Joy of Christmas

Archive for December, 2005

With a ho-hum pre-Christmas season behind them, the nation’s retailers are preparing to usher in the post-Christmas period on Monday with expanded shopping hours, a blitz of deep discounts and fresh new merchandise.

Armed with gift cards and a zeal for bargains, shoppers returned to the nation’s malls and stores Monday for a second round of the holiday shopping season as retailers hoped for a post-Christmas sales blitz.

Many stores – stymied by shoppers procrastinating even longer than last year – are relying even more on the post-holiday business to meet their modest sales goals, and wooed customers with deeper discounts, expanded shopping hours and fresh regular price merchandise.

They’re largely aiming their efforts at the growing numbers of gift card holders who are expected to spend their newfound money more generously. Gift cards are recorded as sales only when they’re redeemed.

“Retailers have recognized that December has 31 days,” said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group Inc., a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y.

In fact, in an effort to prop up profits, a growing number of stores such as Coach Inc., Target Corp., and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. rolled out some spring merchandise while KB Toys Inc. was pushing new versions of Barbie and the funky Bratz dolls.

Consumer electronic chains such as Best Buy Co. Inc. were highlighting CDs, DVDs and video games in their advertising, counting on shoppers to feed the gadgets they received for the holiday.

Online sites such as overstock.com and buy.com were courting customers with free shipping deals and deeper discounts on Monday, though online shopping has been a bright spot in the season.

“I’m looking for new merchandise,” said James Coffey, who was among the early shoppers at Town Center Mall in Charleston, W.Va. He was bearing gift cards including one from Sears, Roebuck and Co. and another for the mall, aiming to spend as much as $300.

Still, most shoppers were clamoring for a deal.

“I wouldn’t pay full price today for anything,” said Misty Watters, who snapped up discounted Nike sweat pants and T-shirts at McCain Mall in North Little Rock, Ark.

“We’re looking for anything on sale,” said Jennifer Westfall, of Charleston, W.Va., who brought her mother and 7-year-old daughter to the local Charleston Mall. “Only cheap-o markdowns.”

Westfall found several deals, including a $130 cocktail dress for $20 and children’s clothes discounted 90 percent.

Meanwhile, at the Robinsons-May store in suburban Canoga Park, Calif., hundreds of people were standing outside in the rain before the 6 a.m. opening.

“I’m just here to see if there’s a bargain,” said Pamela Porterfield, who purchased discounted bowling ball coffee mugs.

Some shoppers were finishing their own Christmas shopping.

“You get good bargains,” said Gloria Mendez of New York City, who left a Filene’s Basement store in Manhattan with two loaded bags.

James Johnson, a driver for FedEx Corp., bought a last-minute gift at a Wal-Mart store in Bowie, Md.

“I just didn’t have time before Christmas. I was too busy working,” Johnson said.

Some shoppers were able to nab the season’s hottest gifts, which have been in scarce supply.

Kimberlee Wiley of New Bedford, Mass., went hunting a $300 iPod digital music player Monday at the local Filene’s department store, using all the gift cards she received for Christmas. She discovered they were sold out, and later bought the player online.

While this week should be busy for retailers, Cohen of NPD expects that retailers will wind up with a modest sales increase of a little more than 3 percent for the November-December period.

The estimate is based on same-store sales, which are sales at stores opened at least a year.

Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, expects that 20 percent of gift card holders will redeem their cards this week. According to a survey conducted by Accenture, 44 percent of shoppers polled said they spend their gift card within a month of receiving it. And more than half said they will spend more than the value of the card.

Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which operates or owns 23 malls in 11 states, reported that 25 percent of those redeeming gift cards on Monday were spending over the value of the card.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., the week after Christmas accounted for 10 percent of holiday sales last year, but analysts expect that period could account for as much as 14 percent this year, given gift cards’ soaring popularity.

The National Retail Federation estimates that consumers will spend $18.48 billion on gift cards, this holiday season, up 6.6 percent from a year ago, based on a survey conducted by BIGresearch. But plenty of malls and stores are seeing far larger increases.

Cornelius Walker is a self-professed humbug.

Christmas is too commercial, he says.

Not where he spent this Christmas. He and more than 600 people checked the commercialism, and the humbugs, at the door.

Adorned in matching Santa hats, Walker and friend Susan Jurries went to the 25th annual free Christmas dinner at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

It was a near-record crowd, co-organizer Bob Brown said. He and his wife, Judy, have put on the dinner, with a crew of volunteers and help from the church, for 25 years.

Jurries has made it to all the dinners but one, and couldn’t help but drag Walker along.

She comes for more than the food.

“It’s because of the fellowship and the people that get together from all over,” she said. “They come from all over, all ages, all sizes.”

She makes new friend and meets old ones. “The Browns just make everyone welcome,” she said.

Walker came because of “the chance to see new people, see some other people at Christmastime. And to not be such a humbug, to tell you the truth,” he said.

It was the first time for Adam Lantz, whose family is out of town. “I haven’t got anybody to celebrate Christmas with, so I figured I might as well go,” he said.

Rick Wells’ situation is similar. “I don’t have any family to celebrate Christmas with anymore,” he said. “My mom passed away nine years ago on Dec. 9. Me and her always celebrated Christmas together. I’ve never really had anybody to celebrate Christmas with since she’s been gone. It give me a chance to meet new people and make friends and have fellowship, and maybe sometime in the future I might meet somebody.”

This year’s turnout broke 600 for the third time in four years, Bob Brown said. More than 400 came to dinner, and roughly 200 more took meals home. The church hall seats about 280, so there were nearly two full shifts of diners. Many more took leftovers home.

Those attending crossed racial, ethnic and social lines. Some were disabled. Some were alone. Some brought families, like Juan Perez, who came to Waterloo from Tama in September 2004 to work at Tyson Foods. He came to Iowa from San Francisco and previously worked in packing houses in Marshalltown and Tama.

Raymond and Enola Bruns of Dike came with their son, David, who has Down syndrome and lives near the church.

“David’s lived over here about 10 years,” Enola said. “We like to come because of David.” It is their time with him, and they also share holiday time with their other two grown children and six grandchildren

“Twenty-five years ago today we served our first (dinner),” Bob Brown told the crowd. “If my wife had known we’d be doing it 25 years later, I’d be a single man,” he kidded. “We just hope we can do this many, many more years.”

The event is a great ministry not only for Westminster, but for the entire community, said the Rev. Scott Paczkowski.

“There was just a commitment to the community we wanted to make,” he said. “We’ve always had a strong mission emphasis in our church, not only to things worldwide but also locally. We felt the importance to reach out, especially during this time when so many people are alone.

“But one of the things we appreciate is it’s not just a Westminster activity,” Paczkowski said. The Browns themselves are former Westminster members. “Many of our volunteers come from so many other churches. And that’s exciting. It has an ecumenical feeling about it.”

Westminster pianist Barb Ogden has been playing Christmas carols during the dinner for nearly as long as it has been held.

“First of all, I love to play; I’m a musician,” she said. “In the second place, I used to work with homeless people, and unemployed and underemployed people, and many who come every year are just that — besides people who are alone. It’s wonderful. I love it. And I can tell the people love it, too. We see that every year. They don’t eat and run, they eat and stay. And they talk and they make friends and they meet all kinds of people.”

If you weren’t exactly thrilled with what Santa left under the tree, you weren’t alone. People crowded the stores Monday looking for refunds or exchanges.

“I’m returning a nut cracker which will not do nuts,” said Jessie Miller.

