The magical world of Santa Claus is operating under dark clouds these days. Just this week the Wall Street Journal broke the story of in-fighting within fraternal Santa organizations and the Telegraph of London took the sordid tale of American Santas running amok international.

Even our own feed of Christmas news carried the story.

And plenty of Santas out there are upset about it.

We can’t speak for the WSJ or the Telepgraph but we can tell you that Christmasnewswire.com (a sister publication to Real Christmas, as a member of the Merry Network) has received a fair share of feedback, much of it of a naughty variety that one wouldn’t suppose would come from a legitimate Santa.

We’re tempted to answer these scathing remarks and even more tempted to publish them under the names that were provided. But Christmas Newswire is just that — a news feed. Opinions are best kept to publications like this one.

But I’m not about to give some of these gentlemen more free publicity. After all, these so-called fraternal organizations (what are there, four of them now?) are all about publicity. Many of these grown men who don the red suit and curl the beards love the attention the general public and the media showers upon them. The story of their fracturing and contention is but a by-product of their large love for media attention.

I’m only writing here to state some simple facts: first, this story didn’t originate here. It came from the national and later the international media. If Santas want to contest the story, they should first go to the source, not the ones who merely pass the message along.

Second of all, we published the story and drew attention to it because we have witnessed, in more than 15 years of specifically publishing within the “Christmas” industry, the ongoing battles of those who call themselves Santa “professionals”.

What do we really think of them? Hold on, I’m getting to that.

First of all, you must realize that we’re Santa purists. We began our publishing efforts around the idea of Santa Claus. We believe in a commercial free, sacred respect view of Santa. For years our publications representing Santa have been carefully crafted to defend his dignity, honor his memory and to accurately state his history. Our Santa portrayals in forums, on chats, in articles and in Santa tracking websites have always been carefully managed against these standards. We have never sold any type of product or service that was Santa related.

We have tried, honestly, to keep the commercialism away from Santa as much as we have tried to keep it away from Jesus Christ.

That being said, we have long held our tongue against those who work to portray Santa “in-the-flesh”.

Why would should such a thing be an effort?

Because we have been long appalled by the overwhelming majority of Santas who try to exploit our network of websites to promote themselves. Some of these gentlemen, quite honestly, know no shame. They expect and in many cases **demand** free websites, free advertising and free promotion simply because they play Santa.

If we have wanted to interview them for various features they have asked for money. Some call it a fee others call it a contribution. We interview all kinds of people associated with Christmas in one way or another for our publications. But only those in the employ of professional Santa services have ever asked for money from us for the privilege.

When we have respectfully declined their requests or even just ignored them we have endured their wrath, just as we are now by sharing the national and international media’s attention on their current situation.

That is not to say there are no “decent” Santas out there.

In fact, quite the contrary. We have had many contacts with other individuals portraying Santa on a part time or fee-free basis. Many of these folks don’t belong to these so-called fraternal organizations. They play Santa for the love of playing Santa.

For many of these guys, they are completely above the publicized fray that these organizations seem to cultivate. They simlpy don’t need these organizations.

These associations claim to be gathering places and support groups to those who work in the industry. Like many industrial associations, they provide networking opportunities so that Santas can source materials and, candidly, get new gigs. On the whole, we’re not against such ideas.

But when the world of Santa revolves around politics, power and money we draw the line — especially when such shenanigans directly denigrate the memory of a man many still consider a saint.

We’re glad that someone outside the industry of Christmas (an industry which includes us) sees what we have been seeing for a long time. In fact, because of it we feel emboldened to raise the red (how ironic) flag of warning over some of these so-called professional santas.

In general, we advise our millions of readers, users and members over the largest network of Christmas web sites online to just avoid any Santa who flaunts their association with AORBs, the Red Suit Society, Santa Society, the Brotherhood of the Direct Descendants of Santa or any other piously titled organization dedicated to Santa Claus. Their “certification” under these associations is hardly an endorsement of their professional abilities or, sadly, their very integrity.

