This film is about two strangers Elise (Jaime King) and Nick (Luke Macfarlane) who meet at the food court and discover that they share a disdain for Christmas.
After their second
meeting its obvious to them both that neither of them enjoys Christmas, they
make a pact, to avoid being lonely during the holidays and to navigate their
way through their Christmas calendars together, and the pact results in “The
Mistletoe Promise”
Kwanzaa is a non-religious festival African festival beginning on December 26th and ending on January 1st the central practice is the lighting of the seven candles or mishumaa of Kwanzaa which signifies each of the Seven Principles or Nguzo Saba.
Saturnalia
was a period of the year that was one of great festivity for the pagan Romans.
The four day celebration of Saturnalia began on December 17th with the feast of
the god Saturn, the Roman deity of seed and sowing.
“The Roman Saturnalia was characterized by processions, singing, lighting
candles, adorning houses with laurels and green trees, giving presents.”
Many of these have passed into modern day Christmas celebrations.
A major part of the pagan Saturnalia festival was ritual turning everything
upside-down which abolished for a short while the distinction of ranks, a
reversal of all order and dignities where slaves were served by masters,
soldiers served by their officers, a tradition which is still carried out today
in the British armed forces.
A tenth reindeer flew in Santa’s team
One unknown pulling Santa’s sleigh
We know the names of nine of them
Including Rudolf leading the way
So, who was the mystery number ten?
Twas Rudolf the brown-nosed reindeer
Flew behind his red nosed brother
But he couldn’t stop as quick I fear
This movie is not
just another adaptation of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”, this one offers
us a refreshing twist.
It’s touching,
funny, and sentimental without being syrupy, it offers the viewer a message of
the importance of family without the usual boring message that normally
accompanies it.
The film is set in
a world where Christmas is run by the efficient Bureau of Yuletide Affairs, and
they supply the “Ghosts”.
The target is an
embittered miser Jack Cameron (Tom Arnold) and a bitter and burned-out Ghost of
Christmas Past (Leslie Jordan) is given the case but he decides to go AWOL
while on the “mission” and leave his target Jack and the Ghost of Christmas
Present (Andrea Roth) stranded in 1965 with hilarious results.
Tom Arnold delivers
a believable performance, but Leslie Jordan is outstanding and steals the show
even though Andrea Roth is adorable and holds the whole thing together.
If you want a
Christmas movie to be different and unexpected, then this is the one for you.
If
on Christmas Day
Snow
fall is seen
Then
come Easter
Everywhere
be green
Candlemas
was originally a Pagan festival to celebrate purification but now it is part of
the Christian calendar.
The feast of the presentation is celebrated on February 2nd the 40th day after
Christmas and it is a day honoring Christ and Mary's purification in the
temple.
Have you ever wondered
Why Santa is such a jolly chap?
Well, it’s because he knows
Where all the naughty girls are at
Andy (Rachel
Boston) is a passionate artist, whose family has been building Rose Parade
floats for generations and when her Dad gets sick, Andy is forced to take the
helm and supervise the construction and decoration of their client's float.
Unfortunately, her
father hadn’t got around to booking the labour or ordering the necessary supplies
to do the job so the best of both were no longer available and to make matters
worse, she's saddled with the extra challenge of dealing with a demanding
businessman Cliff (Marc Bendavid), whose company commissioned the float, and
sent him there to clip his wings, and many trials and tribulations follow.
The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Irving Berlin’s White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby's
Candlelight of beauty
Adorning
church and alter
None
excluded from his love
Darkness
conquered
Light
of Christ illuminating
Everlasting
light of life
December 8th has been observed as a Roman Catholic feast in commemoration of the Immaculate Conception since 1854.
Isobel Gray (Alicia
Witt) plans an idyllic storybook Christmas with her boyfriend Peter Benson (Brett
Bishop), including a snow-covered cottage in the Northwest, and a carefully
composed bucket list of classic holiday traditions, to tick off, traditions
that she was deprived of by her neat freak mother Ellen Gray (Wanda Cannon)
But when the
boyfriend goes AWOL, and she meets Jamie Houghton (Gabriel Hogan) the list
proves more challenging, and the possibility of a tempting new romance turns
her life upside down.
In the midst of
things her mother turns up intent on staying with her which ends in upset and
recriminations, but she keeps working on her list anyway.
And as time goes by
the question is, will Isobel have a White Christmas, and will it end under the
mistletoe?
I’m a big Alicia
Witt fan and she has made a few good Christmas movies, my favourite scene in
this one is when Gabriel Hogan stands in as Santa and she dresses as his Elf,
priceless.
