Joy of Christmas

Archive for November, 2006

The debate over whether shops should open on Christmas Day is, in a nutshell, a debate over what our priorities are as a society. What are we? A nation that craves fleeting happiness in the accumulation of unnecessary possessions; or one that values the importance of more intangible things – relationships, family and home – enough to ring-fence two days out of 365 for them?
Yesterday’s debate in Holyrood on the bill to prohibit large shops (over 3000 sq ft) from opening at Christmas and New Year was an inconclusive affair, with general agreement that banning opening on Christmas Day was a good thing. There were tensions, however, between the LibDems and Labour over the New Year closure, and on this there was fudge.
Of Karen Whitefield, MSP, whose bill this is, it cannot be said she was not brave. In the face of much potential mockery, she evokes the sentiment of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and quotes both Dickens (“I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should . . . come home from the great boarding school where we are forever working on our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest”) and Rudyard Kipling (“Christmas . . . a truce, then, to our labours – let us feast with friends and neighbours”).
Remarkably, her bill also mentions Frank Capra’s film It’s a Wonderful Life, declaring “these shared cultural references perhaps embody a sense of what is understood to be special, unique, sentimental even, about the nature of Christmas Day”. Of New Year’s Day, she quotes Sir Walter Scott: “Each age has deemed the new-born year/The fittest time for festal cheer.”
For those who think, on the contrary, that festal cheer just means fighting through the crowds at Debenhams to buy duvet covers, this kind of sentiment is laughable. But beneath the tinsel and the flam, there are hard, clear truths in this bill.
Here are 10 reasons why Ms Whitefield is absolutely correct. Big stores – indeed any stores – should not open on either Christmas or New Year’s Day.
1. We need nothing. We are neither hungry nor cold nor bored. On Christmas morning we will be sitting atop a mountain of unnecessary tat – scarves, watches, vases, knick-knacks, fripperies, gimmicks and luxuries; in the kitchen there will be (sometimes almost literally) mountains of food. Without leaving the house, we will have access to unlimited and varied entertainment, be it from talking to loved ones, watching TV or DVDs, playing on a PC, or listening to music. On New Year’s morning, ditto; the presents only having been replaced with a hangover.
2. Shopping is a psychological sickness. We are addicted, not to alcohol, nicotine, or back-street drugs, but to something much more powerful: the high street drug, that constant need to acquire more. We buy because it makes us feel better. It gives us a warm glow of gratification, which soon fades. Then we want something else; another fix: something better, something rarer, something different. We buy compulsively because we’ve forgotten that happiness comes from within, not from a best-selling handbag from Marc Jacobs costing £760, or a more prestigious model of car.
3. It’s unfair to the shop assistants. The shopworkers union, USDAW, quite rightly, has supported closure to allow its (lowly-paid) members the days off with their families, and to prevent them being forced by bosses to come to work. Shop workers already have to endure horrendous hours in a consumer culture. It’s bad enough that police, hospital staff, firemen, coastguards, council workers (and, yes, even journalists) must sacrifice Christmas and New Year without anyone else being added to the list.
4. The human race, in general, needs to spend time together. If there is a modern disease, it is fragmentation and isolation: broken marriages, dislocated childhoods, loneliness and a desperate shortage of time in which to build friendships and relationships. Children in particular don’t see enough of their parents, both of whom are, statistically, likely to be out at work during the week. Is it too much to ask that for two very special days a year parents actually remember why they had children in the first place, and make an effort to get to know them?
5. Who really cares if big business makes a paltry few million pounds less on its multimillion-pound bottom line? Does anyone genuinely believe that tourists are going to be put off Scotland simply because they can’t visit a department store on New Year’s Day? Our heads do not yet zip up the back. Yet a plethora of big shops, VisitScotland and the Scottish Tourist Forum are opposed to closure on one or both days. The Scottish Retail Consortium says an opening ban could, potentially, cost the country up to £56m. The Scottish CBI says shops should not be prevented from reacting to customer demand, as if such a breach of capitalism was sacrilegious.
6. Which beings me to the fact that we live in a predominantly Christian country and, quietly expressed as it may be now, the spiritual importance of Christmas matters to an awful lot of people. Karen Whitefield’s bill declares that Christmas Day dates back to the fourth century and, as well as Christians, is tapped into by Pagan, Hebrew, Greek and Nordic elements. New Year is made or marred by a wholly different kind of spirit, of course, depending on your point of view, but it is still no reason to break with a holiday tradition that is Pagan and Viking in origin and has absolutely nothing to do with a 30% discount at Comet. My bottom line: it’s good for the soul to have a day off.
7. TV can sometimes be quite good. They might even screen Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
8. It would be of far longer-lasting benefit to health if the nation went for a brisk walk or a bicycle ride than went shopping. The feel-good effect from buying things fades within about 24 hours; a good workout will help heart, lung, metabolic and neurological function for months.
9. Memories. Put it this way. In 40 years, when we’re sitting round the sides of the old folk’s common room, dribbling gently, what will we prefer to remember about Christmas 2006? The American-style fridge freezer that we got 20% off, and lasted only 10 years before it blew up, or the wonderful afternoon we spent with our children, some of them now scattered to the four winds, and the pictures of laughing faces we kept from the day in our photo album?
10. Consumption is killing the planet. Capitalism needs us to want what we do not have; and desire for what we do not have is an infinitely renewable resource. Sadly, the same can’t be said for raw materials. A person in the developed world consumes twice as much grain, twice as much fish, three times as much meat, nine times as much paper and 11 times as much petrol as someone in a developing nation. We are destroying the planet in our desperate rush for new cars, new clothes, new white goods, new sofas, new mobile phones, new . . . everything.
Finally, it’s good to say no to yourself sometimes. At best, it makes you more aware of real need. At worst, a day denying yourself will mean you will gain extra pleasure from going shopping on Boxing Day.

It was Dec. 8 when Arthur Suiter laid eyes and ears on Mason, Ohio, resident Carson Williams’ mind-blowing “Wizards of Winter,” Christmas light show. The show flashed note-by-note to Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s holiday musical storm. [Planet Christmas: The World's Most Extreme Christmas Decorations!]

It was the very next day that Suiter called up Williams and began his Christmas mission to bring such Griswold gold to his own house for the holidays.

You remember Carson Williams house in Mason, Ohio?” Suiter asked. “Well, we are doing that in Chesapeake.”

That is The Christmas Fantasy of Lights 2006: 27,000 lights that get flipped on Thanksgiving night tripping the light fantastic in a way the Tri-State has never seen or heard.

Powered up with control boxes from a Light-O-Rama computer program, the show flashes lights in time to five holiday songs in a dazzling 14-minute show.

There will be a new show every 20 minutes for folks to drive-through with a six-minute break of music-only in between shows.

The light show will be on from 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and will be up through Jan. 1.

A former Chesapeake school board member and former president of the fair board in Lawrence County, Suiter said he was swept away with the Mason show.

“I was just fascinated with his show, and I had to do it when I found out nobody locally was doing it,” Suiter said. “I’ve always been involved with projects and community involvement. It was something I wanted to do, and it was a nice little challenge for me. It has turned out pretty nice, and the community is going to like it.”

Unlike the Christmas lights battle royale that breaks out in the holiday movie, “Deck the Halls,” which opens Wednesday with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito, Suiter had lots of kindred spirits helping him build the lights show.

They include Todd Gilpin, Rob Queen and Jim Thompson, who have helped power up the massive project that takes more than a half of a mile of extension cords.