Instead we urge you to seek out the small-time independent Santa. You’ll know them when you see them. They are the ones with their twinkle in their eye. They have compassion in their voice. Their very demeanor speaks of the excitement of Christmas and their own sacred respect for the man they portray. In this case, Santa is most definitely a feeling — and not something that can or ever will come from a store.

Over the course of the past year Santa in particular has gotten a black eye. From professional Santas who lose their mall jobs because they fondled a kid or were arrested for their activities in child porn, the good name of a great man has taken a hit from those who perform the service for money.

Maybe it is time to forget those guys who do this for a living. Sure, it costs money for them to get the costume, to buy the insurance, to pass the background exams, and to don the make up. Sure it isn’t free to travel from place to place during the holidays.

But for every “santa” out there who gives you these arguments there are DOZENS of others who portray Santa — using the same suits, the better make-up and the best attitudes — for FREE. They do it just for the love of doing it. These are the Santas you want.

As for us, we plan to continue to help the world find a legitimate Santa Claus. We will continue to portray Santa with our old fashioned ideals. And we will highlight, promote and tell the stories of those Santas — the real ones — who play the role the right way. Without money, without contention, without name calling and without all the purely human emotions that are clearly beneath the image and true reputation of the individual we call Santa Claus.

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.

I recently went for a walk in the commercial area of my neighborhood. One of the stores shelters a cute dog that is favorite among the locals. A group of people had gathered to admire the dog — petting it and enjoying its harmless nature. Yet only a few feet away, a homeless person sat on his flattened cardboard box with his empty plastic donation container. No one spoke to him, no one honored him, no one asked him how he ended up on the street. A few steps down the street a bookstore displayed the famous Christmas Carol — the story of Scrooge and his three ghosts of Christmas. I wondered what the past holiday times had been like for the street person. What would his ghost of Christmas’s past show him? Does he, like Scrooge, have a ghost of Christmas future that can be changed?

As we move closer and closer to our annual ritual of the holiday season, I recall my own Christmas times and those of friends. For some the period measures closeness, while for others its measures distance. It is a time of gathering and for some, a time of non-gathering. It is a time of joy, for others a time of absolute despair. While I’ve listened to friends’ stories of a joyous Christmas with gift giving and family gatherings, I’ve also heard of extreme loneliness and the absence of receiving any gifts or having the opportunity to give. I’ve experienced both extremes and many times in between.

I remember one of the Christmas’s our family had before my mother passed. I had really worked on my personal growth to heal from family of origin issues and envisioned the family get together as a test of holding my own while trying to be compassionate. It was like walking a tightrope. My new found sense of self esteem was precarious, and required baby steps to maintain my serenity and composure. With my new awareness, which eventually led to the writing of “Here I Am”, I could clearly see their triggering behaviors — the “Mark has changed and is acting strange” looks, the sarcastic comments, or just being ignored. It’s rather humorous now that I look back at it, but when I began standing up for myself, my father, so fearful of change, started yelling at me “Don’t disturb our happy home.” This is my ghost of Christmas past.

While I have had a number of joyous holiday times since then, Christmas ‘98 was one of the most lonely and isolating times I’ve ever experienced. I had learned from a first nations elder that in the healing process comes a stage of isolation during which one re-examines one’s values and beliefs. This stage came upon me in the fall of ‘98 and continued into the first months of the new year. It was a time of profound challenge in which I realized that my loneliness is separate from who I am. I also learned that, while I needed to develop the skill of being alone, too much aloneness can do great harm to one’s spirit. I learned that my self love can be less dependent on how many friends I have, while recognizing the need for other people in my life. I learned to have more compassion for myself and to know that it is acceptable for me to make mistakes. Succumbing to the depth of despair was fought off with my thread of knowledge that “this too shall pass” and the understanding that I was progressing through a difficult yet necessary stage of healing. My challenges and difficulties, as for many others, escalated during the holiday season. This recent time is my ghost of Christmas present.

