Joy of Christmas

Archive for November, 2006

Area residents can help needy children and senior citizens by participating in the annual Angel Tree program sponsored by the Salvation Army, according to Capt. Ernie Hull.

The program begins Monday and the local Salvation Army unit is planning to help 1,100 children and 200 senior citizens in need during the Christmas season.

There will be three Angel Trees for needy children and another tree for “our forgotten angels,” the area’s senior citizens, Hull explained.

The Angel Trees for needy children will be at The Pines mall between Dillard’s and Old Navy, at Wal-Mart Supercenter and at Curves at White Hall. The tree for senior citizens will be placed next to the Angel Tree for children at The Pines.

The trees will be decorated with angels, each one representing a needy child or senior citizen. Area residents are asked to select angels and purchase gifts for the children or senior citizens they represent.

The gifts can be returned to the mall or to the service desk of the store where the angels were selected, Hull explained.

In order to allow time for distribution before the holidays, the gifts must be purchased and delivered to the mall or to the appropriate store by Dec. 16, he added.

Downtown Nacogdoches was set aglow with Christmas lights Saturday night, kicking off the holiday season. The ante was upped from last year’s 2 million lights to more than three million lights twinkling downtown this year. [Planet Christmas: The World's Most Extreme Christmas Decorations!]

The lighting ceremony begins the 10th annual Nine Flags Festival, which honors the diverse cultures of the nine flags that have flown over Nacogdoches throughout history.

Among the many activities at the festival Saturday were live entertainment, vendor booths, carriage rides, train rides, face painting and games. Santa was also downtown preparing his list and taking pictures with children.

The Sterne-Hoya House Museum offered guided tours led by guides dressed in period costumes. DIGIKIDS offered free child safety CDs at the Main Street fire station.

But the main event came when the three million lights were switched on.

The brick streets of downtown sparkled with the luminous glow and warm feel of the holiday season.

Although, it seems as if it all happens with just the flip of a switch, there is a lot that goes into setting up the many lights downtown.

“A lot of work went into all this,” Erin Drago, special events coordinator of the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, said. “We started preparing for this about two months ago.”

Most people get frustrated with untangling their Christmas lights at home, just imagine the work that goes into more than three million lights.

“It took many hours and volunteers to get it all done,” Sherri Skeeters, lighting ceremony chairwoman, said. “There weren’t any real complications, just normal troubleshooting and changing strands. We had to order more lights this year.”

Immediately after the lights, Nacogdoches was treated to a fireworks display that warmed the cool night air — a perfect beginning to the holidays.

The lighting ceremony was sponsored by Commercial Bank of Texas, KTRE-TV and Clear Channel Communications.

Criminals take the opportunities afforded them by the extra shopping we do. [Christmas Crimes: Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine]

The hustle and bustle of town centres as we rush around and the value of the goods we buy as presents and store in our homes until the big day.

We might also be more trusting and generous at Christmas when requests for charity are made, giving the unscrupulous a chance to collect for their own causes.

So what can you do?

Out Shopping – when the shops are crowded, the pickpocket has more chance to steal from you and we have had quite a few incidents reported to us in the last couple of weeks. Be extra careful with your wallet or purse in the City Centre or large shopping areas. If you have too many bags you will be too busy trying to hold on to these to be aware of anyone stealing from you. Always keep your handbag/wallet close to your body. Try not to return to your car to leave purchases in the boot before continuing with your shopping trip as thieves do watch the car parks. Arrange to collect items from stores when you have finished all your shopping, this is a much safer option. NEVER leave presents on display in your vehicle. The Community Safety Team have been working hard to make sure posters are positioned in the major car parks in town to remind everyone to remove all valuables from their vehicles.

At Home – Keep presents out of sight until last thing on Christmas Eve and if you ‘hide’ or store larger items such as bicycles in the shed or outbuildings, make sure they are very secure. Take the frame numbers of new cycles and the serial numbers of new electrical equipment. Remember empty boxes left outside advertise that you have new goods inside – dispose of packing carefully.

Strangers at the Door – Charity collectors will have identification and will not be offended if you ask to see it. If you are not sure but want to make a donation, ask whether these can be made in other ways.

To cheer you up, here are some of the latest Christmas facts and figures from the British Retail Consortium:

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It is estimated that £33 billion will be spent in December, an increase of 6% from 2005.
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The amount spent in the two weeks leading up to Christmas is estimated to rise by 8% to over £15 billion.
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The amount specifically spent on Christmas purchases is estimated to increase by 10% to just over £11 billion.
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This year, each person will spend an average of £390 on Christmas gifts, up 18% on 2005. The most popular gifts this year are music and clothes, with gift vouchers, books and cosmetics and fragances all making it into the top five. The top children’s toy is predicted to be the “Bratz – Forever Diamondz”.
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On average, each household will spend approximately £163 on food and drink, up only 2% since 2005. This pushes the average cost of the Christmas lunch up to almost £14 per head from £12 in 2005.
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It is estimated that more than 10 million turkeys will be sold this year, worth almost £400 million.
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Approx 7 million Christmas trees will be sold this year worth an estimated £245 million.
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An estimated £160 million worth of Christmas decorations were imported into the UK during 2006 to meet consumer demand with each household spending an average of £25 a year on decorations.

DECIDING between a real or a fake tree this Christmas could make a huge difference to how environmentally friendly you are.

The British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association (BCTGA) is urging people to stick with a real tree as they are more environmentally friendly than the plastic versions.

For a start, throughout their growth cycle Christmas trees recycle carbon dioxide by turning it into fresh oxygen – just one acre of Christmas trees produces enough oxygen to support 18 people.

