Joy of Christmas

Archive for January, 2006

Customers enjoyed better bargains last Christmas than the previous year despite less discounting by shops, official figures revealed.

The British Retail Consortium said overall prices were 0.64 per cent cheaper in December than the same month 2004 – even though stores managed to minimise promotions by keeping stock levels lower.

While retailers cut the price of non-food items such as toys, electrical equipment and DIY-based products, the reductions were not as sharp as the previous year.

The BRC said this was probably explained by the fact that prices for the whole of 2005 were lower than during 2004.

The figures came as the Touchwood shopping centre reported a record year for visitors, with more than 17 million people visiting the site in Solihull.

Kevin Hawkins, director general at the BRC, said: “Shop prices in December remained lower than in December 2004, despite less pre-Christmas discounting.

“While this means consumers probably saved on their Christmas shopping, prices throughout 2005 as a whole were also lower than in the last two years.”

It came just a day after the BRC revealed retailers enjoyed their best Christmas season in four years, helped by heavy trade in the week before Christmas and a bright first two days of the sales season.

Like-for-like sales showed a 2.6 per cent improvement on the lacklustre performance of a year earlier, defying expectations of a torrid festive season for retailers.

Touchwood benefited from the retail upturn with 2.1 million visitors in December, while there was a 20 per cent increase in footfall on the first day of trading in January.

Yesterday’s pricing figures showed that while food costs were 0.59 per cent higher in December than the same month last year, they were lower than during November due to promotions on party foods and discounting on alcoholic drinks, particularly beer.

Non-food prices showed a year-on-year decline for the seventh consecutive month – falling 1.41 per cent.

Christmas promotions on toiletries, toys, electrical equipment, CDs and DVDs were a factor, while discounts of up to 75 per cent on clothing also contributed.

What at first seemed like a horrific Christmas Day crash is now being called a Christmas Day miracle.

A group of strangers pulled a man from a burning SUV, saving his life.

Steve Kelsey, 60, was driving along Sorenson Parkway near 49th Street when he hit black ice and skidded off the road into a power pole. Three passers-by stopped to help Kelsey, and moments after they pulled him out, his SUV was engulfed in flames.

Kelsey’s wife, Maria, called the rescuers her husband’s guardian angels.

Dave Barr was first on the accident scene.

“God puts you in the right place at the right time, I guess. He put us there to help him,” Barr said.

Barr said the SUV he saw along Sorenson was wrapped around the pole. Photos of the scene show a twisted wreck. Barr said he’d taken a detour from his usual route, when he saw a man slumped over inside the SUV and stopped to help.

“I tried to talk to him. I realized that he was unconscious. He was bleeding pretty bad,” Barr said.

As Barr yelled for a passenger in his vehicle to call 911, the situation got worse.

“Next thing I know, the whole front end is on fire,” Barr said.

That’s when Donna Kerber, a registered nurse, happened along the scene.

“I came up to 49th and I saw that the front end of this vehicle was on fire and there was somebody trying to pull someone out,” she said.

Kerber said she was late to work when she pulled up. But in her profession, she knew every moment was critical to the man’s survival.

“I stabilized his neck and Dave pulled him out of the car and we got him down to the ground,” Kerber said. “I wanted to make sure he didn’t stop breathing, that his pulse didn’t stop, that he was stable.”

Kerber said the SUV was consumed by flames as she and Barr pulled the man away with the help of a third person. As arriving paramedics took over, neither rescuer knew the name of the driver they’d helped.

Maria Kelsey said the trio saved her husband, who is a father of five and grandfather of six. She contacted her husband’s rescuers through emergency room nurses to thank them.

“It’s a Christmas miracle, that’s my take on it,” said Maria Kelsey.

Steve Kelsey suffered a broken neck and shattered left arm in the crash. He is now partially paralyzed. Doctors said he has up to two years of recovery ahead, but Maria Kelsey is confident he’ll be OK, thanks to the help of his guardian angels.

“People who don’t know each other, who don’t normally go that route, who never oversleep, who would have gone another way but something told them to do it. I see it as a miracle,” Maria Kelsey said.

Maria Kelsey said she hopes to find the third person involved in saving her husband’s life so she can thank that person.

A local contractor is now helping the Kelseys find a new home and make it accessible for Steve. That contractor has also set up a fund to help pay for medical bills. It’s called the Steve Kelsey Benefit Fund, and donations can be made at any Tier One Bank, or at the Lowe’s Store on 144th Street and West Maple Road. That’s where Steve Kelsey worked.

After 15 previous freezing cold Christmas bird counts, December 27, 2005 offered a pleasant if slightly troubling change of pace. With temperatures hovering around 4 degrees celsius, the usual layers of thermal clothing were unnecessary, but the sheer weirdness left us all believing climate change theories.
For the past 15 years, the Golden Christmas bird count has been held on December 27, and it is generally one of the colder days of the year.

Once before, in 2000, the temperature crept up to zero degrees. But whether or not this year’s unusual climatic situation influenced the count is difficult to say.

There were some unusual sightings: One solitary sharp shinned hawk, two golden-crowned sparrows and a pair of varied thrushes. The clouds of birds Goldenites observe daily wafting between mountain ash trees are Bohemian Waxwings.

This year, over 900 were counted, by no means a Golden record for these birds whose numbers exceeded 1,900 in the minus 17 degrees cold on December 27, 2001, compared to a low of 26 waxwings in 1997.
This year, 10 field counters and four feeder watchers counted 33 species and 1,450 individual birds, about average in number of birds and towards the top end for species.

The previous high was 35 species. The low count for species was 24.

The previous high count for individual birds was over 3,400 in 2001 and the previous low of 640 birds back in 1997 (both determined by waxwings).

Counters covered a circle approximately 24 kilometers in diameter with Golden as the center. While the counting methods may lack a bit of scientific accuracy, (try counting a moving flock of 200 waxwings), the same methods are used in the same count circle every year and that allows Bird Studies Canada and the Audubon Society to chart trends.

Individual counters may view their day’s results with a bit of disappointment because they may have seen few birds, but when the species are tallied, they will recognize their contribution. And, hopefully return year after year, for a unique way to wear off some of that Christmas excess.

Ellen Zimmerman is the organizer of the annual count and an official with environmental organization Wildsight.

A SECOND ice rink would be created in the city centre next winter under plans to expand the Capital’s Christmas and Hogmanay celebrations.

