Artificial Christmas trees get nod over fresh: poll

Poll: Most prefer fake Christmas trees
The Angus Reid Public Opinion poll, conducted online Dec. 14-17, indicates 62 percent of Britons, 58 percent of Canadians and 53 percent of U.S. residents are using artificial trees this year, while 24 percent of Britons, 26 percent of Canadians and 31 percent of U.S. residents said they won't have a tree at all this year. Among those who prefer the artificial trees, 33 percent of Britons polled said they believe the fake trees are more Environmentally Friendly, a sentiment shared by 39 percent ...

Christmas Trees, Christmas Parties among Egyptian Muslims
So who is buying the other 460,000 Christmas Trees? Well, some are going into the country’s malls (there are now lots of malls, some of them just enormous. I was in the 5-block-long City Stars Mall in Nasr City, Cairo last May, and I swear I got lost. The modern malls put up banners saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for their mostly Muslim clientele! And there are a lot of resident Western expatriates in the country working for NGOs, who would buy Christmas trees (last I knew there...

Communist North Korea Threatens War Over Giant Steel Christmas Tree
A 30-meter-tall steel Christmas Tree is lit at the western mountain peak known as Aegibong in Gimpo, South Korea. (Herald Sun) Pyongyang warned South Korea this week that lighting its massive steel Christmas Tree near the DMZ was a “dangerous, rash act” that could trigger a war. North Korea, officially atheist and with only a handful of sanctioned churches in Pyongyang with services for foreigners, warned that lighting the tree would constitute a “dangerous, rash act” wit...

Israeli Mayor Forbids Christmas Trees in part of Nazareth; Christian Tourism Boom Fuels Hopes for Palestinian State
The some 50,000 Christians in the West Bank continue to labor under Israeli Military occupation this Christmas, though somewhat improved Tourism and prosperity have lessened the penury in which they labored in 2005, at the end of the Palestinian uprising or Intifada. In Nazareth, where Jesus is said to have lived much of his life, a dispute has broken out in the outer suburbs, under Israeli control as ‘Nazareth Illit’. Local Christians asked to be able to put up a Christmas Tree in t...

Just because a song has the word "Christmas" in it doesn't make it a Christmas song
I know that the Holiday Season is one of sad memories and loss for many people. It seems that a disproportionate number of people lose loved ones during the holidays -- parents, spouses, even Children. I think of Elizabeth Edwards' young children, still raw from the loss of their mother, trying to find a way to observe Christmas in some way that doesn't make it worse. I have a friend who lost her husband in the fall and her father last week -- a double 4th quarter whammy. Colored lights and TV c...

World's Most Stunning Christmas Trees (PHOTOS)
There are few holiday traditions that are as time-tested -- yet as universally awe-inspiring -- as a Christmas Tree. Whether natural or artificial, illuminated by multicolored or white lights, a beautifully-decorated Christmas tree has the power to illicit spirited "oohs" and "ahs" from even the most Ebenezer Scrooge-like of your friends or family members. Like any yuletide custom, however, Christmas trees seem to be changing with the times. While Brussels befittingly features a tree in a sim...

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange fears death in a US jail
© Reuters Mr Assange said that he believed that it would be 'politically impossible' for the British to hand him over to the Americans. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, said he fears he will die in a US jail if David Cameron allows him to be extradited. He claimed there was a "high chance" of him being killed inside Prison in America. Mr Assange is currently on bail facing Extradition proceedings to Sweden on charges of Sexual Assault. However there are reports that the US aut...

Iggy out in front
Ahead of the curve, from a year-end interview quote on December 16th: "We are ready for an election and we think Canadians are ready for an election," the Liberal leader told The Canadian Press in a year-end interview Thursday.Now today we see confirmation that if we do have an election, Canadians are ok with that: Half of Canadians would have no reservations about taking part in a federal election in 2011, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion / Toronto Star poll has found. In the online survey of a ...

Islam on Christmas: Explosions Target Churches and Christmas Eve Celebrations, MURDERING 36 CHRISTIANS IN COLD BLOOD
From Reuters: JOS/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Explosions in Nigeria's central region killed 32 people on Christmas Eve and six people died in attacks on two churches in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation, officials said on Saturday. On Friday night, a series of bombs were detonated during Christmas Eve celebrations in villages near the central city of Jos, killing at least 32 people while 74 were in a critical condition, the state Police Commissioner said. ...

Burley caregivers ease holiday blues for elderly
In this Dec. 6, 2010 photo, Delmar Hallett reads about the World War II air war in Europe at Countryside Care & Rehabilitation in Rupert, Idaho. Hallett said he loves to read and prefers it to playing bingo or other activities offered at the residence. Holidays can represent a time of warmth that comes from reconnecting with family and friends. But for Idaho seniors isolated from their loved ones by death or distance, the season can become one of loneliness and depression. Eighty-year-old G...

Christmas Tree Tweets
A Christmas Tree tweets....

Iraqi Christians mark somber Christmas in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi Christians gathered Saturday to mark Christmas in the same church where less than two months ago dozens from their beleaguered community were killed by Muslim Extremists intent on driving them from Iraq. The walls were pockmarked with bullet holes, plastic sheeting covered gaps where glass windows used to be and small pieces of dried flesh and blood remain stuck to the ceiling. In front of the alter were photos of the dead parishioners, and twin black cassocks hung from th...

