stories start to pop-up of Christmas trees for sale at Costco and how horrid that is. But the […]

My Ancestor Christmas Tree

Years ago I had an epiphany listening to the SBMX Christmas Podcast about ancestral Christmas trees. The idea was simple: have a theme tree dedicated to your ancestors. My first impression was “Why didn’t I think of this?” After all, I’m a family history freak. This idea is just a natural for me. Before the […]

Grandma’s Recipe Box

Last Christmas my wife, who is the world’s best cook, made old fashioned English toffee for me. I didn’t ask her to and we did not even discuss it. She just did it not knowing that it would bring back a rush of Christmas memories. Food, like movies and music and just about anything else […]