The show has three Trans-Siberian Orchestra numbers, “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” by Danny Elfman and the Macarena Christmas Song.

“The toughest thing was writing the lights to the music,” Suiter said. “Every note has to be written to the lights, and it has to be in sequence. Once everything started coming together, it really was a lot of fun.”

And Williams, too, in spite of the crush of national exposure, was on board to lend a helping hand.

“Carson has been very helpful,” Suiter said. “He sent me the software, and then I got addicted. I did copy a bit of his stuff. He said it was OK, but we have a lot of things unique to our show.

One thing, Suiter hopes not to duplicate is the traffic problems that closed down Williams’ show last year and which was a deciding factor in moving that show (splashed all over national TV) to downtown to Mason this season.

The location of Suiter’s more secluded home and the fact that he is surrounded by family, should negate some of the issues that Williams’ neighbors had with traffic in Mason last Christmas.

Suiter’s home is located on a city-block long private drive off of Ohio 243 between Chesapeake and Proctorville.

The drive will be two-way, and there is a sign with instructions so that folks can turn on their radios to hear the music show.

“Once you get up to the top of the hill there is plenty of room to turnaround,” Suiter said.

The Christmas story of 2005 was Carson Williams’ computer controlled Christmas display set to music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. You can see the original video here plus Miller Beer did a Lites commercial. Being a Christmas Lights guy myself, I had dozens of people Email this video to me. So I’ve seen (and listened) to this awesome production a bazillion times, but always on the computer. [The Best Christmas Decorations in Chicagoland]

Carson Williams was hired to put together the “Symphony in Lights” for the Northfield Stapleton shopping Mall which is about 35 minutes away … so I was excited to actually finally see it in person. My family went down there for the opening ceremony on Saturday, November 18th and it was a heck of a treat. These pictures capture less than half of the 250,000 lights … and (of course), don’t show the motion nor the christmas music. There was also some giant lighted stick figures that towered over the crowd – very cool.

I happened to see Carson being interviewed by FOX News so had the chance to say hello to him. I’m sure he was incredibly busy, but he took the time to graciously chat briefly with me and other people as can be seen below. One interesting tidbit I heard him mention is that the 250,000 lights were all LED’s which are more energy efficient – nice touch!

While it’s cool that one can use the Internet to view Christmas Decorations, and heck, even turn Christmas Lights on & off from your PC, nothing beats seeing (and hearing) something live in person. The shows runs nightly through Christmas, so consider a family outing to check it out – highly recommended!

I have a webpage of the Carson Williams show and high-res pictures are available upon request.

P.S. Also highly recommended is a Christmas Lights display in Broomfield on Telluride just North of 136th. People say my 26,000 Christmas Lights in 2005 were pretty good – they don’t hold a candle in terms of quality and quantity to what Norm and Karen Vaught have done the last 15 years with their house – trust me, you’ll be glad you checked it out – WOW!

Some are happy with the season. Leaves are down and likely raked and disposed of. Big “V” flocks of geese are flying south. Folks are anticipating Thanksgiving cooking and football.

Others, having seen Christmas shopping displays since Halloween, are feeling pulled through this season into the next.

Then there are those who delight, relish, revel in the necessity to get ready for the Christmas season. [Christmas Spirit: The Joyous Stories, Carols, Feasts, and Traditions of the Season]

“We need to make preparations beforehand just to get everything set up,” said Governor’s Gardener Lorinda Kelley.

She was cleaning up and overseeing the placement of the 31-foot-tall White Spruce in the front yard of the Governor’s Mansion on Summit Avenue in Saint Paul.

“This year we’re going to have L.E.D lights on it!” she exclaimed.

LEDs are Light Emitting Diodes, a longer lasting, lower power light, not readily available before.

Lorinda Kelley gets “in the mood” when the Governor’s tree goes up.

“It really does… start the whole season. It’s really gets me in the mood and I think it gets everyone in the mood, just to know that the tree is going up,” she said.

“It’s the start of it all,” she said. “It’s the start of everything.”

It goes up before Thanksgiving so there is time to decorate it before the lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving.

In Rice Park, a 79-foot tall Colorado Blue Spruce was surrounded by four bucket trucks dancing right, then left, then up, then down.

If one watched at just the right time, one would see a strand of lights flying between buckets.

Four Saint Paul city foresters were stretching 75 cases of lights, 60,000 in all around and up and down the first big tree in Rice Park.

“All the other trees in Rice Park have white lights on them,” said one worker.

“This one will have multicolored lights. It’s special.”

But up on the highest platform, working alone 75 feet up the tree, Paul Misiewicz is not in the Christmas Spirit.

“Our other trucks only go up 65 feet,” he said.

The city had to rent a special lift to get him to the top of the tree.

But it’s not the height at which he’s working that bothers him. It’s not the fact that everybody else is 15 or so feet below him, so he’s working virtually alone up there.

Paul Misiewicz needs snow to feel Christmas.

And looking down, he sees green grass dotted with piles of leaves.

“It’s a little early,” he says.

“It’s a lot easier when it’s warmer, hanging the lights and everything… a little more comfortable,” he says, “but it doesn’t really feel like Christmas quite yet.”

When Paul Misiewicz looks to the west, though, he sees, atop the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, a huge billboard announcing, “White Christmas!”

Saint Paul is one of two cities chosen to host the seasonal musical this year.

Back stage, Wardrobe Production Supervisor Lee Austin and Wardrobe Supervisor Ruth Cattaneo were inventorying more than 300 costumes needed by the 33 cast members.

“He’s my boss,” said Wardrobe Supervisor Cattaneo.

“Here’s her rehearsal,” said Cattaneo.

“That’s her rehearsal?” asked Lee.

“Does she have brown?” Cattaneo interrupted.

“Yup, OK, Oh, there’s the halter. OK,” she added.

They were working in a black muslin- curtained area that’s being called the “costume bunker,” where actors will come for quick changes between scenes.

Down stage, a colleague was taping markers to show where white stools need to be lined up on a red set.

Out in the house, folks were busy as bees around 15 temporary tech tables, set up atop chairs. Some held computerized lighting and audio consoles. Others, the computerized controls of animated set pieces and fog and snow machines.

“We’ve never had so many tech tables,” said David Orton, Ordway Production Manager. “This is a very involved production,” he said.

At the same time, he was obviously enjoying himself.

“The show is very classic and classy,” he said, “and it makes you really feel like you’re in the season of what Christmas is all about… the family and the friends and the music and so many things,” he said.

To folks like David Orton, it doesn’t make any difference that leaves dot the green grass outside.

Inside, the season is arriving.

Like Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, Douglas and Karol Cummings have crafted colonial climbing toys, carousels that spin without batteries, and wooden dolls with spindly legs that dance on a thin plank and make a clacking sound. [Christmas in My Heart]

They retired about seven years ago from full-time toy making, and from running their carpentry shop on Columbia’s Main Street.

But they recently came out of retirement for a good cause: to make toys for children who had survived Hurricane Katrina and then personally deliver them.

The Cummingses, who live in Columbia, returned from their trip to Louisiana Oct. 12 — minus the toys but full of memories.

“I wanted to do something for the children,” Karol said. “Something personal.”

She and Douglas picked out just the right pine, cut hundreds of lengths of cord and created dozens of cats and bears with hand-painted faces. The climbing toys — designed to hang from door frames — are flat cutouts with pull-cords running through all four paws.