Whatever the reason, some gifts from Sunday went back to the store on Monday. Bobby Eggleton went to return his grandson’s bicycle, expecting a long wait.

“I didn’t know it was going to be so convenient,” said Eggleton. “I would have thought that it would have been busy.

Employees at Gulfport’s Super Wal-Mart were also surprised. The store reserved six registers exclusively for returns and exchanges to handle the huge crowds that usually come in the day after Christmas.

Tommy Chathen is an assistant manager.

“This year, from what I understand, it’s a little bit lighter than normal. I think everybody with the Hurricane Katrina situation has needed their gifts and they’ve been thankful for whatever the community has given them and family has given them.”

Melissa Jimenez says it took longer to shop for these gifts than it did to return them.

“About five minutes. I stood in line. I was the second person in line and got in here within five minutes. Now I’m finished and I get to go spend the money I just got back.”

The assistant manager at the Gulfport Super Wal-Mart says while returns were light on Monday, the store was busy with people taking advantage of after-Christmas sales.

It isn’t every day a firefighter is called upon to give mouth-to-snout resuscitation, but when saving lives is your job, you do what you have to do.

Yesterday, while most people were preparing for a family Christmas dinner, firefighter John McGovern and his lieutenant, Ian MacKinnon, were on duty. They and their crew were called to Ramsey Crescent, near Pinecrest and the Queensway.

Their pumper was the second to get there, at about 4:30 p.m. It was a fire in the living room.

It soon became clear there were no people in the house. The family was away. But moments later the firefighters realized there was a life to try to save.

One of the firefighters already at the scene, Don Church, had been inside the house, conducting a search. When he emerged, he carried in his arms a large dog, a German shepherd-Labrador cross. He’d found it in the basement, chained up, showing no signs of life.

When he got it outside, he gave the dog to Mr. McGovern and Lieut. MacKinnon.

“It was VSA, basically, that dog,” Mr. McGovern said, using the acronym for “vital signs absent.”

It wasn’t a human being, and without a doubt, over the world and even in the city of Ottawa, there were bigger emergencies at that moment.

But it was life, the life of a poor animal that had nowhere to run when the smoke filled the house, and they were going to do their best to save it.

Mr. McGovern put it down in the snow and pumped on its chest, while Lieut. MacKinnon cupped his hands over the dogs mouth and blew in air.

A dog has a heart and lungs, just the same as a person, and CPR is effective, they said.

“Works the same way,” Lieut. MacKinnon said.

After a few moments, the dog began to breathe a bit and Mr. McGovern asked his lieutenant if he could get the oxygen cylinders used for people. Since there were no human patients needing them, Lieut. MacKinnon said yes.

Mr. McGovern put the tube into the dog’s mouth and held the mouth closed.

Then he petted the dog, trying to encourage it, and spoke.

“I heard some kids saying his name was Rocco. So I just said ‘Come on, Rocco. Come back, come to, everything’s going to be OK.’”

Mr. McGovern put his jacket over the dog. He put his gloves under its head. He got a blanket.

“I guess we were with that dog for 20 minutes, 25 minutes,” he said. It was groggy, but it revived. “It did that in my arms,” said Mr. McGovern, who has four dogs of his own at home.

Neighbour Justin Shaver, 13, was there and tried to help to comfort the dog after the firefighters revived it. “He just kept looking at me, licking my fingers, and then my hand smelled like smoke,” he said.

The dog is staying at the Humane Society overnight and will be reunited with its owners when they return to Ottawa.

Damage is estimated at $60,000. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The owners could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Church said he was very happy the story turned out as it did.

“It was a happy ending for a change,” he said.

Lieut. MacKinnon, who said he grew up on a farm and has performed mouth-to-mouth on animals in danger before this, said it did make him feel good to be part of the team effort that saved the dog, especially on Christmas. But ultimately, he said, it’s regular business.

“We’re firefighters and that’s what we do,” he said.

The full text of the Queen’s Speech delivered to Peers and MPs on 17 May 2005.

My lords and members of the House of Commons, my government will continue to pursue economic policies which entrench stability and promote long-term growth and prosperity.

To this end, my government will continue to secure low inflation and sound public finances.

My government will build on its programme of reform and accelerate modernisation of the public services to promote opportunity and fairness.

My government will bring forward legislation in the key areas of public service delivery: education; health; welfare; and crime.

Education remains my government’s main priority. My government will further reform the education system to improve quality and choice in the provision of schooling, and build on the progress already made to improve educational standards for all.

Legislation will be brought forward to offer greater support for working families by extending maternity benefits and improving the provision of child care.

My government will continue to reform the National Health Service in a way that maintains its founding principles.

Measures will be brought forward to introduce more choice and diversity in healthcare provision and to continue to improve the quality of health services and hospital hygiene.

Legislation to restrict smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces will also be introduced.

A bill will be brought forward to support patients who wish to seek redress should they experience problems with their healthcare.

My government will continue its reform of the welfare state, in order to reduce poverty further, offer greater equality, and match rights with responsibilities.

My government will introduce legislation to reform support for housing costs.

A bill will be introduced to establish benefits which will facilitate a return to employment, while offering long-term support for those unable to work.

My government will begin long-term reform to provide sustainable income for those in retirement.

A bill will be introduced to improve protection of consumers by bringing home reversion plans within the scope of the Financial Services Authority.

My government is committed to creating safe and secure communities, and fostering a culture of respect.

Legislation will be taken forward to introduce an identity cards scheme.

A bill will be introduced to give police and local communities new powers to tackle knives, guns and alcohol-related violence.

Further legislation will be introduced to tighten the immigration and asylum system in a way that is fair, flexible, and in the economic interests of the country.

Proposals will be brought forward to continue the fight against terrorism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

My government will bring forward legislation to reduce re-offending by improving the management of offenders.

Legislation will be introduced to reform the criminal defence service, making better use of legal aid resources.

My government believes that the welfare of the child is paramount. A bill will be introduced to establish a barring and vetting scheme, and other measures to provide better protection for children and vulnerable adults.

Legislation will be introduced to safeguard the welfare of children in circumstances of parental separation and to improve the process of inter-country adoption.

My government will continue with legislation to provide a new framework for the provision of compulsory treatment of those with mental disorders.

Legislation will be introduced to modernise charity law, to develop a vibrant, diverse and independent charitable sector.

My government will take forward proposals to introduce an offence of corporate manslaughter.

My government will bring forward measures to tackle those who incite religious hatred.

Legislation will be introduced to combat discrimination and to establish the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

My government is committed to achieving sustainable development and supporting rural services.

Legislation will be brought forward to ensure the better management and protection of the natural environment and to provide support for rural communities.

A bill to modernise the management of common land will be introduced.

Legislation will be brought forward to help reduce casualties on the roads.

My government is committed to promoting efficiency, productivity and value for money.

Legislation will be introduced to streamline regulatory structures and make it simpler to remove outdated or unnecessary legislation.

Consumer credit law will be updated to provide greater protection for consumers and to create a fairer, more competitive credit market.

Company law will be reformed to encourage greater levels of investment and enterprise.

Members of the House of Commons, estimates for the public services will be laid before you.

My lords and members of the House of Commons, my government will continue to work closely with the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, and will work to bring about the conditions necessary for the restoration of political institutions in Northern Ireland.

Legislation will be brought forward to encourage greater voter participation in elections while introducing further measures to combat fraud and increase security.

Legislation will also be introduced to reform the National Assembly for Wales.

