Joy of Christmas

Archive for December, 2006

Tommy O’Connor said he had never been more excited than he was on Sunday afternoon.

“We’re going to see Santa,” the 9-year-old squealed while he sat in his seat on the MBTA Commuter Rail train. “We’re going to the North Pole and it’s going to be a blast.”

As O’Connor and hundreds of children lined up on the Commuter Rail platform, the only thing on their minds was Christmas.

The inaugural trip on the Polar Express was the reason children such as O’Connor were so excited. The mock journey to the North Pole brought smiles to hundreds of children in Lynn and proved to a successful fundraiser for Sacred Heart School. [The Polar Express Gift Set (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition with Snow Globe and Toy)]

“There were a lot of hard-working people involved in this and a lot of happy children as well,” pre-kindergarten teacher Sheila Ford said. “The Christmas spirit was here today.”

Event coordinator Joanne Eagan “put on an awesome event and worked really hard,” to make the day possible, Ford added, and daughter Colleen Eagan said she was grateful for everyone’s support.

“We really wanted to provide something new for the families and children of Lynn,” Colleen Eagan said. “The city is working toward reviving and rebuilding and we are happy to help reach for that goal.”

While aboard the hour and a half train ride, children were read the story of the Polar Express and were provided with “not-so-hot chocolate” (chocolate milk) and cookies, a visit by Santa, teddy bears, snowmen, elves, caroling and other activities.

State Sen. Thomas McGee said the event would not have been possible had it not been for the support of the community and the MBTA, which shut down one of its tracks for the occasion.

“The T has been tremendous,” he said. “Everything is working perfectly.”

McGee said “from the manager on down,” he was very proud and grateful for the works and efforts of those involved. And by the sounds of the children on board, there was no question that the event was a success.

“I’m excited because I get to see Santa and we get hot chocolate, too,” James Coyle, 9, said.

Francesca Valeri, 12, also shared the excitement.

“I’m going to ask Santa if he got my present yet,” she said, adding that she asked for a virtual pet system.

Said O’Connor: “I’m really excited to go to the North Pole. The best part will be when we actually get there. We’ll see Santa, toys and happiness.”

The event was sponsored by The Daily Item, McGee, Old Neighborhood Quality Foods, Community Credit Union, Century Bank, Garelick Farms, State Rep. Steven Walsh, Mayor Edward J. Clancy and the Citizens of Lynn, Lynn City Council, EDIC executive director James Cowdell, and the Downtown/Central Lynn Neighborhood Improvement.

Letters to Santa delivered by the U.S. Postal Service provided proof of his existence in the 1947 version of “The Miracle on 34th Street” and children around the world continue to send him letters.

The U.S. Postal Service has even drawn up a regulation to cover those letters. It appears in the Administrative Support Manual 274.5k:

“The Postal Service or authorized third party may open, read and respond to mail, or contact the sender, regarding correspondence that is addressed to “Santa Claus,” “the North Pole” or similar seasonal characters or destinations and which would otherwise be undeliverable as addressed.”

Isabella Postmaster Melissa Davis said she will personally make sure that letters to Santa that come to her post office are taken care of. She said Santa even responds to children who include a self-addressed stamped envelope with their letters to him.

Of course, all holiday mailings need to be done in a timely fashion so they reach their destinations before Christmas. The first important deadline to remember is this coming Monday. “Our deadlines to the APO (military) addresses for Priority mail is (today) and for Express mail to the military it’s Dec. 19,” Davis said.

Davis said the Isabella post office will be holding a holiday open house from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15.

“We are having our holiday stamps on display and we are having holiday refreshments in the lobby,” Davis said. “I’m also holding an informational session on building holiday cards on-line. You can build them and mail them on-line. You can even order gift tags and gift cards, and estimate all shipping costs beforehand.”

Davis said there are fewer mailing days available this year. “The post office is actually closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so they’ve lost a day for mailing. The last day to mail first class mail for delivery before Christmas is Dec. 19. The post office will deliver Express mail on Christmas Day, but it would have to be mailed by Dec. 23,” Davis said.

Traditions die hard. In some cases, they don’t die at all.

Real Christmas trees – spruces and firs – were for years losing ground to artificial trees – plastic and aluminum. But in the last several years, the trend has reversed.

“People like the smell that goes with a real tree, that pleasant wood odor. It’s something the artificial tree can’t match,” said Thomas G. Cranston of the Cranston Tree Farm in Ashfield, where nearly 30,000 Christmas trees are in various stages of cultivation.

“There is also something to connecting with a product of nature instead of something that came out of a factory,” he said.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the number of real trees sold in the United States grew 40 percent from 2003 to 2005 while sales of artificial trees declined 3 percent. Nevertheless, about twice as many artificial Christmas trees will be on display this season in the United Stated as real ones.

The back-to-nature trend in Christmas trees is apparently an all-the-way-back trend. Crowds are large at “cut your own” farms. However, with the mild, snow-free weather and the declining number of Christmas tree farms in Western Massachusetts there could be a looming shortage of trees for self-harvesting.

“It’s overwhelming not only our farm, but other growers throughout the state,” Cranston said.

Real or fake? Choosing between the two has environmental consequences that aren’t always clear cut, said Peggy MacLeod of the Center for Ecological Technology in Northampton. Yes, real trees are recyclable and renewable, but artificial trees are reusable.

But going to a local Christmas tree farm or nursery and cutting or buying your own “would be absolutely the most environmentally friendly thing to do,” MacLeod said.

If Christmas tree growers are seeing any trends in what people are shopping for in a holiday tree, it may be size.

“What I notice is that people are buying bigger trees,” said David B. Radebaugh of Radebaugh’s Christmas Tree Farms in Belchertown and Wilbraham.

“The new houses they’re building are very big. A lot of them have cathedral ceilings. So I’m seeing demands for trees from 10 all the way up to 20 feet,” he said.

Shopping for children’s toys can be anything but fun and games.

It’s no secret that the holiday season can be hard on a pocketbook, and for new parents or adults without children, it may be hard to know what is appropriate and fun.