In my counseling studies I have learned that our holiday ritual has a profound effect on people. Requests for counseling are highest after the holiday period. Sales of self help and personal development books peak in the early year. Sadly, suicide rates are highest at Christmas, and in the spring months, when the weather gets better but people don’t. What can we do to change? I’ve known for many years that relationship with ourselves and others is the key. Yet something was missing. I’ve learned now that the relationship must include love, compassion and an ability to see beyond the issue to the good in a person and to be able to hold in high esteem, those who trouble us most.

As we seek enlightenment and a new consciousness, I look around and notice the things we can build — airplanes, the Internet, computers — even a relationship with the divine. Yet can we build the most fundamental essence of being, a relationship with one another? Do we find it safer to provide unconditional love to those who do not trigger our own issues, or even a gentle non-threatening puppy? Brian Ruhe, author of Freeing the Buddha, says “the Kingdom of Shambala is not a heavenly plain of existence, but how we relate to each other. This is done through love, personal warmth and connecting.”

We are beginning a new period of awareness, yet I see many of my friends experiencing deep periods of darkness. We live in challenging times, yet we continue to learn. I’ve discovered that awareness or enlightenment is not a singular idea or concept. Like dozens of eggs that will hatch into a flock, enlightenment involves the learning of numerous concepts that will shape my behavior, thoughts and feelings. Boundaries, emotions, needs, self expression, forgiveness, beliefs, values, acceptance and prosperity are all eggs that need to be nurtured, hatched, and allowed to grow to form our way of being. The holiday season can be a positive time to measure how we’re doing with our own personal growth and acceptance of others.

Last Christmas I gathered enough energy to call each of my brothers to say hello with no discussion of issues, only acceptance. My healing process has helped me to increase my ability to love unconditionally the people who trigger me the most, and to understand that I may have assumed that others are conscious of what they are doing. To quote the words attributed to Jesus “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.” I’ve learned that my father was longing so desperately for a happy home and pursued it with such force that he shut down all communication to maintain the image, and that one of my brothers doesn’t call because my growth desperately threatens his world view. I can see and understand their own inner turmoil, stand my ground, and still love them.

With all of the dysfunction and issues that get in the way, it’s a tall task to see the good in others and to truly connect without expectations of changing the other person. You and I, our families, the homeless person and the cute dog all have one thing in common. We are all created by the same divine light and love. I’m learning to recognize and acknowledge the divinity in all others. Knowing of my own loneliness and of others, I hope to do things differently this year. Instead of telling others to have a happy holiday, I will ask them what their plans are and offer the gift of listening. It’s a simple, humble gift, and it doesn’t cost anything! The ghosts of Christmas past, future and present are upon us now.

By Mark O’Meara

What are your favorite memories of the holidays as a child?

More than likely those memories include family traditions from, the day you choose to decorate your tree, to the kinds of food you eat at the holidays.

Remember that you and your husband came from separate families with different customs and traditions.

When creating a legacy for your children, it is appropriate to use a couple traditions from each of your families and come up with some new ones for your own family. Don’t try to do them all or you’ll end up feeling overwhelmed rather than enriched. Here are some ideas.

Kick off the holiday season by attending an event every year. Some suggestions are: The Festival of Trees, attend a play such as A Christmas Carol, or a Christmas concert.

Together, bake a cake on Christmas Eve for Jesus to remind you whose birthday you are really celebrating. Light a candle and even sing “Happy Birthday” to Him.

Sound, smells and tastes can certainly bring back fond memories of past Christmases. The sound that is Christmas to me is Johnny Mathis’s Christmas album, which my mother played each year and I still adore now.

The food that means “holiday” to me is this frozen fruit salad recipe. We had it almost every holiday season. What are the sounds, smells and tastes that evoke your Christmas memories? Include those as part of your family’s traditions.

This tradition was submitted by Marilyn Brina:
On Christmas morning, the youngest child goes in and opens his stocking. The the other children go in and open their stockings all while Dad is taking movies of us. Then Dad hands out each gift and we all watch as each gift is opened. Then after the gifts are opened, we eat scrambled eggs, sweet rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast.

There are several books of compiled Christmas short stories available in bookstores and libraries. Read to your family each night before bedtime.

