Author Archive for: Editor
Entries by Jeff Westover
LeAnn Rimes Releases Her First Chapter of Christmas
Pop star LeAnn Rimes is out with her “first chapter” of Christmas — which we assume to mean there is more. On this first one, she releases these six songs of Christmas: One Christmas: Chapter 1 1. Silent Night Holy Night 2. I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas 3. Blue Christmas 4. Someday at Christmas […]
Eggnog Sticker Shock Awaits Americans
A recent poll found food prices overall putting the pinch on American spending plans for Christmas but grocers are bracing for the coming backlash for one of the priciest increases in holiday food costs: eggnog. Common pricing in stores early in the holiday season show eggnog topping $6 in some markets for just a half […]
Protesting Thanksgiving
The battle lines are being drawn all around us. The rumblings of discontent and the cries of revolution are warming up. There is a storm coming. It is called Thanksgiving. It never used to be this way. Way back in the old days when I was a kid — when the world was all in […]
Muppets Coming to Temple Square for Christmas
The annual Christmas concert of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City is a PBS tradition each season and this year some PBS veterans are joining the party for the first time: the Muppets will be featured guests for the 2014 show. Joining them will be Broadway star Santino Fontana, who appeared with the […]
Christmas Tradition of Gingerbread
By Mac Carey Gingerbread is a popular Christmas treat all over the world, in many different forms. Gingerbread first appeared in central Europe in the Middle Ages, made from sugars and spices that had been brought back from the Middle East by soldiers returning from the Crusades. In England, gingerbread only meant “preserved ginger,” referring […]
The Real First Christmas
By Jeff Westover There is a saying common among Christian believers: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” This saying speaks to the eternal nature of the soul and that thought is at the very center of Christmas. In countries around the world Christmas is […]
Thanksgiving Canadian Style
Canada celebrates Thanksgiving next Monday on October 13th. Some think this tradition of Thanksgiving in Canada is kind of a copycat affair to emulate their southern neighbors. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the national recognition of Thanksgiving officially making it a holiday on the 2nd Monday of October didn’t happen until 1879, […]
Christmas in July: A Vaudeville Tradition
By Merry Carey Today, Christmas in July is an occasion to enjoy a taste of the Christmas season in the summertime—or in the wintertime, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s also an occasion for Yule-themed shopping sprees and a flurry of out-of-season Christmas movies on the cable-TV networks. But did you ever wonder […]
Christmas in America 2014
The annual survey of Christmas by MyMerryChristmas.com reveals that 83 percent of Americans feel that Christmas is the most important event on the calendar. 70 percent recognize Christmas primarily as a religious holiday in origin but only 61 percent claim to actually infuse their celebration of Christmas with religious elements. The survey annually probes the […]
Kings of Christmas Extravagance
By Jeff Westover The history of Christmas through the ages is written in chapters of contrasting observance. One chapter could speak of the sanctity of the season, observed in hushed commemoration. And yet another chapter could speak of it as a season of riotous overindulgence, wild parties and outright mockery of things held sacred in […]