Area teachers, whose profession requires the ability to bargain shop and find treasure in other’s trash, were bursting with tips for finding frugal gifts for the holiday gift-giving season and beyond. To a person, teachers suggested simple, inexpensive games that have passed the test of time.

And the most important gift suggested by area teachers is a free one — the gift of time spent with children.

Game on

Woodridge Primary School lead teacher Mary Kamrath didn’t hesitate when asked to suggest a high-quality children’s gift.

“Monopoly,” Kamrath said. “Just the regular, not the ‘Junior’ version. It’s the money that’s good practice. Even though it’s paper money, it translates into the concept of counting pennies, nickels and dimes.”

Third-grade teachers at John Muir School brainstormed the subject and agreed with Kamrath that one of the best ways to get the most toy for the dollar is by buying board games.

“One of the cheapest, best things for your dollar is to buy a deck of cards and teach your kids to play 21, War or Crazy Eights,” said third-grade teacher Sheila Scholz. “You can have a lot of fun with a lot of different games.”

Scholz and her colleagues suggested a host of board games such as Brain Quest, Yahtzee, Scrabble, Upwords and Sequence as well as a plain old set of dice.

“Notice I didn’t mention any computer games,” Scholz said. “They may have their benefits, but once you buy one, you have to keep buying and buying to keep up.”

“Construction” toys without specific guidelines, such as Play-Doh, blocks, Legos and Lincoln Logs, were a popular suggestion by teachers.

“(Give) gifts that are open-ended,” said first-grade teacher Jean Hinze. “When children play with toys that don’t have just one right way to work, they can learn to accept their mistakes.”

Hinze frequently suggests craft project ingredients to parents such as paints, stamps, yard, glitter and buttons as gifts for children.

The right read

It’s a no-brainer that educators would suggest books as gifts. Portage Public Library Youth Services librarian Dawn Foster suggested looking for books with high quality binding and paper containing a high quality of writing.

“Look for honors and recognition for the author or illustrator,” Foster said. “Choose stories that avoid bias and stereotypes that aren’t authentic or that may have a negative impact on the child’s self-esteem.”

Foster suggested books with lasting appeal that “allow for a child’s imagination to take hold and soar.”

Classics Foster suggested include “The Snowy Day” by Jack Ezra Keats, “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown and “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams Bianco. Newer titles that Foster likes include “Emily’s Balloon” by Komako Sakai, “Flotsam” by David Wiesner, and “The Hello, Goodbye Window” by Chris Raschka.

When in doubt, Scholz said that joke books are a hit with children of all ages. She suggested asking children the type of book they like and asking book store clerks for age-appropriate suggestions.

“All kids love joke books,” Scholz said. “The best part is, they will be reading and not even realize it. They just think they’re telling jokes.”

Foster warns against books with celebrity authors, which she said are often written by ghost writers with limited experience in children’s literature and only the intent of promoting a celebrity’s name.

“Once exception is Jamie Lee Curtis, who actually does research and write her own books,” Foster said. “Her latest, ‘Is There a Human Race?’ answers the question with humor and sincerity.”

The thought counts

The most important gifts are those that aren’t wrapped, many teachers agreed.

“Every child is like a gift, just waiting to be unwrapped,” Hinze said, whose list is topped with “time, respect and praise.”

Scholz agreed.

“It’s about taking that time to spend with them,” Scholz said. “When parents do a lot of games with children, it makes a positive difference in their education.”

Who doesn’t dream of that perfect Christmas morning? Although I experienced many happy ones growing up, that perfect one was ‘just what I wanted.’

It was 1988, our new living room had a cathedral ceiling and we had found the ideal tree; it measured 15 feet with the star on top. A friend had been in after it was decorated and had commented that it was the most beautiful tree he had ever seen; in hindsight perhaps that should have been an inkling of what was to come.

Kevin was just 6 and Kate was almost 3 that Christmas. Kevin read us Clement Moore’s “Twas the Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve, while Kate turned the pages of the “pop-up” book that their Aunt Nancy had sent them the year before.

My husband, Steve, had set up the video camera and their “Ama,” my mother, sat watching the scene unfold. After the book was read and cookies, a glass of milk, and a carrot were set out for Santa and his reindeer, the children were tucked in bed.

The next morning a very excited little boy and girl, both smiling ear to ear, found that Santa had most assuredly been there; he had left some of the bigger toys unwrapped and many piles of brightly colored packages. Kevin went directly to the business of looking at tags and opening the presents with his name on them. That went on for quite some time.

Kate was right behind him and was genuinely thrilled for him with each present; you could see it on her face. She never once asked if there was anything for her. Eventually, even Kevin noticed that she had not yet opened anything, and he cheerfully went about the task of finding a box marked “Kate” and handed it to her saying, “Here, Katharine, here’s one with your name on it.”

Kate carefully unwrapped the package and when she saw what was inside she looked up slowly, with true wonderment in her eyes, and said, “It’s just what I wanted!”

And at last it was for me, too.

Sue (Hanna) Frost

Lansdale, Pa.

Formerly of Oil City

JUDY AMSLER

I am one of 11 children. We have such wonderful memories of Christmas when we were children. We were all there Christmas morning around the Christmas tree. We didn’t get an abundance of presents, but we got plenty and we were thankful for what we got. We all grew up and got married except for our youngest brother who hadn’t married yet when we had the saddest Christmas ever.

It was the year 1966, and on Dec. 8 our father had a stroke. We all hurried to the hospital and took turns being with him. He died two days later on Dec. 10. We never got the chance to say goodbye. We knew we had to go on with Christmas because we all had small children. We did what we had to, even though our hearts were heavy.

Two weeks later, the day before Christmas, I got a heartbreaking phone call from my brother saying our mother had had a fatal heart attack. She was fixing food to take to a needy family as she did every year. She sat down to have a cup of coffee, laid her head back and died.

We were all heartbroken. In two short weeks we had lost both parents, both of them we thought to be in good health.