On the first day of December read to your family “The Giving Tree”, by Shel Silverstein. As a family, make an advent calendar in the shape of a tree and determine 25 “gifts” you can share with neighbors, relative, teachers, and friends. The gifts could be things such as shoveling snow from a neighbor’s walk, visiting a widow, taking homemade bread to someone. Write each gift on a separate “leaf” and attach it to the tree. Number the leaves from 1 to 25. Each day during December, turn over the corresponding leaf on the calendar and give whatever “gift” is listed there.

Use your children’s artwork (which most families have in great abundance) to decorate wrapped packages. Your children will feel pride in the fact that their work is contributing to the holiday decorations.

Each Christmas of my childhood we would go “Santa Clausing”. My dad dressing up as Santa we children would dress as elves or reindeer. We would then deliver plates of Christmas goodies to friends and neighbors as we caroled. And of course, Santa had a candy cane in his bag for each child he encountered.

Give a new ornament to each child each year. Store each child’s collection in a special box that he can take with him when he leaves the nest. Not only will it give your child a few ornaments to decorate his tree, but it will be a reminder of past Christmases.

Take lots of pictures throughout the holidays. Each year create several new scrapbook pages that can be put into a special Christmas scrapbook album. It is wonderful to have out at holiday family gatherings for everyone to enjoy!

Several years we have been on the giving and the receiving end of “The 12 Days of Christmas”. Pick an individual or family that may be having a difficult holiday season, or that you just want to friendship. Each night anonymously leave a small gift with a note or poem on the receivers porch. (It can be exciting and tricky trying not to get caught 12 nights in a row!)

Another option is to compile the 12 gifts all at the same time. Be sure they are small and lay them on a 4 to 5 foot piece of colored plastic wrap. Enclose gifts in wrap and make a long rope separating each gift with ties of ribbon. Each night the receivers can cut off a new gift, and you only have one chance of being caught!

Use traditions to create lasting happy memories for your family that can be looked forward to every year.

Teresa Hansen is the creator of Moms Making It!
http://www.momsmakingit.com sharing creative ideas to save time, save money, and enrich your life! She is a wife, and mother of five children, and always looking for new ideas and products for moms “making it!” Get “Christmas Neighborhood Gift Ideas” ebook FREE by signing up for the newsletter at her site.

If you’re working on a weight loss plan, one of the most difficult times of year can be the holidays. Around Christmas and New Years, the parties and meals you’ll attend will include foods that are high in fat and calories and low in nutrition. Fortunately, by following these five tips you can stick to your weight loss plan even as visions of sugarplums dance in your head.

First, avoid the alcohol. Cocktails and beer are usually served at holiday parties, but they can be full of calories. When you drink, you also have a decreased will power when it comes to saying no to other holiday foods and your appetite will be stimulate, so you’ll eat even more than you normally would eat at a party. Having one drink on a special occasion may be fine, but don’t overdo it every time you head out to celebrate the season.

Another great tip to stick to your plan during the holiday season is to show up fashionably late after you’ve already eaten a meal. If you do this, you won’t feel pressured to eat an entire meal of junk foods or snack on cookie or hot chocolate. Of course, showing up late may be insulting at smaller parties, so make sure you are not rude to the party host.

Use the holidays to get outside as well. You can play in the snow if the weather allows, which actually burns tons of calories. Walking up the hill to sled and having a snowball fight are great ways to get your heart pumping as well as work off those candy canes.

If the weather isn’t cold or snowy, use your time to head to the mall. When gift shopping, make a number of laps around the mall and take the stairs instead of the escalator. Keep this in mind at parties as well–get up and move around as much as possible. Christmas caroling is also a great way to stay off of your rear. This will allow you to do some walking while spreading the holiday cheer.

Lastly, avoid gifts of food. Of course, you can’t tell people what to buy for you, but if you find yourself with a bunch of brownies or boxes or chocolates, why not share the love? You can take these products into work or even donate unopened items to your local food bank. These tips keep you staying slim, every as you’re surrounded by goodies.