Festival Square has been earmarked for the temporary rink to complement the one which attracts thousands of people to Princes Street Gardens.

The idea is being considered by city leaders following the huge success of this year’s winter festivals, which has been credited with helping increase trade for city centre shops by an average of ten per cent compared to last year.

It is thought opening a second rink on the square off Lothian Road from November would benefit shops in that area. Festival Square has played a relatively small part in the city’s festive celebrations since a special Christmas programme of events was launched in 1998.

Last year Santa arrived at the square in his sleigh to host the climax of a giant Christmas parade – an event which has finished there for several years. The only other events have been a few days of continental markets.

It is hoped the proposed rink would bring extra visitors into the area, boosting local shops and nearby venues such as the Usher Hall, the Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Filmhouse cinema.

The prospect of a second ice rink has been backed by business leaders and bosses of the Sheraton Hotel in Festival Square have welcomed the proposed location.

Charlotte Square, which is already being earmarked for a major new investment in Christmas lights for this year’s celebrations, is thought to be an alternative option for the new rink.

City council leader Donald Anderson said: “There is no doubt in my mind that we now have the best programme of Christmas events anywhere in Britain, and they have played a major part this year in the success the retail sector has enjoyed. All the indications are that the Christmas and Hogmanay celebrations have helped make 2005 the best ever year for tourism in Edinburgh.

“However, we need to look at ways to take the winter festivals up to the next level and one way of doing that would be the creation of a second ice rink.

“Festival Square is the obvious candidate. There is not really anything on there at Christmas and it would really bring that whole area to life.

“It is something we want to look very seriously at for this year to see if it can be done and what the financial implications would be.

“An ice rink there would really lift the whole tone of Lothian Road over Christmas and Hogmanay and would provide a huge boost to businesses in the area.”

Peter Murphy, general manager of the Sheraton, and the head of the Edinburgh Principal Hotels Association, said: “This sounds like a fantastic idea and is certainly well worthy of taking forward.

“Festival Square isn’t really utilised over the festive season and it would be terrific if this could be made to work. It should definitely be pursued by the council.”

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce spokesman Graham Bell said: “Festival Square could certainly do with something like an ice rink over the festive season, as it’s hardly used at all at the moment. We’ve always felt there was little point in creating something like Festival Square if it wasn’t going to be used

“However, Charlotte Square is probably a slightly better setting for an ice rink, even though it’s on Jack McConnell’s doorstep in front of Bute House.

“It would be much more romantic than Lothian Road.”

Local law enforcement officers responded to the needs of Fayetteville citizens during the Christmas season by raising $6,600 for the Shop with a Cop and grocery gift card programs.

The Fayette chapter of the Police Benevolent Association raised $600 to provide six needy families with grocery gift cards at local grocery stores. Gift cards totaling $100 each, three to Town Center Kroger and three to Summit Point Publix, were distributed by the recently formed PBA chapter.

“Even though our chapter formed in October we wanted to make the grocery gift card drive our first fund-raiser,” said Fayette PBA President David Webb. “We wanted to do something for needy families. We raised the funds on our own time on behalf of PBA. It was a rewarding experience and it really felt good to help out. We look forward to doing the same thing next year and to bigger successes in coming years.”

Those contributing to the grocery gift card effort included Town Center Kroger, Summit Point Publix, Frank and Karen Bennett with Flag Mortgage, Andy’s Nursery and Landscaping, Bid Daddy’s Cycle World, Tom Mindar and David Webb.

Participating again as ambassadors for the Shop with a Cop effort, Fayetteville police raised $6,000 to help provide a merry Christmas to six families with 17 children.

“Local businesses and the Fayetteville Police Department came together again this holiday season to provide five families with money to “Shop with a Cop.’ With donations made by many local businesses each child in the family was given money to buy Christmas presents,” said Public Information Officer Beverly Trainor. “Officers accompanied the children and their families on the shopping spree and later helped wrap the presents.”

The Nyngan 2005 Christmas Lights competition was a huge success with many of Nyngan’s residents displaying their artistic skills with some amazing Christmas lights decorations.

There were about 93 houses that had Christmas lights in place with all the houses being judged in the competition this year.

Congratulations must go out to every person who made the effort to put up Christmas lights as it was a stunning display, and would have been noticed by all the vehicles loaded with families cruising the streets checking out the decorations throughout the Christmas period.

Many people also made the trip to Dubbo to view the lights down there only to come back to Nyngan to what was possibly the best display of Christmans lights in the Orana region.

Maybe we are a little biased, but it was a great effort and many are talking about the light show that the residents of Nyngan put on this year.

There were many outstanding entries and it was extremely difficult for the judges to determine winners, as a matter of fact the judges believed in was near downright impossible to separate a number of the participants.

As reported on tonight’s O’Reilly Factor (January 10, 2006), Sunday’s episode of NBC’s Dateline (January 8, 2006) declared that recent attacks on the traditional meaning of Christmas were a “giant, laughable lie.”

A segment on blogs narrated by Josh Mankiewicz also aired a snippet from Bill O’Reilly’s recent appearance on Letterman’s Late Show. Which snippet? The part where Letterman told Bill, “I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap.” Real balanced, eh?

From the Dateline segment, as shown on the Factor tonight.

MANKIEWICZ (voiceover): “That nutty war on Christmas thing got plenty of traction on the blogs before it ever hit your TV set. Now a lot of bloggers say it’s finally been put to bed.”

LETTERMAN (snipped from O’Reilly’s guest spot): “I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap.” (audience laughter)

MANKIEWICZ: “But here’s what I want to know. Why did it fall to David Letterman to make clear what a giant, laughable lie that all was. (J.M. in his office, to camera) And here’s my take on that. There’s more than one religion in this country, and most of us understand that. And those talking heads so obsessed with that war on Christmas? What they’re really obsessed with is finding ways to attract more attention for themselves. Nothing wrong with that. Just don’t take it too seriously.

Hmmm … Wouldn’t Josh fit in the “talking head” category? Doesn’t Josh care about ratings (“ways to attract more attention”)?

It seems Mankiewicz was hoping to get the last word in on the “war on Christmas” issue. Sorry about that, Josh.

The number of people caught drink driving over the Christmas period in Wales has risen from last year, police figures have revealed.

Over 5.5% of people tested during Operation Sherry this year were found to be over the limit – compared to 4% of drivers tested last year.

