Merry Greetings!

It is that time of the year again. The snow has melted, the spring breezes are subsiding and the days are getting longer. Yes, it is time -- time for us to go all out for Christmas. While the rest of the world begins to slather themselves with sunscreen we're only beginning to put summer behind us. This is the time of year when we get busy building for Christmas.

This pre-summer edition of the Merry News is all about the big transformation of Christmas life at My Merry Christmas. We're starting early because it may take you until fall to catch your breath from all the upgrades, changes and new additions:

In this issue:
-- Personal Profiles
-- Christmas Blogs
-- Christmas Groups
-- User Photos
-- Christmas Comics
-- Platinum Membership
-- The Christmas Marketplace
-- Christmas Videos
-- Hot Topics on the Merry Forums
-- Off Topics
-- The vBExperience
-- Coming Soon to Merry Christmas Radio
-- 2008 Special Christmas Events

The Merry News is brought to you by:

Personal Profiles

Clicking on the link above will take you to my personal profile on My Merry Christmas. I'm not showing off me -- I'm showing off the full capabilities of the member profiles now online at MMC.

The change from the simple profiles of the past to this dynamic and interactive new page for every registered member shows in no small part all the big changes that have taken place at MMC.

That is because we're getting to know each other better than ever. We can have "friends" online. We can post our own personal photos to share (or keep private, viewable to only a select few). We can have our own Christmas blog (more on that later). All of our site activity is recorded and rewarded. Through our profiles we connect, share and enjoy Christmas together.

All of these profile options (and more) are configurable in the User Control Panel at MMC. You'll want to start there to understand how the Christmas world sees you and how you might want to present yourself. It will also most quickly introduce you to the many new features outlined below.

Christmas Blogs

Why have blogs for users so specifically tied to Christmas?

Because blogs are personal. And Christmas is personal. Over the years nothing has been more powerful within the presentation of MMC than those personal stories, opinions and experiences of Christmas. Blogs give us a way to organize all of it and to expand our sharing.

In the first few weeks of adding this feature, we've already has some excellent blogs posted:
Reflections on a Journey by Gingerbug
O'Malley the Cat's Blog by Auntie Mistletoe
What Friends Mean to Me -- by Mammaduke


Your blog is awaiting you -- free to every member at MMC. Just go to your own profile, click on "blog" and start sharing your extended thoughts!

Christmas Groups

The forums are a great place to meet like-minded folks. But what if you want to organize something?

That is what groups are all about. Say, for example, we have a number of folks who collect and display Christmas villages. As a member of MMC, you can set up a group. Once membership in the group reaches 5 members, you can set up your own forum area and set up events on the forum calendar.

One such group called Christmas Cookies has done just that. This group exchanges recipes of Christmas cookies and has a forum set up to discuss them. From time to time, they will get together in chat. Such events are posted on the forum calendar.

From movies to Christmas magic, we already have more than a dozen groups formed at MMC. And lots more to come in the weeks and months ahead. Come join a group -- or set up a new one to address your Christmas specialty!

User Photos

No new feature was introduced recently that was more immediately accepted by our regular users than the ability to share photos online.

Within minutes of upgrading we had folks uploading pictures of themselves and images of Christmas past and present that are treasured. It really got a buzz going on the forums.

Click the link above to "meet" some of our members for the first time. Then jump to your own personal profile and add some pictures of yourself!

Christmas Comics

Not everything new at MMC has to do with the forums. We're still building the largest library of Christmas stuff online. New to our offering this year are the considerable talents of George Broderick Jr, creator of Cool Yule Comics.

Each week we introduce a new installment of one of George's Christmas creations in comics. They are full of laughter, creativity and great fun!

So far we've introduced two week's worth of Bingo the Wonderdog Saves Christmas:
Part I
Part II

Be sure to check back every Sunday as new creations are posted!

Platinum Membership

We're pleased to announce Platinum Membership at My Merry Christmas. Achieving this level gives you full access and expanded features at MMC. There are two ways to get to this level:

Earn your way there by being active on the site -- just stay registered and active and obtain up to 1500 posts on our forums and be registered for at least 150 days and platinum membership is yours.