Tree farms also provide habitats for wildlife and several species of bird, which BCTGA members take account of in the cultivation of their trees.

The busy Christmas shopping season commences today, and law enforcement officials are preparing to step up enforcement at shopping centers around the state. [A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge

Officials say that more shopping traffic naturally draws more criminals.

And, for that reason, there will be more Little Rock police officers deployed at some of the city’s busier shopping precincts.

“We’re going to have some special patrols at many of the shopping centers in the city,” said Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings. “And lots of shopping centers are hiring off-duty officers to patrol their parking lots.”

“We patrol the shopping centers year-round, but this time of year, with more business, there’s more traffic and a higher concentration of shoppers,” Hastings said. “The criminals know that just as well as the rest of society.”

“They just shop differently,” he said. “Instead of looking in stores, they’re checking out what’s in the cars in the parking lot.”

In Little Rock, statistics reveal that robberies generally rise in December over the levels recorded in the other months of the year.

Last year, there were 103 robberies reported in Little Rock in December, by far the most for any month of the year and eclipsing the 66 robberies recorded in November. Auto thefts also rose last December, with 147 reported compared with the 90 recorded in November.

In North Little Rock, an additional officer will be authorized to work overtime patrolling the city’s busiest shopping areas.

“We’re going to have an additional officer around the Mc- Cain Mall area and at the Target shopping center across McCain Boulevard and east of the highway,” said North Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Kuykendall.

Fayetteville police have a presence in the Northwest Arkansas Mall throughout the year by having both a precinct and their community-oriented policing office in the mall.

It’s an agreement that works out for everyone, Fayetteville police Sgt. Shannon Gabbard said.

“The precinct allows us to have an officer in that area of town at all times,” Gabbard said. The mall precinct is also responsible for patrolling other shopping areas around the mall.

The Northwest Arkansas Mall also has its own security force that patrols areas in and around the shopping center, said Bridget Elkins, marketing manager at the mall.

Security officers will walk customers to their cars and drive them around to find their vehicles, she said.

“If [customers ] feel like they need an escort to their car, we’ll provide it,” Elkins said.

She said the mall’s security force will be at full staff, but she declined to say how many officers that is.

Pinnacle Hills Promenade, Northwest Arkansas’ newest mall, also has a round-the-clock security force. Although there is office space for a Rogers Police Department precinct at the mall, it is currently not being used, said David Faulkner, senior general manager at the mall.

Rogers police plan to open a precinct at Pinnacle Hills Promenade as they get more manpower, Rogers police Lt. Mike Johnson said.

Security officers work Pinnacle Hills Promenade on foot, on bicycle and in cars, Faulkner said. He said the mall is also set up with a camera system that provides additional security.

He declined to say how many security officers work at the mall.

“We are working to provide safety and security for our customers and our stores,” Faulkner said.

The day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days but it’s also when many Virginia cut-your-own Christmas tree farms open their gates for the season.

That holds true for the Olde Church Christmas Tree Farm in the Flat Rock area of eastern Powhatan County. The farm, operated by Forrest Hamilton, is one of many in central Virginia where families can choose and cut their own trees.

Hamilton is relatively new to the business. He planted his first trees in 1997 and opened to consumers for the first time last year, when he sold about 300 trees.

White and Scotch pine and Norway spruce are available at Hamilton’s farm. He has 10,000 trees spread over 12 acres.

Directions to the farm and to dozens of others across Virginia can be found in Virginia Grown, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ guide to choose-and-cut, fresh-cut and live Christmas trees.

The guide is available by writing the department’s Division of Marketing at P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23218, or calling (804) 786- 3951. It is available online at www.virginiagrown.com.

Growing Christmas trees is a big business in Virginia. The Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association estimates that 1 million to 2 million Virginia-grown trees are sold each year, with a wholesale value of between $20 million and $40 million.

The business could approach $50 million when the sale of wreaths and other holiday items is included.

The association says most growers do not depend on the trees as their sole source of income. Growers can be farmers, but their backgrounds vary. Hamilton, for example, is a retired housing contractor.

Families can be assured of getting a fresh, Virginia-grown tree when they cut it. Many cut trees sold on lots are Virginia-grown, but they are just as likely to come from out of state. Look for a Virginia’s Finest logo at the lot to be sure of getting a Virginia tree.

Cut-your-own farms also sell greenery, offer refreshments and provide entertainment, which could include a hayride.

Some also offer such services as tree-shaking to remove debris and baling with plastic netting to make transporting the tree easier.

Hamilton’s farm offers tree-shaking and baling, as well as help in loading and tying trees onto vehicles. On the weekends, he provides coffee, hot cider and cookies.

Hamilton’s father, Tippy, who lives and raises hay on the 400-acre farm, helps sell trees. Hamilton’s 17-year-old son, Ian, also helps in maintaining and selling trees.

Hamilton advertises his trees in a local paper and posts signs along nearby roads, but last year, he said, 80 percent of his business came from the farm’s exposure on the Web. Many of his customers came from Henrico and Chesterfield counties, he said.

After he decided to raise Christmas trees, Hamilton joined the growers association. He attended the association’s yearly conventions, asked questions and listened.

“I’d come back and do what they said,” he related. “If it hadn’t been for the Christmas tree association, I’d have been lost”

THE East Anglian Air Ambulance saves hundreds of lives each year, but receives no funding from the Government and is completely dependent on voluntary donations. This Christmas, the ET and Classic Gold 1332 are launching Christmas Lights for Flights Appeal, and are asking you to help fund just one mission – which could save a life.
HERE’S a puzzle for you. Imagine you run an emergency service that saves lives every day of the year, which covers one of the largest chunks of the UK.