There is something puzzling me
As
it doesn’t say in the book
Before
his hand was taken
What
did they call captain hook
It’s
a difficult one to answer
Maybe
he was evil captain fist
Or
was he called captain two hands
Not
really a very menacing list
And
was it simply irony, mere chance
Or
was his accident planned
For
if not for the crocodile
He
would have remained a deck hand
In the 5th century the Western Church ordered the 'Mass of Christ' to be forever celebrated on the day of the old Roman feast of the Birth of Sol (the Sun).
Why doesn't Santa have any kids?
Well, it’s impossible for him see
As he only comes once a year
And he’s normally up a chimney
At college one Christmas, Maggie Chalke (Brooke Nevin) finds out that she had lost her lift home for Christmas because they had decided to leave early because a storm was on its way, however Mitch O'Grady (Robin Dunne) overhears her conversation and offers to take her instead as it was on his way.
Maggie was doubly
delighted as she had a major crush on Mitch and sharing a car journey allowed
her to get to know him better and the journey revealed his great love for
everything Christmas and he teaches her some of the many traditions.
After he drops her
at her home, she spends Christmas looking forward to seeing him again, but he
doesn’t return to college after the Christmas break.
It’s Christmas more
than ten years later before she sees her long-time crush again, she is a
journalist at the local paper and he is a radio DJ and when she learns that
Mitch's love for Christmas has drastically changed, she tries to bring his
holiday spirits back by showing him the magic of Christmas with twelve gifts of
Christmas.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
Manor
Not a creature was
stirring
As they’d been
cooked for dinner
In
the Roman Empire on the great day of December 25th, came the Brumalia or festival
of the shortest day.
It was a day of great religious significance for the sun-worshipers.
This day was also known as Natalis Solus Invicti or the "Birth of the
Unconquerable Sun"
This was the time when the day began again to lengthen.
In the fifth century the Western Church ordered Christmas to be celebrated
forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol.
During the winter solstice the druids gathered mistletoe and hung it in their homes while the Saxons favoured holly and ivy.
As World War 2 rages on in Europe the Bundy family are making plans for a Christmas reunion in the small town of Rockport.
The matriarch Martha (Eva Marie Saint) cashes in
all of her ration-stamps to purchase the best Christmas dinner she can with
everyone expected round the table.
Rockport is a small town where everyone knows
everyone else and the tough times bring them even closer.
But the one person no one wants to see at their door is the Western Union man,
because most of the news he delivers are telegrams from the War Department,
reporting the death of a loved one and sadly he makes his rounds far too often.
This is a wonderful Christmas movies with happiness and sadness in equal
measure and some strong performances, Hal Holbrook as head of the family,
Joseph, Courteney Cox as expectant daughter in law Nora, and the strongest of
all Nancy Travis as young widow Leah.
In North America there is a long standing tradition of placing little villages of little houses at the foot of the Christmas trees.
The origins of the practice are unclear although the general consensus appears
to be that Christmas villages began as over-elaborate additions to a tradition
Nativity scene.
This practice was probably taken to North America by the Moravians who
emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1741, and established the town
of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.
The Moravian tradition involves adding to the Nativity dozens, sometimes more,
of handmade figures, houses, waterfalls, bridges, churches creating a winter
wonderland.
Then in the early 20th century Sets of small buildings began to be commercially
produced.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
Home
All the children
were sleeping
Except little
Jerome
Who pretended to
sleep
So, he would be
able to see
Santa arrive, but
he fell asleep anyway
So, it was not to
be
Holly, mistletoe, the Yule log and the wassail bowl are all relics of pre-Christian times.
The Montgomery family is not a happy one, parents Charles (Chris Potter) and Judith (Kristy Swanson), are drifting apart because he is a workaholic and is always concerned that the company is close to folding, especially if he doesn't keep an eye on matters, while Judith feels like he treats their entire family as second best to the business.
While their three
children, fifteen-year-old Alexander (Nick Purcha), fourteen-year-old Jennifer
(Lizzie Boys), and 8-year old Emily (Jaeda Lily Miller) are all materialistic
and self-absorbed.
They are spending
Christmas at a new, state-of-the-art mountain cabin built by Charles'
development company, in an isolated spot in upstate New York and they make it
to the cabin just before a major snowstorm hits the area.
During the storm
there is a surprise knock on their door, and when they open it they find the Tucker
family shivering on the doorstep, parents Joe and Amy (Colin Lawrence and
Catherine Lough Haggquist), and their two children, fifteen year old Robbie
(Kolton Stewart) and fourteen year old Lucie (Alexandra Siouras) who were in
need of shelter after they ran off the road in their car in the blizzard.
