The 19th century Thanksgiving is much like the Christmas celebrated in the 19th century: it is very misunderstood. While most know that Thanksgiving was officially declared a national holiday during the later half of the 19th century they do not know how much Thanksgiving was celebrated before it became an official “day” on the national […]
The Virtual Thanksgiving is nothing new. We have been doing it for years. What makes it different now is that many, many people will have to do it due to restrictions on family gatherings. Without getting into the politics the fact that Thanksgiving has to go virtual is not the end of the world. In […]
A Visit from St. Nicholas is both a story and a poem that has survived nearly two centuries of Christmas celebration. It is arguably the only published work that can even come close to rivaling Dicken’s A Christmas Carol in both fame and annual reading. But do you know the story behind the story? Picture […]
A Victorian Era snowball fight is going viral and we just have to pile on. The two videos below show the early technology of film-making met with 21st century technology — and the results are stunning. Take a look, in color, at this everyday snowball fight from 124 years ago: This film has been known […]
Thanksgiving 2020 is going to happen. The annual holidays survey commissioned by MyMerryChristmas.com shows that Thanksgiving has been on the mind of a lot of people nearly all year – and they are not going to skip it. 77 percent of people are expecting a slightly bigger family gathering and a whopping 84% say Covid […]
Christmas trends are shifting significantly for 2020 — to the surprise of almost no one. While nobody saw this coming last Christmas the cold realities of 2020 have spelled for a different Christmas thanks to a variety of factors: a pandemic, widespread unemployment, retail closures and election year politics. For more than two decades MyMerryChristmas.com […]
The 18th century Christmas is kind of the ugly step-sister to Christmas of the 19th century. The Victorian Era of Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens and other Christmas superstars seems to hog the holiday limelight. Yet we could not have had the 19th century Christmas without some key movers-and-shakers in the 18th century. It was a […]
Pocketful of Miracles is a 1961 Frank Capra movie that is full of Christmas. Like Capra’s other Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, Pocketful of Miracles is not exactly a Christmas movie but one that enjoys cult status at Christmas time. The movie, after all, has Christmas music, Christmas trees and plenty of Christmas sentiment […]
The Mayflower came to America 400 years ago. The Mayflower brought pilgrims of a different kind – about 100 people who were committed to living lives of industry and independent thinking. They were mostly Puritans. That made them very different than the rugged pilgrims of Jamestown, a group that had come to the shores of […]
Covid-19 is rewriting the rules of Christmas shopping. With each passing day the usual reminder of “only X shopping days until Christmas” is more relevant than ever. Let’s face it: there are some new realities of Christmas shopping we need to deal with. Nothing with COVID-19 has been predictable. In early June the common thinking […]
Who are the influencers of Christmas? Influencers are people who create a lasting impact. In 21st century terms, influencers are people with a long reach via media that everyone follows what they do. As we go back in history we can see influencers in just about every kind of topic. George Washington was an influencer […]
Online Christmas swaps have become a new tradition in the ever-evolving celebration of Christmas. Folks online swap Christmas cards, ornaments, cookies, gifts and other themed elements of the season as a way of extending traditions of old. But there are perils in the practice. ~ A Cautionary Tale ~ Last year Ken Childs of Jackson, […]