“The toys don’t require batteries or electricity, and they float,” Karol said.

They are cut from pine with a band saw, several at a time.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Douglas added, “You don’t make just one.”

Once the 150 or so toys were done, the Cummingses then had to figure out how to get them into the hands of needy children.

They shipped the toys to Karol Cummings’ daughter in Connecticut.

Then, after visiting her there, they drove the gifts to Louisiana.

Douglas and Karol had no plan, no contacts, no list of churches or charities. They just knew they wanted to give the toys to children most-affected by last year’s disaster.

The couple found Mary Coxe, a sympathetic art gallery manager. She in turn recommended The Black Butterfly, a little shop featuring miniatures and collectibles. Butterfly owner Myra Landry, a former teacher, then recommended Cathedral Academy, a Catholic school “where the children had nothing.”

On Sept. 3, the Cummingses sat in a classroom filled with shy, but cheerful kindergartners, first-, second- and third-graders. They handed out the toys, each with a child’s name on it, one by one.

While Karol Cummings painted each child’s name on their toy, her husband read them stories.

After visiting the school, the Cummingses went to a battered-women’s shelter and a daycare center to deliver more toys.

The two are well versed in toy making.

Doug, a former electronic engineer, launched a career in woodworking in 1978, after moving to Columbia with his former wife.

“It was mostly furniture then,” Doug said, adding they did make a few toys, and Joyce painted their faces.

Joyce died of cancer in 1990. Shortly afterwards, Karol started working at the shop part-time.

“It all started because I couldn’t paint,” Doug said. “Joyce was the artist, and I knew Karol was too,” he explained.

Over time, their relationship grew. They married in 1992.

During the years they made toys for a living, this would be a busy time of year, with customers flocking in for Christmas.

Seven years ago, the couple retired.

But this fall they dusted off their saws, sanders and toy-making tools for a different reason.

When New Orleans and its outlying areas were pounded by Hurricane Katrina last year, Douglas, 81, and Karol, 62, felt helpless.

They wanted to send money, but they live on a moderate retirement income.

So they tapped into their toy-making skills.

“Everything just kind of fell into place,” Karol said.

A Massachusetts town that canceled its Veterans Day parade is letting another holiday tradition go by the wayside.

NBC 10′s Larry Estepa reported that tight finances have forced Wareham to cancel this year’s Christmas parade.

Many people in town said canceling the parade will only hurt families.

“It’s a shame. What are they going to take away from us next?” one woman said.

For 10 years, the parade stepped off from Besse Park, headed down Main Street and ended at Town Hall with a fireworks display.

The Wareham Police Association, which paid for the fireworks and Santa’s visit, said it was disappointed by the decision to cancel the parade.

Town merchants said they might step in to organize a parade next year if the Recreation Department can’t.

Anne Price has been filling shoeboxes for months. Into each box goes a variety of items carefully planned and fine-tuned over 13 years: crayons, toiletries, flashlight with extra batteries, toothpaste and toothbrush, T-shirt, underpants and socks and a pack of candy. [

AROUND 17,000 people braved Glasgow’s wild weather last night to be at George Square’s Christmas lights switch-on.

Thousands of families stood in the wind and lashing rain as the city was transformed into a festive wonderland, the illuminations sending a warm glow of light over the huddled masses.

Children were transfixed as fireworks streaked above the City Chambers for 15 minutes to a sound-track of Christmas hits.

Lord Provost Liz Cameron and Switch-On competition winner Louis Feighan, 10, of Condoratt, Cumbernauld, threw the switch after a countdown.

The Lord Provost said: “Glaswegians weren’t about to let some rain spoil the lights switch-on.

“The lights look spectacular and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I had a great time.”

The number attending was down on the 22,000 who turned out last year after tickets were restricted.

However, there was something for everyone on the night, from a Gaelic choir, to a Bollywood extravaganza.

There was also music from the indie-rock band the Hazey Janes and Clyde One DJ George Bowie blasted chart hits and Christmas songs into George Square throughout the event.

Jackie Simpson, 34, watched the switch-on with sons Jamie, 4, and Kieran, 6.

Support worker Jackie, of Motherwell, said: “It’s always great fun. I did consider missing this year as the weather was so bad, but I knew Jamie and Kieran would be disappointed.”

Another parent who braved the rain for his children’s wishes was Dr Jonathan Patterson, 45, of Shawlands. Sheltering son Hugh, 3, and daughter Hannah, 8, from the rain, he said: “We are all soaked but we enjoyed it anyway.

“The only criticism I have is that there should have been more than one entrance to the square as those coming off the trains at Queen Street and Central Stations had to walk to the opposite side of the square.”

More people say they’re regifting — giving a gift they received to another person. Is that financially smart, or is it tacky? [The Art of Regifting: Your ABC’s Guide to Regifting, the Do’s And Don’ts, Urban Legends And Folk Lore

That’s the debate underway at Money Management International, a nonprofit organization based in Houston that does consumer education and financial counseling.

MMI created the site because “whether or not you’re a fan or a foe, regifting has become a phenomenon,” said spokeswoman Kim McGrigg.

McGrigg noted that in a survey by the group last year, about 40% of respondents said they had regifted.

The main reasons were to save money, to save time and that they felt the recipient would like the item.

Some people writing to the site don’t approve.

One woman wrote that her sister “thinks by putting a big bow on her regifts, no one will know they have been regifted.” Last year the woman got back the Christmas gift she had given her sister a year earlier.

“I am thinking of wrapping it up again and giving it back to her this Christmas,” the woman wrote.

McGrigg — who admits to being a regifter herself — said it should be done tactfully.

Tips:

• Rewrap the gift and, of course, change the gift tag.

• Give only items that are new and in their original packaging.

• Know who gave you the item so that you don’t regift it to that person.

Christmas is just around the corner. Matter-of-fact, The Christmas banners have already been put on the streets of Savannah by the town highway crew; partly because they want to be ready when the snow comes. I am so thankful for our town highway crew. They willingly accept those calls at 3 a.m. to go out and plow the roads so all the rest of us can leave for our jobs much later and know that the roads are open. [Christmas on Jane Street: A True Story]

We in Savannah have some other Christmas traditions that I would like to share with you. The Savannah Chamber of Commerce will hold a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony Dec. 3 in the town park. Families, businesses and organizations are invited to decorate a tree, which has been placed in the park and already has the lights on it.

We are hoping to top the 24 trees that we had last year. Trees were placed in memory of family members or in honor of local organizations and businesses. At 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, several townspeople will gather around the trees, sing Christmas Carols, see the lights go on and watch for Santa to arrive on the Savannah fire truck. (I wonder how much it costs to travel to the North Pole for Santa, but I know it is worth it when you see the faces of the children who have gathered just to be able to talk with him). After that short program outside, we all walk to one of the local churches for hot chocolate and cookies. This will be the third year of the Chamber doing the Tree Lighting Ceremony, and each year, more and more people join in the activities for the night.

The Savannah Community Club sponsors a Christmas decoration contest where residents of the town can enter to have their home part of the contest. Cash awards are given to the top winners; however the whole town wins because all of us are able to enjoy the lights throughout the holiday season. When my daughter was a young child, we would often drive around Savannah to see all the lights and decorations. I do believe it was more fun for her than taking her shopping! Even now, John, my husband, and I enjoy driving around Savannah to see all the decorations. As we travel, we often think of many of those folks who have helped make Savannah a great place to live.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, a Christmas Tree appears in the post office with paper angels decorating the tree. On each angel is a note about a child who needs the help of some Savannah people in order to know the wonder of Santa Claus and the miracle of Christmas. The biggest challenge of the Angel Tree is to make sure you get there before they are all gone. It always amazes me at the number of angels there are and how quickly those angels disappear.

