Due to our support here at Where’s Christmas?  I received this email from Phil Butler just this morning:

from: Phil Butler
date: Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:08 AM
subject: Christmas Holiday Boat Parade 

Great News – No more holiday boat parade in Patchogue–it has been agreed and accepted that this year and for ever more the boat parade will be called the: 

Christmas Holiday Boat Parade

So please spread the word to your family, friends and neighbors to come to the 16th Annual Christmas Boat Parade on Sunday, November 22nd and join the fun and excitement as big and small boats parade from Shorefront Park to head of the Harbor fully decorated in lights, colors and the spirit of Christmas.  The Grucci Family will again donate the fireworks with the arrival of Santa Claus.

For those who e-mailed us last year, thank you very much and please be assured that your support and encouragement greatly helped and was most appreciated and if you wish to help us make this the biggest and best Christmas Boat Parade on all of Long Island, you can again help; to do so, simply mail a donation as follows:

Sponsorship of the Best Boat Christmas Decorations $500.00
Sponsorship of the Best Boat Theme …………………..$250.00
To donate any amount from…………………$25.00 to $100.00

Simply mail us sponsorship or donation to:
Christmas ‘n Patchogue Committee
38 West 1st Street
Patchogue, NY 11772

Philip Butler
Chairman
Christmas ‘n Patchogue Committee

Thanks to all of you who called and wrote in last year to express your support for the Christmas Parade.  This is just one of several examples I’m planning to post this year of success stories I’ve witnessed since last year.  The Grinchs are feeling the push back, so be encouraged and continue to speak out in support of Christmas!

Take a moment to email your support to Phil Butler: PButler@grucci.com

Lowes is ready to celebrate Christmas this year.  I received their 10-19-09 weekly ad in the mail and was very pleased to see Christmas prominently displayed on the front cover:

Next to the photo of a 7’ Airblown Santa in the upper right corner of the cover, the text reads, “See our Christmas decor now in store.” 

This is progress from their 2007 debacle when they referred to their Christmas Trees as “Holiday trees”. 

Send them a note of encouragement and tell them you’ll shop for your Christmas decorations at Lowes this year.

Okay, just one more…

Here’s a great retailer (we don’t have here in CA, unfortunately): Hobby Lobby.

Each Christmas and Easter since 1997, founder and CEO David Green spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to place these wonderful full-page ads in newspapers all across the country.

To see the ads, click on the “Holiday Messages” link at the lower right of their home page.  Hobby Lobby allows you to print the ads from their website.

Merry Christmas to David Green and all the folks at Hobby Lobby!

Be sure to visit one of their 406 stores in 33 states, or shop at their website for all your craft and hobby supply, picture framing, jewelry making, fashion fabric, floral, greeting card, party, basket, wearable art, and home accent needs!

Okay, I’m breaking my own rule about not posting after Christmas day.  I wish I had known about this excellent article back on the 16th when it was originally published so I could have offered it to you all back then: The politically incorrect truth about Kwanzaa written by Marcia Segelstein.

After ten years as a producer for CBS News, over forty years as an Episcopalian, and fifteen years as a mother, Marcia Segelstein (mvsegelstein@optonline.net) considers herself a reluctant rebel against the mainstream media, the Episcopal Church (and others which make up the rules instead of obeying them), and the decaying culture her children witness every day.  Her pieces have been published in “First Things,” “Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity,” and “BreakPointOnline,” and she is a contributing editor for Salvo magazine.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

Can you imagine schools, the media, and the culture in general embracing a holiday based on being white?

Despite what the official Kwanzaa website states, there is absolutely no evidence that the holiday is “celebrated by millions throughout the world African community.”  Nor is it “ancient,” as the website declares.  I doubt that most Africans have ever even heard of it, because it has no African roots.  There is no harvest celebration in Africa in December.

Kwanzaa is a fraud.  It is a holiday based on skin color.  It is the invention of a former black nationalist and ex-convict.

And we are like the townsfolk in the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes, afraid to say that he’s just plain naked.

Amen, Marcia…our great nation needs more rebels like you!  Kwanzaa is an interloping fraud, and we should all say so loudly and forcefully whenever and wherever its name is mentioned. 

And while we’re on the subject of taking back the reigns of our society, I urge you — take your kids out of the public school today and start teaching them yourself.  The public schools are nothing more than leftist propaganda indoctrination centers.  Fraudulent ideas like Kwanzaa would have no oxygen without the intentional collaboration of the public education complex in this country which is designed to produce useful idiots.

Once again Christmas has arrived…in spite of countless efforts by the Grinches to prevent it from coming…and so has my last post for 2008. 

We’ve seen great improvement over last year as many people and retailers have been much more willing to acknowledge Christmas.  Hopefully, our nation will continue along the path of returning to sanity in 2009 and Where’s Christmas? will no longer be needed.

Until then, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

…and continue to resist the opposition with loving wishes for a Merry Christmas in the hopes that the small hearts of the Grinches will grow with love for their fellow man.

My absolute favorite talk radio host is Dennis Prager.  I’ve been listening to him for about 25 years now (since his Religion on the Line show).  I often describe him as my best friend, whom I’ve never met. 

