God Rest Ye Merry Merchants - Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve

Christmas: An American Holiday to Love and Preserve…

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 3

Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and, of course, in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, and Christmas vacations. Even Jews got into the act… Hanukkah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities. Just ask Ben Stein.

Christmas was arguably the most beloved of American holidays. Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving were important too; but Christmas was something more. It gave rise to a whole “Christmas season” during which people got into the “Christmas spirit.” The first words of a popular song, recorded by Johnny Mathis as a platinum hit, summed it up perfectly: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas / Everywhere you go…”

Then something strange began to happen. The very thing that made the “season” special started to disappear from the public arena. Stores no longer held “Christmas sales.” Businesses, and soon after, individuals, ceased to hold “Christmas parties.” And on and on. “Christmas” became a dirty word, and was replaced by “holiday.” The War on Christmas had begun.

We’ve grown so accustomed to the change that we’ve lost sight of just how significant it is. “Christmas” is loaded with meaning and rich in spirit. It imparts rich feelings unlike anything else. “Holiday,” by contrast, is a bland word that can signify anything from Independence Day to Labor Day to “Sweetest Day.” At most, it means a day that you might get off from work if you’re lucky. And nothing else. Saying “holiday” and meaning Christmas is like saying “a long dead politician” and meaning Abraham Lincoln. Technically, it’s not wrong. But the whole significance is lost.

Of course, this didn’t happen by accident. Ask most people how it happened, and they’ll just shrug and say, “political correctness.” And in fact, “PC” is a cruel master, uncaring about what it destroys, and swift to punish those who violate it. So most choose to bow and submit.

But not here. We are part of the The Battle for Christmas. We hope to reclaim the richness and beauty of Christmas. But it’s more. Christmas is a treasure and and part of our heritage that we all should be actively working to preserve our traditional American culture in any and all forms. Because that culture is worth keeping. It’s part of what holds us together and makes us American… including those of us who are not Christians.

So let’s fight back in the war on Christmas. And to all who feel the same we do… happy holidays and Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants

“The Celebration of Christmas in America is not Just a Christian Holiday, but a Celebration of our National Past and Our Collective Wishes and Psyche as a Nation!”

In his mawkish 1942 hit "White Christmas," Bing Crosby yearned for a holiday "just like the one I used to know." The extraordinary popularity of Crosby’s nostalgic longing (the all-time top-selling single until it was eclipsed by "Candle in the Wind 1997," Elton John’s mawkish tribute to Princess Diana) suggests the holiday’s tremendous power to revive memories–perhaps only imaginary, idealized memories–of childhood and Christmases past. According to Karal Ann Marling, "Christmas is the universal memory" for contemporary Americans (whether they’re Christian or not), an event in which "virtually everybody has played a part." By telling the story of Americans’ celebration of Christmas, she promises to uncover a surprisingly neglected piece of not only our national past, but our collective wishes and psyche.

Marling, a prolific and inventive cultural historian at the University of Minnesota who has written books on topics ranging from George Washington (George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876-1986) and Norman Rockwell to Disneyland (Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance) and Graceland (Graceland: Going Home with Elvis) and As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s, now turns her attention to the history of America’s most lavishly celebrated holiday. Marling has a keen eye for offbeat topics, arresting detail and original interpretations, and refuses "to plug the contents of the national Christmas stocking into the socket of orthodox historical discourse" (certainly that sounds unadvisable). She insists instead that her goal is to unwrap the hidden meaning of quotidian, but telling objects and practices to reveal the holiday’s deeper significance.

Myriad "scraps of Christmas detritus"–and Christmas generates loads of detritus–supply Marling with ample material: Shortly after Halloween, America’s shopping malls and stores are festooned with red and green and stocked from floor to ceiling with Christmas gifts. In the days after Christmas, discarded trees, still dangling tinsel, lie amid trash bags stuffed with discarded wrapping paper and packaging on curbs across the nation. Somewhere in between the shopping bags and the trash bags, millions of Americans attend their annual office party, endure children’s pageants, spend billions of dollars buying presents, cook traditional feasts, and gather with family and friends to exchange gifts and celebrate the nation’s most extravagant holiday. Wrapping paper, lights, ornaments, store window displays, trees, cards, Santas and cookies fill the thematic chapters of Merry Christmas! The history of Christmas, as Marling observes promisingly, is in the details.