This area is mainly rural, with few major roads, and more than 2.5 million people live there, while two to three million visitors head there in the summer months.

The work you do is absolutely vital in helping people in trouble, and you can get people to a hospital within minutes, often making the difference between them living and dying.

But you receive no National Lottery or Government funding. Every penny your service spends has to be raised by you. How do you pay for the service?

This answer is that your survival relies on kind donations, which is the scenario facing the team behind the East Anglian Air Ambulance every day of every year.

Air ambulance fund-raising co-ordinator Chris Donaldson said: “We have to raise £1.3 million each year, which only allows us to keep one of our two ambulances in the air. The other goes up in the summer months.

“It is vitally important in our area as we have such a dangerous road network, and also, to the east particularly, it is very rural and at times inaccessible by car.

“We always try to get people to hospital during the “golden hour” – the first hour after an accident happens, and often, because of the speed the air ambulance can travel at, we can have people on the operating table within that hour, which can make a world of difference to their chances of survival.”

This Christmas, the ET and Classic Gold 1332 AM DAB are asking you to help make a difference. We are asking you to turn your Christmas lights into air ambulance flights.

We are asking any of our readers and listeners planning to decorate their house with Christmas lights to hold a collection and donate the cash they collect to the air ambulance.

We will also accept cheques and cash on behalf of the air ambulance, from individuals or workplaces.

ET editor Rebecca Stephens said: “Some people might be shocked when they realise the air ambulance is funded entirely through individual donations, fund-raising and the charity’s own lottery.

“And yet its crews do such a vital job, saving so many lives each year. We really hope we can give the charity which runs the service £1,000 for Christmas, and, as I know how generous the people of Peterborough are, I’m sure we’ll be able to far exceed our target.”

Classic Gold Drive Show presenter Pete Revell added: “Hopefully, you’ll never need to use the air ambulance, but you never know. The sad fact is that any of us could need it at any time. It’s a terrific cause, and one we hope we can do our best for this Christmas.”

The air ambulance covers Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and is the third busiest in the country. It flies an average of four missions a day, which costs £110,000 a month.

This works out at roughly £1,000 per mission – which is the sum we are hoping to raise. It doesn’t seem a huge amount, but the truth is that by supporting our appeal in any way you can, you could help save someone’s life this Christmas.

t’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – at local Christmas tree farms, that is.

Though Pine Belt Christmas tree farms were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, this year owners say things could be worse.

Mamie Thomley of Thomley’s Santa Forest in Hattiesburg said her farm lost about two-thirds of its crop last year. In business for 39 years, Thomley’s is one of the area’s oldest Christmas tree farms.

Damage to the crop, Thomley said, will affect business for about two more years. It takes about four years for a tree to grow to saleable maturity, she said, and many young trees took damage that older, hardier trees were able to withstand.

“A lot of the younger ones, the trees didn’t live,” said Mary Shearer of Shearer’s Trees in Purvis earlier this week. Her farm is in its seventh growing season. “This year looks better. We’re just really excited. We’ve already had a few people, and we don’t really open till Thanksgiving Day at noon.”

Some trees were salvageable, Thomley said.

“Some trees were blown over but not down, and we sold those, but the damaged trees they didn’t buy and we had to get rid of them,” she said. “We were OK last year. It’s this year we’re suffering.”

This year, she said, Thomley’s has brought in trees from North Carolina to supplement the farm’s stock.

“I understand for most of the tree farms it will be several years before they get back in (full) production because everybody lost so many,” she said.

Customers already are tagging uncut trees, she said.

Roger Smith of Smith Christmas Tree Farm in Moselle said this year’s drought was of as much concern as Katrina.

“For it to be as dry as it is, I think it looks better than it did after the storm,” he said.

During the storm, he said, his farm lost only its tallest trees.

“Everything else, we straightened,” he said.

Ironically, Smith said, his farm did a brisk business last year. With 30 years under their belts, the Smiths are one of the oldest farms in the area and received quite a bit of media attention in Katrina’s aftermath, he said.

“We did better than we had in the previous couple of years,” he said. “A lot of people did articles on us, and then CNBC came in and did a spot.”

This year, he said, business has been good, too.

“We’ve been cutting trees all day long,” he said.

Christmas starting early is good for online stores. It spreads the traffic-peaks out so that systems are less stressed and online shoppers hopefully get a better and faster online experience.

But the danger is that any online store that has not already prepared for the Christmas rush will suffer performance problems and lose customers: research has found that 78 per cent of online shoppers said that frustration with web site performance has led them to turn off their computer, and that the highest spenders are the least tolerant of any glitches.

Christmas is always the busiest time for all retailers. Sadly, Christmas is also the time when many e-tailers let their buyers act as guinea-pigs and only find out how slow or error prone the web store can become when the traffic volumes increase.

Obviously, for online shoppers it is very easy to comparison shop, so the earlier Christmas shopping trend will be offset by the fact that online shoppers will window-shop at more stores. This means that the user journey through a web store may shift, with the ‘browse for product’ percentage increasing well into the 90s, whereas the ‘add to basket’ or ‘check out’ journeys will drop as a percentage.

Given that the load on the web site servers and back-end systems is very different for these journey types, it is likely that new bottlenecks in the systems will be exposed by the different mix, causing poor user experience.

A poor online experience when users are putting in credit card details is common, because it is the final stages of the online purchase journey that require the most resources from the online portal software and databases. Many sites can support visitors who are browsing for products, but far fewer can support purchasers.

The root cause of such poor experiences at busy times is often because the marketing and business people at the online store have failed to take on 100 per cent responsibility for user experience and the performance of the site.