Gaetane Ross is a Certified Natural Health Consultant who has spent over 4 years focusing on Nutrition and Health. http://therightdiet4u.live-o-natural.com/

It was bound to happen. The political debates of global warming have reached Christmas.

But the attackers who swear your SUV is killing the planet are taking a fresh approach when it comes to Christmas. You’d think they’d be up in arms about the tons of wasted paper represented by Christmas wrap or perhaps we would be lectured about the true cost of burning multi-colored and musically timed Christmas lights. But no — they are hitting really below the belt with a cunning strategy that is undeniably flawless.

They want us to buy real Christmas trees.

Yes, that’s right. They want us to hunt down a beautful fir, chop it off at the roots and kill it slowly over a period of weeks before Christmas. Year after year after year they want us to do this — to save the planet, they claim.

Stunning, isn’t it?

How do the use of real trees help the fight against global warming? Simple math explains it first.

Artificial trees now outsell real trees by a 6-to-1 margin these days. Artificial trees are made of plastic and metal — the same stuff used to build SUVs, water bottles and other anti-earth products. You just can’t drag an artificial tree out to the curb when its usefulness has expired. It goes to landfills where it won’t degrade until well after the 2nd coming and that, as you know, is killing the earth. So, doing the math, if we buy more real trees again versus fake ones, we’re planet savers.

Of course, there are other environmentally sound reasons to buy real trees.

Their proper harvesting helps replenish leeched nutrients from precious soil. In fact, a real tree when properly recycled blesses the earth from which it sprang. So says a new coalition of, um, tree huggers, otherwise disguised as the Christmas tree growers of Oregon.

To them we say: Merry Christmas. After all, every one loves a real tree. Real trees smell better, look prettier and add life to a room in a way that no artificial tree can. But to them we also say: Bah humbug. Don’t kid a kidder, the saying goes. And don’t wrap your trees as environmentally friendly just to sell a few more trees. Real trees are great — but they do present some issues.

Let’s not forget the hassles of being environmentally responsible. Real trees die and in the process they shed. Real trees cause real fires. And sap from real trees can ruin just about anyone’s day.

The inconvenience of hauling a tree in the house, watering it, picking up after it as it slowly drops needles all season, and then cleaning up after the season is over hardly seems like a price to pay in order the save the planet, right?

Right. We all agree with that. After all, we were all environmentally friendly years ago when as kids real trees were all we had access to.

But there is one real issue the tree growers of Oregon and global warming advocates from all over have yet to address: money.

Yes, real trees cost real money. Lots of it. And that is something difficult for any real tree lover to fathom. Why does a real tree cost as much as a small car? That is what is driving sales of artificial trees. One can go to Target and get a tree in a box and re-use it for years for a fraction of the cost of having a real tree over that time.

Everyone wants a green planet. Heck, it is my stubborn belief that most folks would really prefer a real tree. We were good with it generations ago and we’d be fine with it for now. We just can’t afford it.  

Real trees are something the Christmas-loving world would get behind in a heart beat — just as soon as Christmas tree growers get real themselves.  

More than 18 million Mattel toys on recall world-wide

Fisher-Price recalls almost 1 million toys

Thomas & Friends toys recalled for lead poisoning

And thats just a few headlines and in one part of industry; toy manufacture. And its not just the fault of the factories in China and the companies who readily outsource to them. All in the name, they say, of passing the savings onto the consumer. But we won’t go there today. There’s blame on the part of government too, who should be taking more than a passing interest in what sort of goods are flooding into your country.

It begs the question; how much is enough? Companies aren’t charitable organisations. They exist to make a profit. But at what cost? In this case, I think the cost is going to make like schrapnel and shred a chunk off everyone from Head Office to the factory to the retailer.

Though I suspect the lawyers may be more than a little pleased. Disaster is always good for their business.

I can see at least a glimmer of goodness coming out of this fiasco; perhaps, just maybe, it will make us that much less greedy. Both as consumers and as corporate citizens.