The Montgomery’s
welcomed them in and let them share their Christmas and on the face of it that
simple act of charity would save the Tuckers lives, but as it turns out they
were saving their own.
The first commercial Christmas card caused something of a controversy when they first appeared in 1846.
The
cards featured a drawing depicting a group of family members happily toasting
each other with glasses of wine.
This
was considered to be a shockingly decadent portrait and was immediately
condemned by temperance advocates.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
Mansion
Not a creature was
stirring
Amidst all the
family tension
As they were all in
their rooms
Doing self-medication
Christingle has its origins in Eastern Europe and The Christingle Service is a Service of candle lights where very many years ago people gathered in the street, sang carols and collected gifts to help the less fortunate in the community.
It is a beautiful candlelight service of
hymns, carols, recitations and bible readings, but Christingle goes beyond a candlelight
service and it tells a story.
A story is told with the symbolic use of the
following items:
An orange representing the world.
A red ribbon tied around the orange to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed for
his people.
Toothpicks decorated with dried fruits and sweets are placed at the
four corners of the orange representing all the people of the world.
A lighted candle in the centre of the orange represents the light of
Christ to the world.
After the terrifying events in LA, NYPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) is about to go through it all again as he goes on a Christmas vacation to meet his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) in Washington where he is at the airport meeting her off the LA flight.
But while he is waiting a team of terrorists, led
by Col. Stuart (William Sadler) holds the entire airport hostage, while they
plan to rescue a drug lord Esperanza (Franco Nero) from justice.
As part of that plan, they have seized control of
all the control systems affecting all aircraft, with no runway lights
available, and no means to contact them all aircraft have to remain in the air,
with fuel running low, so if McClane is going to save the day again he will
need to be fast.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
Lodge
Not a creature was
stirring
Especially not Rodge
And everyone was
grateful
As he was the
bullet to dodge
Which is why they
didn’t say
They were off to
the Lodge
The
original Cre’ches in Provence, date back to the 17th century when the few bas-reliefs
evolved into carved wooden figures.
They were mainly restricted to aristocratic and middle-class homes before the
family crèches became even more widespread and some of them contained up to 40
different characters.
Even before decorated Christmas trees became the custom, the crèches already
had pride of place in French people's homes.
In 529 AD, the Emperor Justinian decreed that no one should work on the festival of Christmas.
With Christmas fast approaching Ruthless businessman Preston Bullock (Chevy Chase) sends his rising star Riley Thomas (Abigail Hawk) to the small town of Chestnut, Vermont to evaluate the assets of one of his companies, an outerwear clothing manufacturer, which is pretty much the only significant employer in the town.
As she begins
making plans for liquidation, she meets the youthful CEO, Wyatt (David
O'Donnell) and the company's founder, Nick (Howard Hesseman) now retired, and
she hires –the latter as her apprentice to help.
Of course, everyone
assumes she's there to save the company and she keeps her true motives a secret,
but she comes to appreciate what the company means to the people of Chestnut
and she slowly comes to embrace the small town's values and even helps create a
new product line just in time for Christmas, and as her priorities change she
falls in love in the process.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
Tower
Not a creature was
stirring
As they neared the
midnight hour
And the reason for
that was
A black out so they
had no power
Santon’s
are clay figurines that depict the characters of the nativity and were used in
church crèches and later in family crèches.
The name Santon comes from the Provencal word "santoun" or little
saint.
The first Santons were modeled in wax by religious orders.
Then later they were made of clay found in the region of Marseilles and
Aubagne.
When the French settled on the American continent they took Santons with them
and they are an integral part of Christmas in Canada and Louisiana.
On Dec. 26, 1583, the Glasgow Kirk Session put 5 persons to public penance for keeping the 'superstitious day called YULE'."
This is a good Christmas movie aimed at a family audience, with a wonderful message in which, with help from a guardian angel, a spoiled rich and very materialistic teenage girl learns that true value is found in assisting others and not in material possessions.
It has a great cast to tell the tale, Donna
Spangler (Angelina Foxworth), Dean Cain (Archangel Gabriel), John Savage (Mr.
Winters), Ravin Spangler (Ravin Foxworth), Brittan Taylor (Hannah), Simona
Fusco (Yvonne), Cindy Marinangel (nurse), Brandon Russell (Jerry), Vincent De
Paul (James Foxworth), Sue Wong appears as herself and of course the
ridiculously adorable Jack Pomeranian steals the show as Bunny the dog.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the Hall
Not a creature was stirring
After the Christmas Eve Ball
Except the servants of course
Who didn’t sleep at all
Three
Kings Day is celebrated on January 6th, twelve days after Christmas and is the
last day of the Christmas season.
