Real Christmas

For months Santa has been sponsoring a contest to help name his sleigh this year — but now we’ve found an even more interactive way to help Santa around the world this year. PimpMySleigh.com is a nifty little flash game that allows you to actually design Santa’s sleigh, from the color of the runners to your personally designed co-pilot in the drivers seat. You can send Santa out in style!

The game provides dozens of design options with colors, racing strips, hood ornaments and spoilers. When you’re done you can save the game, send it to others and feature it in an online gallery.

In a world that has corporate entities scared to mention or touch anything Christmas, we’re actually thrilled to see this kind of holiday spirit from sponsoring companies. PimpMySleigh.com is, appropriately, presented by a car insurance company and is a great little diversion as you count down the days to Santa’s launch.

To arrive before Christmas, mail going to members of the military in Iraq and Afghanistan should be sent by December 4. Military mail headed to other overseas destinations should be sent by Dec. 11, the Postal Service said Tuesday.

“We have so much mail for the troops over the Christmas holidays,” said Pat Donahoe, deputy postmaster general and chief operating officer. “We are very, very cognizant of the importance that the mail has to the military.”

Those sending cards and packages within the United States have a little more leeway.

The Postal Service’s suggested deadline for sending domestic packages using the least expensive option, parcel post, is Dec. 15. For parcels sent first class or priority mail, the deadline is Dec. 20. Customers have until Dec. 22 to send Christmas packages by express mail.

The Postal Service expects to deliver about 20 billion cards, packages and letters between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It predicts that the volume processed each day will reach a peak of about 1 billion on the busiest day, Dec. 17. Most of this mail should be delivered two days later.

Donahoe advised customers sending all holiday packages to remove batteries from electronic items because they could turn on, which could prompt postal employees to open the package for inspection. People should not tie packages with string, as that, too could cause shipping problems. Donahoe also suggested placing a backup tag inside each package that specifies both the shipping and return addresses, in case the outer label gets damaged.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ernest Borgnine could be taking it easy at 90, resting on laurels that include an Academy Award. But this year alone, he has made four made-for-TV or feature films — plus, his voiceover work as Mermaid Man on the animated hit “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

The best-actor winner for the 1955 movie “Marty” believes “the best medicine for a man my age is to keep working.”

Borgnine’s latest role is in “A Grandpa for Christmas,” airing Saturday on the Hallmark Channel and co-starring Jamie Farr and Katherine Helmond.

He plays a song-and-dance man who must care for a 9-year-old granddaughter he never knew he had after his estranged daughter is seriously injured in a car accident.

The movie brought back a favorite Christmas memory from Borgnine’s childhood: Money was tight, so he and his sister knew their only gifts would be handmade by their mother; just before the holiday, a man who had owed Borgnine’s father money for a long time repaid him the $14.

“My father could have bought so many things with that money back then,” Borgnine said in statement from Hallmark Channel. “On Christmas morning my sister and I woke up and went downstairs to empty our stockings. I thought all they would have in them was the usual nuts and fruit, but in the bottom of each sock was $7. My mother and father were crying because they were so happy that we were happy. I never forgot that day.”

They call it Black Friday for several reasons.

Traditionally, the definition of Black Friday is when retailers go from operating in the red to making a profit — or in the black — for the year. That’s an old tradition and it is a wive’s tale. Black Friday these days means anything but profit.

These days Black Friday is a dark day for retailers. General Growth Properties, a major developer of malls and shopping centers, is expanding an initiative to open their centers as early as 12:01 a.m. on Black Friday, much to the chagrin of the weary merchants who rent spaces in their malls.

To GGP, it is all about the hype of “Rockin’ Shoppin’ Eve” and hype is something retailers use to great effect. It is an outrageously long day — a full 24 hours in some markets — that taxes seasonal staffs right out the gate and bogs down inventory flow just as the season is beginning.

Christmas — and hype — are vital to ever getting into the black for the year for most retailers. A retailer these days would love to have 30 straight days of pure profit. But Christmas is more of a two-week season — and if you can’t make it within those two weeks you won’t make it at all in today’s competitive environment. So all the door-busters, the bleary-eyed sales hours and the incredible bargains aim to generate madness and hype first — for profits later.

And that, more than anything else, is what Black Friday is all about. Through smoke, mirrors, red markers and brief glimpses of bargains the name of the game for retailers on Black Friday is to just get you in the doors.

They know that if you can just get there they can plant the seeds for future sales less than 4 weeks hence. The $5 buck toaster looks great at 4am on Black Friday. But maybe you’ll see the deluxe $25 dollar model and think about it for a week or two and get it instead. As the doors open and the crowds rush in it is headgames — not sales — that retailers are really banking on.  

They don’t want you to know that the $300 laptops they have in stock are in very limited supply. They want you to see the $599 model that is just the start in a whole line of laptops they carry.

They don’t want you to know that the $29 microwave has a 30-day warrantee at best and will likely last a few days beyond that if you’re lucky.

They don’t want you to know that their employees hate being there in the dead of night. They don’t want you to know that the employees have been trained on this day to “stack it deep and sell it cheap — just get them in and get them out.” Black Friday isn’t about sales, service and the positive shopping experience. It is about the madness and making the news where the talking heads evaluate the whole season based upon the footage of the rush through the doors before dawn.

How do you maximize your Black Friday dollars?