It has been 40 years, but time hasn’t healed like it is supposed to do. Every year, beginning with Dec. 8 up through Christmas day, I can’t help but think of what we went through that year. The only consolation I have is to know that some great day we’ll all have Christmas together again, in heaven, with Jesus Christ.

Judy Amsler

Venus

TRACI JOHNSON

My mother’s family was a large one. I have eight aunts and uncles and many cousins to share the holiday with. Every year, after opening our gifts at home, we would pack up our little part of the family and head for Grandma’s in Hawthorn. We would sing “Over the River and Through the Woods” with my younger sister singing the loudest.

Once we arrived, there was food galore! We have some excellent cooks in the family! After gorging ourselves and unwrapping gifts from our “secret Santa”, the women in the family would gather around the upright piano and sing carols while the cousins showed off their toys.

Today, Grandma and Grandpa have passed on, but the family tries to carry on the tradition with Christmas in September, hosted by different members of the family that still live in the area.

There’s still plenty of great food and a good chance to catch up with family we don’t see throughout the year. The yard is decorated with lights and garland. The aunts have games for the kids and the adults with “presents” as prizes.

I’m really blessed to be a part of this big family. I know that some of you may be reading this, so Merry Christmas to the Yeany Family!

Traci Johnson

Titusville

Tom Payne knows what the spirit of Christmas is all about.

While most of his friends were tucked away in warm houses, Payne braved the winter winds while stringing Christmas lights across Ceres’ Henry Avenue – a residential street that will soon be alive with hoards of onlookers and lines of visiting cars.

Such is life on Christmas Tree Lane.

Saturday marked the opening night of the 2006 Christmas light season for the handful of residents that spend more time organizing their displays than most people do shopping – starting as early as Thanksgiving with all of the preparation.

“The planning takes months – getting everything figured out on how it’s going to be,” Payne said while testing a new strand of lights. “But when we get everything up and it’s all working it’s worth it – it’s part of the tradition.”

Opting for a new look this season, Payne and his family have taken on a tropical theme – one which includes a Hawaiian shirt clad Santa Claus and pink flamingos that aren’t typically seen in December.

For the last decade they have looked forward to the time of year when thousands of guests from Ceres and beyond make the trek down Henry Avenue and onto Vaughn Way to see one of the most famous lighting displays in the area.

“It’s during events like this that you can really get a feel for the spirit of the community – when everybody pulls together to help one another out,” Cheri Payne said. “We have a great community spirit here in Ceres and I think you can see it in how much work goes into this.”

Up the street second-year home-owner Kym Wood waited with anticipation for the crowds as she tested her numerous front-yard Christmas treats – including an oversized snow globe with moving parts and enough lights to make anybody jealous.

Prior to moving onto Henry, Wood knew of the tradition she would have to be a part of and couldn’t be happier.

“It’s a lot of fun setting everything up and getting into the spirit of the holidays,” Wood said. “We have a lot of great neighbors and a great community here in Ceres that appreciates the work that everybody puts into this event.

“There’s something special about it.”

From now until Christmas Eve there will be a steady stream of cars turning off of Moffet Way and into the entrance of Christmas Tree Lane – at times requiring police to direct the traffic as it backs up to as far away as Hatch Road.

Horse drawn carriages and visits from Santa Claus himself are yearly staples.

But things aren’t all roses for the homeowners who allow their properties to become themed centerpieces – at times putting them in an unfavorable situation with crowds that don’t always respect the work that goes into the displays.

Just off the corner of Callie Gaede’s front driveway a wooden power pole remains blackened after hoodlums set a garbage can on fire last year.

Empty beer cans and whisky bottles can often be found on weekend mornings in front yards and in the back of pickup trucks parked in the driveways.

And occasionally, used diapers are even tossed into the equation.

Tom Gaede grew up on the street that he now lives on just a stone’s throw away from his parents, and doesn’t enjoy the indifference of the crowds – pointing out that once the crowds start rolling through something as simple as turning into your driveway becomes a brutal task.

“If people would just respect the homeowners it wouldn’t be so bad,” Gaede said while searching for a blown fuse in a new strand of lights.

“When people come home from work they are forced to sit there for 10 minutes while these visitors won’t even let them into the driveway.

“That’s just not right.”

Not too many people bring poison into their homes on purpose, but it could be something you’re doing without realizing it. We’re talking about lead and discovered it’s in most christmas lights.

The same coating that keeps the lights fire resistant is filled with lead. If you check out the box your christmas lights came in the warning is clear. The Allen County Health Department is warning not to let young children handle the lights, but says there is an easy solution; a bar of soap and some running water. They say to wash your hands after handling the lights.

Lead poisoning is most harmful to kids under the age of 5, but can lead to mental deficiencies and speech problems in most children.

A mother convinced Rock Hill police to arrest her 12-year-old son after he unwrapped a Christmas present early.

The boy’s great-grandmother had specifically told him not to open his Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which she had wrapped and placed beneath the Christmas tree, according to a police report.

But on Sunday morning, she found the box of the popular handheld game console unwrapped and opened. When the boy’s 27-year-old mother heard about the opened gift, she called police.

“He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it,” said the 63-year-old great-grandmother.

Both the great-grandmother and the mother asked the boy on Sunday where the present was. The boy replied he didn’t know.

When the mother threatened to call the police, the boy went into his room and got the Game Boy, the report stated. She called the police anyway.

Two Rock Hill police officers responded to the home and charged the boy with petty larceny. He was charged as a juvenile and released the same day, said police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop, who added the boy was never held at the jail.

“We wouldn’t hold a 12-year-old,” he said.

The Herald is not identifying the boy or his mother and great-grandmother because of his age.

On Monday night, the mother said she had her son arrested because she didn’t know what else to do.

She had the child when she was 15, the woman said, and has been a single mother struggling to earn a business degree.

She said the boy likes attention and has a history of bad behavior. He has shoplifted from stores and stolen money from her, she said. The boy has also been inching toward expulsion from school, she added, and even punched a police officer last month. He was arrested for disorderly conduct in that incident.