Three Kings Day or Dia de los Reyes is also known as The Epiphany, the
Christian celebration commemorating the Biblical story of the three kings
Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar who followed the star of Bethlehem to bring
gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child.
Traditionally in Spanish speaking countries, Three Kings Day is the time for
gift-giving, rather than Christmas day.
In some regions it is customary for children to leave their shoes out on the
night of January 5 hoping the Three Kings will be generous, the children's
shoes will often be filled with hay for the Kings camels.
When the Spanish children wake on January 6 they find the hay has gone and
their shoes are filled with toys and gifts.
In England in 1644 the observance of Christmas was forbidden by an act of Parliament.
Santa’s firstborn daughter Rudolfa (Mary Donnelly-Haskell), who has been waiting in the wings to succeed him for centuries, secretly begins selling off pieces of the North Pole on the internet and convinces Santa (Douglas Campbell) that his tenure is over and it’s time for him and Mrs. Claus (Rebecca Toolan) to retire.
Her plan is to eventually take over after she has
ruined Christmas and replace Santa's workshop and the village with a brand-new
casino.
It takes Santa’s other daughter Kristin Claus
(Kathy Ireland) to save the North Pole with her two children Kyle (James Kirk)
and Brittany (Kirsten Prout) and her fiancé Bill Morgan (John Dye).
The first glass ornaments for the Christmas tree were a kind of glass ball called Kugels and were believed to protect homes from evil spirits. These were first produced at Lauscha in Germany around 1830.
In Russia St Nicholas is greatly revered as the protector of the weak from the strong, the oppressed from the oppressor, and the poor from the rich.
He is regarded as the Christian champion of the disadvantaged and In the
Orthodox tradition he is the known as the Wonder or Miracle Worker.
On the eve of Christmas, Rockford County Sheriff Rick Langston (Dean Cain) has lost his holiday spirit.
That isn’t helped when he catches a local man who
had stolen the baby Jesus from a Nativity scene in order end up in a warm jail
cell.
Later he finds a man at his
home and Rick naturally assumes he has broken in even though he looks and acts
a lot like Santa Claus.
But he arrests the jolly old man in the red suit
anyway and places him in jail with the Nativity thief and then both he and
Santa open the sheriff’s eyes to a few things.
Unexpectedly Sheriff Langston then meets a woman
who has just moved to Rockford named Lucy Hart (Christine Lakin) and after
meeting her and her daughter Alana (Sophie Bolen) he
comes to realise that even when you feel that all is lost, love is all around
you
and that his life promises more than he could have hoped for and he had a
renewed belief in the possibility of miracles.
The kissing bough was made out of mistletoe, holly, ivy, and any other available evergreens.
It was shaped into a double hoop and had bright streamers flowing from the top
and was decorated with apples, pears, ribbons, and lighted candles.
Anyone found under the bough, as with mistletoe, was to be kissed without
delay.
The kissing bough was very popular in England, but its heyday was before the arrival
of the Christmas tree.
Chanukah is the Jewish Festival of Lights an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem during which a special eight-branched candelabrum is slowly lit over eight days.
In the nineteenth century
At
Christmas time
The
old queen, Victoria
Gave,
to her senior staff
And
closest friends
A
specially commissioned
Victorian
Christmas pie
An
extraordinary example
Of
culinary magnificence
The
pie consisted firstly
Of
a woodcock
Small
and plump
Which
was then stuffed inside
A
well hung and gamey pheasant
Which
in its turn
Was
stuffed inside
A
fat corn fed chicken
As
if this was not enough
The
chicken itself was then
Stuffed
into a huge Turkey
Until
Finally
The
great weight of fowl
Was
placed upon a dish
And
surrounded by special stuffing
And
baked beneath
Jack Green (Dean Cain) inherited a southern Californian horse ranch from his father complete with an all-natural toy factory in the barn. Along with his wife Cherie (Jean Louisa Kelly) he is bullied into taking in the three “holy terrors” from orphanage run by his bossy aunt Rita (Mimi Kennedy).
It's
only for a few weeks while renovations are done which would be completed before
the holidays.
Mike (Dylan Sprayberry) and his buddies, Henry (Alex Zubarev) and Ray (Spencer Bridges), prove to be a
handful, but Jack proves that he has father-potential and he and Cherie like
having them around.
It is thought that the concoction we now know as eggnog started out as a mixture of Spanish Sherry and milk which The English used to call "Dry sack posset".
The
Christmas cactus
The winter-bloomer
Its jointed flat segments
Look like experiments
Made by a young boy
With a construction set toy
But the rose-purple flowers
Light up the winter hours
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”
That’s Christmas day with Stephen
But I only have myself to blame
For marrying a sodding vegan
While working as a receptionist, pastry chef Kylie Watson (Lacey Chabert) dreams of having her own café, but after having her start up loan turned down by the bank she is beginning to think that’s all it is, a dream.