It is also great to see the smile on the Postmaster after he has helped with the delivery of these gifts. See Chuck Carman if you have any names to add to the tree or if you want to be sure you get an angel to bless.

The Savannah Congregational Church has a Cookie Walk on Saturday, Dec. 9. You will walk around a maze of tables full of hundreds of different Christmas cookies that you can select for your box. It is so hard to make sure you do not take more than you can or need to eat, because they all look so good. The Savannah Community Club and The Savannah Chamber of Commerce will each have a Christmas Bake Sale at the Savannah Bank, one Friday during the holiday season.

Savannah may not have a performance of “The Nutcracker” or special celebrity concerts, but our schools will offer Christmas concerts by students of the Jr. and Sr. High schools, Clyde Elementary School and the Savannah Elementary both with vocal and band instruments. These concerts will surely put you into the Christmas spirit.

Take a moment from the stress of the holiday and join in with these Christmas offerings found right within your town lines.

Christmas is back. Here come the lights, the trees, the greeting cards and – the Grinches.

The Liberty Counsel, a national pro-bono litigation firm dedicated to advancing religious freedom, is once again offering its “Report a Grinch” program, to make it easy for the public to report problems with the way public schools and work places recognize Christmas. [True for You, But Not for Me: Deflating the Slogans that Leave Christians Speechless]

“We have been receiving quite a few ‘grinch’ reports already this year,” the organization reported in a Nov. 3 press release about the problems that spring up regarding the constitutional separation of church and state at Christmastime.

In one instance, the organization says, the American Civil Liberties Union is threatening to sue Berkley, Mich., over a nativity scene in a display that includes a Star of David, a Christmas tree, and Santa Claus.

Another instance involves a man in Mississippi who says his local Lowe’s chain store has insulted him by plastering “Happy Holidays” signs all over the store.

If that sort of “grinch” is at work in your town or school, you can send an e-mail or call Liberty Counsel to file a “grinch” report.

“We’ve always had the ‘Friend or Foe’ Christmas campaign, but the ‘Grinch Report’ … started [as part of that program] last year,” said Robin Bryant, public relations director for the organization. The “Friend or Foe” project offers free legal assistance to members of the public who believe their right to celebrate and honor Christmas is being abridged.

“If you have a computer, you can go to our Web site and submit the information, or you can call directly, and we have an intake person who will take down the information.

Depending on how far the infraction has gone, or what it pertains to, depends on what action will be taken next,” Bryant said. For instance, if a school wants to remove all the Christmas songs from its annual Christmas program, and call it a holiday program, the organization’s lawyers will attempt to educate administrators of the school by sending them a legal memorandum explaining the constitutionality of Christmas.

“We will attempt to educate them on what the [U.S.] Constitution says,” Bryant said. “We usually start out that way, and wait for a response, and then eventually get them to a point where they will change their policy and allow Christmas back in. If they don’t change their policy and relent, and let Christmas back in, then we’ll take whatever action is necessary to make things change.

“We’re friendly to organizations, companies, or schools that keep Christmas, and we’re not friendly to those who don’t,” Bryant added.

An important part of the program is educating the public, which is why the program offers two downloadable legal memoranda, which can be given to school administrators or local authorities, explaining the law in clear and precise terms.

For example, if an employer, school administrator of civic organization wants to know how to handle the erection of a nativity scene as part of its Christmas display, one memorandum explains: “The display of nativity scenes and religious symbols takes on two forms: publicly sponsored and privately sponsored, both of which can be displayed on public property. “A publicly sponsored scene is one that is erected and maintained by public officials. A privately sponsored scene is one that is erected and maintained by private citizens. Both are constitutional, and both can be displayed on public property,” the organization states.

It goes on to explain: “The main difference is that a publicly sponsored scene should have some form of secular display in the same context, while a privately sponsored scene need not have any secular symbols, but should probably have a sign indicating the display is privately sponsored.”

Said Bryant: “The way it works is, if you want to put up a nativity scene there also has to be other secular symbols, such as a tree or Rudolph or Santa. It cannot be exclusive – either one way or the other.”

The trick to putting up a proper display is education, she said, which is why Liberty Counsel has instituted yet another segment of its “Friend or Foe” campaign – called the “Help Save Christmas” campaign.

“The Help Save Christmas program is more educational,” Bryant said. “If you educate the public, they won’t back down when a problem comes up. They’ll know who to call and where to go to get that problem resolved.”

For a $25 donation, people can order an action pack that includes buttons and bumper stickers saying, “I helped save Christmas,” return address labels, and the legal memoranda that explain the law as it applies to schools, public property and work places.

“We’ve found in the past that many people will say after the holidays ‘That happened to me, but I didn’t know what to do or where to go’,” Bryant said. “Wearing the buttons or displaying the bumper stickers helps others who have a question to know where to go for help. Liberty Counsel has pro-bono attorneys and affiliates across the country.”

Grinch reports are being filed for 2006, and there have already been a few legal victories. In its press release, Liberty Counsel announced that Auburn University agreed to change its “Holiday Tree-Lighting Ceremony” event to the new “Holiday Celebration featuring the Lighting of the Christmas Tree,” after a student leader teamed up with the Liberty Counsel over the issue. The effort resulted in a petition drive, which elicited more than 20,000 e-mails to the school’s student government association.

“There has been a disturbing trend toward censorship of Christmas celebrations, but people all across America are fighting back to help save Christmas,” said Mathew Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel.

“The Friend or Foe Christmas campaign is stirring millions of Americans to help save Christmas, and to preserve our religious freedom before it is lost forever,” Staver added.

Visit the Help Save Christmas Web site www.helpsavechristmas.org to submit a complaint and order action packs, or call (800) 671-1776.

One hundred and sixty. That’s the number of county senior residents who may not have their gift lists filled through the Adopt-A-Senior program, sponsored annually by Clermont Senior Services. [Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices]

The service program is in full-swing, yet more than 160 senior residents have not been matched with volunteer donors. Donors are solicited from the business community, civil, civic and community groups, families, and individuals. Their donations generate hundreds of much-needed household items, cleaning and personal care supplies; such as: Vacuum cleaners, phones for the hearing impaired, crock pots, mattresses, sheets, pillow cases, blankets, dishes, pots and pans, cleaning supplies, personal care items, towels and wash cloths, hand-held showers, grocery gift cards, clothes. The list goes on and on.

The demand currently outweighs the supply, said Sharon Brumagem, volunteer coordinator. “Hundreds of our seniors depend on what they receive through the Adopt-A-Senior program. Their limited income does not allow them the purchasing power for many of the necessary things in life, much less luxuries. Situations sometimes arise when paying their rent outweighs buying medicine.”

Response from businesses and community groups is lighter this year, Brumagem said, yet the seniors’ gift lists have increased in needs, and the deadline is drawing near.

Jerimiah Kelley’s new job was an old sight for people walking past the red Salvation Army kettle Friday outside Ingles on Thompson Bridge Road. [Christmas Songs Made in America: Favorite Holiday Melodies and the Stories of Their Origins]

“I’ve had a lot of people just come up and chat with me,” Kelley, 24, said of his first day on the job as a Salvation Army bell ringer.