She hoped the arrest would be a wake-up call for him. She dreads getting a phone call someday reporting he’s been killed.

The boy “showed no remorse” when the police came, the mother said.

“I’m trying to get him some kind of help,” she said. “He’s the type of kid who doesn’t believe anything until it happens.”

Waldrop said the women were seeking help with a problem child. “He is a disruptive, disorderly kid.”

Waldrop said he trusted the two responding officers to exercise discretion when deciding whether to arrest the youngster.

“In a case like this, if the parents and grandparents are adamant about it and they feel the child has a serious problem, I can’t second-guess what the officers did,” Waldrop said.

The mother told police officers that she would have the boy placed with the state Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia at his court appearance.

Waldrop said he was not aware if Rock Hill police have ever arrested a child for unwrapping Christmas presents early.

“Yeah, it’s strange,” he said of the case.

There can be a guilty little pleasure in buying that $350 iPod or $1,200 laptop online: avoiding the sales tax you’d have to pay at a local store.

Technically, online purchasers owe sales tax to their home states and sometimes their cities or towns at combined rates averaging nearly 7.5 percent. (Except if they’re from Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon, which don’t impose sales taxes.) But the Supreme Court has ruled a state can’t constitutionally require a merchant to collect the tax unless the merchant has some physical connection to that state — say, a warehouse or a store there.

So big national “bricks and clicks” retailers, such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart Stores, and Target, collect taxes on most online sales. But Amazon.com only collects sales tax on shipments to Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota and Washington.

Still, as the Supreme Court itself noted, there’s nothing to stop Congress from authorizing states to require collection by out-of-state sellers. Nothing in the Constitution, that is. Politics are another matter.

Last year, Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced similar bills that would require online and catalog merchants (or at least bigger ones) to collect sales taxes for any states that met standards set by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA). The Enzi-Dorgan proposal stood no chance with taxophobic Republicans in control of the House.

Next year, with Democrats in charge? “The stars are lined up better,” says Harley Duncan, executive director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, which represents state tax officials.

It’s not just the change in partisan control that has raised the states’ hopes. They also believe they can make a stronger case for new collection authority now that the SSUTA, which is designed to harmonize and simplify sales tax laws, is finally operating. As of Jan. 1, 15 states will be full participants in SSUTA, meaning they’ve adopted the required changes to their own laws. State officials spent years haggling over such issues as whether bakery bagels should be considered groceries, which few states tax, or prepared food, which is widely taxed. (The conclusion: If a bakery provides a utensil with your bagel or heats it for you, it counts as prepared food.)

So far, 1,000 merchants have signed up to voluntarily collect taxes for the SSUTA states, Duncan reports. As an incentive, participating merchants who use certain sales tax processing services get their tax collection costs subsidized and aren’t held responsible for mistakes those services might make.

The states aren’t alone in pushing this. The E-fairness Coalition, representing shopping mall operators and bricks-and-mortar retailers, is also backing the Enzi-Dorgan legislation.

Still, you needn’t rush to buy online. This is hardly a done deal. The 4,700-member Direct Marketing Association is fighting any new authority for the states, arguing the SSUTA has barely reduced the tax collection burden presented by 7,500 different sales jurisdictions. Rather than adopting a single tax rate per state, as the DMA demanded, the SSUTA made only “cosmetic” changes, and the states are “cheating” on even those, DMA tax counsel George S. Isaacson says. “I would hope the Democratic leadership would say, ‘We don’t want to get tagged with a bad tax bill as the introduction to our leadership,’” he adds.

Nor is it clear how enthusiastic some soon-to-be powerful congressional Democrats will be about the legislation. Neither California nor New York is a SSUTA member. Last month, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued a report questioning whether joining is worth the hassle. Among the problems: The SSUTA requires a state and its cities to use the same definition of what’s taxable and allows each local taxing jurisdiction only one sales tax rate. That would interfere with New York City’s special local sales taxes on beauty salons and saunas, its special exemption for interior decorators, and its two special tax rates on parking — one in Manhattan and the other for the outer boroughs.

An authentic Civil War Christmas was difficult for soldiers far away from friends and family, camped out in the cold.

But a group of Civil War living historians hope to recreate it for visitors to the town this year. The group will gather outside the American Civil War Museum & Gettysburg Gift Center on Saturday and Sunday to celebrate a soldier’s Civil War Christmas.

“We’ll get a scrawny, scrawny Christmas tree and decorate it with Civil War type stuff such as popcorn or paper figurines or paper ribbons,” said Rich Adams, the company captain for the 1st PA Rifles – Co. B “Bucktails” re-enactor group.

They’ll also gather around a small fire and exchange gifts and write letters, all the while keeping watch for enemy troops.

The group has been traveling to Gettysburg for the past several Christmases and answer questions from people passing by who want to know more about the lives of soldiers. Adams expects about a dozen members of his group to show up to this year’s program.

Most re-enactor events take place in the warm summer events, but Adams said winter weather can be a pleasant change compared to hot weather in wool uniforms.

And he’s enjoyed researching the lives of soldiers at Christmastime especially. For instance, he found letters talking about a winter soldier’s game – catching a rabbit, then letting it loose and chasing it down, trying to catch it again.

“Who runs around trying to catch a rabbit today?” Adams asked. “But that’s what they did.”

They also found make-shift Christmas trees and exchanged small gifts, Adams said.

(Preface – With the advent of courier services, the ascendancy of unions, lower volumes and vastly increased costs, enormous changes have occurred in the postal services over the past fifty years. What was once a 24/7 operation is now 24/5, the railway has gone and with it the postal cars and railway mail clerks who worked the mail as it moved. The mail now speeds between airports where it can sit for hours if the connecting flight is missed. Dozens of “kitchen” post offices have been closed. Where once the Post Office Department (now Canada Post) was predominantly male, women now staff almost all the smaller offices and are largely represented in the main depots… “Women’s lib” indeed!)