Officers caught 638 people after carrying out more than 11,550 breath tests between 5 December and 2 January.

All four Wales police forces were involved in the campaign.

There were also 20 arrests for driving under the influence of drugs – 10 in south Wales, five in north Wales, two in Dyfed-Powys and three in Gwent.

South Wales Police caught the highest percentage of drink drivers – with 267 out of 3,622 people testing positive. Just over a third were drivers aged 25 and under.

‘Unacceptable’

Police said many tests were carried out during routine roadside checks or following road crashes.

Information from members of the public was also used to target operations.

Sergeant Nigel Whitehouse, from South Wales Police, said the use of intelligence and more resources had helped increase the number of arrests in his force area.

He told the BBC News website: “We were lucky in our force to secure additional funding which enabled us to bring in officers on overtime.

“Their sole purpose was, from intelligence gathered, to go and get drink drivers.”

Chief Superintendent Graham Davies, from South Wales Police, which led the all-Wales campaign, said it was “unacceptable” that more than 600 drivers had put their own and others’ lives at risk.

He said: “Drink-driving will not be tolerated and the four Welsh forces will continue to work together to take drink-drivers off the road.

“We would like to thank those members of the public who played a vital role in this campaign by providing information which enabled us to carry out a more focused operation.”

Many of those caught have already appeared before the courts and have been banned from driving and received fines.

Christopher Woolley, Chief Crown Prosecutor for South Wales, said: “If convicted, offenders face the full extent of the law and the real risk of imprisonment, long disqualifications and hefty fines for their behaviour.

“In addition to the harm they may cause others, the consequences of their actions may result in a loss of their employment and their livelihood or that of their victims.”

Christmas 2005 saw a new record set for downloaded music – with the last week of the year seeing more than 20m music tracks downloaded and paid for by US customers – three-times higher than the 2004 figure.

This compares to the previous record set the week before Christmas of 9.5m downloads – suggesting a lot of Americans woke up to find new music players in their Christmas stockings.
Click Here

Sales of MP3 players also exceeded sales of personal CD players for the first time. More on the Beeb here.

Meanwhile, punters in the UK were also getting into this download thing. Figures from the BPI show a massive 357 per cent growth to 26.4m single tracks downloaded in 2005. The last week of the year also saw weekly download figures top one million for the first time.

Physical sales also grew, with artist album sales up 1.4 per cent to 126.2m in the year. But the BPI blamed an increase in piracy for falling sales of compilation albums, which were down 15.7 per cent.

Retailer Game Group had a bumper Christmas on the back of strong demand for Sony’s new play stations less than two months after issuing a profit warning but said margins for all of last year are expected to be lower.

Like for like sales for the six weeks to January 7 surged 26.6pc over a year earlier, according to the computer game retailer’s trading statement.

“This outstanding performance has helped an otherwise difficult year,” said Game Group chairman Peter Lewis.

In November the computer games retailer issued a profit warning because of concerns it would not get enough shipments of Sony’s PlayStation Portables (PSPs) in the run-up to Christmas.

Shipments were better than feared as “the group has been successful in securing a much improved supply of Sony PSP consoles, particularly in the 10 days leading up to Christmas”, according to the company’s trading statement. “This, together with our creative promotion of established formats and the launch of [Microsoft’s] Xbox 360, led to significantly improved trading over the Christmas period.”

Profit before tax and exceptionals for the year to January 31 is expected to be £8m to £10m compared to a range of £3m to £13m forecast in November’s profit warning.

Sales of PlayStation computer games such as King Kong and Grand Theft Auto also helped boost revenue.

For the 49 weeks to January 7 like-for-like sales rose 2.7pc but gross margins for the year are expected to drop 350 basis points because of cyclical deflation in software selling prices. The fall in margins is due to lower sales during the year as customers held back their spending ahead of new consoles being launched.

Hardware, which has lower margins than software, also took up a larger proportion of sales. Game Group shares were up 3½ to 82p by midday trading.

Thinking about her mother, Lois Cummings, who passed away a few years ago in a care center in St. George, Joyce Butler became emotional.

“Because of my trips back and forth to the care center and my love for those elderly people and their situation, this year I was just so overcome with emotion about my mom being gone that I wondered how I could help some folks,” said Butler.

Butler got the idea of a Christmas Angel Tree when she saw one in another store in St. George with tags representing care center residents. She wanted to help everyone on the tree but couldn’t afford to. As she thought about it at home that evening, the idea came to her: “Why can’t we do that in our own store for the people right here in Hurricane and involve the care centers in our own valley, and that way I can help a lot of folks.”

Receiving permission and support for the project from Greg Gibson, store manager, and other employees, Butler called the Hurricane Rehabilitation Center and the Beehive Home and asked if it would be permissible for the store to have an Angel Tree for their residents.

Both center directors were thrilled to think someone would think of the elderly at Christmas time. With their blessing, Butler moved forward, involving her daughter, who made angel tags for her. Butler got the information about the folks, how old they were, and what some of their needs and likes were from both care centers.

They entered the information on tags, put the Angel Tree up in the store on Dec. 2, with a sign that said: “Be an Angel for a Senior! Support your local Hurricane Care Centers. Items of need are on the back of the tag. Choose one or as many of the items you would like to provide. Items must be turned in by December 21. Thank you and Merry Christmas!”

As she was putting the tags on the tree, two people approached her and took tags right out of her hand. They were so thrilled.

“One lady was very emotional about it. They were thrilled to think that someone would do that for people in our valley,” said Butler. “I knew it would be a success when I couldn’t even get the tags on the tree the first day without someone wanting them.”

The Lin’s Angel Tree was empty of all 36 residents at the HRC and 13 at the Beehive Home in three days. She never even got the 13 tags for Beehive Home on the tree. They were turned over to a Girl Scout group who took on all 13 residents. Another Lin’s employee, Teri Corbett, who has twin daughters in a Girl Scout troop, enlisted the group to provide presents for the Beehive Home residents.

The Girl Scouts made every resident in the Beehive Home a lap quilt and a rice heating pad. The girls also did odd jobs to earn money to buy games that the seniors could use in their recreation center.

“Those 13 were taken care of by the Girl Scout troop. The Beehive residents really appreciated the attention and gifts from the troop.

