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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By B. Francis Morlan Editor’s Note: Every December the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia sends a Christmas tree to the City of Boston, Massachusetts. This story explains how that came about. December of 1917 was a time when the world was in transition. The horrors of World War I were known and the prospects of […]
By Jeff Westover (Author bias: We use an artificial tree in our home every holiday season but we do so under protest. If I could, I would use a real tree. But our choice of tree has nothing to do with environmental consciousness. The simple fact is that we live in a desert and real […]
This week I attended the most bizarre pre-Christmas sales meeting of my 35+ year retail career. The hot topic? Christmas and Ebola. I kid you not. Tis the season, you see, for sales projections, big plans and visions of crowded aisles filled with shoppers looking to stuff stockings. Over the years I’ve been through it […]
The National Park Service and National Park Foundation have announced that the 2014 National Christmas Tree Lighting on the White House Ellipse will be held on December 4th. The event is traditionally hosted by the President and First Family and usually features a celebrity or two that provides holiday entertainment. A lottery for free tickets […]
Mick Foley’s pet project I am Santa Claus will be released on Blu-ray this holiday season. Virgil Films & Entertainment has announced the documentary arrives on Blu-ray on November 11th. But check the kids at the door — this ain’t your Daddy’s Santa documentary. Everyone thinks of Santa Claus as a magical figure without flaws, […]
The World’s Largest Christmas Party will now include a LIVE stream with the world’s foremost Santa Trackers — Team YANTSU. Team YANTSU stands for the YouTube Association of NORAD Tracks Santa Users, a merry band of Santa fans who host a live stream every Christmas Eve to track Santa from around the world. Their videos […]
Neiman Marcus is out with their annual catalog of absurd Christmas gift ideas. They’ve been doing this a long time and it makes for great Christmas fun every October. The Dallas-based retailer’s top gift this year is The House of Creed Bespoke fragrance journey, priced at $475,000. For that amount of money you and a […]