However, web rage and lost sales can definitely be minimised if online stores take their user journeys a little more seriously, get load-testing in advance of the Christmas rush and monitor the performance of all the core journeys through the busy season.

THE boys of McFly are captured above as they film scenes for the video of their new single.

The rock band, which includes Bolton-born Danny Jones, are still celebrating the success of their Top 10 album, Motion In the Ocean, and most recent chart-topping single, Star Girl.

But they are now looking towards the coveted Christmas Number One spot with a double A-side single to be released on December 18.

Sorry’s Not Good Enough will feature alongside Friday Night, the official theme tune from the new movie, Night At The Museum, starring Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais and Steve Coogan.

The film hits the big screens on December 26.

To announce the bell ringing season and to usher in a time of thinking of other children with the Angel campaign, Salvation Army Capt. Jonathan McBride elicited the help of some of Santa’s helpers. Well, they looked like Santa’s helpers.

“Actually, we got some great help from the Shady Grove Show Choir,” said McBride Friday morning in the center court of the Sawmill Square Mall in Laurel. “They really brought in the Christmas Spirit with their performance.”

McBride and the SA annually kick off their bell ringing and red kettle donation period with the announcement but with the Angel tree in the background, the message of giving was ever the more prevalent.

“Starting today, we will be asking people across six counties to open their hearts and their wallets to give for those who aren’t quite as fortunate,” said McBride. “The holiday season is for the children. There is nothing worse than to see a child go without food or toys. The donations we collect will help serve 1,200 families across the six-county area we cover. I can’t think of any better message of giving there is than that.”

A little over 115 years ago, the red kettle drive to raise money for the hungry was begun. This year, worldwide donations will feed more than 4.5 million people across the globe.

“So many things the Salvation Army does benefits so many people,” said Laurel Mayor Melvin Mack at the kickoff. “I ask everyone to rally behind them so that those people who need the help can be helped.”

Mack added he would be doing his part by being a bell ringer at one of the many sites in Laurel.

Allen Peters remembers a few Christmases ago when he and his son spread out all the Christmas lights in their house and plugged them in to make sure they lit up. But frustration set in when the lights didn’t work after they strung them up on the trees.

Peters will never have to worry about that again.

For the second year in a row, Peters has hired someone else to do the job.

“I’ve always felt that if it was worth doing, it might as well be done right,” Allen said.

Allen hired Christmas Decor of Great Falls last year to light up his multi-pitched house. He had decorated previous homes, but this one was too difficult for his family to do alone.

“The strings are custom fit to fit each home or business,” Christmas Decor manager Lucas Cyr said. “Then they are custom installed.”

Christmas Decor focuses primarily on exterior decorating services, offering customized lighting displays, garlands, wreaths and bows. Installation, maintenance, removal and storage of all decorations are included in their service.

“Actually, these fellows do it like it’s supposed to be done, and it makes quite a difference,” Allen said.

Allen said last year the wind blew out one of the strands in a pine tree. After he called them, they came the next day and fixed it.

Business owners Brad Nimmick and Kevin Ferguson also own Nitro-Green Professional Lawn and Tree Care and Big Sky Turf Guy, and got into the Christmas lighting business six years ago to retain their seasonal employees.

“We want to keep good people year-round,” Nimmick said.

Last year, they bought into the franchise, Christmas Decor, and Nimmick said it made their business stronger. The company gave employees professional training and the network of other businesses throughout the country gives them a chance to troubleshoot easily over the Internet.

Cyr said the Great Falls company currently has about 110 clients.

Busier lifestyles, with both mom and dad working have led to a need for such a business, Cyr said.

“Mom’s harping on dad, and he doesn’t have time to get it done,” he added.

Nationally, the company’s average job costs $1,350, Cyr said.

Cyr estimates Great Falls customers spend about $700 to $1,000 per job.

Once a customer agrees on a job, that price doesn’t change year-to-year. The company owns all the lights, and a customer can change the lighting color from one year to the next.

Peters said it’s worth the money. Everyone spends money differently. Some may choose to fly the whole family somewhere for Christmas; others buy many extravagant gifts. The Peters like to light up their home, he said.

Amy Gallo’s family likes to ring in the holidays.

In fact, all eight members of the Gallo family are volunteer bell-ringers for the Salvation Army.

“It’s a tradition for us. That’s how we start our holidays the day after Thanksgiving,” Gallo says.

The Salvation Army red kettles and hand bells were pulled out Friday for the annual fundraising drive that lasts through Dec. 23 at 22 sites around Clarksville.

“We’ve done this for six or seven years. We book an entire day at one site, and all of us spilt up into two-hour shifts, and the day goes by pretty fast,” Gallo says with a chuckle.

The Gallo family and Jim Crosby are some of the people who withstand the cold and rain to support the Salvation Army.

Crosby and his buddies from the New Providence Civitan Club are staunch advocates of the Salvation Army because they believe in helping their neighbors.

Volunteer spirit

Last year, 2,178 volunteers donated time and energy to accept donations so that the local Salvation Army can supplement its Angel Tree program, provide food for disadvantaged families, provides Christmas gifts for residents in nursing homes and operate of the homeless shelter.

“I’ve been doing the kettle drive every Saturday for 20 years,” Crosby says. “The weather isn’t too bad, we wrap up real good.”

He stresses the donations of passersby make a difference in people’s lives.

“We get people all the time that say they are giving because at one time or another they were helped,” Crosby says. “There was one young man last year who came up to me and said ‘Here, I’m giving this money because they helped me and my mama when we was really down.’”