The Charlottetown Post Office – 5 pm Friday – 21 December 1956. The “public” face of the Post Office, the front lobby, is closing down. The day sorting staff is also clocking out as the main evening shift arrives. It comprises the nucleus of permanent clerks plus the majority of the hundred or so “casuals” hired every Christmas. The seasonal “rush” is not an unwelcome time for the regular clerks. The casuals do the heavy parcel post work, and twelve-hour shifts are the norm, with overtime at time and a half. (Starting salary for postal clerks – $2850 p.a., with annual increases dependent upon passing two exams each year, one the routing of mail to the 1600 post offices in the Maritime Provinces and the other on postal rates, financial regulations, etc…).

The noise is deafening with metal letter trays, parcel ‘binnies’ and carts being wheeled around, the constant chatter as clerks give instructions to the casuals inquiries, such as – “Which bag does ‘Goose River’ go in?” A radio is bringing in CFCY loud and clear, and a dozen or so casuals are pre-sorting first class mail at a large table where the street letter box collections and the lobby “drops” are dumped. The letters are “faced up” with the stamp in the correct position before being fed into the canceling machines which add their own loud clatter to the din. A big “push” is on to clear as much as possible tonight. Christmas Day is on Tuesday with Sunday’s curtailed services intervening.

It is the second Christmas in the new “Dominion” building, opened just last year with still many teething problems, not the least of which are the bitterly cold December winds whistling through the large back loading doors whenever they are open, which is most of the time, often forcing the staff to don their parkas.

Train No. 40 from the mainland is two hours late due to ferry delay and the heavy transfer of mail at Emerald Junction for Summerside. Overtime tonight for sure. The first truckload from the station arrives at the back door at eleven o’clock with the news that there are over one thousand bags to come. (A normal night is 75 to 100.) Each bag can weigh up to one hundred pounds. They are loaded onto carts and wheeled in and stacked at large tables where they are emptied and the contents sorted to other bags on racks, one for each post office in the province. As these are filled they are stripped from the rack and piled near the doors for dispatch by train the next day.

Someone has mailed a box with a frozen wild goose in it which has thawed out in the heated mail car, soaking everything else in the bag. Reminds one clerk of the time his mother baked a fruit cake to send to him while he was with the army in Italy. As an extra treat she packed oranges around it to keep it moist. The oranges moulded, spoiling the cake. When he opened it, he was sitting under an orange tree loaded with ripe fruit. This bag is a stinking mess.

Local trains, daily except Sunday, operate to Elmira, Georgetown, and Murray Harbour, each with its postal car and mail clerk, each serving post offices en route. From Summerside, trains run to Emerald Junction and Tignish. Charlottetown also handles all mail for the Magdalen Islands via the air services of Maritime Central Airways.

Friday is “Magazine” night and one clerk spends most of his shift sorting the heavy bundles of weeklies, “Saturday Evening Post”, “Life”, “Collier’s”, out of town newspapers and whatever “monthlies’” arrive. Mail is sorted to the lobby boxes, the ‘bag’ services to the larger businesses, the hospitals and the various government departments. At midnight, another shift arrives to perform their duties of preparing dispatches to Summerside and Moncton via the “Early Bird’ flight, the flight to the Magdalen Islands, and the dispatch to the CN station for Train 39 to the mainland, which normally carries three mail clerks, but is supplemented at Christmas with casual help.

It’s starting to snow and the wind is picking up as the evening shift leaves at 5 am.
They will be back this evening and Sunday and even on Christmas Eve. Everything closes on Christmas Day, but things get back to normal on Boxing Day evening to prepare for normal services on the 27th. It is on Christmas Eve that some of the larger customers send in boxes of fruit and tubs of ice cream and boxes of chocolates for the postal staff. Only the Postmaster receives the Christmas “spirits”! Oh well, ‘twas ever thus!

It is to be hoped that you put on the correct postage. Three cents for first class mail but if it is for local street letter delivery, two cents will suffice, which will also do for unsealed Christmas cards. Airmail requires the distinctive seven cent blue “Canada Goose” stamp.

(Postscript – employment of casual labour was later phased out, as were the annual examinations.)

The Magdalen Islands are now served from Gaspe, Que.

Christmas 2006 – 51 cents for letters and cards. $1.49 for overseas. Both plus taxes – of course!) Season’s Greetings to All. Toodly-do. See you in 2007!

British law firm Peninsula has said that nearly 75 percent of companies in the country are choosing not to display Christmas decorations.

The law firm said companies are avoiding yuletide displays in the workplace out of fear that an offended party could sue for discrimination, Sky News reported Tuesday.

“Christmas trees and decorations may well be a thing of the past in many workplaces this Christmas as political correctness culture has spread to the workplace,” Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, told Sky News.

“Although employers who are enforcing the ban are skeptical and dismayed by this trend, they feel they have little choice in the matter due to the threat of litigation, as they have to protect themselves, their reputation and their livelihood.”

The era of the office Christmas party is over, most workers told Harris Interactive in a poll sponsored by Fort Lauderdale-based Spherion.

Most people – 57 percent – do not care if their employer has a holiday party and about half – 46 percent – are not going to attend a company party anyhow.

Spherion, based in Fort Lauderdale, contracted with Harris Interactive last month to find out what 1,639 employed adults think about office parties.

The workplace is changing, and the idea of trying to bring everyone together to celebrate the holidays no longer appeals to most Americans, the Rochester, N.Y.-based Web survey company reported.

The holiday party poll was accurate to 2 to 3 percentage points.

Women were more likely than men to feel obligated to attend a party – 30 percent versus 24 percent – while 30 percent of workers aged 25-29 say it is important to them that their employer has an annual holiday party.

Only one in 10 workers aged 65 and older think a party is important.

A SNOW machine, an ice rink with skating snowmen and hundreds of lights are just a few of the Christmas attractions at 16 Elm Close in Huntingdon this year.

The Christmas lights, which are spread across the front garden, were officially switched on by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire presenter Jane Smith and can now be seen from 4.30-10.30pm daily.

The layout of the lights are planned in detail by the homeowner Patricia Allen. It takes her son Anthony, and his step-father Jack Panter, more than four days to put the lights up.