Her boss and boyfriend Alex (Lane Edwards) arranges a special surprise dinner
for their anniversary and his first mistake was booking a table at the pizzeria
of Nick Mazannti (Lea Coco), her old boyfriend from culinary school, his second
was to offer Kylie a promotion when she thinks he’s about to propose, so they
broke up.
Soon after she learns she's made it to the finals
of the American Gingerbread Competition, but when she returns home to her
sister’s house, she discovers the oven she was planning to use has been damaged
by fire and will be out of commission until Christmas.
But she is still determined to enter, so she reaches
out to Nick and asks if she can make use of one of his ovens to craft her ambitious gingerbread
confections and he agrees, and as the two reminisce about the dreams of their
youth, their romance is rekindled, but nothing in her life is ever straight forward.
The
"Sans Day Carol," is a traditional carol from Cornwall.
The carol focuses on the aspects of the symbolism of the evergreen Holly in the
form of the different colored berries.
Red berries represent the blood of Jesus and white berries symbolize his
purity, Green berries represent the cross upon which Christ was crucified and
black symbolize his death.
The largest crèche in the world is an 1136 square-meter miniature of a Provencal village, located in the town of Grignan in the Drôme, 10 km west of Valréas.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the church
The faithful were eager for mass
As on their pews they perch
Travel writer Emory Blake (Bridget Regan) breaks up from a lukewarm relationship and decides to take a Christmas vacation in Pine Grove to get away from it all in a mountain cabin.
However,
her friend and editor Veronica Giles (Krystle Dos Santos) has other plans
and persuades her to take an assignment to write about an “Old Fashioned
Christmas” and books a luxury cabin for her.
Unfortunately, she has never experienced an “Old
Fashioned Christmas” and on arrival she finds that the cabin has been double
booked and she has to share it with widowed Lawyer Scott Hays (Travis Van
Winkle), his daughter Katy (Raven Stewart) and his mother Marilyn Hays (Teryl
Rothery).
Fortunately for her, her cabin mates know
everything there is to know about Christmas traditions, so she tags along with
them and as a result she gets more from her Christmas Getaway than she had
bargained on.
Christkind is an angelic messenger from Jesus a beautiful fair-haired girl with a shining crown of candles.
Many
of our modern Christmas customs are carried over from pre-Christian
celebrations.
Hanging gifts on trees is purported to stem from the ancient Druids tree
worship, and the belief that the tree was the giver of all things good.
After the French Revolution and the Monarchy was overthrown, the new republican government banned Midnight Mass and as a result the people were denied access to the Church Crèches.
Though supporters of the revolution the people of Marseilles were not best
please with this decision as they were particularly fond of the church Crèche
and as the revolutionaries had denied them access to the church they created
"public crèches" these were produced by individuals but displayed for
all to see.
“White Christmas” made in 1954 and Directed by Michael Curtiz is crammed full with Irving Berlin classics, among them "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," "Sisters," "Blue Skies," and of course "White Christmas."
The
story itself is fairly uncomplicated which concerns Two talented song-and-dance
war-time buddies (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) who team up after the war to
become one of the hottest acts in show business.
One
winter, they join forces with a sister act (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen)
and trek to Vermont for a white Christmas.
The
only fly’s in the ointment is that there is no snow and the Inn is run by their
old army general who's now in financial trouble.
The
story then follows the main stars in their attempts to rescue the situation.
The
film is a must see.
The first President of the United States, George Washington, was a particular devotee of eggnog and concocted his own recipe which included rye whiskey, rum and sherry.
For the wealthy landowners
In
medieval times
Food
was plentiful
At
Christmas time
And
A few days before the holy day
The
kitchen at the manor
Would
begin their preparations
First
a huge pasty case was made
For
a special festive pie
Into
the bottom of the huge pastry case
Went
enormous amounts of forcemeat,
This
was ground beef and lamb
Heavily
seasoned with salt and pepper,
On
this were placed boned and boiled hens,
Rabbits,
Ducks and assorted game birds
Another
layer of forcemeat was added
Then
marrow, hardboiled egg yokes
Currants,
prunes and dates
Spices
such as cloves and saffron,
Mace
and cinnamon
Finished
off the ample filling
It
was then covered
With
the huge pastry lid and baked
And
such a feast was had
The
poor were less fortunate
Unless
they had a goodly lord at the manor
But
Bad masters were
As
plentiful as the feast
And
so, Christmas for the poor
Was
often less than merry
It was just twelve months ago
Since my special wish was made
A wish you thought so simple
For which a fortune I'd have paid
And now it's our first Christmas
In our first little house
But I hope the first of many
With my beautiful new spouse
This year my wish is simpler still
On this Christmas day with you
May our hearts be always filled with love
And the stockings be filled with you
Following the death of his father, 13-year-old George (Gage Munroe), is staying with his grandparents, Bo and Cora McCray (James Brolin and Barbara Gordon) on their dairy farm until after Christmas.