“This kettle drive is one of many volunteer things that we do as a club because we feel it’s one of our duties to help out,” he says.

Gallo says her children anticipate the annual kettle drive and dismiss any inclement weather as par for the course. The day after Thanksgiving isn’t the only time the Gallo brood swing hand bells — this family, like many other people, are repeat volunteers.

“Sure, your nose freezes some times. We try to stand at the same places each year, so there are a lot of people who are familiar with our faces,” Gallo says.

Donations’ impact

Maj. Vicki Stefanik of the local Salvation Army says $103,165.84 was raised locally last year during the red kettle drive. This year’s goal is $113,000.

One hundred thousand dollars sounds like a lot of money, but when you consider that almost 700 local families signed up last year for the Angel Tree program (which included 1,544 children), food for a holiday meal for almost 700 families, gifts for the elderly in nursing homes who don’t have family nearby, and meals for housebound senior citizens — Stefanik says the money goes fast.

For example, a child’s winter coat can cost $30 to $50. When you do the math, the cost of 1,500 kids coats adds up quickly. Or maybe a pair of pajamas at $15 each — the cost for a new set of PJs for 1,500 little boys and girls could run about $22,000.

“They thank you with tears in their eyes because they know they wouldn’t have had Christmas for their kids otherwise,” Stefanik says. “Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and if they miss a paycheck for any reason, it spirals downward fast — especially if you have kids to support.”

You don’t have to convince Crosby and Gallo of the positive impact that the Salvation Army effort offers their Montgomery County neighbors.

“To me volunteering as a kettle bell ringer is a perfect way to show our children community involvement takes action,” Gallo says. “It is my hope that my children will continue bell ringing with their children.”

Every year in Jefferson, artist and retired ag salesman Joseph Murray paints a one-of-a-kind picture.

His canvas is a 2-acre slice of his wooded 18-acre property nestled in the Raccoon River valley.

His paints are some 40,000 Christmas lights in red, green, orange, blue and white.

He estimates it takes him about four weeks of nearly full-time labor to create his holiday masterpiece, with his focus as much on color and composition as figuring the logistics of where the many cords plug in.

Everything Murray includes has a purpose, although he’s often not quite sure what it is until he’s done.

The fences strung with white bulbs create a glowing frame for his work. The lights staggered through the trees add depth and perspective.

A zigzagging interwoven string of purple and green lights add abstract flair to the realism of wooden deer in a stand of trees.

“It’s not – and I hope and pray to God I never hear this from anybody – it’s not a gaudy display,” said Murray, 62. “I like to think of the whole work as a community Christmas card. I don’t join a lot of organizations, I’m not a politician. This is the way I give back to the community.”

Murray said he came by his expertise the hard way: 10-plus years of trial-and-error.

He started and can’t stop

“I started with 4,000 to 5,000 lights and when I was done, I said you’ve got to be a fool to go through this much anguish and pain,” he said with a laugh. “It kind of became an addiction, then a challenge.”

Although it might be hard to duplicate Murray’s efforts on your average residential lot, Murray said anyone can make their display more artistic.

You just have to be willing to take risks, he said, and break a few rules.

It doesn’t cost much to experiment with using blocks of same-colored lights in areas to evoke emotion or to occasionally run strings of lights diagonally so they intersect rather than always horizontal and parallel.

“It’s the same as painting,” he said. “A lot of people don’t think you can do it if you haven’t been to art school. I’m self-developed. The same goes for your light display. Other than following the golden rule of not blowing fuses, it’s whatever you conceive in your mind, then going out and trying it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I surprise myself.”

Or, you could hire a pro

Homeowners without Murray’s time and creative confidence might want to turn to someone like John Griffiths.

Most of the year, Griffiths serves as plant health care manager for Wright Tree Care Co., specializing in fungus and bugs.

But when late October rolls around, he changes roles and becomes a specialist in installing Christmas lights.

Where Murray tells home-owners to follow their inner muse, Griffiths gives them an outer one.

One of the first things he does for many clients, he said, is to take a digital photo of their house, use a computer to doctor it up with varying styles of lights, then send the client several images to choose from.

“They have to use their imagination some but it takes a lot of imagination out of it,” he said.

Griffiths takes more of a craftsman-like approach to holiday decorating. It’s important to have the right tools, he said, with a good ladder first on his list.

He also swears by an aluminum extension pole for hanging lights high in trees.

While one of Murray’s biggest complaints is the limited number of colors Christmas bulbs come in, Griffiths prefers the clean, elegant look of clear or white lights.

He said many of his clients are turning to LED (light-emitting diode) lights. Although they cost more initially, especially the linkable style he recommends, they last longer and don’t burn nearly as much energy.

Griffiths and Murray do have one thing in common, though. They both hope to be done by Thanksgiving.

“That’s the magic turn-on date,” Griffiths said. “The next five days are going to be a crunch.”

Murray said he was on his fourth week of work on his light display and was putting in five or six hours a day.

He can’t wait until the sun goes down on Thanksgiving to see what his creation looks like.

“Sometimes I wake up dreaming about it, to tell you the truth,” he admitted.

SCARBOROUGH’S Christmas lights, which were due for a grand celebrity switch-on until organisers pulled the plug, have now been turned on – by timers.
The lights were due to be switched on by Coronation Street star Jennie McAlpine (Fiz), today.

But the event was cancelled last week due to health and safety concerns by organisers, who said they couldn’t guarantee the safety of the 10,000 people who were expected to turn up.

In the end, the lights were not even switched on by a person. They were actually turned on by a series of timer switches set up around the town by a team of Scarborough Council electricians.