“The other 36 for the Hurricane Care Center were actually the tags on the tree, and the response was incredible,” said Butler. “The response from the community overwhelmed me. I just couldn’t believe in three days 36 tags were gone, and the gifts that came back were phenomenal. They were just perfect. They were all gift wrapped, beautifully gift wrapped.”

All 36 people had been attended to. The gifts ranged from mid-size boxes to huge boxes and huge bags.

“It was one of the nicest things we’ve ever done here. We (Lin’s) like to be involved in the community,” said Butler.

Lin’s is involved in community events throughout the year. The store had its biggest response ever in October for Halloween Trunk-or-Treat for the area’s children.

“Every year, children need to be remembered – absolutely, and the poor. They need to be remembered, and they need to be helped. But somehow, our elderly slip through the cracks,” said Butler.

An Angel Tree for the elderly has definitely become one of the greatest Lin’s traditions ever.
“It really was for my mom,” said Butler. “It was simple. It was beautiful. The response was overwhelming. I was just amazed at the quickness of the community and the support.”

If you don’t believe in miracles, you don’t know the story of Jalen Smith. The 16-month-old boy has captured the hearts of family and friends who on this Russian Orthodox Christmas are giving thanks for answered prayers.

The celebration of the Russian Orthodox Christmas includes time-honored songs, homage paid to church icons and the spinning star. It’s a tradition very much alive in the villages of rural Alaska. But these folks are in Anchorage.

“Most of us here are from Nondalton and we can’t go home,” said Marilyn Balluta, celebrating Russian Christmas.

The celebration is their way to reconnect and for those still out of touch, there are the cellular phones. Dennis Trefon started this in Anchorage last year. He’s been away from the village of Nondalton because of Jalen, his grandson, stricken with a rare genetic disorder. Trefon has split his time between Anchorage and Seattle medical centers. It has been a year of prayers.

After the singing, the group shares food, and then it’s off to the next house. But this group has one detour to make. They come to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport because Jalen is coming home.

“It’s great ‘cause he’s coming home and finally it’s not going the other way. Last time he went down to Seattle a very sick kid. He’s coming back, hopefully, very healthy.”

The condition Jalen has is most often fatal. Trefon hasn’t seen Jalen or his daughter in three months. He’s a nervous wreck. But at last the wait is over.

Jalen Smith is 16 months old. He’s had a bone marrow transplant and four operations including brain surgery. He’s also had chemotherapy and radiation and he’s had infections and seizures. It’s more struggles in 16 months than most of us face in a lifetime.

“This is my grandson Jalen Thomas Smith. He’s the one that stole everybody’s hearts and mine. He threw everybody for a loop but he’s coming back,” said Trefon.

The group departs Ted Stevens International Airport to continue the Russian Orthodox Christmas celebration, giving thanks for miracles.

“The best Christmas present you ever get in the world, having your grandchild come home healthy,” said Trefon.

Jalen suffers from immunodysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X-linked syndrome. Only a handful of known cases exist on the entire planet. It’s almost always fatal, but there’s hope this bone marrow transplant he received will give him a long and healthy life. At this point, the prognosis looks good.

During this holiday season many of you will be attending gatherings or shopping at malls where in the background will be the continuous drone of holiday music. I myself recently attended a Christmas party where everyone was subjected to the continuous repeat of a holiday compilation album being played in the stereo (that is until I snuck off to the garage with a few friends to enjoy a mix CD of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins hits – a 90′s smorgasbord).

I’ve never fussed over Christmas music since it’s only played for a short time (though the holiday season seems to be getting longer each year starting up as soon as the Halloween decorations come down). Like elevator music, Christmas music is supposed to provide a calming reassuring background noise for shoppers and partygoers, though watching the pushing match between some shoppers you would guess Bolt Thrower was playing on mall intercoms.

After experiencing the onslaught of Christmas music these past few weeks I got to thinking what were the best holiday themed songs ever recorded (well not necessarily the best but my own personal favourites). Excluding older artists like Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Burl Ives, Gene Autry and all those other pre-rock and roll performers, I’ve come up with the top five greatest Christmas songs ever sung by contemporary artists – meaning from the rock, pop and hip hop community

5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Bruce Springsteen

A holiday classic written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” was originally recorded way back in 1935 by Joe Harris with Benny Goodman & His Orchestra. It’s been re-recorded numerous times over the decades but it was the Boss’ version that surpassed all other renditions being released as a B-side on his 1985 “My Hometown” single.

4. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – U2

Irish rockers U2 took this sixties classic and made it their own contributing it to the first edition of the popular Very Special Christmas series. Written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and originally sung by Darlene Love, the song, like most Christmas songs has been redone countless times over the years but U2′s 1987 version still remains the best rendition.

3. Christmas In Hollis – Run-DMC

Run-DMC bring a little hip hop flavour to Christmas with their 1987 hit “Christmas In Hollis.” Released off the first Very Special Christmas compilation, the song and its accompanying video have become fixtures on radio and video stations come every holiday season. The song also closed the group’s 2002 greatest hits compilation, which was released a month before the tragic murder of DJ Jam Master Jay.

2. Do they Know it’s Christmas – Band Aid

Released in 1984, this massive Bob Geldof-Midge Ure penned single from U.K. supergroup Band Aid hit number one in the U.K, sold millions of copies around the world (the proceeds went to the Ethiopian Famine relief) and subsequently returned to the top of the U.K charts on two other separate occasions; in 1989 when a new line-up called Band Aid II recorded it after a second Ethiopian famine hit and in 2004 for the 20th anniversary of the project.

1. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon and Yoko Ono

This is the only song out of any Christmas themed song that I can listen to at any time of the year. The ex-Beatles’ Vietnam protest song is still relevant thirty plus years after it’s release maybe even more so this year as this December 8th marks the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder. Melissa Etheridge recorded a live version of “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” a few years ago that is widely recognized as the best cover version of the song.

Bonus: Worst Christmas song ever

It wouldn’t be a complete list unless the worst Christmas song wasn’t included. I came up with a short list that included such forgettable performances from the likes of The Darkness (“Christmas time, Don’t Let the Bells End”), Rosie O’Donnell & Elmo (“Do You Hear What I Hear”), Kathie Lee Gifford (“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”) and a host of others.