Anthony said: “We just brought a few more lights each year and ended up with this many. Our electricity bill does go up when they switch on the lights but we do it for the kids.”

Inside the garden is a stable containing three reindeers, carol singers that actually sing, Santa and much more.

A new addition to the garden this year is the stable containing Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and some sheep … which, of course, all light up. To protect their Christmas spectacular the family have had to put up high fences around their garden and CCTV cameras after some of their wires were cut in 2004.

Iowa Christmas tree growers are helping some soldiers have a much greener Christmas.

The pine, spruce and fir trees that were grown in Iowa will be shipped to soldiers stationed in Illinois.

A FedEx truck rolled into the Iowa State Fairgrounds at about 8:30 a.m. They’re going to pay the shipping cost and Iowa growers donated the trees.

Sixteen evergreen growers from across the state donated 60 trees to soldiers.

They said that not only are they helping military personnel, but they are giving them some of the best trees in the country.

“I hope that they are so much appreciated back home. People who grow Christmas trees are thinking of them (and) want them to have the best Christmas they can have,” said Loren Kruse of Kruse Christmas Tree Farm.

Two weeks ago, the National Christmas Tree Growers Association shipped trees to soldiers serving overseas.

They sent them about 800 trees that were grown all over the U.S.

THERE was joy and laughter and singing, dancing and drama.
But this was no theatre or club.

It was the glorious setting of St Mark’s Church, in Peterborough, where more than 500 worshippers raised the roof in an effort to “put the Christ back into Christmas”.

The unique effort, aimed at fostering friendships during the season of goodwill, drew congregations from outlying churches into the city – St John The Baptist With Emmanuel, in Werrington, joined St Marks, in Lincoln Road.

At the special morning worship, held at the Victorian church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary, this year, the Advent wreath’s candles – each representing The Patriarchs, the prophets, John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary and Jesus – were lit by teenagers from Werrington and Peterborough.

Prayers were said for leaders of the world, places where fighting causes poverty, people who have lost loved ones in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and people with HIV and Aids, at home and around the world.

In addition, hundreds of little fishes made of paper inscribed with the names of people, for whom parishioners wished to pray, were attached to a fishing net, symbolising the work of the apostles who were charged with becoming “fishers of men”.

The Rev George Rogers from St John with Emmanuel, in Twelvetrees Avenue, quoted from the book Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels: “I dream that some day, places of worship will be filled with people who lay awake at night concerned about the human beings my Father created. Who care about broken bodies and broken souls and hopeless futures; is that what you dream of?”

And, reminding the congregation of the temporary nature of presents that people yearn for at this time of year, he asked them to remember that the festive season was about caring and sharing.

The joint service provided worshippers with the opportunity to meet and greet, as well as remind them that they were part of a bigger family.

Vicar of St Mark’s the Rev John Price said: “This came from the need to encourage people to come together and focus on what Christmas is really about: what we believe is central in celebrating Christmas.

“We want to bring more goodness into the festival.

“It’s gone all commercial now. What we are trying to do is put Christ back into Christmas, remind everyone that the first half of the word Christmas is Christ.

“ In doing this we are reminding people that the church is about doing good.

“It’s about lifting the hearts of people.

“This is a special effort where we put action into words by bringing people together. by showing them there is a greater fellowship in the world.”

Edward Brindley (16), a pupil at the King’s School, in Park Road, Peterborough, said of the joint service: “I thought it worked well. People get tied up in what they are going to give and get, but Christmas should be more than that.”

About 70 people, bundled up and braced against the wind, gathered in the parking lot of an auto parts store yesterday to hear the story of the birth of Jesus, as read from the King James Bible.

There was no angry mob present at the day-long Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Old-Fashioned Christmas, as some expected, after Valley Gospel Chapel pastor Greg Lull went public earlier this week over the chamber’s decision not to sponsor his church’s tea, as planned, if it included a religious reading.

“Our goal is to be involved with the community and part of the chamber,” said Lull yesterday as he prepared for the 4 p.m. Bible reading.

“As for next year? I just hope it sends a message to the chamber: Next year let’s do it right and include the Christmas tradition.” Lull said.

Lull began the 30-minute event by reading to the crowd from a statement issued by the chamber, apologizing for what they termed a “misunderstanding.”

“They did apologize, which is all we wanted,” said Lull.

After a few opening hymns played by a school band ensemble, church member Jim Hofford read from the books of Matthew and Luke:

“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn,” read Hofford.

Traffic rumbled along Main Street, at times obscuring the words coming through a pair of speakers set up on metal stands, but Hofford’s voice was steady.

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”

The chamber’s itinerary of events was republished at the last minute, listing the two-dozen store-based events separately from four church-related events, which included a cookie walk and a Christmas fair.

(In yesterday’s Union Leader story, a sub-headline incorrectly referred to “The Night Before Christmas” instead of the Christian Nativity story as the disputed reading.)

It was held outside, said Lull, because the auto parts store parking lot could accommodate a crowd.

Gina Itarelli brought her two kids, Kody, 10, and Courtney, 9, to listen to the reading before the 5 p.m. tree lighting ceremony.

“Even though I’m on the fence when it comes to things of faith, my children are believers. And I wanted to be here to support the church,” Itarelli said. “These are the values our country was founded on. Our forefathers relied on their faith. I don’t understand when bringing God into things became a such a problem.”

Church member Chance Johnmeyer said he wasn’t shocked by the chamber’s decision, but he was concerned that fellow Christians, upset by the controversy, might publicly protest the day’s events..

“An aggressive response goes against the message we’re trying to proclaim with our lives,” Johnmeyer said. “This is something we should do, not because we’re provoked, but because it’s something we believe in.”

Leigh Bosse, who has lived in the town all his 59 years, said he has no idea how the original decision by the chamber came about to cancel the event as planned, but it was a bad decision.

“And the chamber’s apology is ridiculous. There was no misunderstanding,” Bosse said.

“At the same time, this will have no lasting effect on the town. It was a total goof and it’s been corrected.”