Or...

Make a donation to My Merry Christmas. For as little as $10 you get full lifetime access rights and expanded privileges at MMC. We're not in this for the money (and never have been). But we do have expenses in keeping our site online and your donations help with those costs.

The Christmas Marketplace

Ok, so you're looking for a replacement branch for the tree you bought from Sears in 1988. Where are you going to find it?

Or, you've got your whole collection of Christmas videos on VHS that you've just replaced with Blu-Ray dvds -- where can you sell your old ones?

Come to the Christmas Marketplace on MMC. Whether you are looking to buy or sell you can find it all within the Merry Forums. Free to post for platinum members, the Merry Marketplace is sure to help you find -- or unload -- your Christmas items.

Christmas Video

Yeah, you could go to You Tube and see all the Christmas videos you want. Of course, you're going to have to wade through a lot of, um, junk before you find what you want.

Why not just browse the new Christmas video section of MMC?

Between our editors and users we're building the largest targeted offering of Christmas-exclusive video content online -- all catagorized and offered within our own pages -- no crazy link pages from us! You can organize videos into favorites that you can look back on at any time.

The collection is small to start. But by Christmas we hope to have at least 5000 to offer.

Whether you need a Christmas chuckle from Mr. Bean, want to stroll down memory lane with an old Coke Christmas commercial or merely want to check out the trailer of the newest Christmas movie (or the oldest), you're going to find it in our new Christmas video section at MMC.

Hot Topics

While all this new stuff has give us plenty to click on there is still a great deal of good old fashioned Christmas conversation going on. Here are some recent threads:
What is your pick for the worst Christmas movie?
2008 Sleigh Naming Contest
Pumpkin Spiced Cookies

Off Topics

Psst -- don't tell anyone but we also follow some non-Christmas conversation amongst ourselves, too. Here are some of the off topics that have been hot on the forums this spring:
American Idol
Weather Check
For a Million $$ Would You...

The vBExperience

Perhaps the most complex and least understood of our new features is one called "the vbexperience". "VB" stands for vBulletin, the software used to drive our forums. And "vbexperience" stands for what we do on the site.

The short story is this: it's a point system. The more you do on MMC the more points you accumulate. Making posts, creating threads, replying to polls, writing blogs, posting pictures and just about everything else you can do gets you points. The more points you get the more recognition you receive.

We have an award for the most social member, an award for being the most prolific poster, etc. These awards are fun.

And down the road they will be much more rewarding. We'll be giving away prizes later this year and the points system will play a part in it. It's all about being more active in the community. Check out the link above to see who is leading in the points at this time.

Coming Soon to Merry Christmas Radio

My Merry Christmas is not our only site with lots of big changes happening at this time of year.

Merry Christmas Radio is the #1 rated Christmas radio station on the Internet. It plays year round and has more listeners than any other station of its kind online.

And this year it will have more original content than ever. JayIsh is working feverishly to record new programs. Look for a Christmas comedy radio hour, interviews with Christmas celebrities, and new mixes of music programming to be announced soon.

2008 Christmas Special Events

With all this new activity on the site the calendar is being used more than ever! Here are just a few of the events we have to look forward to between now and Thanksgiving:
The Annual Ornament Exchange
Chat with Santa Claus
Halloween Costume Photo Contest
3rd Annual Christmas Card Exchange
Weekly Christmas Chat

And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, folks. Check in often for chat events coming from our groups especially. And don't forget about our QVC Christmas in July events.

Parting Shot

Whew!

And that's just one site of the Merry Network. Next month we'll be highlighting changes and additions around the network.

For us, this is Christmas. Creating new features and finding ways to keep Christmas at the forefront year round is what we do.

And don't get us wrong: we love the crowds we draw at Christmas. But for our regular everyday folks -- those who celebrate Christmas with us year round -- well, it is just that much more fun. We hope you'll take the time to check out the new offerings but more importantly come stay with us over the sultry months of summer when Christmas is far from the minds of most. We think you will find it is a great time of year to be thinking Christmas.

-- All the best,
Jeff