Americans commonly assume that Christmas endured for centuries as a solemn religious holiday, before being corrupted by consumer capitalism. As early as the 1870s, critics of Christmas were engaging in "breast-beating over soulless American materialism." In 1949, opponents of the holiday’s excess launched a crusade to "restore" its "original" character. Billboards, posters and bumper stickers urging Americans to "Put Christ Back into Christmas" were a common sight during the holiday season throughout the 1950s. Like many tales of decline, this Christmas story proves a fable. In colonial America, Christmas was either not celebrated at all (it was actually illegal to celebrate the holiday in many Puritan communities), or an occasion for boisterous, drunken revelry.

In fact nearly all of Americans’ Christmas rituals and icons are 19th-century inventions, created to venerate home and family, not the birth of Jesus. Christmas trees, artfully bedecked with ornaments, became the focal point of Americans’ Christmas celebrations in the 1850s. Santa Claus became an icon in the 1860s and 1870s, springing from the pen of cartoonist Thomas Nast. Gift-giving became commonplace in the 1870s and 1880s, as more Americans adopted the practice of purchasing inexpensive, factory-made trinkets–"gewgaws" and "gimcracks"–and wrapping the presents to produce surprise. By century’s end, Christmas had become a legal holiday in every state, and the year’s most eagerly anticipated holiday for millions. In the 1920s, advertisers transformed Santa into a jovial salesman, whose girth and cheerfulness embodied consumer abundance: According to Marling, St. Nick, not that gangly, gaunt Uncle Sam, best personifies America.

As Marling observes, Americans’ celebration of Christmas grew along with material abundance and consumer culture, and the department store window, not the Nativity scene, has always furnished the holiday’s central icon. "Christmas," she writes, "is all about stores and shopping." Conversely, stores and shopping rely heavily on Christmas. Last year, Americans spent a record $184 billion during the Christmas shopping season (officially, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas), and many retailers depend on Christmas sales for one quarter of their annual revenue.

But Marling is most interesting when she discusses the holiday’s paradoxes, which mingle materialism and generosity. Retailers and advertisers deliberately have exploited holidays to encourage consumption, but they have by no means stripped these "holy days" of their deeper meaning altogether. Marling notes that our most materialistic holiday is also ironically "the primary occasion for considering the harsh realities of the world, and those who have no trees and puddings."

As a result, charitable giving to the poor has accompanied the holiday since the 19th century. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which has ranked among Americans’ most beloved Christmas stories since its publication in 1843, offers a largely secular plea on behalf of the less fortunate. Funding charity dinners for the poor at Christmas time became an annual ritual of penance for the well-to-do in American cities in the late 19th century. Wealthy benefactors congratulated themselves for bestowing feasts and presents on their less fortunate neighbors, but could not have failed to recognize the troubling gulf, let alone the connection, between their abundance and others’ privation. Christmas’ mixture of materialism and charity remains paradoxical to our own day: Each December, as it has since 1912, the New York Times juxtaposes full-page advertisements for luxury gifts with small-font reminders urging readers to "Remember the Neediest."

If Christmas provides a "universal memory" for Americans, it is in large part because advertising and celebrating the holiday are so ubiquitous; even Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, railing against the evils on modern technology in his Montana cabin, took time to write Christmas cards to his neighbors each December. Christmas is so omnipresent that many nonbelievers celebrate the holiday, and even members of other faiths cannot altogether ignore it, try as they might. Stephen Nissenbaum, for example, prefaces his own history of the holiday, The Battle for Christmas, with a touching reminiscence of his boyhood memories of Christmas as an outsider growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household.

But surely different groups of Americans have distinct recollections of the holiday. Protestants and Catholics, rich and poor, white, Asian, black and Latino–all have celebrated on December 25, but they have not celebrated alike. Marling’s attempt to delineate the diversity of Christmas traditions, a grab-bag chapter on "Somebody Else’s Christmas," lumps together Christmas in warm climes, white Northerners’ sentimental but patronizing fascination with black Southerners’ humble Christmas celebrations in the 19th century, immigrants’ Christmas traditions, even Kwanzaa. A more systematic discussion would fulfill Marling’s ambition of recasting our understanding of the holiday. And yet, though Merry Christmas! does not completely transform our view of the Christmas we "used to know," it does detail the little gestures and objects that supply the stuff of which Christmases are made.

Chris Rasmussen teaches American history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During this holiday season, he urges Americans of all faiths to "Put the Christ Back into Christmas."It is part of American heritage and tradition! (Originally Posted in December 2009)

By Karal Ann Marling – Author of Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

On Glenn Beck’s 2010 Post-Thanksgiving Review Program Rabbi Daniel Lapin (who founded the American Alliance of Christians and Jews) said: Although I am Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas I respect the traditions and the holiday and like the holiday for two good reasons: It helps the economy and it makes people better… (95% of the money spent at Christmastime is for others… rather than for ourselves).