They put the finishing touches to the town centre Christmas tree yesterday when the decorations were lit up from 11am onwards.

Most of the town’s Christmas lights will be illuminated from 5pm until midnight each day until the festive season is over.

The announcement of the cancellation, revealed in the Evening News last week, has since been reported by a host of different news organisations across the world, including a number of national newspapers in Britain, television, radio and internet sites as far afield as Australia and South Africa.

Police raised serious concerns about crowd safety following last year’s event and a number of options were considered so it could go ahead.

These included new locations, improved access for emergency services, anti-surge barriers, trained event stewards, removal of all street furniture to create more space, and a later time for the event to avoid the main shopping period. However representatives of the police, fire service, and council say that even after the implementation of all the options they just couldn’t find a solution.

It’s official: the holiday season is here.

In addition to the holiday hoopla found in local stores, you can always tell when the holidays are upon us when you see the Christmas lights burning in local neighborhoods.

None burn more brightly than the Lightworks display in Peterson Park in Mattoon. This year’s show features 50 Christmas displays lit by 60,000 light bulbs.

Officials say more than 50,000 people viewed the display last year. That’s a whole lot of people gathering in the local park for some Christmas joy.

The display draws visitors from throughout the area, and area church members are getting into the act by providing live nativities to remind us of the “real reason for the season.”

Live nativities are planned in the park on the following dates: Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, 5-8 p.m. Dec. 1; St. John’s Lutheran Church, 5-9 p.m. Dec. 8; First Southern Baptist Church, 6-8 p.m. Dec. 15; and First Baptist Church, 5-9 p.m. Dec. 22.

The hours for viewing Lightworks are 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, through Dec. 26. The display will be extended one hour on Thanksgiving.

Volunteers will hand out candy canes at the end of the route, and donations will be accepted.

If the Mattoon display still leaves you wanting more, then take a drive 30 minutes west to Shelbyville’s Forest Park. The Victorian Splendor Light Festival, now in its ninth year, will feature about 60 displays.

Hours for the Shelbyville display are 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Christmas lights are one of the most simple joys of the holiday season, and visiting these local displays is an inexpensive treat for the whole family.

We encourage everyone to support these local projects and visit the displays.

THE Hawick Christmas Lights Appeal has been refused any more Scottish Border Council cash this year.
An application for a £500 grant from SBCs ‘Community Council Special Project Fund’ has been rejected, because the lights fund has already received a separate grant of £2,500 earlier this year.
The grant refusal was revealed at a meeting of Hawick Community Council this week — the body which operates the Christmas Lights Appeal — where members were dismayed to learn that a grant awarded for the lights in 2005 was expected to last until 2007.
SBC Community Engagement Officer Clare Master explained to the ‘News’: “Hawick Community Council was awarded £2,500 last year, which was paid in February this year towards Christmas lights.
“However, the lighting purchased in 2005 was not erected as it was caught up in the flooding situation.
“The lighting was purchased, stored and not used, and some areas of Hawick had to go without lighting.”
Referring to the £2,500 Community Grant Scheme, administered by Hawick’s local councillors, she went on: “Members were reluctant to fund for this reason but, so that Hawick Community Council was not out of pocket, the compromise was to fund in 2005, but the grant to be treated as a grant towards Christmas light provision in 2006.
She added: “The Community Council formally accepted the additional condition as part of their Community Grants Scheme contract agreement.”
However, Chairman Zandra Elliot says she had “a pistol to her head” in agreeing to sign the contract last year, in order to avoid paying large lights bills from her own pocket. She added that she was “bemused” by a refusal for the £500 Special Project Fund.
However Clare Master says the decision for no more money had to be honoured.
She added: “Given the condition imposed by the Teviot and Liddesdale Area Committee, we are unfortunately unable to award Hawick Community Council further Council funding towards the Christmas lights during this financial year.”
But she added: “We recognise the excellent work they do for the people of Hawick.”
The refusal for further grants refers to 2006 Christmas lighting provision only, with the Community Council free to apply early in the financial year 2007/2008.
l The Community Council has decided to recommend that the £500 Special Project Fund is spent on refurbishments to Hawick Youth Centre.

You really couldn’t get much more of the “Small Town America” feeling than was experienced Thursday night as downtown Corsicana kicked off the Christmas season with fireworks and the lighting of the downtown lights for the holiday season.

“This is why I love living in a small town,” Dan Wilkie observed as fireworks filled the sky over downtown Thursday night, much to the delight of the several hundred residents who crowded downtown to take in the evening.

Christmas music provided by the Corsicana Swing Orchestra, a snappy 12-piece ensemble with vocals by Brenda Ballew, got everyone in the holiday spirit. Free fried chicken and soft drinks provided by Bill’s Fried Chicken and the Main Street Program, and a perfect night for mid-November courtesy of Mother Nature, made it a great memory for all who attended.

One of those who was taking in the small town celebration was a “big city doctor,” Dr. Shivani Sikand, a pediatrician visiting the area from Chicago, in town for a tour of the community and Navarro Regional Hospital.

“It is so nice and refreshing to see people so close. You get a real sense of community,” she observed while at Napoli’s Restaurant for a Chamber of Commerce Business after Hours event.

“I’m from Chicago … I don’t even know my neighbor,” she laughed. “We wave and smile but that’s about it. This is a very close knit community.”

Mayor C.L. “Buster” Brown led the anxious crowd in a countdown for the fireworks to begin, provided by local businessman and fireworks dealer Jimmy Prince.

After an impressive display that lit the skies downtown, the orchestra played and the crowd sang the song “God Bless America.”