With the arrival of the first snows they are struggling to keep the family farm running
and George has to help with the milking as well as driving the snow plough, but
he finds a trusty shoulder to lean on in the shape of a dog called Tucker,
which the McCrays were looking
after while their neighbour Mr Thorne (Ron Lea), was in jail for drunk driving.
But when Thorne is released he wants Tucker back,
and that’s when the story really starts.
It’s
a nice story, well photographed with a fine cast, but the pick of the bunch for
me was Helen Colliander as George’s special school friend Mary Ann.
It was in Germany in 1531 that the first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared.
The
first Christmas card was printed in England in 1843, for a busy man called Sir
Henry Cole.
Because he was such a busy man he wanted to save some of the time he had to
spend on his Christmas correspondence.
However his motive was not merely to ease the burden of his letter writing he
was also a tremendous advocate of the slowly expanding postal system.
Sir Henry Cole's first commercial Christmas card sold 1000 copies at one
shilling each.
But it was not until the 1860s that card production accelerated with the advent
of cheaper printing methods.
Then in 1870 a half penny stamp for sending cards was introduced by the Post
Office.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the Hamlet
Not a creature was
stirring
But no need to fret
They were at
midnight mass
And hadn’t returned
yet
From the Church in
town
Where they were
well met
Eve Simon (Elisa Donovan) is a wealthy and successful advertising executive with Bernstein & Barlow on Madison Avenue, and she’s a career woman who has everything, except someone special in her life.
She did have her married boss and lover, Neil Barlow (Kavan
Smith) but that ended when, on Christmas Eve, he said he would be spending
Christmas with his wife and kids instead of her.
So, all alone in the city she wallowed in
self-pity and Gin and reflected on her life and the choices she had made, and that was when
she got a second chance in her life when a magical wish
transported her back in time by eight years, to the time when she walked away
from her fiancé Scott Gustafson (Sebastian Spence) to lead what she thought would be her perfect life in
New York.
People have been discovering
On a Christmas Morning
That the curse of Christmas
That’s causing the most fuss
Has been unanimously concluded
Batteries not included
The Germans love to decorate their homes at
Christmas time and one of the favorite forms of German decoration is for the
window.
The decoration consists of small wooden frames holding a picture made from
colored glass or plastic with an electric candlelight behind it, these lights
look very beautiful when viewed from outside at night.
It was Pope Julius I, in 320 AD, who selected 25th December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Technically “Snowmen” is not a Christmas Movie but that can be overlooked because it’s a great tale about three unlikely heroes, Billy Kirkfield (Bobby Coleman), Howard Garvey (Bobb'e J. Thompson) and Lucas Lamb (Christian Martyn), and the winter that changed their lives forever after a surprising discovery in the snow which catapults the three small-town boys into the spotlight.
Billy is a cancer survivor but is convinced
that he’s going to die despite the fact that the doctors and his parents have
told him otherwise, and before he dies, he wants to do something that will mean
he will be remembered forever.
So, the best friends hatch a plan to do
something that will get them into the Guinness World Records Book.
Along the way, the trio battles schoolyard
bullies, unites their community and discovers that, while fame may be fleeting,
true friendship lasts forever.
The film also featured Ray Liotta as Billy’s
father, Josh Flitter as their nemesis and Christopher Lloyd as the
philosophical cemetery caretaker.
A popular German Christmas decoration is an Adventskranz which consists of a wreath of evergreen leaves with four candles equally spaced.
Advent which means 'coming' is the 4-week period before Christmas and on each
Sunday of Advent, another candle is lit.
In Germany Der Weihnachtsmann or Father Christmas brings presents in the late afternoon of Christmas Eve so after people return home from church, they find the presents under the Christmas tree and one person in the family will ring a bell and call everyone to come to the room.
Telesphorus, the second Bishop of Rome from 125 to 136 AD, declared that public Church services should be held to celebrate "The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour."
As the big night approaches, it is discovered that one of Father Christmas's reindeer, Prancer, has a hairline fracture in one of his feet, and has to drop out of the sleigh team.