Friday also marked the start of the Christian organization’s seasonal kettle campaign.

From now through Dec. 23, volunteers and paid workers such as Kelley will solicit change with a smile from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at up to 22 stores in Hall and surrounding counties.

“It’s a long day every day through the 23rd,” campaign organizer Carlos Cantu said with a laugh.

Money raised for the Gainesville-area Salvation Army will be used to buy food and gifts for some 700 families, including more than 1,300 children, Cantu said. Leftover donations will be spent on social services such as providing housing or paying utility bills.

Cantu, 23, did not disclose a dollar goal. But he is praying and trusting God to meet the ministry’s ever-growing need.

“God is going to keep multiplying as long as I keep praying, as long as others keep praying,” he said.

The local effort last year raised $108,000, a 2 percent increase over 2004, Cantu said. The 2006 campaign opened Friday at 15 stores. Another seven will allow kettles beginning the day after Thanksgiving.

The late start is a change for some businesses, including Wal-Mart, a strong Salvation Army supporter, Cantu said. But he sees additional high-traffic sites, such as the new Wal-Mart in Dawsonville, as an advantage this year.

“This is a community that loves giving,” he said.

The fundraiser dates to 1891. The clunky red kettles are now a holiday icon. More than 25,000 volunteers nationwide will ring bells over them this year.

The 2005 campaign raised a record $111 million nationwide, providing aid for 31 million people in need, according to the Salvation Army’s Web site.

When you see Christmas trees with paper angel ornaments, you know exactly what time of year it is. [Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas]

More than 700 families signed up for The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, which provides new clothing and toys for needy children. Each ornament on a tree lists the child’s name, age, clothing sizes and what toys they’d like for Christmas.

Capt. Melissa Anderson of The Salvation Army on West Main Street said there are close to 2,000 angels that need help. Skates and bicycles are on this year’s lists, but Nickelodeon cartoon character Dora the Explorer is by far the most popular.

“It’s like every little girl in Rutherford County wants Dora,” she said. “Itsy-Bitsy Spiderman is popular with the little guys.”

Friday afternoon, Anderson was still trying to finalize the list of the county’s Angel Tree locations, about 30 county-wide. Those who want to help can simply select an angel (or two or three) from the tree and buy the items that have been requested and return them to the business where the angel was picked up. Angels can also be picked up at The Salvation Army office at 1137 W. Main St.

Dominique Cass purchases Angel Tree gifts about every two years. He and his two siblings split the requests from one or two children.

“That way, all of us share the cost. We all have our own children to buy for. It makes me feel good knowing that I can do something for somebody,” he said.

“We just give my sister the money, and she does the shopping,” Cass added.

Anderson said she’s never heard of an instance involving fake Angel Trees, but said that all angels on Salvation Army trees will look the same and bear the group’s logo.

With the number of children needing gifts for the holiday, Anderson expects to have angels left over. Those are called “Forgotten Angels.” Civic groups usually buy unwrapped toys and drop them off to fill in the gaps.

Ernie Dunbar, an Allstate insurance agent in La Vergne, is collecting toys for the Forgotten Angels through the Christmas Caravan program with Nashville radio stations WKDF and WGFX.

“The station did this last year, and it was a success, and they hope to grow it this year and (asked) us to be a drop-off site for this area,” Dunbar said.

Gifts will be picked up from Dunbar’s office, 5168-B Murfreesboro Road, Wednesday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

In addition to the Angel Trees, The Salvation Army will give out Christmas stockings for seniors. More than 600 stockings will be split among patients at the York VA Medical Center, nursing homes, individuals who requested them during the sign-up period and those staying in the organization’s shelter.

I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving week already. [A Purse-driven Christmas: So, What Did You Get Me?]

Anyone older than 11 knows what that means. No, I’m not talking about “Revenge of the leftover turkey.”

Everyone knows that Black Friday is the biggest retailing day of the year, the day that historically has served as the kickoff for the Christmas shopping season. The holiday shopping season has become so important to retailers that many look at the season as the “make-it-or-break-it” time every year. And the timing of the start of the season is turning into a major controversy.

It’s no wonder that we’ve seen the kickoff of the season creep up earlier and earlier each year. As with everything else in America, if a lot of something is good, more is even better. That’s why March Madness now ends in April, and a small soda at the Cinemaplex is now 44 ounces.

The big retailing news this year is the observation that for the first time ever, some major retailers have rolled out Christmas merchandising before Halloween, which on its own has become the second-biggest shopping season of the year.

What’s especially funny about this is that not all retailers admit it’s a good idea. While Lowe’s, the do-it-yourself giant, had Christmas decorations and artificial trees on display the week before Halloween, their archrival Home Depot went public with a truly “holier than thou” statement. Their spokesman reported that they had decided against an earlier Christmas tip-off because they didn’t want to offend shoppers.

Offend Home Depot shoppers? Maybe if they raise the price of Skil circular saws, or don’t open until noon on Sunday. That would really tick people off. But do they really think they’ll offend people who love to save money by starting a sale earlier than they did last year? Sounds to me like they just were surprised by Lowe’s. Let’s see what Home Depot does next year. I’m betting on a change of opinion.

And speaking of interesting year-to-year changes, the biggest news this Christmas season is that Wal-Mart is doing a 180 on their surprisingly oversensitive move from last year. You may remember Wal-Mart made headlines last year when they announced that, in a concession to non-Christians who may be offended, they would not be using the C-word in any of their Christmas season ads or store signage. Instead, it would be “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

Their announcement this year is that Christmas is back at Wal-Mart. Hallelujah! Should we give credit to the pressure no doubt exerted on them by the Religious Right? While I have no doubt the right weighed in heavily with their disapproval, maybe even threatened boycotts or protests, it’s probably far more likely that the top dogs at Wal-Mart looked at their disappointing 2005 Christmas results and ultimately decided that taking Christmas out cost them more than it helped.

So it became a no-brainer, and a PR opportunity to boot, to announce that they had seen the error of their ways and were happy to bring Christmas back. Who knows what impact their reversal will have? Six weeks from now we’ll see how well it worked.

One thing we can be pretty sure of right now is this: big business doesn’t care how people feel nearly as much as they care how they shop. Which means we shouldn’t be surprised when some aggressive retailer starts selling Christmas cards alongside back-to-school supplies. And if the price is right, some of us will be lining up.

US humorist Dave Barry has tried to deck the pages of his first Christmas book with more belly laughs than April Fool’s Day.

A “manger war” between neighbourhood churches; a wise man with a rubber cigar; red ants stinging children in a station wagon; a “Betsy Wets Jesus” and a near-fatal pile of frozen bat dung are a few of the ornaments Barry has strung through his latest book, “The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog.”

Barry’s fictional pseudo-memoir skewers his own childhood memories of going to school and performing as a shepherd or a wise man in the church Christmas pageant. There are also liberal dollops of early 1960s nostalgia such as the Sputnik, the twist and Oldsmobile station wagons. There is even a mention of Fabian, the pre-Beatles teen idol.

“I wanted the book to have a Christmas feel to it, but I also wanted it to have a real-world ’60s feel,” Barry said in an interview.

The book, released on Nov. 7, also recycles some stories from the author’s newspaper career, after changing them almost beyond recognition. One story involved a man who disposed of his dead pet goat by standing it up, frozen by the winter cold, in the middle a manger scene.

“I didn’t want to use that story exactly because it was too cold-hearted,” he said. “I tried to make it part of the story in a positive, uplifting, or at least not creepy way.”