I narrowed the list down to two songs; the first being “Silent Night” from 80′s glam rockers Winger, the other Paul McCartney’s 1979 solo hit “Wonderful Christmastime.” Winger’s interpretation of “Silent Night,” is arguably the funniest and worst version of that song that has ever been recorded. The only thing missing in this crappy rendition was a guest appearance from Slaughter namesake Mark Slaughter, though Winger singer Kip Winger does a fine job of embarrassing himself on his own.

But after much deliberation the worst Christmas song ever is Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” which actually made the top ten in the U.K, reaching number six. This overproduced diddy is really not any worse than any of McCartney’s other schmaltzy hits of that era but takes the cake at being the worst Christmas song ever solely for its incessant chorus – “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time.” It will stick in your head well into the new year.

It’s a couple of weeks after Christmas, but the auditory assault, courtesy of Britney Spears, is still fresh in Emily Marchino ‘s mind.

Marchino, who works at clothing store New York & Company at Merle Hay Mall, had to listen to one music tape (sent from headquarters) during every eight-hour shift she worked — for about a month. The Britster sang three of the songs piped throughout the store for the holiday season.

“I was like, ‘Can other artists make Christmas music?’ ” recalled an irked Marchino, 19.

Thankfully, yuletide Britney has since been banished. On a recent morning, Marchino was enjoying a mixed tape with renditions from Maroon 5 and Jason Mraz .

But the novelty of the fresh set of tunes, too, will probably wear thin soon, Marchino said.

“I like this music, but when I hear it repeated in the car, the last thing I want to hear is ‘work music.’ ”

Marchino has company among those nettled by a Britney-fest.

Proud new mama Federline tops the list as the most annoying musician that British retail workers have to endure while at work, according to online recruitment site Retailchoice. The company polled about 1,400 employees and assembled a Top 10 list of auditory offenders that included Usher and Kylie Minogue.

A third of the respondents said they too had been abused by the same CD played up to 20 times a week, according to the press release.

For some workers like Marchino, being subjected daily to a loop of mind-numbing music (or even worse, Muzak) is just part of the job. But it’s easy to see how listening on the radio to Mariah Carey’s “Don’t Forget About Us” for the 23rd time would send anyone screaming from her work station.

There’s a conflict of interests when specific music is piped into businesses, said Paul Lasley, an Iowa State professor and chairman of the sociology department. At issue is finding a balance between the ambience a business wants to create, and the varied musical tastes of workers and customers.

“You might find the perfect set of music to create exactly the kind of mood you want to create,” Lasley said. But “perfection” played several times over often spells monotony for employees. Monotony can breed unhappiness.

A deeper issue is choice, he said. Employees subjected to specific music at work don’t have a say in the tunes they listen to. That lack of choice could inevitably impact productivity.

Lasley pointed to workplace studies done in the early 1900s. The “Hawthorne studies,” conducted at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago, analyzed how a variety of working conditions (i.e. lighting, group size, etc.) affected productivity.

The result? “They found . . . essentially. . . . that whatever you did that demonstrated to the employees that you were paying attention to them increased the productivity,” Lasley said. “Which is somewhat commonsensical — that if you have happy employees, then they’ll be more productive than unhappy employees.”

Variety is one solution, Lasley added.

Some workers at Merle Hay Mall say it’s just a matter of tuning the music out.

PacSun sales associate Travis Ramsey, 18, listens to satellite radio piped into the store. The catch: It’s set to one station.

“It’s good music, but after a while you learn to block it out,” Ramsey said.

Marchino concurred. She said after three weeks of the same music, you “space it all off.”

Roger Stanley, who works at the Global Cellular kiosk in the mall, sits at a musical crossroads — in the center of a cacophony of sounds coming from the radio at the nearby Merle Norman shop, mall music emanating from speakers, plus the techno music from the Personalized Gifts kiosk adjacent to Stanley’s.

“Sometimes, I’ll get two or three different music sources here,” said Stanley, 35, who, personally, is a rock ‘n’ roll kind of guy.

At Personalized Gifts, Thomas Thammavong was quietly enjoying some mellow Korean music. Thammavong said he likes to start off his day by playing slow music to stay relaxed and “thinking straight.”

In the evening, he shifts to R&B and techno music. The beats reflect his clienteles’ taste and also energize Thammavong, 25, to create his custom T-shirts and picture-engraved dog tags.

“The music makes you happy. And when you’re happy, you can do more stuff — you can sell, work on your projects,” Thammavong said.

Retailers enjoyed their best Christmas in four years as promotions and the timing of the holiday pulled in extra shoppers.

The employee-owned John Lewis Partnership emerged as one of the clear winners in the battle for customers over Christmas, with the British Retail Consortium reporting today that like-for-like sales across the sector generally were up by 2.6% on a year earlier.

John Lewis reported strong performances from its department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, and the BRC said Christmas trading for the sector as a whole had been far less grim than had been anticipated. Business on the high street picked up strongly in the week before Christmas, with an extra boost provided by Christmas eve falling on a Saturday. The increase in sales during December, once the impact of adding extra floor space during the year was allowed for, was the strongest in any month since May 2004, but Kevin Hawkins, the BRC’s director general warned that underlying conditions remained tough and retailers could expect a challenging start to 2006.

Sir Stuart Hampson, John Lewis chairman, announced that underlying sales at the department stores chain rose by 7.1% in the seven weeks to January 7, and were ahead by 6.2% at Waitrose. “The sense of relief that Christmas turned out brighter than many feared should not disguise the fact that conditions in retailing remain tough, with strong competition and price deflation keeping pressure on margins,” he said. The group reckons it has taken market share from rival retailers, but said Christmas was generally better than had been expected. It did particularly well in electricals and home technology, where sales surged by almost 26%.

Further cheer for the retail sector came yesterday from Jessops, the cameras chain. Boosted by a 23% surge in sales of digital cameras, its like-for-like sales jumped by 9.4% in the five weeks to January 1. Margins were weaker than expected, however, as it wooed shoppers with price cuts and special deals. Chief executive Derek Hine described it as a “pleasing performance” but warned that it was still early days in what could be another tough year.

Hitwise, the leader in online competitive intelligence, today publishes its monthly data for visits to retail websites in the UK over the Christmas period.

In December 2005, visits to retail websites were up 14% year-on-year, cementing a remarkable year for online retail in the UK – and outperforming our earlier predictions that the sector would enjoy a 12% growth in visits from December 2004.

