Merry Greetings!
It was almost midnight when I rounded the corner of our block and saw our house - the only one on our street - blazing with Christmas lights as I came home from a business trip last week. It did my heart some good to see home lit up like that.

For as much as we like the celebrate Christmas I'm notoriously lazy when it comes to putting lights on the house. So it was shocking to me to see we were the first ones on the street to get lights up. We don't live on a street where anyone goes hog wild with the lights but usually we have a dozen or so homes festively displayed.

Is it the late Thanksgiving this year? Is it the poor economy? Is it just me or does it seem the world is a little late in noticing that the holidays are upon us? Wake up, world! It's Christmas!

Inside our house the tree is up, the garland is hung, the village is glowing and you'd just swear Christmas is coming soon by the looks of things.

Kudos to my 14-year-old son for risking life and limb (and likely his mother's wishes) in getting the house done. Now if the rest of the world would just catch up and realize it is Christmas we'd be all set:

In this issue:
-- Connections of Thanksgiving and Christmas
-- Christmas Condensed
-- The Magic of Santa
-- Something About Merry
-- Santa's Sleigh: Nearly Full
-- My New Tradition
-- A Fat Man's Holiday
-- Wrapping it up right!

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Connections of Thanksgiving and Christmas

Even though the Christmas decorations are up and we're working on the Christmas cards we're not forgetting about the glorious day of Thanksgiving. My children are finally old enough to do a re-enactment of the first Thanksgiving, which is always fun (though perhaps a little challenged when it comes to historical accuracy).

The thing to remember about Thanksgiving is that while our Puritan ancestors were quick to hold a feast and give thanks they were not especially fond of celebrating Christmas. In fact, puritans of the 17th century dang near killed Christmas altogether. Carols couldn't be sung, any type of Christmas-like frivolity was outlawed and Christmas day was made a work day -- not a holiday.

I bring it up only to contrast the modern celebration of both events. You cannot think about Thanksgiving without Christmas any more. And vice versa. I like to think that Thanksgiving is a moment of pause and reflection before jumping into the chaotic waters of Christmas. Giving thanks just seems to be the right thing to do.

Christmas Condensed

I travel a great deal for my work so much of what you see on the websites is done via laptop, usually from some airport somewhere. This is the time of year where my worlds collide and everything is busy beyond belief. By day, I work in the trenches of chocolate commerce and by night I work our merry pages.

Switching gears has been made easier by stopping by the video section of the Merry Forums and watching a quick clip of something Christmasy. It might be a movie clip or music video or it might even be an old 7-Up commercial I remember from when I was a kid.

But whatever it is that catches my eye it never fails to put me in the proper Christmas mood. New videos are added almost daily by our members and we'll be showing a best-of variety of them in an advent calendar we plan to share in December.

Tracking Santa

It has been 17 years since I starting tracking Santa with my then 5 year-old daughter. Little did I know then the tradition we would start. Six other children have come into our family and I've made literally thousands of new friends met via the Internet as a result of Santa Update and MMC.

I get asked all the time -- how did it start? It's a long story.

Here's the condensed version: I got married and my bride had a five year old little girl who did not believe in Santa Claus. In an effort to help her learn the lessons of Santa and to explain all the traditions of the holiday, we were contacted by Elf Ernest from the North Pole by fax. He would send a daily update featuring answers to her holiday questions and telling the story of Santa that year. She became enchanted by these updates, shared them with her friends and soon parents from all over were asking to get the updates too. Years later, here we are, still getting the updates and still tracking Santa everyday from Thanksgiving forward and every 15 minutes on Christmas Eve.

Since then the elf involvement in my life has only expanded. Elf Ed Zachary began to contribute articles in the defense of Santa. And even Santa himself allowed interviews on all topics. Recently, we've been blessed to even have Santa come by the forums to chat for a while and I'm told that soon we'll have the elves too.

Santa is magic. That eldest daughter of mine is in many ways perpetually five years old. She still leads the charge every Christmas in reading the Santa Updates with her siblings and tracking Santa on the map on Christmas Eve. The magic of Santa, I'm convinced, is needed in every home and by kids of all ages. We invite you to get some magic with us as we celebrate it all once again.

Something About Merry
A funny thing happened on our way to an election and the economic crisis: we forgot to fight about Christmas this year (so far).

Yeah, there was that story out of New York about changing the annual Christmas boat parade to something different. And an atheist group decided to use the backdrop of Christmas to attack, of all things, God, this year. But other than that it has been a quiet year on the Christmas warfront.

Well, there is the annual naughty list of retailers who won't say "Merry Christmas". That is a tradition as sure as tinsel and mistletoe.

Frankly, my take on that is we just don't understand the word "merry", let alone the word "Christmas". Do you understand what you are saying when you say "Merry Christmas"? You might want to check it out before you let it fall from your lips in mixed company...

Santa's Sleigh: Nearly Full

The media is full of stories about charities running low on resources due to the poor economy this year. People, they sadly report, just aren't giving as much as they have in the past or simply cannot afford to do so.