Bad Santa
Ah, but the deep symbolism of the Christmas Tree. When kindly Saint Boniface cut down the first tree to discourage the pagans, it was an oak, and it was the tree of Thor. Then, when the Saint saw a spruce tree growing in The Roots of an oak tree, he used it as a symbol of Christianity. All Thor got was a day of the week named after him. (Happy Thorsday everyone!) So now that we have our traditional tree how about traditional decorations? You know fun stuff like, nuts, dates, paper flowers, pre...

A Christmas Wish for our Troops
Many of us will spend these final days before Christmas running around town trying to locate last-minute gifts, baking cookies with the kids, wrapping gifts or simply enjoying the company of friends and family. Amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas, we should not forget what our fellow Americans, the men and women of our Armed Forces, are doing during the holidays. Legend says on Dec. 24, 1914, British and German Troops on opposite sides of the battlefield laid down their weapons and joined i...

Christmas Tree Powered By Electric Eel In Japan (VIDEO)
Here's an eco-friendly Christmas option that you probably won't be trying at home. The Aqua Toto Gifu Aquarium, found south of Tokyo, Japan uses eels to light their Christmas Tree. When the electric eel moves, two aluminum panels collect electricity and power the Christmas tree lights. The aquarium has been featuring this unusual exhibit for the past five years to encourage eco-sensitivity. Rockefeller Center Tree, it appears you have been upstaged. WATCH an eel electrify a Christmas tree: G...

Christmas and President Ulysses S. Grant
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law that made Christmas a federal holiday in 1870. On the left is a typical Christmas Tree from that era, which was on display at the Grant Home in Galena, Illinois when I visited two years ago. Merry Christmas!...

The True Spirit of Christmas, 2010
Editor’s Note: The story that Larry tells below the fold will move you, and its origin is facsinating. I firmly believe the greatest gift of all is the ‘giving of oneself.’ In giving, the Donor receives so much in return. The beauty and grace of seeing a smile on the recipient’s face. The warmth of knowing that somebody has benefited from your generosity. The satisfaction that the world is a little better place from your giving. I hope you are able to enjoy the beauty of...

Castro garage draws out Christmas wishes
"My #1 wish is ... 100% EQUALITY + A GOOD LIFE. {heart} MZ. TRINA." That is what a passer-by wrote on butcher paper plastered on a home in the Castro dressed up for Christmas. A few days before the holiday, this wish list to Santa covering the entire garage door was so full that Michael "Mz. Trina" Carpenito had to write on extra paper the spirited resident put up on narrow strips of wall framing both sides of his garage. "It's something unique in the neighborhood. I came to write on it again...

O, no, Christmas tree
Christmas: A less-indulgent Holiday Season with a twist of dread, cynicism and the 'Dec. 26 curveball' Janet, our youngest child, was the last to leave home, setting up house with Kevin. And now she is preparing for the first Christmas in their new place, 1,500 miles away. I won't use the word "stubborn," but Janet has always been independent, and she is intent on establishing their own holiday tradition. But a dozen phone calls in early December made clear her need to replicate aspects of holi...

Merry December 25!
My Yiddishe Santa, Cartoonist Milt Gross’s 1927 visit from a Yiddish-accented St. Nicholas, by Marissa Brostoff More in: Chinese Food, Christmas, Christmas 2010, Christmas Trees, Gaye Tuchman, Harry G. Levine, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Matthew Goodman, Mile End, St. Nicholas...

The Sense of Christmas
My folks sent me a lovely wreath for the front door made from cut evergreens, and every time I open the door I get a powerful sense-memory of Christmas as a child. We had a house with tall ceilings so we always got a Christmas Tree that was at least ten feet tall - maybe taller. (It could have been less, but when you're six or seven, it looks a lot taller.) We had tons of decorations from our family history; gingerbread decorations held together with fine wire, bubble lights that never seemed t...

Myth vs. Fact: Sustainability and the Holidays - You may need to reuse your fake Christmas tree 20 times (!) before its climate
Tuesday’s total eclipse of The Moon happened to coincide with the 2010 winter solstice. This is a combined rarity that has only happened once in the past 2,000 years. This singular kickoff to winter indubitably merits a certain amount of attention paid to staying green in this year’s season of white. You may think that hanging a Christmas pickle on your tree does the trick, but there are plenty of other more effective ways to stay green this winter season.  Test your knowledge below with

Commentary: My old man and the Christmas tree
It was 1955 -- a cold, snowy day in West Virginia -- when my lifelong incompatibility with this peculiar, possibly pagan icon called the Christmas Tree took root. The year would become notable in history for a riotous reaction by concertgoers in Jacksonville after Elvis Presley uttered, "Girls, I'll see you backstage.'' (I've tried the same line over the years, but the effect seems to have been limited to '55.) The McDonald's chain and the origins of our national Obesity epidemic were launched...

Two Koreas take tough stance as think-tank warns of war
Source: AFP Seoul (AFP) – The two Koreas are still talking tough one month after the North's artillery bombardment sent tensions soaring, with Pyongyang threatening Nuclear War and Seoul vowing strong retaliation for any new attack. One day after deploying tanks, artillery and jet fighters in a Military show of force, Seoul's defence ministry said Friday that a giant Christmas Tree near the North Korean border would stay lit up till January 8. The move is likely to anger Pyongyang since the date...

Osama bin Laden is Lying, Wrapped, Under Your Christmas Tree
And other terroristic warnings from our overlords” “the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant,” says Attorney Herr General Eric Holder. So get under your school desk and cover your head with your hands. ...