Entries by Jeff Westover

Decorating with Rope Lights

By Jeanette DiCamillo Rope light offers a unique light display that can be used for holiday lighting, as well as every day lighting and design. Rope light is best described as a sort of tube lighting, featuring either pure tungsten filaments or LED bulbs encased in durable PVC tubing. Rope light is available in long […]

Christmas During the Civil War

By Mary Hansel Christmas is a joyous time. People spend the occasion with family and friends and their celebrations are full of rejoicing, love and jollity. It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to have Christmas during war time, especially a war where countrymen fight each other. During the years […]

Top 10 Things Never to Say on Santa’s Lap

10. Well, I guess it depends on your definition of naughty. 9. The doctor says it’s not that contagious. 8. I have a really good recipe for reindeer meat. 7. Sorry. I’m pretty nervous. Next time I won’t drink so much water before I come. 6. You can’t believe everything Mommy says, you know. 5. […]

Charles Dickens: A Merry Old Soul

By Jeff Westover Life and times were hard in London of 1824. For one boy in particular, the second of seven children, life was especially difficult. At the age of twelve, his father was tossed into a debtor’s prison, leaving an already poor family utterly destitute. The entire family moved into the prison with the […]

Nothing

By Jeff Westover The first Christmas for us really wasn’t so hard. After all, we were in love and there was nothing else more important. Sure, being a couple changed the holidays for us but wasn’t everything else different too? It wasn’t until life and routine settled upon us that it got difficult. First came […]

That’s How You Eat Gravy

By Vance James One of my best Christmas memories comes from when I was about nine years old. But I have to warn you: this is not a feel good Christmas story. It is kind of gross. After getting up early and opening our presents it was a family tradition to meet at my aunt’s […]

Santa Speaks 2010

Every October Santa sits down to be interviewed by a media personality. This has been his tradition almost as long as there has been a modern media. This year, Santa sat down with legendary West Virginia newsman Rusty Belz of radio station WVIP. This year Santa talks about retirement, Christmas in tough times, what he […]

There’s Something About Merry

It falls from our lips without much thought: “Merry Christmas!”. But what is it we are really saying? In an informal survey conducted recently more than 84 percent of Americans asked thought that the word “merry” meant “jolly”. Taken in context, many around the world do indeed celebrate a “jolly” Christmas these days. But that […]