My government will bring forward proposals to continue the reform of the House of Lords.

If London is selected to host the 2012 Olympic Games, legislation will be introduced as soon as possible to establish the necessary powers to ensure the delivery of the Games, and that the requirements of the International Olympic Committee are met.

My government will establish a single system of service law for the Armed Forces.

My government will bring forward a Bill to give effect to the constitutional treaty for the European Union, subject to a referendum.

Legislation will be introduced to ratify the treaty of accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union.

Other measures will be laid before you.

My government will continue to play its full part in international affairs.

The Duke of Edinburgh and I look forward to our visit to Canada later today and to our state visit to Malta in November which precedes the Commonwealth heads of government meeting.

We look forward to our visit to Australia in March next year for the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne followed by our state visit to Singapore.

We also look forward to receiving their majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway.

The United Kingdom will take over the Presidency of the European Union in July, and my government will work to build an increasingly prosperous and secure Europe.

My government will use its presidency of the G8 to secure progress in tackling poverty in Africa and climate change.

My government will continue to push for a resolution of the conflict in Darfur.

My government will continue to work to prevent terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and to combat drug smuggling and international crime.

My government will work to strengthen commitment to the continued effectiveness of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and continue to contribute to a modern and representative United Nations.

My government will work to secure a successful outcome from the United Nations Millennium Review Summit and the Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong in December.

My government will support the Iraq Transitional Government and Transitional National Assembly as they write a constitution and prepare for future elections.

My government will continue to assist the government of Afghanistan including in its counter-narcotics efforts, and to support better standards of governance throughout the world.

Peace in the Middle East will remain one of my government’s highest priorities.

My government will work to deepen and develop the strong partnership between Europe and the United States in order to meet these objectives.

My lords and members of the House of Commons: I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels.

The Queen’s message to the Commonwealth on December 25 has become as traditional a part of the British Christmas as roast turkey and Christmas pudding.

Millions of people across the United Kingdom turn on the television to watch the Queen sum up the year and offer the season’s greetings to her subjects.

Millions more around the world listen to the speech on their radios and, nowadays, on the Internet.

The tradition was begun by the Queen’s grandfather, King George V, in 1932. In the early days, the message went out live but from 1960 onwards it was recorded a few days in advance.

In the past, most of the speeches have been regarded as uncontroversial, even a little dull. The notable exception was the 1992 broadcast – the Queen labelled that year an “annus horribilis”.

A royal Christmas

In 1932 when King George V made the first royal Christmas broadcast to what was then the British Empire, it was transmitted live from his small study at Sandringham, in Norfolk, where the royal family always spend their Christmas holidays.

The speech was scripted by the famous author, Rudyard Kipling, and began with the words: “I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all.”

Queen Elizabeth II made her first Christmas broadcast on BBC radio in 1952. Her first televised speech took place in 1957.

The contents of the speech are always top secret until it is first transmitted. In 1987 the BBC hit the headlines when its royal correspondent of the time, Michael Cole, accidentally revealed some of its contents.

In her 1992 “annus horribilus” speech, the Queen, expressed her sorrow at a year which saw the break-up of two family marriages, one divorce and the fire at Windsor Castle.

That year, as in many others, she began with references to Sandringham and her own family: “I first came here for Christmas as a grandchild. Nowadays my children come here for the same family festival. To me this continuity is a great source of comfort in a world of tension and violence.”

She then went on to speak of how the “sombre year” had been put into perspective by the example of a close friend, who, suffering from a terminal illness had continued to put others first.

This was also the year in which the Sun newspaper printed leaked details of the speech on December 23, much to the dismay of Buckingham Palace.

The message in the making

The speech has traditionally been filmed in great secrecy at Sandringham in the week before Christmas. But in recent years it has been filmed at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

The Queen speaks directly to camera and the package usually features royal footage from the year. It is sent in advance around the world to 17 Commonwealth countries, to be broadcast at a convenient local time.

As a result of leaks in the press in previous years, many media outlets do not receive the text of the Queen’s address until late on Christmas Eve.

The speech was traditionally produced by the BBC but in recent years the job has been shared with Independent Television News (ITN) on a rotating basis.

When Buckingham Palace decided to end the BBC’s monopoly on the rights to produce the speech, it was seen by some as a deliberate snub in retaliation for its Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales in November 1995, which was not sanctioned by Buckingham Palace.

However the palace denied that a slight was intended and said that it had been considering for some time how to involve the ITV network as well as the BBC, “so that the arrangements reflect the composition of the television and radio industries today”.

The Royal Family spend Christmas at Sandringham, the Queen’s Norfolk estate – but how do they celebrate?

On Christmas Eve, the family gathers in the White Drawing Room around a 20ft Christmas tree – cut from the estate and traditionally decorated by the Queen herself.

Name cards on white-linen-covered trestle tables indicate where they are to place eachother’s presents.

At 5pm, the family helps themselves to tea, cake, muffins, scones and sandwiches, from sideboards in the Saloon.

Everyone drinks Earl Grey – except the Queen, who enjoys her own exclusive blend of Indian tea.

But by 6pm they are back around the tree awaiting the Queen’s signal to start unwrapping their presents.

Opening gifts on Christmas Eve is a German tradition, and the Royals’ presents tend to be practical and inexpensive.

Eagerly opening a gift-wrapped washing-up apron one year, the Queen reportedly said: “It’s just what We wanted.”

Another Christmas, the monarch was reportedly made merry by the gift of a casserole dish.

The younger Royals are the exception to the nothing-too-extravagant rule – each receives an over-sized Christmas stocking stuffed with pricey princely prezzies.

When all the gifts have been opened, the Royals retire to dress for dinner – reconvening for cocktails in the Saloon.

All the adults drink gin and tonic – except the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles, who enjoy dry martinis.

Dinner by candlelight, served at 8.30pm, is a black-tie affair, for which the finest china and silverware is laid out on the dining table decorated with Christmas flowers from the Sandringham nurseries.

Norfolk shrimps, lamb or locally-shot game may be followed by tarte tartin with brandy creme or a souffle.

White wine is served with the hors d’oeuvre, claret with the main course and champagne with the dessert.

After 10pm, on a signal from the Queen, the corgis are led out and the ladies adjourn, leaving Prince Philip to serve port or brandy to the men.

On Christmas Day, the family awakes to stockings, stuffed with small gifts and fruit, at the foot of their beds, and a full English breakfast is served.

By 11am, crowds are gathering outside St Mary Magdalene, the church on the estate where the Royals attend a Christmas morning service.

For Christmas lunch, at 1pm, a giant turkey, reared on the estate, is served with all the trimmings.

The family enjoys pulling Christmas crackers – but the Queen refuses to wear a paper party hat.

Cracker jokes they have enjoyed include “What kind of fish do you find in a birdcage? A perch!” and “What’s musical and handy in a supermarket? A Chopin Liszt!”.

But at 3pm the laughter comes to an end, as all the Royals settle down in the Saloon, warmed by a log fire, to watch the Queen’s Christmas Day speech on the television.

Christmas-related events around the world:

-Bethlehem, West Bank: Thousands of tourists and pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem, Jesus’ historic birthplace, in festivities that capped the most peaceful year since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000.

-Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI offered a Christmas prayer for peace in the Holy Land and made a special mention of children, including the unborn, as he led his first midnight Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. “On this night, when we look toward Bethlehem, let us pray in a special way for the birthplace of our Redeemer and for the men and women who live and suffer there,” he said.