As a retailer I’m always looking for ways to squeeze another nickle out of Christmas. As Stan Freberg said, “Christmas has two S’s in it and they are both dollar signs”. That’s our motto, our sacred code of honor. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter how well I do the eleven other months of the year. It’s all about Christmas, baby.

If December isn’t good, my whole year is a waste. And when your whole year rides literally on the 12 Days of Christmas, you need every maid-a-milking indeed.  We hold doorbuster sales, dress up in Santa hats, offer free gift wrapping, staff the store to the hilt and “stack it deep and sell it cheap”.  But what more can we do? Surely science and modern technology have something to offer that can make this year’s must-have double digit increase possible against last year’s push.

Consider recent research that they are hoping will make retailers like me practically salivate at the possibilties:

Customers like stores’ scents to match their sounds, according to research by Eric Spangenberg of Washington State University. Participants were invited to a laboratory to experience Christmas or non-Christmas music combined with Christmas or non-Christmas scents. They were then shown photos of a store and asked how they felt about it. Participants who were exposed to a Christmas scent in combination with Christmas music gave the store higher ratings than those who experienced a Christmas scent with non-Christmas music. As a result, Spangenberg advises retailers to attract customers, and their money, with scents that complement the rest of the store’s atmosphere.

I have to wonder how much these guys paid for this research. All they had to do was to walk into Yankee Candle on December 14th and smell the sugar cookie candles softly glowing while listening to Bing do his thing. Ka-ching.

Or, they could simply head into Bath & Body Works where they would be speedily and merrily greeted by a hostess humming “Deck the Halls” while being only too willing to slather on some peppermint hand lotion. Cash or charge?

It’s a winning combination born of heralded retailing tradition taught by Hallmark, of all people, more than two decades ago who perfected the art of atmosphere selling by holding outrageously priced ornament selling events in the dead heat of summer.

Those guys are masters.

Long before anyone even has a tree up Hallmark sells boxed plastic ornaments fashioned into traditional-looking icons of the season with super-inflated prices representing near-evil margins.

And they get their price while selling in a frenzy. How? By putting on the smaltzy music, brewing a pot of culled cider, offering a plate of festively decorated cookies and showing doe-eyed, gooey smiles while saying Merry Christmas just two weeks after the 4th of July. Paper or plastic? 

To those who love Christmas, Hallmark in December is the equivalent of Scrooge collecting Christmas eve rents. Ruthless, greedy — and brilliant! But to those of us who depend on Christmas to fill our stockings, they are revered as true masters of the art and science of selling Christmas.   

In exactly five months millions of people around the world will celebrate Christmas… or maybe not.

If Santas and elves from Europe, Australia and Japan have their way, the date of Christmas could be changed from December 25 to either December 24 or even January 6 or 7.

This controversial topic was discussed this week at the 50th International Santa Claus convention at which 160 Santas and elves gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In most places around the world, Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25. However, the Armenian Apostolic Church, predominantly in South Western Asia, observes Christmas on January 6, while some old rite or old style Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on January 7.

The date as a birth date for Jesus is merely traditional and is not widely considered to be his actual date of birth.

The debate has raised the eyebrows of some Christians in Durban who say the religious significance of Christmas always takes a back seat and should not be tolerated.

Bishop Lawrence Naidoo of the New Apostolic Church (NAC) in KwaZulu-Natal said all that mattered to him was that Jesus was born, crucified, resurrected, ascended and he that will be returning – the specific date is not important.

“If December 25 is the date given and accepted for centuries, I don’t see a problem with that,” he said.

Can anyone be blamed for longing for Christmas in this heat? I read with interest this blog about a man and his wife who received their first Christmas catalogue on July 10th. Is there something wrong with that?

I don’t know a thing about Gooseberry Patch, the retailer that sent him the catalogue. But I was a bit surprised at this writer’s dismay at receiving a Christmas catalogue now. Christmas is a year-round season for many of us. People follow baseball in the winter and football in the summer. Nobody gets hung up about that. Why should we dis Christmas-fans and the people who market to them? 

He actually sent them a letter asking why they were sending out Christmas so early. The nerve!