Online retail benefited significantly during the post-Christmas sales

Visits to retail websites were up significantly in the week after Christmas, seeing an increase of 16% year-on-year for the week ending 31st December 2005. The retail sectors driving this growth were Ticketing (+280% growth), Auctions (+29% growth) – as consumers presumably looked to offload unwanted Christmas gifts – and Apparel and Accessories (+24% growth).

For the month of December, the retail sub-categories that performed best were Auctions (+29% growth), Ticketing (+365% growth), House and Garden (+14% growth) and Toys and Hobbies (+13% growth). The Auctions category is dominated by eBay, which enjoyed unprecedented levels of visits during Christmas 2005, whilst visits to Ticketing websites were buoyed by several concert announcements, including those for Robbie Williams and Take That’s comeback tour.

Sales lead to demand for LCD TVs, DVD recorders and sofas

Searches for home electronics and furnishings were also up considerably in this period, with consumers holding out on purchases of higher-priced items for the much anticipated post-Christmas sales. The terms that appeared among the top 20 product related search terms sending visits to retail websites last week included ‘lcd tv’, ‘dvd recorders’ and ‘televisions’.

The term ‘lcd tv’ was the sixth highest product related search term sending visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites, and did not appear in the top 20 most popular search terms in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Searches for ‘lcd tv’ increased more than two and a half times comparing the week ending 31st December 2005 to the week ending 24th December 2005, whilst searches for ‘dvd recorders’ and ‘televisions’ doubled in that same period.

Also among the top search terms were ‘sofas’ and ‘beds’, indicating that large household items were popular during the sales. The term ‘beds’ was the seventh highest volume product term sending visits to retail websites for the week ending 31st December 2005.

Christmas mp3 gifts caused an increase in searches for ‘music downloads’

Searches for ‘music downloads’ also entered the top 20 search terms for the week ending 31st December 2005. Whilst the search phrase ‘free music downloads’ was a staple in the lead-up to Christmas, the addition of ‘music downloads’ is likely a result of the rush on Christmas day to fill new mp3 players with digital music. Hitwise previously issued figures which showed that visits to music sites increased by 50% on Boxing Day, with Apple’s iTunes the most popular music download website.

THE 12th day of Christmas has passed which meant all the decorations could be taken down at the weekend without fear of incurring bad luck and personal disaster for the coming year.

This is sheer supersition, of course, and yet we still stick to the rules at our house even though I have yet to see any material benefits.

I mean, if you are supposed to get bad luck by taking down the tinsel on the first day of January in a fit of pique after staggering barefoot over the broken parts of a Roboraptor while nursing the mother of all hangovers and falling into the tree, I would have thought that leaving the whole rigmarole up for the requisite length of tradition might bring a modicum of good luck.

But so far we haven’t won the Lottery.

However, we have got a Christmas tree, along with seven million other households across the country, that is now sitting outside, surplus to requirements with nowhere to go and looking very sorry for itself.

I had thought of asking where to put it but realised some readers might take advantage of my naivety and make personal suggestions, so I checked and discovered that trees can be recycled by taking them along to one of the five household waste recycling centres in Kirklees and putting them in the garden waste containers.

The decorations and fairy lights should, of course, first be removed and put carefully into supermarket plastic bags and then hidden somewhere around the house where they can’t be found without a sniffer dog and a search and rescue mission about the middle of next December.

Which leaves the cards.

What do you do with yours?

My wife Maria cannot bear to throw them away and got into the habit of collecting them into bundles and sticking them under the cushions of the sofa which became as comfortable as sitting on a scale model of the Alps made out of Lego.

“This has got to stop,” I said, after one day being caught in an avalanche caused by a shift in the substrata that left me on the carpet surrounded by snowmen and festive coaches from 1987.

Everyone with a hoarding instinct should remember that cards are not for life but just for Christmas. Besides, recycling can save resources.

Television presenter Gail Porter is at the forefront of a campaign to recycle 60m cards this year, which is a modest target considering it is estimated that more than a billion were sent. Woodland Trust and Recycle Now have recycling bins in Tesco and W H Smith stores throughout January.

“At Christmas we produce a huge amount of waste, much more than normal, with Christmas cards and wrapping paper,” says Gail.

“Amazingly, one in five of us still throw our Christmas cards in the bin. But if each of us in the country recycled just two cards, we would smash the target and save thousands of trees.”

The cards saved will be taken to papermills and made into new paper products. The money raised helps the Woodland Trust to save woods and trees.

At last, somewhere to stick the Alps. I already know where to stick the tree, thank you very much.

The Santa Fund’s stockings runneth over.

Central Virginians helped make the new year brighter by donating a near record $116,934 to the Santa Fund. The goal was $98,000 for the charity that buys clothes, medicine, shoes, coats and other necessities throughout the year for needy schoolchildren.

The donations came despite a noticeable downturn in contributions to other area charities following relief efforts for victims of last year’s tsunami and devastating hurricane blows in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

“We’re really very happy because we didn’t know how it would turn out,” said Cathy Train, executive director of the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area, which administers the fund. “There have been a lot of disasters and a lot of people in need during the last year. Those events in the nation and the world impact here at home, as well.”

The Daily Progress and the Charlottesville Radio Group sponsor the fund drive. The radio group includes WINA-AM and WWWV-FM.

“When we talk about the quality of life in Charlottesville and Central Virginia, we often overlook mentioning the quality of the people who live here,” said Lawrence McConnell, publisher of The Daily Progress. “This year’s outpouring of generosity from the public is wonderful testimony about the character of our residents, and the care and concern they have for meeting the basic needs of children in our region who come from families who are less fortunate than many of us.”

Unlike some programs that focus on the holiday season, the Santa Fund gives its gifts all year long. The Santa Fund distributes vouchers to families of children who qualify financially. The fund also helps those students who school officials believe need assistance because of unexpected circumstances.

Train said she believes the simplicity of the fund and its target group led Central Virginians to support it.

“It’s a simple, easy to understand program because it meets basic needs of food, clothing, eyeglasses, medicine and the like,” Train explained. “It’s also easy to support because it’s all about kids. Everyone can support helping children. It appeals to all of us.”

Train said the drive’s Christmas theme and fundraising period also help.

“Giving gifts is a part of the season,” she said, “and the best gift we give to ourselves is giving to others.”

Although the 2005 fund drive recently ended, donations are accepted all year long. Donations recorded after this year’s deadline will be published in The Daily Progress in the fall when the fund’s 2006 drive begins.