-Baghdad, Iraq: For members of the 126th Armor Battalion, there was holly on the mess hall tables and a miniature Christmas tree in the barracks. The military was planning a Christmas Day dinner of turkey and ham. “These guys are calling me a Grinch because I’m not in the Christmas spirit. My mind-set is, ‘We’re here to do a job,’” said Lt. Micah Bell, 29, from Valparaiso, Ind.

-Britain: Britain’s Archbishop of Canterbury used his annual Christmas sermon to praise two families who showed forgiveness to violent criminals who attacked their loved ones, saying they demonstrate “that miraculous love is possible.”

-United States: President Bush called nine U.S. service members deployed from Japan to the Persian Gulf to recognize their service to the nation and wish them holiday cheer.

-Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez praised Jesus Christ as a revolutionary hero during a Christmas Eve visit to a homeless shelter. “For me, Christmas is Christ. The rebel Christ, the revolutionary Christ, the socialist Christ,” he said during a televised speech from the shelter.

-Indonesia: Bomb squads checked churches and hotel security guards in Santa Claus costumes searched cars after police warned that al-Qaida-linked militants might be plotting Christmas terror attacks in this predominantly Muslim nation. Christmas Eve services and other festivities proceeded without incident.

-Bangladesh: Bangladesh, also a predominantly Muslim nation, tightened security at churches across the country, following a recent spate of deadly bombings.

The white icicle lights came first, delicate and twinkly on her garden apartment balcony. They were so pretty, she bought more. The icicles turned into manic sheets of brilliance, like after an avalanche. Then came the colors: blues, pinks, purples, greens. Then the computerized LED lights. Then the fiber-optic Christmas tree with the stuffed tarantula on top. Then the glowing pink palm tree.

Llori Stein couldn’t stop.

Stein’s Christmas balcony disaster — her words — is now so ugly, in fact, that the Falls Church, Va., deck appears on the Web site uglychristmaslights.com, which documents people who “have no sense of decency in how they choose to celebrate.” And it’s featured in the latest planetchristmas.com book, which bills itself as “a delight for all connoisseurs of bad taste.”

“It’s not hard to create an ugly display. All you have to do is get carried away,” Stein, 36, says proudly. “I look like Christmas regurgitated all over my balcony.”

What else would you expect from a legally blind underground artist with tattoos of her husband on her arm, a dragon on her bosom and a peacock on her rear end who once ran a, uh, “literary” magazine called Wormfeast?

“There are very few displays that look that good. And if they look that good, it’s kinda boring,” she says. “When I see Christmas lights, I want to laugh.”

Now if only she could cram an outdoor grill on her 12-square-foot balcony along with the rest of the mess and cook up hot dogs and hamburgers. “I’d love to be out there and say to everybody who comes by: ‘Have a free hot dog. Here, catch.’ ”

It’s the kind of out-there Snoopy’s doghouse Christmas concoction that could send Martha Stewart and her understated garlands right over the edge.

Once she got started last year, the urge to decorate overtook her. “I wouldn’t call it an obsession. Maybe an affliction.” She finds herself reading the personal blogs of the similarly possessed — even people who confess of marriages falling apart because they couldn’t help themselves with the Christmas lights. In that department, so far, she’s safe. Her husband, Gregory Bryant, another artist who works at the National Air and Space Museum to pay the bills, loves it — especially her idea of mixing lights and sound.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Bryant, 52, says as he squeezes between the mix of real and fake plants, waterfalls, hanging beads and strings of lights that crowd the small apartment, awaiting their moment in the spotlight. He launches into a discussion of the Dadaists and synesthesia, or art that mixes the senses, like tasting color.

“They were talking about that in the ’20s,” he says. “It’s exciting to see that happening now and that Llori’s a part of that.”

Stein nods solemnly. “Yeah, like for me, when there’s too much noise, it tastes like battery acid.”

Matt Phillips, aka Santa, runs the uglychristmaslights.com Web site. Most of the photos on the site — tangled displays of Christmas lights; blinding rows of inflatable snowmen, Santas, nutcrackers, toy soldiers, SpongeBobs and Scooby-Doos all lined up; neon juggling monkeys; armies of elves and grazing reindeer — are taken by anonymous guerrilla photographers out on the prowl for Christmas on steroids.

“Some of these things, you just have to wonder what people are thinking,” Phillips said.

But Stein submitted her own photo — she even posed in the Christmas jacket she made by poking blue LED lights through the sleeves of a black jacket. (Her cane, with gold tinsel and colored lights snaking up its length, was out of sight.)

Rose Reed, who has managed and lived at Lee Square Apartments for nearly 20 years, said she’s never seen anything quite like Stein’s balcony. Only one person’s ever complained that it looks tacky. “Most people are anxious to see what she’ll do next,” Reed said.

Stein’s reasons for creating what she calls her own Christmas horror are fairly simple. It’s fun. And growing up, back in the days of big, fat, colored Christmas lights, stringy tinsel and plastic Santas, her grandmother and everyone on their street used to joyfully and garishly light up the neighborhood. She misses that.

But mainly, when she lost the ability to see, brought on by a stroke and malignant hypertension, Christmas lights became the only hedge against darkness. “The illumination is really about the only thing I can see anymore.”

So let Llori Stein, the underground artist who believes that anything and everything is art, dream a perfect Christmas dream. In her mind, she sees a nice little house with rolling hills and trees around it. She’d have synthetic Christmas trees in every room. And outside, a gigantic purple Christmas tree. And a kind of magic wonderland in the yard with tons of lights that would look like little UFO eggs.

“I’d definitely go overboard,” she says, her voice faraway in a private Christmas paradise. “I’m sure it would definitely be ugly.”

JOYFUL Nicola Wicksteed celebrated a Christmas miracle yesterday – after beating breast cancer with MISTLETOE.

Three months after taking extract of the Christmas “kissing plant” combined with herbs, her 7cm-wide tumour has vanished.

She said: “I put it down to natural drugs supporting my immune system.” Amazed doctors said her recovery was “remarkable”. Property developer and mum Nicola, 50, learned, she had a tumour two years ago. Snubbing surgery and chemotherapy she injected herself with mistletoe, took Carctol – a remedy of eight Ayurvedic herbs – and had hormone therapy.

A month after starting the treatment, the tumour had halved. Two months later, her cells were back to normal. Nicola, of Windermere, Cumbria, said: “I discovered cancer patients in Germany have mistletoe treatment and wanted to give it a chance.

“I know chemotherapy can destroy cancer cells but it also attacks the immune system.”

Nicola was helped by the Park Attwood Clinic, at Bewdley, Worcs. Dr Maurice Orange said: “Mistletoe and hormone therapy worked better than anyone hoped. The result was extraordinary.

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“There is nothing there at all now. It does not mean the cancer has completely gone, but Nicola is in full remission.”

Mistletoe was first used in cancer therapy more than 80 years ago. It appears to stimulate the immune system while destroying cancer cells.

Fikiswa Dinwa spent Christmas Day last year watching her son Isipho fight for his life.

But this Christmas, thanks to the medical staff at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, the 10-year-old will be home with his family in the Eastern Cape.

“Today is a victory. We’re taking him home for Christmas,” his delighted mother said as, laden with presents for her son, she said goodbye to the hospital staff who have been her mainstay for nearly two years.

In August, the Cape Argus featured the story of Isipho, then nine, when he became the third child to be treated at the hospital with a process called plasma phoresis.

This involved his own plasma being filtered out of his blood, then replaced with healthy donor plasma.