More Christmas celebrations are set for Dec. 2, when the YMCA’s “Jingle Bell Jog” starts the day at 9 a.m. Then back downtown, a “World Marketplace” is being held beginning at 10 a.m., and a nighttime parade downtown at 6 p.m.

Following the parade, Christmas lights in Corsicana’s Community Park will be lit in a ceremony in front of the YMCA.

In 1996, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra created the closest thing to a Christmas music phenomenon that the post-baby-boomer generation has ever seen.

“Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24,” a nearly bombastic reworking of “Carol of the Bells” with symphony, synthesizer and heavy-metal guitar, became a hit and has since become a perennial favorite.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist Al Pitrelli says that one question is common about the group: “What’s with this Russian rock band with the opera?”

Pitrelli laughs.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which comes to Albuquerque’s Tingley Coliseum Dec. 14, sprang from a collaboration between rock producer Paul O’Neill and the heavy-metal rock band Savatage in 1995.

While Savatage had won fame with several albums and was featured on MTV’s “Headbanger’s Ball,” it was the track “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24″ on the group’s album “Dead Winter Dead” that gave the group a new career. Pitrelli, a veteran of Megadeth and Alice Cooper’s band, had been asked to join the group by O’Neill.

“This was during the Nirvana era,” says Pitrelli. “Hair metal was dead and buried.”

However, that was only in the United States.

“In November we went to Europe,” says Pitrelli. “When we came back (to the United States, the track), was the No. 1-requested number in the nation – in nearly all formats.”

The president of Atlantic Records suggested that an entire album be built around the single.

“We all got together and just put all the ideas on the table,” says Pitrelli.

The Christmas holiday period is a time when, for millions of families, the daily routine is likely to change, sometimes drastically or sometimes just a little. If you have a new born, or very young, baby in the house, do not believe that they will not be aware of what’s going on just because they are lazing around in their crib sleeping most of the time. They will be aware of differences in their environment, so it is a good idea to think about the well being of the baby in advance, and plan your Christmas period accordingly.

Probably the first sign that something different is going on in the home will be the Christmas decorations and ornaments going up. While the baby may seem oblivious to all commotion and activity as the decorations go up all around, there is a good chance that a baby who has lived in the house for a few months will be very aware of them, even if they cannot focus on the detail of the decorations themselves. This is a good time to get the baby involved in Christmas, right at the start, by letting them lie in the room being decorated while they are awake. Let them watch the rest of the family as they hang the Christmas tree decorations and lights, and all the other ornaments. Once in a while, take over an ornament that is bright and let her see it up close; find some that make a noise, and let her hear the gentle sounds up close. Nothing too noisy, of course, that will scare the baby, just the gentle sounds. Also, pick her up and take her up close to hanging ornaments. That will help the baby feel a part of what is going on, even if they do not have a clue what it is all about.

If your Christmas holiday is being spent at home, then the routine with the baby need not change too much. If you are expecting a lot of guests, though, then it may be rather different, so try not to forget to plan for the baby too. If you are getting caught up in a frenzy of cooking and other preparation in the days before Christmas, and on Christmas morning, then try to involve the baby just a bit, by allowing her to lie in the kitchen with you, or in whatever room the preparation may be going on. Remember, your baby will sense stress and anxiety in the parents, so it is best to allow plenty of time for your preparation so that you are not too rushed and stressed out.

If the baby is used to having a lot of people around, then she will probably not be too disturbed by the sudden influx of visitors. Even then, remember she needs peaceful periods, and when she joins the throng while awake it is worth keeping an eye on whether she is becoming overwhelmed by too much boisterous attention, especially as the alcohol may flow later in the day, or sooner in some cases. Always remember, your baby just needs love, warmth, care, food and security, so as long as you remain conscious of those things at all times, then your baby can enjoy Christmas as much as you, even though she may not be able to tell you so.

If you are going away, then the routine upset will be greater, so it may not be quite so easy for baby or parents. Everything mentioned above for staying at home still applies, and the travel preparation should be no different than for an ordinary trip away. However, take extra care and ensure you have everything that you will need for the baby while travelling and away, listed well in advance and organised in plenty of time. Depending on where you live, there may not be shops open on Christmas Day, and Christmas Eve shopping may be a stressful nightmare for you and the baby. So, it is well worth getting yourself, and your baby’s, things well organized in advance.

Christmas should be a great time for you, your family and your baby. Much will be just as normal, but it is always worth remembering that she will be aware of anything that is different, whether in surroundings, tension levels, or sounds. If you are breastfeeding, you should be aware that what you eat and drink will provide her milk.

So long as you remain aware of those things, and act accordingly, and follow all you have already learnt about baby care, your baby will be happy, and have a good grounding for getting more involved next Christmas.

Thousands of little tots stayed up well past their bedtime to welcome their favourite television characters into town.

Stars from the BBC’s CBeebies took centre stage to switch on Cardiff’s Christmas lights last night.

The Tweenies, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder and Pc Plum, from Balamory, started the countdown to the city’s festive season in a show at the civic centre.

They flipped the switch to transform the capital with a dazzling array of shimmering lights, after which the skies erupted in a volley of fireworks.

Hilary Hyett, 38, a physiotherapist, of Heath, Cardiff, brought her daughter Georgia, five, to watch the entertainment.

She said: ‘We’ve come for a bit of fun and to get into the festive spirit. And, of course, for the Tweenies.’

Hilary was planning to take Georgia on the giant Ferris wheel which dominated the landscape outside City Hall.

Red Dragon radio’s breakfast show presenters Jason Harrold and Mel Knight kept the crowds entertained along with Paul Carrack, from Mike and the Mechanics and jazz/swing band King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys.

