Christmas in America

General George Washington--the first George W.--gave us a Christmas gift that many people don't know about. It's too good to excerpt, so just read it at the link in the title.

Christmas Blessings

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:8-11, NKJV.

Yes, Virginia, There Really Was a Scrooge

Fascinating stuff--to me at least:

He is synonymous with the traditional image of the Victorian English Christmas but Ebenezer Scrooge may have his roots much further afield.

According to Sjef de Jong, a Dutch academic, the Charles Dickens character may have been inspired by the real life of Gabriel de Graaf, a 19th century gravedigger who lived in Holland.

De Graaf, a drunken curmudgeon obsessed with money, was said to have disappeared one Christmas Eve, only to emerge years later as a reformed character.

Read the whole thing at the link in the title.

And as Tiny Tim said, God bless us--everyone.

It's Christmas Eve!

And that means it's time for Norad's Santa Tracker!

While you're there, don't forget to stop by the Why We Track Santa page for the story on how it all got started.

Huck's Christmas Ad

Opinions seem to be mixed--even within one online publication--among conservatives about whether Mike Huckabee's Christmas ad will prove a net gain for his campaign, or a loss.

I, personally, come down on the latter side. Jim Geraghty explains it thus:

But it's worth noting that too much talk about Jesus in a political context can make folks look skeptically even on utterly innocuous uses of His name.

I would phrase it a bit differently... it seems to this lay preacher that Reverend Huckabee is turning what should be one of the holiest days in the year into a campaign sound bite. And, honestly, I agree it is likely to increase the skepticism overall, and that can't be good for Huck.

Bottom line, Huck is talking too much Jesus and not enough policy for a political election, and I think it will backfire on him. If he were running for, say, Archbishop of Washington or High Priest of America, it would be different, but the office of the Presidency is a secular, not religious, office.

Someone needs to remind Huck about that.

THE Quote of the Week

From the pen--or is it keyboard these days?--of Mark Steyn:

This is the time of year, as Hillary Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate “the birth of a homeless child” — or, in Al Gore’s words, “a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child.”

Just for the record, Jesus wasn’t “homeless.” He had a perfectly nice home back in Nazareth. But he happened to be born in Bethlehem. It was census time and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth. Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic over-regulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare it’s surely only a matter of time before Massachusetts or California reintroduce it.

The sad part is, he's got a point.

Political Correctness Chills Christmas

This one shouldn't need much introduction or comment:

THERE'LL be no ho, ho, ho this Christmas. Aspiring Santas have been told not to use the term "ho" because it could be seen as derogatory to women.

Thirty trainees at a Santa course in Adelaide [Australia] last month, held by recruitment company Westaff, were urged to replace the traditional festive greeting with "ha, ha, ha".

Don't these busybodies have anything better to do with their time?