Entries by Jeff Westover

The Tears of Charles Dickens

It is said the tears of Charles Dickens were shed as he wrote A Christmas Carol. During a brief period in the fall of 1843 Dickens would take late-night strolls on the streets of London as he mulled the story he was creating over and over in his head. The more the story came together, […]

The Virtual Thanksgiving

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 […]

Victorian Era Snowball Fight

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 […]

Christmas Trends Shift for 2020

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 […]

Christmas that Came on the Mayflower

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 […]