Santa's stockman, John (Gabriel
Hogan) is instructed by Santa (Derek McGrath) and Mrs Claus (Jayne Eastwood)
to find a replacement as soon as possible but has no idea how to go about it,
so he speaks to Randy the pilot (K. Trevor Wilson) who
directs him to the Miller Ranch in Buckley Falls Alaska where there is a
reindeer herd.
When he gets there, he finds that owner Annie
(Hilarie Burton) is both unsympathetic and unreceptive to his enquiries
due to severe money worries.
He does however make a better impression on her
adorable daughter Madison (Lola Flanery) who introduces him to the reindeer,
and in particular, Frankie.
Annie is under pressure to sell up to a local
wealthy landowner and businessman who wants to develop her land into a winter
sports resort, or have the bank foreclose, so her choices are stark, sell to
someone she despises or lose everything, however John has a third alternative.
A very enjoyable, easy watch of a movie, and
there’s never a dull moment, with reindeer, romance, humour, and a good cast to
boot, I particularly enjoyed Jayne Eastwood playing a very different kind of
Mrs Claus, so if you get the chance, give it a watch.
In Greece St. Nicholas or Nikolaos is the patron saint and his primary role is as the protector of sailors and men of the sea.
To honour the saints day, small fishing boats, are decorated with blue and white
lights.
He is considered the master of wind and tempest and Greek ships of all sizes
carry an Icon of him.
The sailors will light a candle before the icon and pray for safe passage and
if a vessel is in danger the captain prays to the saint promising solemnly to
make an offering of a small symbolic representation of their ship made of
silver, gold, or wood, in the event of safely making port.
On their safe return to port, the captain and his crew take the representation
of their ship to church in thanksgiving for their safe return.
St Francis of Assisi was the first to introduce Christmas Carols to formal church services.
We met at the Christmas party
And I instantly
fell in love with you
The prettiest girl
in the room by far
Dressed in shades
of Christmas hue
And when I heard
your joyous laugh
The blissful love
in my heart grew
And though we had
never spoken
Nonetheless I
somehow knew
That for every
Christmas to come
In my future I'd
still be loving you
So, I look back,
with you in my arms
Samantha Logan (Alexis Knapp), a teacher in New York, is offered the opportunity to start and run a well-funded summer school program and is given the Christmas Holidays to consider her decision during her return to her hometown where she is to stay with her parent Jim and Sandra, (Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin) for Christmas.
Shortly after her arrival she is joined by her
boyfriend, Alex (Callum Alexander) who she believes is a diplomat,
but while the family are eating dinner
royal blog watcher and waitress Heidi (Chelsea Gilson) innocently announces that
he is actually Prince Alexander Theodore William Hendricks,
crown prince of Madelvia, and the news is greeted with bemusement by Samantha
and her parents.
When an image of Samantha and Alex is posted online,
their relationship comes to the attention of his parents, King
Frederick (Charles Shaughnessy) and Queen Helena (Jane Carr) and the Queen is
determined to split them up, firstly by sending trusted royal equerry Felicia
Holst (Marina Sirtis) and then Baroness Clara Jensen (Catriona Toop) who she
wants Alex to marry.
Alex makes his position perfectly clear but
in the end it’s Samantha who must decide if she loves Alex enough to stop
teaching and become a royal.
In
the Roman Catholic areas of southern Germany, such as in Bavaria, Sankt
Nikolaus still appears with a flowing beard and a bishop's staff.
In preparation of his arrival Houses are given a thorough clean and children
shine their shoes or boots.
The children put a letter to St Nicholas along with carrots for his white horse
in their shoes and these are left either by the children's bed or on a windowsill.
During the night Sankt Nikolaus goes from house to house visiting the children
and If they have been good, he fills, shoe or boot with delicious fruits, nuts,
and sweets
But if they have been bad, they may only find potatoes, coal, or twigs.
In the largely Protestant areas of central and northern Germany, St. Nicholas later became better known as der Weinachtsmann.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
Town
The streets were
all wearing
Their bright
tinselled gown
Cate Dove (Shannon Doherty) lives and works in New York, a world away from her dull hometown, Comfort, Connecticut and she earns her living as a cat burglar.
But when her sister
Savannah Cooper (Sonya Salomaa) and brother-in-law Brian (David Lewis) get
marooned on their island vacation, they call upon Cate, very much as a last resort,
to look after their two kids, pre-teen Annie Cooper (Natasha Calis) and
teenager Parker Cooper (Josh Hayden).
Cate is really
reluctant to help out, and would have refused but for one thing, she needed to
get out of New York after a job went wrong and she was double crossed by her
partner and mentor Clive Henry (Conrad Coates) and she was caught on the
surveillance camera, so her face is suddenly being splashed all over the media
as well as the papers in Manhattan so heading to her hometown to lay low over
the Christmas holiday seemed like a good idea.