Barry, 59, said his publisher had “bugged me for years to write a Christmas book. … The columns I had written about my childhood Christmas experiences always got a good response,” so he decided to build on those with a pseudo-memoir.

One incident in the book is related exactly as Barry remembers it happening to him in real life. After sitting through a boring science lesson during which the teacher demonstrated how to melt ice to obtain water, the youngster in the book waits until the class is perfectly quiet, then says:

“So what you’re saying, Mrs. Forrester, is that ice is actually … frozen water!”

“That happened, pretty much verbatim,” Barry recalled with a smile. “I was a ‘wiseguy’ in school and I would do things like that because I couldn’t stop myself. If I thought of a line, I just had to say it, and that is a true line that I said in Mrs. West’s science class in eighth grade.”

In the book, the classroom erupts in laughter and the teacher sends the boy to the office, where the assistant principal cracks him on the head with a ring and lectures him “on how I should stop wasting my brain being a clown.”

Barry, who went on to become one of the best-read humorists in America, is glad he did not take that advice.

This holiday season, Wal-Mart isn’t trumpeting big bargains only. It’s also bringing “Christmas” back into its marketing, after several years of playing down the term. [The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Christmas cheer seems to be a hot trend this season as several other retailers including Kohl’s Corp. and Macy’s, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., are also stepping up their Christmas marketing. The moves respond to mounting criticism from religious groups that staged boycotts against Wal-Mart and other merchants after they eliminated or de-emphasized “Christmas” in their advertising.

“We learned a lesson from that. Merry Christmas is now part of the vocabulary here at Wal-Mart,” said Linda Blakley, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Wal-Mart said earlier this month that it will launch its first Christmas-specific TV ad in several years, feature Christmas shops, previously called Holiday Shops, and increase the number of seasonal merchandise labeled “Christmas” instead of “holiday” by 60 percent.

Macy’s is adding Christmas signage in all of its department stores and Kohl’s is playing up Christmas this year in its TV, print and radio advertising, according to Vicki Shamion, a Kohl’s spokeswoman.

Still, not everyone is following suit.

“We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them,” said Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc., whose advertising omits any reference to Christmas.

The artificial holiday trees and wreaths are decorated with lights in store aisles and the tempting red and green-iced goodies are on grocery shelves.

And nobody has even taken a bite out of Tom Turkey yet. [When Christmas Comes]

Some city stores began touting the holiday shopping season as early as October. The move is a standard attempt by merchants to lure as many dollars as possible.

“Halloween is like a blur — it gets lost in the shuffle with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday,” said Danny Montez, program chair of South Texas College’s business department. “The Christmas holiday is becoming the more dominant one. Everything revolves around that holiday.”

Montez said the reason for holiday music already streaming over loudspeakers is because some businesses experience slow sales from summer to December. The holiday season gives businesses a chance to jump-start sales for the holiday season and end the year on a positive financial note.

But the beginning of the holiday shopping season is usually not the indicator for how much consumers spend overall, said Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C. The success or failure of consumer holiday spending is typically measured the week of Christmas.

Mahmoud Zaquot CQ, store manager at Target at the intersection of Trenton Road and North 10th Street, said entire Christmas season is the busiest time for the 4-year-old store.

“We are ready for the toys — everything is there, fully in stock,” he said.

Last year, the federation estimated consumers spent more than $435 billion on holiday items, as opposed to the more than $410 billion shelled out in 2004. The lowest amount spent in the decade was in 2001, when more than $364 billion was spent in the shadows of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“Consumers expect holiday merchandise and more marketing materials prior to Black Friday,” Krugman said.

Michael’s Arts and Crafts on U.S. Expressway 83 has seen an influx of people already buying outdoor holiday lights.

Store Manager Ruben Garcia said after people finish their yard decorating in a couple of weeks sales will focus on wrapping paper and Christmas trees. Sales usually slow as Christmas nears.

“We usually start in August getting merchandise,” Garcia said. “It starts slowly and every week something comes in. Right now we are in the peak of it.”

Quips and Quotes on North 10th Street began decorating and shelving holiday stock a few days before Halloween. The store already had an open house two weekends ago touting their Christmas items at 20 percent off.

Hot sellers already are tree toppers and Swarovski 2006 Rockefeller ornaments, said floor manager Nancy Ponce.

“We have had a lot of customers,” she said.

At the north side Target, which began its transformation to Christmas the day after Halloween, big sellers are Tickle Me Elmo and electronics equipment.

“We do have a lot of guests already purchasing the ornaments,” said Juan Rios, the store’s guest services manager. “Not in large amounts, but there are guests buying trees already.

“Once it gets later, it gets harder to find the ornament or tree they want.”

A charitable organization kicks off its annual holiday drive to help hundreds of children and senior citizens in Smith County. A number of local officials were on hand to help jump start the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree drive at Broadway Square Mall this afternoon. [Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of The Salvation Army]

Angel Tree sponsors get to look over the list of Christmas wishes, filled out by recipients. Participants pick out a recipient, go out and get the gifts and then turn them into the Salvation Army.

Participants say it’s rewarding to know they’re making someone’s Christmas a little better. “I don’t care to get any kind of credit for it. I just want the children to have a wonderful Christmas,” said Vicki Betts. “We sort of used it with my brothers and sisters instead of buying presents for each other, we pick up an angel tree and do that instead.”

You can pick up an “Angel” at Broadway Square Mall or at any Regions Bank. The deadline is December 17th. Gifts will be distributed on the 20th and 21st of December.

BRIDGETON Historic Bridgeton has 13 stops for this year’s Historic Christmas House Tour on Saturday, Dec. 2.

Seven private homes, two churches, historic city and county buildings and the New Sweden Farmstead are tour stops between the hours of 4 and 8 p.m. The cost per person is $12 in advance and $15 the day of the tour.

Features this year will be Victorian Carolers, provided by the Off Broad Street Players, and transportation provided by Starlight Carriages, with a horse drawn trolley and sleigh as well as mini buses provided by the Bridgeton Board of Education.

Two special tour stops will include the Broad Street Church, circa 1792, and the Olde Brearly Lodge, circa 1797.

The Nail House Museum was the former office of the Cumberland Nail & Iron Co. and was built in 1815. The museum houses a variety of artifacts that include articles from the early days of the Industrial Revolution.

The New Sweden Farmstead will celebrate a Christmas, circa 1638. Enjoy a leisurely stroll through the farmstead and bask in the warmth of the fire while listening to 17th century Swedish music.

The Rev. Leonidas E. Coyle House, 35 Lake St., was the first house built on historic Lake Street. The oldest part of this 20-room home was constructed in 1858. Rev. Coyle was the pastor of First Presbyterian Church on the corner of West Commerce and Giles streets.

Potter’s Tavern was the home of New Jersey’s first newspaper, the Plain Dealer. The once-popular retreat of citizens who called for independence from England has been carefully restored to its 1776 appearance. Your host will be Bob Francois from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

The Hannan House, 217 W. Commerce St., was built in 1914 by Henry Hannan, owner of Hannan Canning Co. and was designed by Wilson Eyre. This home is one of the finest examples of Scottish-influenced Dutch Colonial architecture.

The Nail Master’s Estate, 31 Franklin Drive, was built about 1850 by the owner of the Cumberland Nail and Iron Co.

The Francis Mickel House, 149 Atlantic St., was constructed in 1890 after being purchased from the estate of Horatio Mulford, who constructed the carriage house in 1884. Mulford died in 1885, before he could build the house. Francis and Sarah Mickel purchased the property and plans from the estate.