Cheryl Lynn Fields, a member of the United Methodist Church, said the notion that the church reading from scripture might be offensive was offensive to her.

“Separation of church and state doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist; it just means the state can’t tell you how to worship and that’s what they tried to do,” Fields said.

Alison Belanger, also a member of the Methodist church, said she and her husband still own the property the auto parts store is on.

“Anybody can read any holy book they want in our parking lot,” said Alison Belanger.

Her husband George said, in the end, it seems something positive came out of the experience.

“They want you to call it holiday now, instead of Christmas, and they don’t want you to say God in public anymore,” he said. “Today in Hillsborough it’s Christmas, and it will always be Christmas.”

Yobs hurled bricks at Santa and his sleigh during his first tour of Tipton under the protection of a security guard.

The thugs struck as he finished the first of his rounds, collecting funds for charity with Tipton Community Association, last night.

The group had been collecting for two hours when the incident happened off Eagle Lane, near Great Bridge, at around 8.30pm.

A gang of yobs stood on the bridge as the sleigh went past, and threw bricks at the parade, although none reached Santa or his new security guard, taken on in case of such incidents.

Darren Smith, chairman of the group said: “It was just a minor incident. They just threw a couple of bricks towards us, but there was nothing in it. The children have been brilliant all night, they were singing and dancing round the sleigh as we walked through the estates.”

Tipton Community Association was forced to take on security staff to guard Santa and his sleigh after being pelted with rocks and bricks on the tour last year.

Every year members walk the streets of the town collecting money from residents for charity and entertaining children.

The mystery over who chopped down a Monmouthshire town’s Christmas tree has deepened after council workers said it was not them.

A police appeal was made after the 25ft tree in Usk was found sawn in half.

Then the blame shifted to Monmouthshire Council after it was thought their workers had cut it up after considering it a public danger in high winds.

But the council said it was not responsible and the damage is believed to have been caused by vandals.

At first, members of Usk Town Council thought the tree had blown over but on closer inspection it was revealed it had been sawn up.

Police were then contacted and issued an appeal for information.

It was then thought that Monmouthshire Council had been forced to chop it up to remove it for safety reasons after it blew over in the wind.

But the mystery deepened further on Monday when it was revealed that a risk assesment on the tree over the weekend had declared it did not need to be cut down.

‘Mindless vanadlism’

Councillor Tony Kear from Usk Town Council explained: “We were told by the police that the county council had been informed it was a potential danger and so we thought they had taken it down.

“But the county council had now confirmed to us that they didn’t.

“They said they had been informed at about three in the morning it was a hazard and they were going to send someone to sort it out.

“But we’ve spoken to the council and they said they decided it wasn’t.

“So it looks as if it was vandals after all,” he said.

Mr Kear said a replacement tree was being put up on Monday in time for the annual Father Christmas and reindeers event on Sunday.

“It’s awful, just simply and act of mindless vandalism,” he said.

“It’s obvious that vandals are trying to spoil Christmas but we are determined not to let them.

“I just can’t understand it. The person who did this went out in high winds and rian, climbed inside the fence to get to the tree and then into the branches to saw it.

“There were electrics and all sorts, it’s just totally bizarre why anyone would want to do this.

“It must be a real Ebeneezer Scrooge who is responsible, but we are not going to let them spoil Christmas,” he added.

Monmouthshire Council has confirmed it was not responsible for cutting down the tree.

A spokesman for Gwent Police said: “Someone has cut the tree and we are treating it as criminal damage.”

He said it was probably cut down during the early hours of Sunday morning and appealed for information.

The tree has since been replaced with another.

Sheila Kearns had a Christmas tree delivered to her home on Sunday. She says she thought she’d been pricked by pine needles when she reached into the tree while decorating it. But the next morning, she found a bat hanging upside down in her home.

It turns out that the Christmas tree farm Kearns bought from keeps bats around for pest control and that one unwittingly hitched a ride to her home.

Animal control officials picked up the bat, which tested negative for rabies.

Kearns got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics, but says she’s not fazed. She says she’ll keep buying her trees from the same farm.

Ambitious plans by traders to lure in Christmas shoppers by running a festive train through the streets of the city have been thwarted – because council red tape means it cannot be discussed until January.

The Norwich Lanes committee had wanted to attract more families by operating a diesel-run white train in the run-up to Christmas to shuttle shoppers around.

Wayne Persinger, who runs Captain America’s Hamburger Heaven in Exchange Street, and is the Lanes secretary, said traders had drawn up the route the 60 foot three-carriage train, which would hold 60 shoppers, would follow.

“We wanted to bring it down Gentleman’s Walk and London Street but the council said there was legislation preventing that. There were too many restrictions to overcome in a short period of time,” he said.

The traders’ intention was to bring in the privately-owned train that chugs across Yarmouth seafront and if the idea had been a big hit, they had hoped to use it again in the summer.

“We had negotiated a package with the train operator who would have provided a driver and I think it would have been a novel feature for Norwich. We are disappointed but I am optimistic it will come off next year,” he said.

The train idea will not get looked at by council chiefs until the January meeting of the Norwich Highways Area Committee.

The committee had also planned to brighten up the area by planting a large Christmas tree in St Gregory’s Alley on the spot of an old walnut tree which was removed by council bosses when it went rotten.

Mr Persinger said he had been told they would need to get a risk assessment done on the new tree in case it fell down and also get a structural engineers’ report done. He said the council had agreed to foot the £300 bill for that, but then it emerged the traders would have to buy a huge concrete slab for it to sit in, which they decided would cost too much.

“We are working on the possibility now of illuminating another tree now instead,” he said.

Chris Betts, partner of All’s Fair in St Gregory’s Alley, said: “I am disappointed about the tree. It would have brightened the area up a bit, it’s a bit empty down there otherwise as there are not really any Christmas decorations.”

Richard Stubbings, who runs Kulture Shock, in St Benedict’s, said: “We are obviously disappointed but understand these things take time.”

A city council spokeswoman said officers were preparing a feasibility report on a road train and this would be presented to Norwich Area Highways Committee next year, at the earliest in January.