The plasma phoresis machine is the only one in South Africa that can filter paediatric plasma, and it has given Isipho his life back.

In Red Cross’s paediatric renal unit, Isipho is referred to fondly as “Cat Isipho”, because he’s known there as the boy with nine lives.

“He’s got more than nine lives. He really shouldn’t even be here today, but instead we’ve realised our aim of getting him well enough to go home to celebrate Christmas with his family,” said Professor Mignon McCulloch, head of the unit.

Isipho was admitted to Red Cross in March 2004 with nephritic syndrome. Effectively, his kidneys were leaking protein into the urine, a condition which results finally in kidney failure.

After months on dialysis to keep him alive, a donor kidney finally became available in March, and the transplant went ahead.

But relief was short-lived, because the syndrome recurred, threatening Isipho’s donor kidney. That’s where the hi-tech machine came in, and Isipho’s blood plasma was filtered from May to November.

“Now he’s completely clear. The kidney is functioning normally,” a proud McCulloch said.

Isipho will return to Red Cross Children’s Hospital next month for further tests, but McCulloch is confident the child won’t have any more problems.

For his mother, this is the best Christmas gift imaginable.

“He was very bad last Christmas. I couldn’t even think about Christmas Day or New Year, or any of the holidays.

“I was crying day and night,” she remembers.

On Friday, she leaves the hospital with Isipho, his sister Asiphe, eight, and brother Timna, two.

“Everyone has to be patient, with the child, with the doctors and nurses. You have to work hand in hand.

“And then you get what I got today – a victory,” the happy mom said.

Christmas markets have been popular in Germany since 1434, when a Dresden duke first let people sell their wares in town squares during the holiday period. Now they draw millions of people in cities from Chicago to New Delhi.

The markets have become one of the country’s newest exports, spreading German “Gemuetlichkeit,” or coziness, to cities in the U.S., Britain, Ireland and even India.

“It’s a bit of home, a bit of the old country,” said Theresa Piaszczynski, 59, a native of Germany who now lives in the U.S., as she sipped hot, steamy lentil soup Dec. 19 at Chicago’s German Christmas market. “It’s like being home.”

The markets, famous for their decorated wooden stalls selling gingerbread and mulled wine, present a softer side of exports from Germany, better known for its Volkswagen, BMW and Porsche cars and Linde AG forklifts. The events generate about 3 billion euros ($3.55 billion) in revenue in Germany every year, according to a study by Gerhard Johnson, a professor of economics at Harz University in Wernigerode, Germany.

“It’s something new, something foreign,” said Helmut Hamberger, 42, from Munich, who was manning the Bavarian Workshop at Chicago’s German market. “German markets like this are becoming well-known.”

The Chamber of Commerce of Nuremberg works with the city of Chicago on the event. Frankfurt Tourismus + Congress GmbH, which runs the market in Frankfurt, has exported smaller versions of its event to six British cities, including Manchester, Leeds Birmingham and Edinburgh. The one in New Delhi is run by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

The Markets Overseas

Organizing groups said they see the Christmas festivals as marketing tools for Germany and their hometowns.

The German market in Chicago, which drew 300,000 people in its first year in 1996, now attracts more than 1.3 million visitors and boasts two grand festival tents and 40 stalls offering products such as Bavarian liver loaf and Hessian loin ribs to handicraft such as Black Forest wood carvings.

“We constantly review details, such as whether the wood stalls have the right measurements or whether the awnings are really red-white,” Ray Lotter of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest said by telephone from Chicago Dec. 20.

In Britain, Birmingham is the biggest and oldest of the markets, with 1.5 million visitors expected this year.

In Edinburgh, the market runs along the city’s historic Princes Street with the Edinburgh Castle as a backdrop. Angela McGinley, 39, a resident of nearby Cockenzie, has been coming to the market for four years.

`Stocking Fillers’

“It’s nice for small gifts at Christmas, for stocking fillers,” she said, strolling along stalls that sold candles, toys, lace, model kits, jewelry, Bavarian hats, soaps and Christmas decorations on Dec. 21. “I buy things like soaps, candles and jewelry.”

“The British consider Christmas markets to be typically German, something everyone has seen in the media but only a few have actually experienced,” Kurt Stroscher of Frankfurt Tourismus + Congress, which also organizes other types of fairs and conventions in Frankfurt, said by telephone Dec. 19. “The attraction to see one (in their hometowns) is very high.”

Meanwhile, halfway across the globe, the German Christmas market in New Delhi is an “ideal tool to promote Germany, as it gives Indians a better idea about the country,” Anjali Wadhawan, who helps organize the two-day event for the Indo- German Chamber, said by telephone Dec. 22.

At Home

Christmas markets remain popular in Germany with locals and visitors.

“Many tourists come to Germany exclusively because of the Christmas markets in various cities,” Harz University’s Johnson said by telephone Dec. 20.

There are 40 major Christmas markets in Germany, usually around a city’s main church or in front of a city hall. In Frankfurt, more than 3 million people visit the sprawling market, which covers most of the central shopping district with booths selling food, drinks and handicrafts

“It’s a tradition with a lot of history, which makes it special,” said Alex Palman, 37, a communications manager from London, who visited Berlin’s market. He spent about 50 euros on food and small gifts, he said Dec. 20 by telephone. “I love the atmosphere.”

PET lovers are set to break all records for the amount of money they spend on their pampered pets this festive season.

Sales in pet treats have risen dramatically over the last year and £2m worth of pet gifts are expected to be sold this Christmas.

Demand has already rocketed for pet crackers, pet Christmas gift stockings and even pet photo frames.

Both cats and dogs are being spoilt this year with 95% of dog owners buying their canine best friends a Christmas gift and 87% of cat owners splashing out on their feline companions.

Sales of Christmas turkey-flavoured pet food is set to outsell all the other flavours combined during this final week up to Christmas.

In fact, the trend to include pets in the festive celebrations is so great that Sainsbury’s is even considering introducing Christmas pudding-flavoured pet food for the first time.

Kirsteen Robb, pet food buyer for Sainsbury’s, who carried out the survey, said: “Christmas Day has become a pet paradise as they are seen as an integral part of the family.

“Owners feel guilty if they buy everyone else a present and don’t do the same for their animals.”

Sainsbury’s top 10 selling pet gifts

1. Dog cracker

2. Cat cracker

3. Pet stockings

4. Kitten mitten

5. Cat collar and toy set

6. Dog chews

7. Dog travel kit

8. Dog collar and toy set

9. Cat dining set

10. Dog dining set

.J. Sintay and his wife, Ashley, enjoy watching the world control their Christmas lights.

Through the couple’s Web site, computer users can use a mouse to work 24 switches that control sections within the strings of 30,000 red, white and blue lights that decorate their house and yard on Old Plantation Circle in Winston-Salem.

Most Internet users keep the changes pretty simple. They often turn on all the sections of lights one-by-one, then hit the switch that makes everything go dark, said Sintay, 24.

“They just did it,” he said, gesturing during a recent interview at his house. “People just love that – turning them all off at once.”

The Web site (www.controltheshow.com) was averaging a million hits a day and had been viewed from 45 countries, including Pakistan, China and many in Europe.

Here’s how it works:

A camera is in the garage of Nancy Chamblin’s home across the street.

Sintay turns the system on about 5 p.m. each night, and it operates until 1 or 2 a.m.

Sintay configured a computer control that’s connected to the Internet. It sits in a control box that he figures holds cabling that’s about three football fields long.