It was also the first night of the city’s Winter Wonderland experience, an open air ice rink with fairground rides and stalls, now in its sixth year

The main shopping area in Queen Street was also bustling with late night shoppers in the run up to the busiest period of the year.

Patricia Lenthall, 28, an assistant shop manager, her partner Mike Evans, 30, a pensions analyst and their daughter Lucy, six, of Heath, Cardiff, battled against heavy traffic to make it into the city centre.

Patricia said: ‘We were too late to see the lights turned on. It was really busy so we looked around the shops then went back on the way home.’

Mike added: ‘We saw the fireworks and they looked really good. The lights have put us all in the Christmas mood.’ But Patricia added: ‘They’ve reminded me how much Christmas shopping I have to do.’

five golden rules to help keep the cash flowing during the festivities.

1. Many businesses close down over Christmas, so plan ahead to avoid delays by checking your customers’ opening hours and invoicing early if necessary.

2. The Christmas post can delay mailed cheques, so consider setting up electronic transfers for major clients, or collecting payment in person instead.

3. Take action on overdue accounts now as companies are likely to be under pressure from other creditors in the New Year. Using a debt collection agency will help spread your workload.

4. Beware of new customers seeking large credit facilities over the busy Christmas period and continue to credit check them thoroughly, using a credit information agency if needed. If you are in any doubt ask for part or full payment in advance.

5. Review your growth target for 2007 and see if you need extra finance to fund it, and credit insurance to protect it.

Dominique Vaughan Williams, Marketing Director at Coface UK says:

“The festive season can bring good business but also play havoc with your cash flow as customers close for the holiday and cheques get delayed in the Christmas post. To protect yourself from late payment, continue to implement strict credit management procedures throughout November and December. By planning ahead, you can make sure that unpaid invoices do not become a New Year hangover.”

First Baptist Church of Bay Minette is partnering with the Family Service Center to provide Christmas gifts for clients.

Families, Sunday school classes and other groups may sponsor a child or an adult. For each child, the sponsor is asked to give two gifts and for equity’s sake, a maximum of $50 total per child, organizers said.

Toys and luxury items are requested. Clothing items are to be included only if requested on the child’s wish list. Each gift is to be wrapped and labeled with the child’s name.

For each adult, the sponsor is asked to donate $20, which will be used to buy a gift certificate from Wal-Mart. Checks are to be made payable to First Baptist Church and designated for “Family Service Center Christmas Ministry.”

Christmas has officially arrived in Norwich once more as hundreds of families flocked to the city centre for the annual lights switch on.

A firework burst from the tops of City Hall as TV presenter Linda Barker was joined by former Norwich goalkeeper Bryan Gunn and the Lord Mayor Felicity Hartley to perform the switch-on ceremony.

Earlier in the day Father Christmas and his reindeer had arrived at St Peter Mancroft Church. Children were invited to meet him and post their letters to Santa in his special post box.

The Chapelfield shopping centre switched on its Christmas lights at 5.30pm before all eyes turned to City Hall. The Rev Peter Noakes from St Peter Mancroft blessed the Christmas trees while music came from the Broadland Youth Choir and the Norwich City Concert Band.

But last night’s activities are not the end of the festive fun, as Castle Mall will be switching on its lights on Thursday, November 23 at 4pm, then staying open until 9pm.

The event includes clown shows from the Foolhardy Folk circus, a gymnastic display from the Chermond School of gymnastics, music, dance, free face painting and lots of family entertainment, plus a chance to see Santa’s reindeer. Radio Broadland DJs Rob Chandler and Chrissie Jackson will also be appearing from 6pm.

The Evening News is running a competition to find one lucky child who will be invited to turn on the Mall’s lights. The prize will include being picked up in a stretch limo, meeting Morris the Mall Monster and enjoying a meal before heading home with a bag of goodies.

Marianne Taylor, 42, from Earlham Road, has taken her children Michelle, eight, and Olly, six, to see the lights in Norwich for the last six years.

She said: “This year seems like the best yet. City Hall always puts on a great show, even if spirits are a bit dampened by the weather tonight. But the celebrations in Chapelfield were great too.”

Terry Wetherby, 62, from Heartsease, mingled with hundreds of other families to see the fireworks at Jarrolds, with his grandson, Peter, five. “Some people say it is too early for Christmas but I don’t think it is ever too early,” he said. “The kids love it.”

MINEHEAD traders have taken Watchet officials to task for arranging the launch of their Christmas festivities for the same time in both towns.

Graham Sizer, chairman of Minehead Chamber of Trade, told the County Gazette: “We’ve been planning our Christmas light switch-on for 6pm on December 8, and we were dismayed to find that Watchet’s festivities start at exactly the same time on the same night.

“The event is being held as a thank you to our customers who we value for using shops in the town centre during the year.”

The lucky winner of a children’s Christmas card competition will get the chance to throw the switch to light up Minehead’s tree decorations in Wellington Square.

And the mayor of the town, Cllr Ann Foxhuntley, will adopt the winning design as her official Christmas card.

Minehead’s festivities will include a snow machine, Santa’s Grotto, and a firework display, with many of the town’s shops staying open late.

Town traders will be hoping a repeat of last year’s ceremony can be avoided, when the traditional count-down to the town’s Christmas tree lights being switched on ended in blackness.

The ceremony had to be abandoned after the lights on the tree, which had been connected to a street lamp, repeatedly fused.

Eventually, the tree lights had to be powered using an overhead cable plugged into a socket at nearby St Andrew’s Church.

BLOB: Santa is due to arrive in Watchet Harbour by boat to kick off the town’s festive late night shopping event at 6pm on December 8.