Online Christmas shopping sales in the US have risen by a quarter compared to last year, new figures show.

Statistics released by web monitoring firm comScore show that online non-travel retail spending in the US reached £11.7bn during November, representing a 24 per cent increase over last year.

“Online consumer spending during the holiday season continues to surge,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks.

“Sales were buoyed by strong consumer spending in recent days like 27 November and 28 November, which each saw $608m in spending.”

However, the number of visitors to retail sites has grown just 13 per cent, while the total number of visits has grown 12 per cent, demonstrating that consumers are spending about 11 per cent more this year on a per-visit basis.

“In the same way that offline retailers would not think of using only foot traffic counts to gauge in-store sales, savvy online retailers understand that visits to retail websites alone is not a sufficient metric for measuring sales success,” said Fulgoni.

“Online site visitation alone does not indicate online sales trends because it does not reflect the rate of visitor-to-buyer conversion nor the value of buyers’ shopping baskets.

“It is clear that consumers are increasing their spending per visit to online e-commerce sites.”

Everyone finds inspiration in unlikely places. Travis Collis found his when he watched comedian Chevy Chase’s inept Clark W. Griswold doggedly staple Christmas lights to his roof in the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

Like Chase’s Griswold, Collis, 26, goes all out when he decorates for Christmas. Unlike Griswold, Collis is so successful that he does it for family and friends, too. His Pisgah Road home, and the nearby homes of his wife Jenny’s grandparents and an aunt and uncle, boasts a total of 150,000 Christmas lights.

And that’s just the beginning. The labor of love’s first steps start in October, but then it gradually grows as Collis adds lights and decorations.

“I do it all myself. My wife will come and give me a cord or some encouraging words, but she mostly lets me do it,” Collis said.

The roof of Collis’s house is home to 5,000 Christmas lights alone. He found the inspiration for this unique extra roofing from Chevy Chase.

“It took about four hours just to do the roof,” he said. “I did buy some hooks to hang them from, but those didn’t work and I just got fed up, and finally used the staple gun. Hopefully it won’t ruin my roof. I’ll be in a lot of trouble, I’m sure, if it starts to leak.”

Getting just the right tree was part of Griswold’s quest for the perfect old-fashioned family Christmas, but the Collis home outdoes the movie’s single tree by a factor of eight. Even the bathroom has its own tree.

“We have eight fully decorated Christmas trees,” Collis said. “In each room, the whole room matches the theme of the tree.”

Christmas decorations are a natural for Collis and his wife Jenny. He manages a Christmas shop in Princeton. Besides this “fits like a glove” professional duty, the Christmas season has an extra depth of significance for the Collis family.

“We had a holiday engagement and a Christmas wedding,” Collis said. He even proposed to Jenny with a Christmas light display.

And the displays are not static.

“We add every year. I’m just waiting for the house to explode. We run into storage obstacles and things like that,” he said. “We’ve had the house totally rewired. An electrician stops by to add a couple of outlets and make sure we don’t blow breakers.”

Besides decorating his own home and nearby houses, Collis will decorate up to 28 Christmas trees for friends and family.

“I’m one of these people who believes the bigger, the better,” he said. The challenge is making the decorations and themes different every year.

“I want it to be totally different every year. When people come in and enjoy it, for people to come and take it all in, that’s what makes it worth it.” And nobody is able to say “I saw that last year.”

Collis said he is very grateful to his wife for allowing him to decorate. But the lights must come down by Jan. 1.

IT could be a lean Christmas for more than 4.2 million credit card users who are still paying off their bill from last year’s festivities.

Price comparisons website MoneyExpert.com said nearly one in eight card users still had debts on their plastic which had been racked up last Christmas.

Experts suggested about £11.4bn would be put on cards over this festive season.

MoneyExpert.com found that last year the average consumer took 2.6 months to pay off their Christmas bills.

Scots were the quickest to pay off their bills, taking an average of 2.14 months, while people in the Midlands and Wales took more than three months to clear their debt.

Hangover

But MoneyExpert.com warned substantial numbers across Britain were still feeling the effects of a Christmas hangover – and would continue to do so well into the spring and summer of next year.

Sean Gardner, of MoneyExpert.com, said: “Christmas is a time for giving and it looks like we are definitely giving our credit cards a battering.

“It is tempting to put spending on your plastic when the bills are mounting up. Everybody intends to clear the debt as soon as possible, but it is evident millions of us don’t.”

MoneyExpert.com pointed out someone putting £1,000 of gifts on plastic would pay around £170 over a year in interest, based on APR of 16.9pc.

JOHN and Jayne Flatt are certainly spreading more than their fair share of goodwill at Christmas, thanks to their dazzling display of lights.

Their decorations are such that, despite their house being on a main road, people can’t help but to stop admire them, raising thousands of pounds for charity into the bargain.

The couple have been planning their festive trimmings since October and held the big switch-on at the weekend.

Last night, Swindon Mayor Mike Bawden and his wife Joyce visited the family’s Gypsy Lane home to see their hard work.

Jayne, 40, said: “We have got too many lights to count now. There must be thousands. This year we have added a load of 6ft to 8ft inflatables.

“We’ve had to spread into the back garden as there is no space left at the front. And we’ve got a train for the kids to ride on in the garden.”
Advertisement continued…

The Flatts have been collecting for Prospect Hospice since 2003 and raised more than £2,600 last year.

John, 58, dresses up as Santa for the event, and even their 14-year-old son Robert isn’t too cool to dress up. He managed to persuade two friends to dress as a snowman and reindeer to join his elf for the Mayor’s visit.

Caun Bawden named the hospice as his charity of the year.

“There aren’t many 14-year-old who would give up their time to go fundraising,” said Jayne.

“It does make our electricity bills very high, but it’s all worthwhile when you see the kids’ reactions. And the adults are normally even more excited.”

Prospect fundraiser Maggie Gill said: “It’s a great source of encouragement to all at Prospect to know that there are people like the Flatts who are so willing to give up their time.”