My mother is one of those mothers who begins playing Christmas music on Thanks giving and that is all she will let enter the stereo for the next month. Buy a new CD on Dec. 6 and want to listen to it in her car? Forgettaboutit.

Nothing enters her CD player save Reader’s Digest Christmas, Mannheim Steamroller, Muppets Christmas Carol, Celine Dion Christmas and, the ever popular, NOW Christmas album. No matter the artist, no matter if there is not even singing, as long as it is Christmas, it’s all anyone in my family hears. However, when I compare myself to most of my friends, I am the only one who really likes to listen to the music.

It’s as if my generation doesn’t really care much for Yuletide music. Sure, on Christmas Eve and Day, they are usually down for a little “Jingle Bell Rock,” but for the whole month of December? Nah. And if you do, and you’re my tender age of 23, boy do you get chastised for it.

The other day, my boyfriend, Mike, my friend, Brenda, and I were Christmas shopping and over the stereo system in the store, Celine Dion started cooing her rendition of “O Holy Night.”

“Who listens to this?” Brenda retorted disdainfully.

“Courtney does,” Mike said, motioning to me, as I softly sang the song with a smile.

Any other day of the year you can find me listening to rap or R&B, but for December, it’s Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and a little Mormon Tabernacle Choir rocking out “The First Noel.” December just doesn’t seem right without Christmas music dancing in the background.

Though I like pretty much all Christmas songs, my favorite is the same as my father’s: “O Holy Night.” To this day, I cannot listen to the haunting notes or powerful lyrics without literally crying. At the finale, when the singer belts out “fall on your knees,” with an orchestra swelling up behind them, I can’t see why it doesn’t have the same emotional effect on others as it does me.

The song takes me back to a pew in church many years ago, with my father sitting beside me, softly singing the lyrics along with a choir at the front of the church and his eyes slightly misting over.

I know it might seem “lame” or “cheesy” but this coming month, I suggest listening to Christmas music. And not just A South Park Christmas. But real, genuine Christmas classics, even childhood favorites like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “Frosty the Snowman.”

Listening to Christmas music, whether in the car or in the comfort of your own house, brings home the realization that Christmas is near and it really does only come once a year.

So put away your Jason Mraz CD for a couple of weeks and pop in a CD of Christmas tunes or flip to a radio station which only plays Christmas tunes for December.

And when the radio plays “O Holy Night,” listen to it. Really listen to it. And maybe you’ll find yourself wiping away a few stray tears by the end of it.

A record 20 million music tracks were downloaded in the final week of 2005.

In the seven days between Christmas and the New Year, millions of MP3 owners in the US bought tracks from download retailers such as iTunes and Napster.

It smashed the existing record of 9.5 million – which was set the previous week – according to tracking firm Neilson SoundScan.

Sales were boosted by the number of people who received MP3 players and download gift vouchers for Christmas.

Peer-to-peer

An explosion in the number of MP3 players – such as Apple’s iPod – sold during 2005 meant total download sales were almost three times the amount sold in the same seven-day period in 2004.

Despite the rise, the number of illegal downloads from peer-to-peer networks still outstrips legal ones by a ratio of at least three to one.

Peer-to-peer monitoring service Big Champagne estimates that at least 250 million tracks are downloaded worldwide each week from file-swapping services.

Sales of MP3 players have surpassed those of personal CD players for the first time, according to research firm NPD Group.

“We have definitely moved from MP3 players being a computer-oriented product to a consumer-directed product,” said Stephen Baker of NPD.

The Orthodox Christmas celebration in Georgia was carried out in a series of celebrations in churches around the country Saturday and in Alilo marches in the afternoon aimed to spread Christmas cheer and gather donations for the poor.

Tbilisi’s Alilo parade started at Sameba Church in Vake in the afternoon on January 7 and ended at Sameba Cathedral after several hours.

During the Alilo procession on Saturday marchers – priests, acolytes, and worshipers – carried flags and icons all the way to Sameba cathedral. Several children gathered on carts driven by water buffalos.

The presents and money gathered during the march were destined for children’s shelters and the elderly.

Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze and several MPs met the marchers at Parliament and passed out sweets and presents.

On Christmas Eve, a Christmas liturgy held at Sameba Cathedral was attended by thousands of worshippers. President Mikheil Saakashvili, Burjanadze and other governmental representatives were among them.

“So many people have never gathered to celebrate New Year and Christmas,” Saakashvili stated at the ceremony.

In his sermon, Georgian Patriarch Ilia II addressed religion, democracy, Georgian territorial integrity and the need to support young people in the country.

The patriarch called for the protection of Georgian culture values. “It is impossible that a country, rejecting its culture and moral norms it once relied on – friendship, courage, respect for elders, devotion, reliance on one-another, respect for women – could build a successful Georgian state. Because any country comes from its history and is based on its traditions,” Ilia II stated.

The patriarch also argued that recently the Georgian lifestyle and mentality has become too influenced by mass media, the internet and movies that spread values unacceptable to Georgian traditions. “These values are presented as part of a democratic and independent society, which first of all harms the Georgian state and government,” he said, “Independence does not necessarily mean acting as you want to.”

The patriarch also said it was imported for Georgia to regain its territorial integrity. He said the historical grounds of the conflicts came from “the imperialist history teaching Abkhazians and South Ossetians [that] has lead to their hostile attitude toward Georgians.”

“This was a delayed ideological time-bomb and this bomb has led us to what we have now – broken down unity and friendship,” he said, adding optimistically that “because of family, neighborly and friendly attitudes between the nations, the enemy could not completely achieve its aim.”

“We are praying for the restoration of peace and unity between us,” Ilia II stated.

The patriarch described youth as the key element in building the Georgian state. “Each person is accountable for our country, not only the government, but the church, academia, and intelligentsia. And the largest portion of responsibility falls on youth, since youth are the future of the country. They should develop new ideas, new projects and find out new ways for development and tackling problems,” he said.

The patriarch expressed concern for drug addiction among the adults that has affected all layers of society.

“Some drug addicts consider [drug use] is bravery. However in reality it is cowardliness, it is a shame, fear of reality and an attempt to avoid problems that each of us face. It is an attempt to flee from real life, rejection of what can bring fortune to the family, loved-ones, society and the state,” the patriarch said.

