| Written by Paul and Shelia Race for Family Christmas OnlineTM |
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The Christmas TimesTM, the Official E-Mail Newsletter of Family Christmas OnlineTM and Affiliated SitesThis newsletter is for people who like celebrating holidays, especially Christmas. It is produced in conjunction with the following web sites.
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In this IssueWelcome to the November, 2013 issue of The Christmas TimesTM.We're trying to get this out before Thanksgiving for a number of reasons. One is that we wanted to wish you a great Thanksgiving holiday. Another is that we have another tinplate-inspired building project that should look nice on your mantel, putz, or Christmas railroad, and we wanted to give you time to start early. We also wanted to let you know about two new resources we've discovered for information about Christmas tree lights and mid-century Christmas ornaments. On a personal note, I've been concerned with the increasingly callous nature of our national discourse - especially people born with every advantage who keep making up reasons why people born into poverty deserve to stay there. Today I know countless parents working multiple jobs - all without benefits - just to keep food on the table and a roof overhead. And my stomach turns when my more gullible acquaintances express certain TV announcers' ideology that it's somehow worse to help one family that "doesn't deserve it," than to neglect millions of families who do. Worse yet, such sentiments cut down on giving to truly helpful organizations like the Salvation Army because "they're probably helping people who don't deserve it." Fortunately, Shelia and I have always lived frugally, so we're not hurting (despite fourteen layoffs in my 34-year career as a technical writer), but we're not going to be retiring to a house on an island in the near future either. We do help out in various ways, but this year I've volunteered to help in a way that I've never tried before - playing saxophone at Salvation Army kettles. Okay, you didn't see that one coming, but my sister used to organize choirs to sing at kettles, so I have some idea of what I'm getting into. The local Captain seemed excited, because donations rise dramatically when there's something besides bellringing going on (even saxophone playing, apparently). If it works out, I'll report on it next month. If nothing else, it will be an adventure. And maybe a chance to see if I could make it as a busker the next time I get laid off. :-) In the meantime, of course, I'll try to remember that Thanksgiving is not about planning a "Black Friday" campaign, but about being grateful for the blessings we have and building bridges to people who are not like us. As I write this introduction, the timer in my back yard is turning on the Christmas lights on my garden railroad - think of it as a very large Christmas village that has real trees and gets real snow. We've already entertained dozens of friends with colored lights, Christmas music and running trains, and we expect to do so again in a few days. Okay, not everybody can do that, or, say, play saxophone. But the holiday season is the perfect time to learn how to show hospitality or generousity or graciousness in general - virtues that are useful all year around. , Finally, please accept our wishes for a blessed and joyous 2013 holiday season. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months. Topics discussed in this update include:
We've updated our article about the origins of Thanksgiving and similar harvest festivals. This year I've become aware of several attempts to rewrite history, including false claims that the 1621 feast at Plymouth never happened at all. So I did a little digging and added an update and some additional resources, in case any of our readers have been confronted with the same "urban legends" (to use a euphemism). The short version is that the surviving Mayflower colonists did have a feast in 1621, to which the Wampanoag were belatedly invited. Unfortunately, that seems to be one bright spot in a dark history. Many ill-informed bloggers would like to eliminate even that bright spot. I would prefer to let it serve as an example of how we should treat people who aren't like us. It's also worth noting that the Wampanoag and every other culture that ever depended on agriculture had also thanked their Deities for good harvests for millennia, so the "Pilgrims" were just following a tradition as old as civilization.
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Thanksgiving Then, and Then, and Now (Updated for 2013)
Preparing for the 2013 Christmas Train Day
New Tinplate-Inspired Christmas Storefront Project
Hawthorne Village Update