Her plan on arriving in Comfort was to let
her nephew and niece do their own thing while she spent most of her time
devising ways to even the score with her partner in crime Clive.
But of course it’s a Christmas movie so that
was never going to happen, so she gets roped into being their taxi service and
meets up with former boyfriend-turned-sheriff, Hank (Ty Olsson), but is a
romantic interlude with an officer of the law the wisest move when there is an
APB out for her, but Cate's heart begins to change, and she feels more warmly
toward the town's serenity and values, and the heart wants what the heart
wants, and anything is possible in a Christmas RomCom.
When we sit down to Christmas dinner
I’m relieved and
feel incredibly grateful
Because annoying
relatives speak less
During the meal as
their mouths are full
Christmas
tree skirts or Rugs for the base of the Christmas tree have become an
indispensable addition to the 21st century festive decor but originally, they
had a much more practical use and were meant to protect floors or carpets
against the dripping of candle wax.
The first commercial tree skirts or rugs depicted Santa Claus driving a sleigh
drawn by his eight reindeer.
In 1979 the Christingle Service was for the first time introduced into
Barbados at the St Ambrose Church.
When Emma Parkers (Taylor Cole) finds out that her beloved ice-sculpting contest, an integral part of her hometown's Christmas festival, has been cancelled, she is galvanised into action and is determined to keep it going.
Emma draws on all her years of law school in
the hope they would pay off, in addition she enlists sponsors and artists for a
Christmas Contest, and among the latter was Nick Claiborne (Damon
Runyan), who runs a Christmas Tree business and is something
of an ice artisan.
But he isn’t interested in competing, but Emma
was desperate to have him involved in the contest.
But when he considered what she'd managed to
accomplish, he found he was impressed enough to get involved.
As Emma and Nick work together, she realizes
there's more to life than musty books and legal briefs, and similarly Nick is
invigorated and transformed by Emma's can-do spirit he signs on as a teammate.
They might even have a shot at winning the
very special Christmas contest she’s been promoting, or was there something
more for them?
Franklin Pierce was the fourteenth President of the United States (1853-1857) and in 1856 he was the first President to decorate the first White House Christmas tree.
“What’s top of your Christmas list?”
I was asked right
out of the blue
“The loveliest girl
ever” I replied
Twas the night before Christmas
And all thru the
village
There was a
terrible smell
Following a diesel
spillage
“Christmas Eve” is a comedic drama about six different incidents of entrapped New Yorkers, the majority of whom get stuck inside elevators.
It happens on Christmas Eve after a power outage and
those trapped are confined there overnight.
Some of the confined are in groups, such as
concert musicians on their way to perform a Christmas Eve concert, a surgical
team and their patient at the hospital on the way down from theatre, and five
mismatched individuals who would not under normal circumstances have gelled.
There was one couple, a shy wallflower and a
brash photographer, and another made up of an employer and the employee he’s
just laid off, and then there are two individuals in solitary confinement, one
is a bitter wealthy developer in an open elevator on a construction site and
the other is the van driver who is trapped in the van that crashed into the
sub-station and caused the power outage.
Unable to escape they are forced to interact
with their fellow captives or confront their solitude and they are all
transformed by the events of their long night of confinement.
Patrick Stewart and Gary Cole are the big
names in the large talented ensemble cast but for me Steven John Shepherd as
Glen and Shawn Ora Engemann as Nurse Byrnes are the stars of this Christmas
gem.
In the not so distant past, there was a tradition of giving gifts throughout all of the twelve days of Christmas rather than finding them all stacked up on Christmas morning.
The tradition, perhaps not surprisingly, never quite caught on in America.
In Stuttgart, children dress up as Nikolaus and go from door to door asking for sweets similar to trick or treating at Halloween.
I always make the effort to go home
Though it fills me with dread to be clear
Two days of unwelcome parenting advice
From relatives I see once or twice a year
As Christmas approaches, Jenna Kingston (Elisabeth Harnois), shares an impromptu and unforgettable kiss with a dashing stranger in an elevator, who turns out to be billionaire playboy, Cooper Montgomery (Adam Mayfield), the philandering brother of her employer, Mia (Lola Glaudini).
Although she was affected by
the kiss and finds him very attractive she confides to her best friend and
neighbour Sebastian
(Jonathan Bennett) that she is fearful of getting hurt in
another relationship, and vows to resist his charms, but she is unaware that he
was similarly affected by their embrace.
It was only as a result of the
two of them spending more time together that she begins to realize his
affection for her is real and his intentions are sincere.