I say "humbug!".

We set a modest goal of $1000 earlier this fall to help provide Christmas for a family in need this year. Our members have given generously -- I received a donation the other day from a six year old who offered $0.43 cents when she heard what we were doing! We're going to make that goal and likely surpass it.

In our next issue I will outline our plans for delivering Santa's Sleigh. We have actually expanded from one family to two families -- and we might squeeze out enough to help a third along the way.

A big THANK YOU to our site supporters, members, vendors, sponsors and visitors who are making this possible. It is a real highlight to my Christmas this year to be able to share with you the details!

My New Tradition

Some time in the haste of this busy week leading up to Thanksgiving I received a package in the mail. For the first year ever I signed up for our Annual Ornament Exchange.

I've never done it before because I just didn't have the time, or so I thought. But I decided to do it this year because the excitement of sharing Christmas in this way was just too irresistible.

I drew the name of usafvet as my trading partner.

What I received was stunning. He sent me an ornmanent made of carved olive wood taken from the Holy Land depicting a tiny nativity scene. The symbolism of such a gift is obvious but what touched me even more was the wonderful, personal letter that came with it.

It has made my Christmas entirely. Everything that we do on the websites is part of my Christmas these days. But this has taken it to a whole new level.

If you haven't signed up for the Annual Ornament Exchange before you should consider it next year. I guarantee that it will add a great deal to your holiday!

Thank you, usafvet!!!

A Fat Man's Holiday

Only an elf in-the-know at the North Pole could write something like this:

A man from Toledo wrote to say that everyday is Christmas at the North Pole and that there are no other holidays observed here. Isn't it funny how someone so far away can be an expert on a place he has never been? Frankly, that guy doesn't have all his reindeer hitched to his sleigh, if you ask me. No offense, Mr. Toledo. But you don't know Santa from shinola.

The elf, of course, is Elf Ed Zachary. Some of you know of him but perhaps others of you do not. He seems to get a lot of attention this time of year.

Elf Ed Zachary is a columnist for the North Pole Gazette -- which means he gets paid to write his opinions. And he has plenty of opinions.

Over the years, nothing has brought email into mymerrychristmas.com quite like Elf Ed Zachary. Kids write to ask him the toughest questions. For years Elf Ed has taken on the taboo subjects of Santa: How does Santa get around the world in one night?, Why is Santa so fat? Is there actually Biblical proof of Santa? No matter how tough the question, Elf Ed Zachary takes it on.

And this year the kids are coming up with even more Christmas puzzlers: Why does Santa write just like my Mom? I saw my presents under my parents' bed...why were they there? How do I get to become an elf?. These topics, and more, will be addressed by Elf Ed this season. Stay tuned.

The Christmas Pickle

As we've decorated our tree this season the kids have had plenty to observe about our ornaments. "Why are our ornaments plastic, Dad?" was the most common question this year. Maybe my kids are older now and we could get some "real" ornaments for the tree!

But we had great fun discussing the Christmas pickle. The kids just didn't believe me when I told them there was such a thing.

In fact, one of my older kids accused me of making up another one of my Father's Fables, for which I am supposedly well known (at least within our house). Even when I pointed to the website to validate what I was telling them they did not believe me. They had to Google it before they bought into it. I was SO offended!

And that is the problem with Christmas tradition some time. There is so much myth associated with Christmas! How do you know what is true?

Interestingly enough, the Christmas pickle page is one of our most frequently visited pages on the website.

Maybe you should visit it so that you can get your kids going, too. It's a one of those weird things of Christmas.

Wrapping it up right!

As the world rushes off in the frenzy for Black Friday or Cyber Monday specials some have already made or purchased their gifts and now seek either creative ways of delivery or of wrapping up that special item.

I received an email from a site user asking about the story of the man who exchanged the same pair of pants each Christmas with his brother. Each year they would compete to see who could most creatively wrap the pants in seemingly impossible ways.

The story is found here. It is a true story dating back many years and we get comments about it nearly every year. If you haven't heard it, give it a click and you'll get a good laugh.

Stuff It

I stopped by my sister's house and had a conversation with my six-year-old niece, who expressed interested in coming over to play with my six-year-old daughter on Thanksgiving Eve. I told her that would be fine but that if she spent the night she would have to get up early with the rest of the kids and help stuff the turkey with me.

This tradition dates back to almost our very beginning as a family and I've long used it as a strategy to hog all the stuffing for myself. Nothing grosses a kid out more than to have to eat something that they gleefully made of mess of in it's uncooked form.

I did the best I could to explain how gross it would be. Lots of wet, gooey stuff being shoved into the dark cavernous holes of a dead, cold bird. YUM!

She scrunched up her nose and said, "You're weird, Uncle Jeff".

Well, fine. I'll bet she won't touch the stuffing anywhere now for the next ten years. In my book, that is something to be grateful for!

-- All the best,
Jeff