1. Get in the stores on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Look at what they are stacking in the aisles. Evaluate it in person and decide if it is really worth getting up in the middle of the night for it.
2. Talk to others and find out where they are going. Chances are the big name big boxes are where they are going — WalMart, Penneys, Target, etc. Consider the secondary retailers and the bargains they offer. Fabric stores, hardware stores and other typically smaller retailers have just-as-attractive bargains that you’ll have a better chance at actually getting.
3. Stay away from electronics, computers and appliances. These high-ticket, high appeal products draw the crowds and cause the biggest disappointments. If you get there early head for clothes, books, food items, furniture and other practical items. Chances are these represent better quality bargains. Electronics and especially computer items tend to be “yesterday’s technology”.  
4. Talk to the staff. Some won’t tell you how much of any particular product they have — but many will.

A new battlefront has formed in the war on Christmas. This year it is all about bashing Santa Claus.

From New Zealand come reports from a temp staffing agency who for 40 years has provided santas for South Pacific malls, churches, and private events. Santa training this year included the sage advice to never say “ho, ho, ho” because it could be construed as a derogatory reference to women.

Professional south pacific Santas are in an uproar over the issue and many are boycotting the temp agency.

But that’s not the worst of it. Over in the UK the PC police want Santa to shape up. Calling him a “poor example for children”, shopping center management in the UK will only hire skinny santas due to rampant child obesity.

It is no accident that these moves come from organizations who make money off of Santa Claus. Fortunately, consumers — and kids — will not be fooled by such nonsense.

Santa has never said a controverial thing in his life. And he’ll keep putting away those cookies on Christmas Eve.

Port St. Lucie just wants a Christmas tree. And for years, they had one. But when progress meant the removal of the rooted 45 foot pine long used for holiday lights on behalf of the city they did what any city would — they planted a new one.

But that tree died. As did the one they planted after that. The following year they tried — and failed — again. And again, and again, and again. For seven long, embarrasing years Port St. Lucie hasn’t had a tree simply because they can’t grow one. They are, after all, in Florida, where palm trees sway — and Christmas trees, evidently, cannot grow. (They brought in many so-called experts who were not expert enough to solve the Port St. Lucie Christmas tree problem).

So, swallowing their self-respect, they did what millions of people in less-than-ideal climates have to do — they got an artificial tree.

But this pricey Christmas tree is causing an uproar in south Florida.

The city is leasing the artificial tree for $11,750 each year for the next three years.

City Manager Don Cooper told employees to cancel the contract after learning about it, but the deadline to take such action has already passed.

The rented 30-foot artificial tree is scheduled to be delivered to city hall next week.

First they had a tree that looked great but was place wrong, so they killed it. Next they tried to grow several trees but couldn’t. Now they have a tree — but want to run it out of town.

Port St. Lucie is sounding like a terrible place to spend Christmas.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas refers to the twelve days between the Christmas Day (December 25) and the Feast of Epiphany (January 6). Tradition has it that this is the time taken by the Three Wise Men (the Magi) to reach Bethlehem to see the babe in the manger, Jesus.

Mistletoe: Mistletoe is a plant hung on the doorway of every American household during Christmas. The mistletoe symbolizes love, having been closely associated with Frigga, the Scandinavian’s goddess of love. It’s from this that the convention of kissing under the mistletoe originated.

Hanging Stockings: The practice of hanging stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve comes from England. The legend of St. Nicholas has it that the latter was a kind saint who was believed to have left gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor maidens, who badly needed the money for their wedding dowries. They hung their stockings to dry over the fireplace, and to their great surprise, they found bags of gold in them the next morning. Following this, children kept hanging Christmas stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve in the hope that Santa would drop gifts and toys in them !

Christmas Carols: The first carols are said to have been sung by angelic choirs at Christ’s birth. St.Francis of Assissi is also accredited as the ‘Father of Caroling’. The word ‘carol’ comes from the Greek ‘charaulein’, a Greek dance, later replaced by song. By the 17th century, caroling was restricted to Christmas time, and now, it’s customary for kids to go caroling in groups from door to door, singing favorites such as “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and many more !

Holly Boughs: The boughs of holly are another very important symbol of Christmas. These are red berries with thorny leaves. To the Christians, the holly berries symbolize Christ’s blood and the sharply pointed leaves stand for the thorns in His crown. Henceforth, the holly became part of the Nativity tradition.

The Nativity Scene: The Nativity Scene includes the scene at Bethlehem, when Jesus was born. The manger, the swaddling clothes, the bright star in the sky, the shepherds surrounding baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men (the Magi) form part of the scene.

The Poinsettia: Poinsettias are beautiful winter blooms, native to Mexico. They’ve been named after the first US ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who brought the plant from its land of origin to America. Since the beginning of the 19th century, poinsettias have come to be associated with Christmas.

Eggnog: Eggnog, a very popular Christmas drink, is prepared by mixing cream, milk, sugar and beaten eggs with some kind of liquor. This has a close connection to the Christmas holiday, and on Christmas Eve, it’s fairly common to spot groups of people eggnogging at their neighbors’ and friends’ places. People also gather round the Christmas tree, drinking eggnog and then move from house to house caroling.

The Yule Log: The yule log is a huge log used to light up big fires during festive celebrations. It originated in Europe, where it used to be placed in the hearth and continued to burn throughout the year, till it turned into ashes. Bringing in the yule log was as much a custom during the Christmas holidays as was decorating the Christmas tree. The yule log is generally placed in the fireplace. It’s from this yule log that Christmas also came to be known as ‘Yuletide’.

Boxing Day: The day after Christmas is known as the Feast of St. Stephens. The alms box of the Church was opened on Boxing Day, and the contents, known as the “dole of the Christmas box” were distributed by the parish priest among the needy. Henceforth, the day after Christmas came to be known as the Boxing Day

About the Author:
Sean Carter writes on holidays, christmas and celebrations around the world. He also writes on family, relationships,womens issues birthdays , inspiration, religion, love and friendship. He is a writer with special interest in ecard industry. He writes for 123greetings.com