Lapin has spoken against the secularization of Christmas, saying that "We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while Christianity is treated with contempt". He is opposed to replacing the "Merry Christmas" greeting with "Happy Holidays", saying instead "Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends a very merry Christmas… Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Chanukah menorahs are permitted.  One of the latest incidents: School Replaces Baby Jesus With Frosty The Snowman After Pressure From Obama Admin.

Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

A great book on Losing Our Religion by atheist S. E. Cupp, who says she is he perfect person for this book because she has no dog in the hunt, takes on the all too often avoided question and discussion of religion in America…

The Battle for Christmas

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Technorati Tags: War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,political correctness,Merry Christmas

Morris: Romney To Win Undecideds

By DICK MORRIS  -  Published on TheHill.com on May 15, 2012

From May 5-11, 2012, I conducted a survey of 6,000 likely voters. On such a mammoth sample, the margin of error is less than 1 percent. I found that Romney has amassed a sizable lead over Obama of 51-42, far in excess of what published polling and surveys of registered -- as opposed to likely -- voters are indicating.

If Romney were to win 51 percent of the vote, the election would, of course, be very close. But if he could hold Obama to 42 percent, it would be a landslide. So the obvious question is how Romney should go about winning the voters in between.

To answer this question, I drilled down in my sample to these undecided voters, none of whom voted for Romney in the survey. I added to their ranks those who voted for Obama but indicated that they only "somewhat" approved of his performance in office. This left me with a sample of 1,500 likely voters who are in play. The data in this column reflects their views. If Romney can win a quarter or a third of their votes, he will win by a landslide margin of 10 points.

On the economy, 46 percent of these swing voters do not believe that there is any recovery. Twenty-three percent say the economy is the same as when Obama took office and an additional 23 percent say it is worse. Thirty-nine percent say the jobs situation has not improved. Twenty-five percent say it is the same and 14 percent say it is worse. And 37 percent agree with the statement that "if we look around, there isn't real evidence that we are actually making progress."

Specifically, swing voters do not believe that the unemployment rate drop Obama heralds is real. Forty-nine percent agree that "the only reason it goes down is that each month more people give up even looking for work."

So Obama's claims that we are climbing out of the recession fall short with almost half of the swing vote. Indeed, 31 percent of swing voters say that "Obama's policies have made the recession worse."

About a third of swing voters squarely blame Obama's borrowing and spending as the culprit for the failure of the economy. Thirty-six percent agree that "the deficit and debt Obama's program caused did more harm that the spending did good. His cure was worse than the disease."

Forty-four percent of swing voters believe that "if we cut government spending and borrowing, we could recover much more quickly."

A third of swing voters -- 31 percent -- reject the president's argument that "if it were not for Obama's policies, things might have been even worse."

Finally, 44 percent of swing voters agree that "if we reelect Obama, he'll just do more of the same."

Romney has the ability to slice off a third of the undecided swing voters by way of a major attack on the economy, thereby lifting him well above the 50 percent threshold. Swing voters:

• Challenge Obama's assertion that we are recovering and that unemployment is dropping.
• Lay the blame for the economic stagnation on his "spending and borrowing" and suggest that with less of each, things would improve much more quickly.
• Believe that "his cure is worse than the disease" in that "the borrowing has done more harm than the spending did good."
• Are convinced that if we reelect Obama, we have only more spending and borrowing to look forward to and that the results will be the same.

Will Romney exploit the vulnerabilities this poll suggests? Only time will tell.

"It's a Chain of Lie After Lie After Lie"
What if the financial crisis wasn't an accident? That experts have PROOF regarding an elaborate scheme dating back to Sept. 18, 2008?… Dick Morris

Morris, a former adviser to Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Clinton, is the author of Outrage, Fleeced, Catastrophe and 2010: Take Back America — A Battle Plan.  Revolt!: How To Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs — A Patriot’s Guide and his latest book:  Screwed!: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy-and How Our Leaders Help Them Do It  See: dickmorris.com.

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Technorati Tags: Dick Morris,Election 2012,2012 Election,Mitt Romney 2012,Mitt Romney,elections,undecideds,polls,nanny state,Glenn Beck,events,Restoring Love,lemonade stands,afa,Mercury One,Project Row Houses,entrepreneurship,independents

WALL STREET JOURNAL: GBTV ALREADY HAS MORE SUBSCRIBERS THAN OPRAH’S NETWORK HAS VIEWERS

Many people thought Glenn Beck might have been a little bit crazy (little bit?) to leave the safety and support of traditional cable television to launch his internet-based GBTV enterprise.  But the news from the Wall Street Journal today may cause even the critics some pause.