The Margaret Read House, 132 W. Commerce St., was built in 1869. This house has been restored to its original splendor.

New to the tour this year will be the Jesse D. Claypoole House, 140 W. Commerce St., circa 1872, a turn of the century Mediterranean home located at 43 Franklin Dr., and St. Andrews Episcopal Church, located at 186 E. Commerce St.

Soon many homes will be filled with Christmas lights and decorations. For the past twenty-seven years the Bismarck-Mandan symphony has held the Holiday Home walk on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving as a chance for the public to see Holiday Decorations in different styles of homes. Not only does the Holiday Walk inspire visitors on how to decorate their own homes for Christmas, but it also provides the opportunity to see to see a historic side of Bismarck.

Whether it`s a new home on the south side of Bismarck, or a Victorian Bed and Breakfast from 1918 in the heart of downtown, The Holiday Home Walk gives us a unique look on how to deck the halls.

Jan Nelson from the Symphony League says,

“I think you get ideas. You see a mixture of old and new. And you see the stuff at home but you never see it arranged quite that way. There`s a floral arrangement and they broke a glass bulb and then have the floral arrangement above it.”

Throughout the day many visitors come in and out of the four decorated houses in Bismarck, getting a glimpse of holiday lights, snowmen, and of course Santa Clause.

Holiday walker Kristin Vetter adds, “I think there very pretty, metallic, I like the looks like that and I noticed there were several sun catchers that were in christmas style. I think that`s cool too. Table decorations, the plates the stockings you could put you`re silverware in as a part of the table setting.”

Vetter`s mother, Wanda Agnaw saw the walk as a way for the two to spend time together.

“What I`ve seen is the theme is all about home and family and the those are the kind of things we should focus on during the holiday season.”

Even though this season is all about giving, it`s what the symphony receives from the Holiday Walk that helps them during the year.

“We underwrite one concert, we supply one concert,” says Nelson. “We underwrite a chair as well as office supplies. The symphony has a wish list and the money left over we purchase stuff for the symphony.”

Helping the symphony, but also helping others to get into the holiday spirit.

The Symphony league hopes to raise 12- thousand dollars from this event, and all day the four homes were packed. Our cameraman had a tough time getting footage because some of the homes were so full.

If you’ve been to practically any retail store recently, there’s little doubt that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

At the Golden East Crossing mall, workers began setting up holiday decorations at the beginning of November. Several kiosks dot the complex, selling 2007 calendars and honey-roasted nuts, and Santa arrived on Saturday to make things official.

Other major retailers have started advertising Christmas gift specials, and several stores began stocking ribbon candy and red and green M&Ms almost immediately after Halloween. But not everybody’s getting into the spirit.

“I think they put them up a lot too early,” said mall shopper Eddie Richards, echoing several others. “Everything has got too commercial. They want to make all the bucks they can make.”

Indeed, with Thanksgiving falling earlier than normal this year and retailers setting up even sooner, the question may not be whether it’s beginning to feel like Christmas, but if it should.

Over just the past decade, business analysts have noticed a gradual shift in how early stores get into the holiday spirit. Once thought to start the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas shopping season for many now begins before the trees start to bare their leaves.

If seeing mistletoe on Nov. 1 is puzzling, the reason is more explainable. The rush to Christmas is simply the game of trying to one-up the competition, said James Smith, a business professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

“Retailing is a cutthroat business where you’re always trying to get an edge on the competitor,” Smith said. “If one store has the merchandise and you find out it’s selling, you don’t want to be left out.”

Yet while some may decry the increasingly early holiday shopping season, retailers counter that consumers aren’t necessarily seeing what they think they are.

National Retailers Federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis said it’s not that the Christmas season is starting earlier, but that more retailers are taking part in holiday-themed displays, leading to consumer misconception.

“You used to have to go to a specific store to get holiday merchandise,” Grannis said. “These days, retailers ranging from your small mom and pop stores to large home improvement stores are selling it.”

Grannis said the federation’s statistics show about 40 percent of consumers do some holiday shopping before Halloween, a number that has gone mostly unchanged since the organization began tracking it in 2002.

Another reason for the seemingly earlier holiday season this year may be a fluke. Because November started on a Thursday this year, Thanksgiving will be on the earliest possible day, causing things to be bumped back some.

Last Wednesday, students at N.C. Wesleyan College performed their first annual Nativity scene, more than a month before Christmas. Organizers said they were simply working around calender restraints.

“When the students come back from Thanksgiving, they’re involved in tests, and then they leave the second week in December,” said Sheila Martin, executive director of the Dunn Center for the Performing Arts. “If you want to involve the students, you have to do things early.”

Whether the creeping Christmas season is real or perceived, analysts say you probably won’t see it moving in the other direction anytime soon. The bottom line, they say, is that retailers are just doing what works.

“There could be some backlash,” Smith said. “But even if you hear people grumble, they keep buying.”

“I got a candy cane and a ribbon,” Kai Higg said happily, showing off his loot from the Island Farms Santa’s Light Parade yesterday evening.

Then the four-year-old waved good-bye to the big guy in the funny red suit who was heading down Government Street stuck in a chimney. Only five weeks until Christmas. Only five weeks until Santa returns with his toy jet plane, said Higg, his cheeks red from the cold, his eyes shining with expectation.

If the parade ended on the right note for the little boy, it began on a hopeful note for Rev. Tom Oshiro, pastor of the Mustard Seed Street Ministry.

Oshiro and a group of young volunteers led the parade, gathering bags of food from spectators lining Government Street and placing the groceries in a white cube van decorated with Christmas lights.

“This is one of the best parades I’ve ever seen,” said Oshiro. “I feel we have a crowd who’s really prepared to give and I see they’ve brought the groceries. And right now we need them. We really need them. Our Christmas drive is the key to the future.”

Experienced Victoria onlookers turned out with their lawn chairs, their blankets and their children bundled into strollers to see Victoria’s festive start to the Christmas season.

The night was cold and dry and the lights of the Parliament buildings provided the perfect backdrop to what might have been the biggest Santa Claus parade.

“What a night,” said parade chairman Ron Butlin. “There were 40,000 to 45,000 people out there. They were standing four and five deep along the parade route.”

Irish dancers held their arms stiffly at their sides as they hopped and jumped down the parade route. Row upon row of tap dancers, strutted their stuff, inviting smiles and applause from spectators.

“Oh sweet,” said a youngster, pointing to a remote controlled car racing between the float.

There were clowns and unicycles, vintage firetrucks and police cars and a pipe band droning Jingle Bells. And there were fistfuls of candy canes.

“They love it when the candy comes flying out of the truck,” said Dan Madison, a father of five who watched the parade with two-year-old Helena on his shoulders. “They get a little bit of road rash.”

Pat Doan, who moved from Moose Jaw last year, loved the parade and the relative warmth of Victoria.

“I like the lights and seeing the kids, their expressions. It’s what Christmas is all about.”

Carla Miller remembers getting the Christmas tree.

At 68, she’s old enough to recall a time when there wasn’t a sign of Christmas until long after the Thanksgiving turkey was gone.

“I’m from Minnesota. We lived out in the country,” she said. “I remember my dad taking a saw or an ax and walking through the snow – we had a lot of snow. I’d walk in his footprints out to wherever he was going to cut the tree.

“It would be maybe three days before Christmas,” Miller said.

