Entries by Jeff Westover

Legacy Christmas Classic Albums Announced

Legacy Recordings’ Classic Christmas Album series rings in this year’s holiday season with new collections by Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Il Divo, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, plus compilations of hard rock, country and pop Christmas classics. The eight new titles will be available everywhere October 7, 2014 through Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music […]

The Mistletoe Bough

Contributed by LoiS-sez This is actually a ballad with lyrics by Thomas Haynes Bayly. I’ve never been able to find the music by Sir Henry Bishop, but I use the refrain for my own re-telling as it’s said to be based on a traditional legend. The mistletoe hung in the castle hall, The holly branch […]

Virginia O’Hanlon Day

Today is Sunday, September 21, 2014 and there are just 95 days now until Christmas. Today is Virginia O’Hanlon Day. In 1897 eight year old Virginia O’Hanlon sent a letter to The Sun asking if Santa Claus really existed. The response Virginia received from her timeless query was written by one of the paper’s editors, […]

Re-Gifting: Yes or No

By Jeff Westover (Author Bias: None. Zippo. Zero. Zilch.) When we married we received all kinds of wonderful gifts. But the one that caught the most attention, the one that drew the biggest reaction and the only one remembered from those many years ago was the gift that was re-gifted to us. It was a […]

A Great Tree

Contributed by Merry Carey Here is a fine old Christmas story from 1914 about Calliope Marsh, a woman determined to gather her entire neighborhood under one Christmas tree. A Great Tree From Neighborhood Stories by Zona Gale (1914) I never had felt so much like Christmas, said Calliope Marsh, as I did that year. “I […]