Beck’s GBTV broadcast will launch at 5PM ET this afternoon, complete with an all-new chalkboard!

Video: Say Hello to My Little Friend

The complete Wall Street Journal article, well worth reading, is restricted to subscribers, but here is one nugget :

Because Mr. Beck owns the show and the network, he could make substantially more than the $2.5 million salary he got each year at Fox. GBTV is on track to take in more than $20 million in revenue in its debut year, according to a person close to the company.

The television industry will be watching closely to see whether the TV host can preserve his popularity while migrating to the Web, where efforts to get consumers to pay to watch online-only channels are just beginning.

When Mr. Beck announced GBTV in June, the network had 80,000 subscribers. In the months since, GBTV subscribers have swelled to more than 230,000, according to people close to the network, even though Mr. Beck‘s show hasn’t yet begun.

The audience is far less than the more than 2.2 million daily viewers his program on Fox drew, on average, over its 27-month run, which ended in June after clashes with the network’s management.

But it is more than the average 156,000 people who were watching the Oprah Winfrey Network in June.

One writer at Forbes has looked at the numbers and done a little extrapolation:

Analyst Rich Greenfield of BTIG Research estimates that GBTV is already generating revenues of $27 million a year from subscription fees by monetizing a mere 1 percent of the total audience for his Fox show, his radio show, his websites (glennbeck.com and theblaze.com) and other outlets. Greenfield envisions Beck increasing that conversion rate to 5 percent, yielding a subscriber base of over 1 million. In that scenario, extrapolating from Greenfield’s current run rate estimate of $27 million, GBTV would be generating $135 million in subscription revenues.

The Forbes writer, Jeff Bercovici, acknowledges that those estimates might be optimistic.  But he posits that Beck is on course to the $100 million dollar earnings barrier “sooner than later” when you consider all of his media endeavors.

Deadline New York is running with a headline reading, “Analyst: Media Execs ‘Should Be Very Afraid’ of Glenn Beck’s Web TV Launch.”

Mediate looks at it this way:

While Beck’s online venture is still relatively new, it’ll continue to be interesting to observe the different trajectories GBTV and OWN take as they forge their way. Here are two networks, albeit on different platforms, begun by two individuals who are themselves highly recognizable mega-brands. One is gradually building an audience as another is still hoping to find its place on television, and both depend highly on the trust viewers place on their respective founding personalities. Could you imagine what an episode devoted to Beck’s “favorite things” might pan out? Sales of chalk could go through the roof.

Video: Beck Looking a Bit Shabby, Getting Ready to GBTV Launch, Appears on the O’Reilly Show – Explains GBTV

Source:  The Blaze

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One Last Time: Goodnight, America…

Yesterday Glenn Beck and his audience began a new chapter.  His life at Fox and on mainstream TV ended as he exited the stage of his Fox News set for the last time with one last “From New York, Goodnight, America”.

TV Newser:

The final broadcast of “The Glenn Beck Show” was a little bit of everything: a look back, a glimpse into the future and a frank assessment of the reasons behind Beck’s Fox News Channel departure.

Beck, who ad-libbed much of his last hour as an FNC host, spoke candidly about the decision to launch a web-based TV channel, saying he hoped he had earned viewers’ trust on “The Glenn Beck Show.” “Anyone watching this show knows that I have bent this format so far out of its structure, out of its parameters,” Beck said. “This is a news channel. I do commentary.”

“This show has become a movement,” he said. “It’s not a TV show. And that’s why it doesn’t belong on television. It belongs in your homes, it belongs in your neighborhoods.” Read full story at the Blaze

Video:  Glenn Beck: The Final Fox Show  -  Filled with some memories of the past 2.5 years and hope and solutions…

Glenn Beck is a wonderful man who has worked so hard to share the truth that the lame stream socialist media does not want to tell us about. Glenn has generated an awareness among millions of us who were blindly trusting what the lame stream media put out there but no longer. Glenn has millions of people who have been and will continue to be enlightened by the truth. God Bless Glenn, his family, his staff and friends. …EricDadof3

So What’s Next…

Video:  Glenn’s Walk From last show at Fox to GBTV show immediately afterwards

Please support Glenn and his new endeavor by becoming part of the “saving America” team by signing up for GBTV. You can get a subscription for as little as $4.95 per month. If you are an Insider Extreme Member, you will automatically be subscribed to GBTV!  it is worth the price of a cuppa whatever you buy out… coffee, tea, etc, for a month’s subscription for not only education and solutions for America’s future but to be part of the the future of media…

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