She and her husband, Nick, now live on a 15-acre farm near Monroe. Their crop? Christmas trees. For 20 years, they’ve run a business called St. Nick’s Trees.

They’ve already sold one tree this year to a family whose children will be traveling in December. “They’re having Christmas early,” Miller said.

Aren’t we all?

It seems so, anyway. Holiday catalogs hit mailboxes as the back-to-school rush ends. And it all just keeps coming.

Last weekend, I drove my son to a friend’s house. On the way, on Everett’s Dogwood Drive, we saw a house glowing with Christmas lights, with a tree lit up inside. On Veterans Day.

Customers will be waiting outside when St. Nick’s Trees officially opens at 9 a.m. Friday, Miller said.

“We’ll be busy all Thanksgiving weekend,” she said. “It is the culture now, and it bothers me. Thanksgiving is more or less shoved off to the side.”

If there’s one thing as commonplace as seeing Christmas decorations right after Halloween, it’s hearing people complain about the ever-earlier holiday season.

Commercialism, isn’t that the rub? We blame it all on commercialism, as though some greedy specter comes along and forces us to drag Christmas lights out of storage in October.

Retailers can always look at the calendar and find cause for us to shop, be it Memorial Day, Columbus Day or the four-month “holiday” season.

Our habit of rushing Christmas says as much about overbooked lives as it does about the vague evils of commercialism.

In my childhood home, it was possible to leave decorating, cookie baking and gift shopping until a week or so before Christmas. No doubt it was hard on my mom, but she pulled it off.

My mother didn’t work outside the home. Christmas seemed to magically appear each year. I’m convinced a lot of that magic happened – and was hidden away – while we kids were away at school.

“When you work full-time, you end up doing as much as you can on weekends,” said Sue Odell of Everett. “Depending on when Christmas hits, you have either three or four weekends after Thanksgiving to get ready. You have to start early if you’re going to get done.”

Odell and her husband, Jim, lived for 23 years in the Fir Grove neighborhood in southeast Everett. Each year, that neighborhood in the Eastmont area becomes a sightseers’ magnet, with its spectacular Christmas lighting displays.

Their children are grown, and the Odells have moved away to a smaller house. Still, Sue Odell has good memories of Thanksgivings spent stringing lights with her Fir Grove neighbors. Inevitably, carloads of people would come to appreciate the cheery lights.

Over the years, Fir Grove neighbors have collected food and cash donations and have given generously to the Volunteers of America food bank. The Odells moved away about a year and a half ago.

“By the time we left, many of the older people had moved out. Younger families bought the houses, and there are kids again, which is good,” Odell said. She’s sure the decor and donations will continue in her old neighborhood, starting Thanksgiving weekend.

In Fir Grove, showy lights have never been about commercialism, but about community and a giving spirit.

When I saw the Christmas tree on Dogwood Drive, my first thought was, it’s way too early. But it’s dark. It’s gloomy. It’s November. And it’s not hard to see why Halloween lights became all the rage. Once those orange lights come down, it’s hard to wait in darkness for the lights of Christmas.

I asked Carla Miller, who has lovely memories of tree-hunting with her father, if she thinks the magic of Christmas has been lost in a too-long holiday season.

“Maybe the magic was because we were young,” she said. “It’s magic if you look through a child’s eyes.”

With the busiest time coming on her tree farm, Miller said goodbye.

“Have a nice Thanksgiving,” she said. “I’ll say that first – and then Merry Christmas.”

PARENTS expressed outrage last night over a school’s plans to serve pupils a Muslim Christmas dinner.

The headteacher announced that she intended to replace the children’s traditional turkey meal with halal chicken.

She explained that eating poultry which had been slaughtered in the Muslim way would create an “integrated Christmas”.

But furious parents accused the school of undermining the Christian faith.
They were backed by Labour MP Denis MacShane who demanded to know why the children were not being offered a choice.

Mr MacShane said: “No child should be obliged to eat food that is contrary to their personal convictions or religion. Schools should offer a choice and not allow the joyous celebrations of a Christmas dinner to become a divisive issue.

“I hope all the children can join in this fun and if I am invited I would be delighted to sit down with all the children for a Christmas dinner, halal, non halal or the healthy option, vegetarian.”

After Mr MacShane’s intervention, Jan Charters, head of Oakwood School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, backed down and youngsters will now be offered a choice of halal chicken or a traditional turkey dinner, costing £1.75.

Campaigners and religious organisations said the ban on traditional Christmas celebrations was making Britain a more divided society.

John Midgley, of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said: “It seems as though the parents have made the school see sense.

“Until common sense prevailed the school was creating a problem when there was no problem.”

Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “Headteachers and school governors should not make this sort of mistake in the first place. There are a lot of these silly people around who undermine British culture.

“This is a victory for common sense. It is good these mad politically correct people have been made to think again.”

Abdul Dean, ethnic minorities officer for the Christian People’s Alliance, said: “There is a political agenda here. Who are these people speaking on behalf of Muslims?

“Muslim parents themselves would not have objected to children being offered a choice. The teachers should have taken this on board especially in this time of tension.”

Ms Charters said: “This was an attempt to extend the spirit of inclusion which would allow Muslim children to sit down and enjoy a meal together.

“It is very frustrating that people find motives which are not present and we will not now be doing this.”

Halal meat is slaughtered in accordance with strict Muslim laws with a single cut to the throat.

It is also important that the animal does not have any blood as Muslims are banned from drinking it. This places a great importance on the method of slaughter, in which a sharp knife is used to sever all the vessels in the animal’s neck, causing blood to drain completely.

The practice has been criticised as inhumane by The Farm Animal Welfare Council which has called for it to be banned.

Ms Charters added: “We secured assurances that the slaughterhouse was certified to be killing humanely and all animals were stunned.

“When we discussed the Christmas dinner we said that there was nothing to stop anyone from eating the main course because it was halal although the Muslim pupils will not eat the sausage and bacon rolls. Chicken is chicken as far as I am concerned but there will also be other choices on the menu apart from a Christmas meal.”

Outraged mother Rachel Johnson, from Kimberworth, said: “This is not a racial issue. Why can’t the non-Muslim kids enjoy traditional Christmas fare?

“Why can’t we have a choice of chicken which suits everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims.

“We bend over backwards at Eid (an Islamic festival) to eat traditional Muslim food so why should we have to change our Christmas tradition?” Mrs Johnson added: “I feel my culture is being stolen away from me. I have no objections to halal meat being on the menu so long as there is a choice of traditional Christian Christmas fare.

“A lot of parents have been in touch to support my views. Our culture and religion are being trampled on and it is not right. It is almost as stupid as serving up pork on Eid.”

Her 15-year-old daughter, who did not want to be named, added: “I have no objections to including Muslims in celebrating Christmas but it is quite wrong to offer us only halal meat. A lot of my friends feel the same and say there should be a choice and they were thinking of boycotting the Christmas meal.

“I also think a lot of people will be horrified to know that halal meat is often served at school without a choice. I will not be staying for any more school dinners

“I think the people who make these decisions are adding to the conflict.”

A Rotherham Council spokesman said: “Out of 16 comprehensive schools in the borough only two use private school suppliers. The rest use in-house council caterers. Of those 14 all offer a choice between halal meat and conventionally slaughtered meat”.

Local councillor Mahroof Hussain said: “Christmas is an important time in everybody’s life in Britain and we should celebrate it. If we are talking about food maybe we should have choice but that is a decision for the school governing body.”