He said addiction is a serious disease and expressed sympathy to those families with addicts.

“But only this [compassion] is not enough. The government, myself and the church should put every effort to on one hand take serious preventive measures and on the second hand somehow grab our children from this horrible monster.”

After the liturgy Saakashvili stated the epistle was very significant and accurate.

“I listened very carefully to the patriarch’s Christmas epistle… I completely recognize its main values and statements. The epistle considers the social responsibility of people, precisely what responsibilities each of us bears not only to ourselves and our families but also to the whole society, our history and our future,” Saakashvili stated.

A post-Christmas Debt Help Plan has been drawn up by the Debt Counsellors to help anyone worried about their financial excesses of the festive period.

The Debt Help Plan, built around three basic steps, is as follows…

General Economising:
Those in debt should list their outgoings over a month and compare the total with their income. Then they can see if they are spending more than they can actually afford. If they are, they need to trim off the unnecessary expenditure.

Credit Card Debt Assessment:
At this time of year many people have overspent on their credit cards and are struggling to meet repayments.

Where this is the case, the credit cards should be cut up and a realistic plan to pay them off should be worked out. Even if the credit card debt is manageable, it is always worth looking around the market for cards with better interest rates. If and when these are found, the balance should be switched.

Sensible Spending:
Those in debt should stop borrowing to buy unless it is absolutely essential and should make a vow to only spend what they can afford. It is much better to save for luxury items than to build up debts to pay for them.

John Porter, a senior counsellor with the Debt Counsellors, says the three-point plan represents an effective first step to clearing debt after Christmas and staying out of trouble.

“These are basic rules to follow to stop debts getting out of control and it’s essential at this time of year that people get to grips with their spending,” Porter says. “If someone has overspent in the name of a merry Christmas it’s forgivable, but they should rein in their spending to ensure next Christmas isn’t a miserable one. Our simple three-point Debt Help Plan can help with that but as ever, those worried about debt should seek professional help.”

176 people lost their lives over the Christmas, New Year and Three Kings holiday, 39 more than during the same period last year, according to General Traffic Department (DGT) statistics made public today. Between the 23rd December and midnight last night, there were a total of 152 fatal accidents, which also left 86 people seriously injured and 91 others less seriously so.

A DGT spokesman explained that although it has been the second least tragic year since 1987, fatalaties were 39 up on last year, when 137 people died. In 2003-04, there were 195 deaths, nine fewer than 2002-03, when 204 people were killed.

There were 222 deaths in 2001-02, but the worst results were recorded in the years 1988-89 and 1989-90, when the totals reached 317 for two years in a row.

The same source pointed out that there were far fewer deaths in 2004-05 owing to the fact that many drivers had decided to cancel their journeys because of poor weather conditions.

The highest number of casualties this year were recorded on the 1st and 3rd January, when 17 people died each day, followed by Tuesday 2nd, when there were 15 deaths.

By region, the regions most seriously affected were: Andalucía (30), Castilla La Mancha (28), Valencia (22), Cataluña (18) and Galicia (15). La Rioja was the only region where there were no fatal accidents.

A 23 percent rise in sales of digital cameras helped Jessops post a healthy rise in Christmas sales, Britain’s biggest specialist photographic retailer said on Monday, sending its shares 8 percent higher.

The firm (JSP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), which also sells binoculars and photo equipment from 285 shops, said like-for-like sales rose 9.4 percent in the five weeks to January 1, with total sales up 13.3 percent.

This helped reverse a decline in like-for-like sales in October and November, and produce a rise of 2.3 percent for the 13 weeks to January 1.

“This year’s growth is once again driven by an uplift in digital camera sales across all channels,” Jessops said in a trading update, adding sales of digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras soared 92.8 percent.

At 8:45 a.m., Jessops shares were up 6.2 percent at 103 pence, off an earlier high of 105p, and valuing the business at about 106 million pounds.

Gross margin for the first quarter of its financial year, which starts in October, was up on the same period a year earlier, but was marginally below the company’s expectations, and Jessops remained cautious about prospects.

“With nine months trading still to come, we are mindful of last year’s market conditions, although this strong start to the year does underpin confidence in our prospects for the year as a whole,” Chief Executive Derek Hine said in a statement.

Britain’s retailers are complaining that indebted consumers are curbing spending amid rising utility bills and a stagnating housing market. But official figures show sales still growing and Christmas trading updates from companies have been mixed.

“With Christmas not as important for Jessops as the summer is, we remain cautious on our forecast and rise from 16 million pounds to 16.5 million pounds,” Rhys Williams, an analyst at brokers Seymour Pierce, wrote in a research note.

Broker Panmure raised its price target on Jessops shares to 110p from 95p.

Why does the Lufkin Daily News, printed in a community that is probably 99.9 percent Christian, replace Christmas with “holiday lights”? Who are you afraid of offending? The .1 percent or the 99.9 percent who still believe we should celebrate the birth of Jesus and aren’t afraid of the word Christmas?

What is a holiday light anyway? Can anyone at the Lufkin Daily News provide me with a definition? I’m glad to hear that I can now hang lights on July 4th, that’s a holiday, or Memorial Day, that’s a holiday, even President’s Day, another holiday.

In fact, I’ll just leave my Christmas lights up all year and plug them back in on these days — since they are holiday lights. If we’re going to call them holiday lights now, what does the Lufkin Daily News suggest we call Christmas day? “Holiday day”? “Give a kid a present day?” What do we now call Christmas Eve? “The day before we give a kid a present day?”

I just got another great idea. I’m going to rewrite all the lyrics to all of the classic Christmas songs, record the new songs and make millions. I can hear it now… “On the 12th day of give a kid a present day my true love gave to me…” “We wish you a merry” (oops better not say that)… We wish you a happy give a kid a present day and a Happy New Year.” Sounds just as silly as “holiday lights” doesn’t it?

All kidding aside. I find this whole business about holiday versus Christmas one of the most ridiculous things I’ve experienced. What in the world is so offensive about celebrating the birthday of the one who just wants everyone to love everyone else as much (or more) than we love ourselves?

Ask yourselves. Do you really want to take God out of a day like Christmas? Do you really want God to remove His good hand from the Lufkin Daily News, from the city of Lufkin? Keep nudging Him out and He will leave. He will not stick around where He is not wanted. If anyone wants to see Christmas lights they are more than welcome to visit the Englewood subdivision.