Viewers on the Web page sign up to control the lights for one minute. When they get into the top five, they can watch the show, and when it’s their turn, they use their mouse to click 24 switches. When they click a switch, the lights change while they watch on the Web camera.

Chamblin, a retired teacher and great-grandmother, is tickled that her garage serves to house the camera.

“It was perfect for the occasion,” she said.

Setting it up was frustrating, and Sintay almost gave up.

“There’s so many different, intricate components … and each one of them was it’s own step, it’s own challenge.”

When it finally worked, the Sintays were outside with a laptop screaming for joy.

There are many combinations of lights.

“I wanted to set it so you could set a whole different feel or tone for the house. You could change the whole house color if you wanted to,” Sintay said.

He started telling people about it and got the operation running Dec. 8. Word quickly spread by e-mail.

When WGHP/FOX 8 did a story about the Web site, the computer system crashed because so many people came on at once. Keeping up with the volume has been a big problem for Sintay, and he has been looking for a corporate sponsor to help him buy more servers.

“We’ll have a thousand people try to get the camera image in one second, and that computer isn’t fast enough to handle that kind of request,” he said.

Not everyone believes what they see. One man e-mailed Sintay and told him that it was a hoax. Others are more receptive.

“I had someone e-mail me and say that he was blind, but he was having a friend come over to do the site, and he’s going to click on the buttons, and his friend is going to tell him what’s happening.”

A whole class of sixth-graders sent e-mails.

“I think that this is as big as walking on the moon,” one boy wrote. “It would be so cool if you could do that to my house, but I don’t think it would ever happen because my mama would go crazy if I told a stranger to put my house on the Internet.”

People watch closely. One viewer e-mailed Sintay to let him know that he had just seen him carrying out his trash.

Sintay is familiar with technology. He is a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at Wake Forest University, and he researches medical devices to treat cancer for Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

He also owns a small computer company, and he loves developing online technology. He got the idea for the Web site in August 2004 while thinking about ways to use the Internet to physically control something, as opposed to using it only to handle information.

He started by letting co-workers use the Internet to control two lights on a desk. He also tried to have a Web camera monitor an Etch A Sketch controlled by Internet users, but he wanted something bigger.

His goal was to expose people to technology’s potential and to raise money for the Ron-ald McDonald House, an organization that his office supports. He thought that the Web site would be a good way to raise money.

“There’s this hump that we’ve got to get over to get the Internet to the real world, and we’re just getting over that hump now,” he said.

Sintay wasn’t expecting the Web site to be so popular. He wants to plan something even bigger for next year.

Before that, however, he and his wife have to cope with the next hurdle: a big power bill.

Richard and Melissa Richards of Decatur want American troops in Iraq to know they are being thought of this holiday season by them and others.

The couple decorated their yard and house off Crescent Drive with 14,400 Christmas lights in a patriotic theme to honor the troops.

The towering black maple tree more than 25 feet tall in the front yard is adorned with lights. Along the trunk of the tree, from the bottom to the top, is covered in red lights. The inside of the branches have white lights and an overlay of blue lights on the outer tips of the branches.

The exterior of the house is covered in white lights, and lighted reindeer figures bob up and down in the yard.

Neither Richard Richards nor his wife, Melissa, have family members in the military, but they said people often drive by their house and ask why it’s so patriotic looking.

“We just wanted to show that we approve of the troops efforts in what they are trying to do and how they don’t get enough credit,” said Richard Richards, who works at Caterpillar Inc.

With Christmas a couple of days away, many men and women in the armed forces won’t be home with their families and loved ones.

On Wednesday, Vice President Dick Cheney gave his personal message thanking the troops and wishing them a happy holiday during their deployment.

It was reported that Cheney told troops at Al-Asad Air Base in Western Iraq: “With Christmas and Hanukkah arriving, I know your thoughts naturally turn to home,” he said. “And your fellow Americans are thinking of you more than ever.”

The military reports the numbers of troops stationed in Iraq as 117,000 soldiers with the Army, 7,000 sailors with the Navy, 8,000 airmen with the Air Force and 23,000 Marines.

Of the Richards’ decorations and message, Melissa Richards, a Girl Scout and Brownie troop leader, said, “I just want our men and women home; enough is enough.”

An unmanned Russian cargo craft carrying supplies and Christmas gifts for the crew of the International Space Station blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a spokesman said.

In addition to 2.8 tons of food, water, books, DVDs and scientific equipment, the ship was taking cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and astronaut William McArthur chocolate, two red holiday caps and other gifts. The ship is expected to dock Friday.

A diamond-studded Christmas cake went on sale at Takashimaya department store in Tokyo this week for $1.7m (about £970,000).

The cake, whose 223 diamonds include a 5-carat stone in the shape of a heart, has reportedly attracted several inquiries from prospective buyers.

It took Jeong Hong-yong, a Tokyo pastry chef, six months to design the marzipan-covered fruitcake and another month to make it.

The less well off, meanwhile, will have to make do with a traditional Japanese Christmas cake, a sponge with strawberries and cream that is usually eaten on December 24.

Melinda Elkins Found Clues to Free Her Husband

An Ohio man will spend Christmas at home with his family for the first time in eight years, after countless hours of detective work by his wife proved he was wrongly convicted of murder.

In the summer of 1998, Clarence Elkins was arrested in Barberton, Ohio, and accused of murdering his mother-in-law and assaulting his 6-year-old niece and leaving her for dead. The little girl said it was “Uncle Clarence” who had committed the crimes.

“I thought it was a joke,” Elkins said. “I was in total dismay and shock.”

After Elkins was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, only one person stood by him — his wife, Melinda.

“I remember saying, ‘They are not going to get away with this,’” Melinda Elkins said. “‘I will do whatever I can because I just will not accept it.’ So from that moment on, it’s been a fight — daily.”

Melinda and Clarence were high school sweethearts who married when they were 18. After her husband went to prison, the mother of two took on the role of private investigator.

“It started right after the conviction,” Melinda Elkins said. “I started compiling a list of people I thought could possibly be a suspect. I spent hours — countless hours — going over everything from police reports, statements, a coroner’s report.”

Seven years after the crime, the only evidence against him was beginning to crumble. Elkins’ niece had recanted her accusation, and Melinda Elkins’ instincts had led her to suspect her mother’s former neighbor, Earl Mann.

Mann was already behind bars on a child molestation conviction, in the same prison as Clarence Elkins.

Melinda Elkins instructed her husband to watch for the next time Mann crushed his cigarette in an ashtray, then carefully collect the butt.

Melinda Elkins took the butt for DNA testing. The results proved that it was Mann, not Clarence Elkins, who had murdered Melinda’s mother.

“I was the one who got to tell him,” Melinda Elkins said. “I said: ‘Pack your bags, because you’re coming home today!’”

This year, Clarence Elkins will be home for Christmas with his wife and two children for the first time in eight years.

“Best Christmas ever for me,” Clarence Elkins said. “That’s all I want. I just want time.”

Gov. Mike Easley announced this morning that he is temporarily lifting the import ban on reindeer coming into North Carolina.

Easley said that would clear the way for Santa Claus to bring his sleigh and flying reindeer into the state to deliver Christmas gifts.

“Santa’s elves have given me notice that North Carolina has an unusually high number of good children this year,” Easley said in a press release.

“As Santa makes his travel plans, I want him to know that North Carolina is anxiously awaiting his arrival.”