If you haven’t heard him, or don’t get a chance to hear him often, I urge you to download this segment of his show, entitled: A Happy Jew at Christmas.  Here’s the description of what you’re in for:

Addressing a mixed group of Jewish and Christian leaders, Dennis explains why Christmas makes him a happy Jew.  Dennis marvels at the controversy that has surrounded the celebration of Christmas as a national holiday for the last decade.  He explains why he loves the Christmas season and why the expression of the Christmas spirit with its special songs and gift-exchange is important to our national well-being.  He also explains why Christmas is disliked by the Grinch crowd. 

Major Points of the Lecture:

1. To be happy is both a choice and a moral obligation.
2. The nation’s majority culture is Christian and celebrates Christmas.  It’s a matter of simple decency to let them do so without whining and complaining about being excluded or made to feel uncomfortable.
3. We are a religious nation, founded on Judeo-Christian values.  If we lose our religious character, we will lose our moral fiber.
4. Those who protest the celebration of Christmas are narcissistic and probably unhappy.

No matter where you stand on Christmas, I urge you to listen to this segment by Dennis, or perhaps his Celebrating Diversity (Save the Christmas Party), or read his column entitled Minorities Should Express Shame, Not Only Pride, or Christians Offer Beauty At Christmas; Atheists Offer Nihilism.

I was fully prepared not to enjoy this performance as I tuned in just in time to hear Dr. Phil introduce Casting Crowns on the Christmas In Washington special on TNT the other night…not because I don’t like Casting Crowns, but because that’s my favorite Christmas Carol and I wasn’t eager to hear it modernized.  Although it’s not very Christmas-sounding (except when the choir is singing), I have to admit that I was blown away by their interpretation of this song.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

According to TNT’s interview with Mark Hall:

The poetic lyrics penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow document how hope emerged from a crisis of faith the writer experienced after he lost his wife in a house fire and soon saw his son crippled in the Civil War.

“He wrote about how every year when these Christmas bells ring, it reminds him that there’s peace on earth, good will toward men,” explains Hall.  “But this time around, the reality of the world he lives in at that moment rushes in.  The verses change, and suddenly he’s saying, ‘But there is no peace.  There’s war, and there’s hate.  And this hate mocks the song of the bells.’  He’s working through his understanding of Christmas.  And as the bells keep ringing, he just has this moment when he realizes God is not dead, nor does He sleep.  Good will prevail.  God is going to save the day.”  The timelessness of the song’s potent hope-filled message is glaring to Hall—especially in light of today’s world events.  “This generation needs to hear this song,” he says.  “My kids need to hear this song.”

In a creative musical twist, Hall decided the carol’s song of the bells should actually be sung by the bells.  Thus a boys choir personifies the bells and hypnotically sings the “peace on earth” refrain.  “The bells remind us of hope,” he explains.  “And when you hear a child sing, it’s the same thing.  It reminds us today might be dark, but this is what tomorrow sounds like.”  As a resulting irony, there are no literal bells used in Hall & Co.’s version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

Here is Longfellow’s original poem written in 1864, entitled Christmas Bells:

    I heard the bells on Christmas Day
    Their old, familiar carols play,
        And wild and sweet
        The words repeat
    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    And thought how, as the day had come,
    The belfries of all Christendom
        Had rolled along
        The unbroken song
    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    Till ringing, singing on its way,
    The world revolved from night to day,
        A voice, a chime,
        A chant sublime
    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    Then from each black, accursed mouth
    The cannon thundered in the South,
        And with the sound
        The carols drowned
    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    It was as if an earthquake rent
    The hearth-stones of a continent,
        And made forlorn
        The households born
    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    And in despair I bowed my head;
    “There is no peace on earth,” I said;
        “For hate is strong,
        And mocks the song
    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

    Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
    “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
        The Wrong shall fail,
        The Right prevail,
    With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

This poem was written during the American civil war (1861-1865), as reflected by the sense of despair in stanzas 4 and 5 which speak of the battle.  It was first set to music in 1872, but the score for the contemporary version first sung by Bing Crosby was written in the 1950’s by Johnny Marks.  Marks was a Jewish American songwriter whose specialty was Christmas songs, including: Holly Jolly Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and many others.  Most hymnals omit stanzas 4 and 5.

Check out Bill O’Reilly’s Talking Points Memo entitled, Why Christmas Matters:

After yesterday’s post, I did some hunting around and found Will Vinton’s 1987 A Claymation Christmas Celebration:

This wonderful Christmas TV special won the Primetime Emmy Award in 1988 for Outstanding Animated Program, and it was an annual favorite in our home each Christmas. 

The show is an entertaining collection of Claymation skits set to traditional favorite Christmas carols.  Herb (as in herbivore) and Rex (as in Tyrannosaurus Rex) are the hosts.  The short attention-span Herb is driven by the sole concern for indulging his appetites, while the buttoned-down Rex is more preoccupied with the more intellectual pursuit of introducing viewers to the background of each song.  The running joke between songs consists of variations on what Herb thinks “wassail” is.

Running time is just short of 24 minutes.

Here’s a welcome addition to my post on ‘Carol of the Bells’ Audio Files.  It’s a video performance of the Celtic Women singing the Carol of the Bells.

It’s an excellent example of a very traditional version of the song, with a little Celtic twist added to it.  It also shows the lyrics in the subtitles.

I just have to add this one…it was a family favorite in our house until our VCR broke 3 years ago:

You’ll love it as much as your kids will, I’m sure!