Merry Greetings!

It has been a few months, I know. But we've been busy building for Christmas 2007. That is what this issue of the newsletter is all about -- what's new and what's coming to the Merry Network. We won't reveal everything but we will share how we've progressed so far. It is Christmas now for us and we're hoping everything we have been working on will help put you in that holiday mood:

In this issue:
-- The Merry Forums Remodeled
-- A Home for Santa
-- Holiday Movie News
-- Year Round Christmas Radio
-- Christmas Battles Heating Up
-- Christmas Talk -- All Year
-- Busy Code Crunchers Working on Merry Websites

The Merry News is brought to you by:

The Merry Forums Remodeled

We started our off-season projects with the busiest and most active pages in the network -- the Merry Forums where we share Christmas year round with each other. The forums have been redesigned from the ground up and they are much faster and feature all kinds of new little gizmos to play with. Did you know what we can give each other a little pat on the back now for a good post? For every bit of recognition that we receive from our forums members our "reputation" grows. It's fun. The new look is great and all the new features are fantastic but the best thing that has happened in the last couple of months is that we've grown! If you haven't been by for a while please stop in and say hello to all the new faces at the Merry Forums.

A Home for Santa

You know him simply as "SC" on the Merry Forums. To many folks in New England, he is Santa himself. We're pleased to announce the launch of Clausnet.com, piloted by SC, a monster site of Christmas with the Santa in all of us in mind. Drawing from a healthy community of professional santas online, Clausnet.com features Christmas celebrated through forums, blogs, galleries and resources by Santa for Santa. Come explore the world of Santa Claus and make a new friend! Congratulations, SC, on a fantastic site!

Holiday Movie News

Summer is usually the time when new Christmas movie news hits the wire and this year has been no exception. Jinglebelle's Christmas Flick.com keeps us up to date on these breaking stories that you can now get via RSS to your newsreader. Here are links to recent movie news:

Jim Carrey to Play Scrooge
Animated Christmas Special Coming in November
Christmas in Wonderland Filming in Canada

Year Round Christmas Radio

We were greatly excited to launch our own stream of Christmas music on Merry Christmas Radio last year. During the offseason we have worked hard to expand our playlist to more than 400 artists and 2000 songs -- from classics to contemporary. We have also expanded the website to including breaking news of Christmas music, artist features and album reviews. As a result, Merry Christmas Radio is now a top 5 station in the Christmas genre and listenership is growing by leaps and bounds. The best thing? It's all free.

Christmas Battles are Heating Up

Christmas is fought in the courts and, recently, sad news was made highlighting Christmas even fought in neighborhoods. Whether the battles are over the politically correct representation of Christmas on public property or whether or not it is ok to display Christmas decorations year round, we've just about had enough of The War on Christmas. So we have decided to declare War on the War on Christmas through the launch of Defend Christmas, a site dedicated to making peace and goodwill towards all men more than just a reminder of the season. We're just getting started, but come take a peek!

Christmas Talk: Year Round Fun!

Last year we purchased a website that had been long neglected. It wasn't a bad little site, in fact, it had a nice cheery look to it. But it was lonely as nobody ever went to it. One of our long-time community stalwarts, Lightitup, has taken it under her wing and in just six months time a new, wonderful Christmas community has sprung to life. Yes, we have a lot of Christmas forums. We just can't get enough of them! This one has a special spirit about it. Please stop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I guarantee you'll be warmly received.

Busy Code Crunchers Working on Merry Websites

As the Internet changes, so must we. New technologies make it possible for us to share Christmas like never before. Here are some new Christmas projects that are in various stages of development for Christmas 2007:

Eggnog.ws -- a merry site just about eggnog!
Candy Cane.ws -- dedicated to Candy Canes.
Real Christmas -- Blogging the modern Christmas -- by real folks!

And top secret, soon to be revealed efforts:
Mistletoe.ws
Christmas Newswire.com
Christmas Webmaster.com
Twinkle Lights.org
Real Halloween.com
Real Thanksgiving.com
Defend Santa.com
Chrsitmas Traditions.us
SantaClausology.com
BlackFridayMania.com
ChristmasWrap.net
Wreath.ws
Grinch.ws
Scrooge.ws
Plus lots, lots more! If you're interested in working on any of these projects, please feel free to stop by our job postings page or drop us a line.

Until next time...

There is no way to beat the heat of summer than to sit down with something cold and work on a Christmas website. I'm not a programmer and when it comes to graphics I lack all the critical skills. But we're not making sites about sports or news or shopping. We're making sites about Christmas and it always feels good.

All of these projects are the results of ideas or suggestions from our site users. We have learned there is not enough time to do everything...but, we've got nothing but time to work on it all. As we enter our 16th year of sharing Christmas with the world we fondly look back and see how far we have come.

I think we're having more fun than all those who visit our sites!

-- All the best,
Jeff