Christmas is the one time of the year when the world goes completely mad. We cut down trees, bring them into our homes and cover them in lights and tinsel. We hang green branches with poisonous berries and kiss strangers beneath them. We drink copious quantities of alcohol and behave like children. And we pay homage to a plump, bearded old man who flies around on a cart pulled by reindeer. Why?

The madness of modern Christmas evolved from our pagan past. For 10,000 years, Christmas was linked to the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year, and the pagan festival of the invisible sun. In times of yore, people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had grown sick and weak; ceremonies were held for his recovery.

Not surprisingly, it was the Romans who took things to excess and transformed these ceremonies into the debauched festivals of Saturnalia and Bacchus, which form the origins of today’s Christmas parties.

It was probably due to drug- and alcohol-induced memory loss that the Romans in the 4th century felt it important to fix the date of Christmas on Dec. 25. But in the Dark and Middle Ages, a stern solemnity replaced the sense of fun, and Christmas was banned by many Christians.

In 1659, Gen. Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance on Dec. 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense, and people were fined for the heinous and, at times, barbarous crime of hanging decorations. Thankfully, America is built on immigration and we should share a glass of Christmas cheer this year with the Germans and Irish whose 19th-century influx undermined our Puritan legacy and reminded us all how to have a good time.

Christmas is also an expression of our shared global origins. The accoutrements of Christmas originate from ancient traditions around the world. The idea of bringing a tree into the home began in Germany, but it wasn’t until Queen Victoria and her German Prince Albert were pictured in the London Illustrated News standing beside a Christmas tree that tree-hugging entered the mainstream. Our Christmas lists read like a worldl history book: Lights came from the Protestant reformer Martin Luther; tinsel from the French; eggnog from America; mistletoe, to increase fertility, from the Celtic and Teutonic peoples; the yule log from Norway; plum pudding from the English Middle Ages; and Christmas greeting cards, in the 1830s, from the quirky Englishman John Calcott Horsley.

For many, Santa Claus personifies Christmas, and the mythology surrounding him originates from the true stories of St. Nicholas, while the name Santa Claus comes from the Dutch Feast of Sinterklaas and the Dutch Sint Nikolaas. Nicholas was born sometime around 280 in Patara, near Myra, in modern Turkey.

A bishop distressed by the poverty of his parish, Nicholas began delivering — secretly and at night — gifts to his parishioners. Before long, he became a legendary figure, and his legend turned into our modern-day Santa.

Soon Christian pilgrims from all over the world came to visit the church of St. Nicholas and carried his legend back to their native lands, melding it within their own cultural smorgasbord of much earlier traditions, such as that of the gift-giving shaman.

But the image of Santa we hold today stems from 1881, when political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on a poem called “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. Nast’s cartoon, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, depicted Santa as a corpulent, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack overloaded with toys for fortunate children. Originally cast in green, Nast gave Santa his bright red suit spruced with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his wife, Mrs. Claus. Some with furtive imaginations believe that Nast’s inspiration and colors came from his recreational use of magic mushrooms, in particular, the fly agaric (red and white). However, in the 1930s, Coca-Cola, in a bid to move from the adult to the children’s consumer market, launched a massive advertising campaign fronted by Santa, and trademarked the particular color red that we see now see on Coca-Cola and associate with Santa Claus.

But none of this explains how Rudolph can fly. The ancient lands of Lapland and northern Siberia are thought to be the homelands of much of the modern Rudolph myth. Far within the Arctic Circle, the Koryak shaman of a Siberian reindeer tribe enter dwellings each midwinter via the smoke hole in their tents to dispense gifts of the aforementioned fly-agaric mushrooms before their hallucinating tribal companions saw them climb out and depart on their “flying” reindeer. The Sami reindeer herders of Lapland traditionally dress like the legendary elves in red suits, long felt hats and reindeer pelt shoes that curl up at the toe, while the ancient story of Jultomten, a jolly Scandinavian elf who delivered gifts each winter solstice in a sleigh drawn by goats, has obvious resonance.

While the meaning of Christmas has changed over millenniums, its origins lie in many shared global traditions. Beyond the tripping reindeer herders, debauched Roman parties, consumerism triggered by the Coca-Colorization of Christmas, lies a past we all share. There is much that pulls the world apart today, but Christmas is a time for recognizing and celebrating the positive things we share in life, in our unity and our diversity.

Elizabeth Forman says she will not give up her annual tradition of decking the outdoors with holiday decorations, no matter what the cost.

“It just wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t have my decorations,” she said.

Forman, 69, of West King Street, is not alone in her beliefs.
Residents and businesses throughout the community have been decorating buildings and lawns with lights, animated figures and garland since as early as Thanksgiving.

For Forman, who gets help from son, Ricky, during the set-up process, a porch of multi-colored lights, candy canes and air-filled figures fit this year’s theme.

“I try to do something different each year,” she said. “One year I decorated in all white lights, but this year I went a little more colorful.”

As a way to save money, Forman says she tries to add only one new piece of holiday cheer to her collection each year. The electricity bill, however, is covered by her landlord.

“He doesn’t complain because he likes to see the decorations,” she said.

Wal-Mart store manager Bill Graham said he does not think electric bills, or a rise in heating costs, have deterred his customers from decorating, either. But, the wrath of Mother Nature, he said, may have delayed their plans.

Michael Plank, seasonals team leader at Lowe’s in Chambersburg, agreed.

The week following Thanksgiving is when most people hit the stores in search of holiday decorations, Graham and Plank said. They typically buy and put up the same weekend, but Graham said a string of cold weather has hindered plans for some.

Lights and animated three-dimensional sculptures top the list of most wanted decorations this year, Graham said. Plank said blow-up snow globes were this year’s top seller at Lowe’s.

Menno Haven Village has decked its properties with white lights, said Wendy Cowan, vice president of marketing and public relations. Staff put candles in windows at Penn Hall, decorated Christmas trees throughout the buildings and erected towering outdoor candles.

It took Menno Haven’s grounds and maintenance personnel nearly two weeks to finish the decorating process. Residents assisted with the indoor decorations.

“We try to make our properties look as nice as we can, and as home-like as possible for our residents,” Cowan said. “This is something the greater Chambersburg community looks forward to, and something we are not going to take away.”

While Cowan could not cite a specific dollar amount, she said Menno Haven does see an increased electric bill during the holidays.

“This is something we expect, and budget for each year,” she said.

In Shippensburg, administrative assistant Grace Keiter said the borough does not see a noticeable increase in electric costs as a direct result of holiday decorating.

Borough employees this year decorated the period light posts with garland, strands of lights and a bow.

“The lights are on a timer, and are only on from about dusk to dawn,” she said.

The decorations were a gift from Downtown Organizations Investing Together.

A local man’s Christmas lights display is featured in a new holiday beer ad.

The spot for Miller Lite shows Carson Williams’ 25,000-light display, which he syncronized to music, and then says, “Enjoy the Lites.”

Williams decided to shut down the show about two weeks ago after the high volume of traffic on his suburban street prevented police from getting to a traffic accident.

This was the third year for Williams’ display, which has been featured at several sites on the Internet and on the “Today” show.

There is no word on whether he intends to set up the display again next year.

Christmas means many things to many people. To some, it’s a celebration of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which we commemorate by exchanging gift vouchers and consuming enough carbs to last us until autumn.

To others, it’s a ghastly, obscene farce in which the only deity being worshipped is the God of Wanton Commercialism. These people are easily identified at any Christmas gathering as the ones in the corner sulking that they didn’t get an iPod.

Whatever one’s view, Christmas in the New Millennium carries special significance for everybody, regardless of race, religion, or whether they have FlyBuys. For, in an increasingly unstable world beset by war, racism, civil unrest and the ever-present global threat that The Up-Late Game Show will be picked up for another year, we need Christmas to renew both our sense of community and our collective understanding that writing “Xmas” instead of “Christmas” does not constitute a pact with Satan.

Recently, due to heightened sensitivities about cultural differences, some groups have openly questioned the rightness of celebrating Christmas at all. It’s thought that by recognising Christmas, great offence may be inflicted upon those who do not have at the heart of their religion a large guy with a ZZ Top beard, a magic sled and a red-and-white suit, who goes “Ho, ho, ho”.

Even the greeting “Merry Christmas”, once considered an innocent expression of civility and goodwill, is interpreted by many to mean “There is only One True God – and it ain’t yours, dawg”. This inflammatory remark has now been replaced with the less incendiary “Happy Holidays” – although some choose to play it completely safe by opting for the clinically neutral “I have no opinion on any matter relating to this time of year”.

Cards, too, have been leeched of religious overtones, with more and more people giving each other blank cards with nothing written inside. Fearing that any piece of folded cardboard may constitute a reminder of Christian imperialism, some avoid cards altogether and now acknowledge Christmas by simply handing people blank sheets of A4 photocopying paper.

One of the most heartening traditions of Christmas – the staging of the school nativity play – has also come under fire, mainly from parents of children who either didn’t get a part, or who landed the role of the cow. There is now growing concern that nativity plays may be disrupted by religious extremists intent on protesting against their lousy seats.

After much community discussion and debate, it’s been deemed that nativity plays can still be staged at schools, provided each of the Magi show proof of identity with a valid driver’s licence or passport, and submit to searches by security personnel.

Dealing with this complex issue all boils down to a simple matter of respect. Those wishing to celebrate Christmas should be allowed to do so unfettered, while those who choose not to are welcome to ignore all Christmas holidays and turn up to work as normal.

Of all the Christmas rituals loved by adults and children alike, few can match the unabashed joy that comes with the holy observance of Last-Minute Panic Shopping. Amid all the chaos as adrenalised parents drag their offspring through crowded malls to the tune of distorted Christmas carols over the PA in the rush to complete their shopping lists, one universally recognised rule applies: it is OK to kill another human being if it means getting the last Pawphan in the store.

But easily the most cherished Christmas tradition is having to socialise and make nice with relatives you spend the rest of the year avoiding. The big moment we all brace for is, of course, The Hello Kiss. This is particularly traumatic for children who have to pucker up for that aunt with the moustache, or the despised uncle, or that distant relative who keeps turning up even though nobody’s quite sure what his or her connection is to the family.

With each Christmas family gathering comes the ever-present fear of the dreaded “novelty gift”. This usually comes in the form of an ornately gift-wrapped adult toy typically given by that member of the family who, later in the day, after one too many drinks, will end up with a bowl of egg salad on his head after saying something inappropriate to either his niece, or to the wife of a business partner of a relative who was just popping by for a quick hello.

Presents given by pre-school children must be handled with particular delicacy. These usually comprise of some finger-painting masterpiece, or a sheet of paper with sand and clumps of cotton wool stuck to it with Clag.

After enthusiastically admiring the artwork, the child should then be sent off and the gift discreetly binned.

Each year, the media loves getting into the Christmas spirit by running fake articles and TV news reports about how Santa and his flying reindeer have been spotted and are being tracked by radar. These stories typically include a willing accomplice, usually from the airport, who plays along by saying how certain air-traffic corridors have been cleared for Santa’s arrival, but that any violation of military air space may result in an immediate retaliatory missile strike on his base at the North Pole.

And Christmas would not be Christmas without Christmas movie classics such as It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), A Christmas Story (1983), Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and Die Hard (1988). Beyond these, though, there are also those films that tell the story of Christ in cleverly coded form.

The Chronicles of Narnia, for instance, is being widely interpreted as a religious tract with the lion Aslan representing the figure of Christ. The Matrix trilogy, too, features a Catholic hero in Neo (Keanu Reeves), who sacrifices himself in a very Christian manner to a swarm of flying mechanical squid. Even the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ has been viewed by some as a cleverly disguised allegory of the Christ story. Note, for instance, how the initials of that film’s main character – JC – are exactly the same as Jesus Christ’s, and how both have beards, long hair and wear a large wooden cross on their backs.

But the one gesture of Christmas goodwill that truly touches the heart comes courtesy of those in the service industry who, in the days leading up to Christmas, take to wearing Christmas hats while dealing with the public.

The hat is there to remind you that, even as you’re getting lousy service in a cafe, this is, after all, Christmas – a time to be of good cheer and to take comfort in the thought that God, in His infinite wisdom, shall personally see to it that this person burns in hell for all eternity for charging $16.95 for a stale focaccia, and then having the nerve to hang around for a tip.

Turkey will once again be the most popular dish at Christmas dinners this year but concern about the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu may prompt some to opt for roast beef, industry sources said.

“Obviously there is a slight difference this year due to the perceived effect of bird flu,” said Graham Bidston, chief executive of the National Federation of Meat and Food Traders.

Bidston, whose group represents butchers and small retailers, said the impact of bird flu on turkey demand was likely to be “very little” and those who were changing were buying more beef.

Millions of birds have either died from bird flu or been killed, almost all in Asia, to prevent its spread since a deadly H5N1 strain surfaced in 2003. There have also been more than 70 human deaths in Asia.

Sales of poultry fell sharply in some countries after the strain arrived in eastern Europe in October. In Britain and Germany the initial impact was muted but there was a more significant slump in Italy and France.

Britain’s major supermarket chains have reported that turkey demand has held up well so far this year but sales and prices are down at London’s Smithfield market where meat has been traded since the 12th century.

“Orders (for fresh turkey) are down 35 to 40 percent. It is because of bird flu without a doubt,” said Smithfield meat trader Greg Lawrence, adding he mainly supplies small butchers.

ITALIAN SUPPLIES

Lawrence said sales of other meats were “buoyant,” running above already strong levels seen last year with rising demand for beef, pork and lamb.

Turkey prices have also been weak at Smithfield with the market receiving surplus supplies from Italy where demand for poultry has fallen sharply due to bird flu concerns.

“There are a lot of Italian turkeys. The prices (for turkey) are very low,” Lawrence said.

Peter Bradnock, Chief Executive of the British Poultry Council, noted that only a small proportion of turkeys were traded at the wholesale market in Smithfield with most consumers buying from supermarkets or even direct from turkey farms.

“We don’t think that stories about bird flu in late October are going to influence any purchasing decisions before Christmas,” he said, noting the widespread media interest in the bird flu virus which followed news it had reached eastern Europe in late October had now died down.

French poultry sales have started to recover and are now down only about 6 to 10 percent, compared to an initial 25 percent decline, according to France’s retail federation.

Bradnock said that British consumers are buying smaller birds, or in some cases turkey crowns, mainly due to a reduction in the size of family groups. Crowns are turkeys with both breasts but the legs have been removed.

“There is a trend towards smaller birds and parts of birds,” he said.

He also noted a slow increase in demand for goose but said sales remained very small compared to turkey.

The recycling firm Repak has launched its annual campaign encouraging households to recycle their waste this Christmas.

The company said the average household was set to generate 73 kilos of waste over the festive period, an increase of around one-third compared to the rest of the year.

It said people who do not recycle this waste would face an additional bill of more than €30 to dispose of it.