Hope you got all your shopping done and you like my tree (no, I didn't steal it) and its decorations:
"With donations down around the state this year, the Salvation Army has issued a plea for contributions in the final few days before Christmas. With only a few days of fundraising left, the annual Red Kettle Campaign is still 40 percent off its $3.4 million goal. Compared to this time last year, donations are down 25 percent in Boston, 24 percent in Lowell, and 27 percent in Athol. At the same time, need is on the rise. More than 6,000 families in Boston registered to receive Christmas assistance: a used coat for each household member, two toys per child, and a gift card to buy Christmas dinner....
I gave what change I could.
President Obama signed legislation Friday that temporarily extends dozens of costly tax breaks for millions of businesses and homeowners, commuters, teachers, and others. The measure also allows people with disabilities to open tax-free savings accounts. The law extends the tax breaks through Dec. 31, allowing taxpayers to claim them on their 2014 income tax returns. But the fate of the tax provisions beyond this year will again be uncertain. Congress routinely extends the package of tax breaks every year or two, but they were allowed to expire in January. Among the biggest tax breaks for individuals allows people who live in states without an income tax to deduct state and local sales taxes on their federal returns. Another protects struggling homeowners who get their mortgages reduced from paying income taxes on the amount of debt that was forgiven. Other provisions benefit commuters who use public transportation and teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies....
They will add $42 BILLION to the debt while mostly benefiting the elite, but who cares because....
the red kettle is just such a great holiday tradition, and people continue to give to it.”
Are they?
"Salvation Army bell ringer robbed in Mississippi" Associated Press December 12, 2014
GULFPORT, Miss. — A man robbed a Salvation Army bell ringer and ran off with her kettle full of cash just as she was finishing her shift and thanking donors outside a grocery store, according to police accounts and surveillance video.
Michelle Pope said the man pushed her and grabbed the kettle before she could react.
‘‘Next thing I know, my kettle is running down the road. I tried to chase him down,’’ she said. ‘‘He was just too fast.
‘‘He really needs to return that bucket, and he really needs to apologize,’’ Pope told WLOX-TV in Biloxi.
The Tuesday robbery was caught on video outside a Winn Dixie in Gulfport.
The video shows the man coming up on the side of Pope and running away. Another camera shows him wearing a red cap, a blue jacket, jeans, and black shoes.
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That looks like taking to me.
Related: Car runs over bell ringer at Arlington store
What the hell is this, Chicago?
Also see:
Widow drops wedding rings, note in Salvation Army kettle
Salvation Army says offers made for donated rings
Mystery widow’s rings bought from Salvation Army for $21,000
Rings returned to widow who donated them to Salvation Army
Happy holidays, exclamation point
A Christmas concert that was both sweet and tenderly sad
Another Christmas Story
Christmas in the City brings joy to homeless children
Donor has $100 gifts for Hyannis fast-food workers
Secret Santas pay off more than $40,000 in layaway orders at Toys ‘R’ Us stores
‘Layaway angel’ pays off accounts at Brockton Kmart
Tewksbury man charged with stealing donations for children’s toys
Man walks out of store with $1,000 worth of toys
Salvaging New York’s SantaCon
Postal service helps fulfill kids’ holiday wishes
One wish unfulfilled:
"Santa Claus disinvited from Cambridge school concert" by Peter Schworm, Globe Staff December 12, 2014
CAMBRIDGE — When Merline Sylvain-Williams went to her daughter’s holiday concert Friday, she knew something was missing. The music was great, as always, and the children were adorable. But a certain jolly, bearded figure was nowhere to be seen. Ho, ho, hmm.
Santa Claus, a festive fixture at the Peabody School’s concert in past years, was absent this time around, an apparent victim of a single complaint about whether he belongs in a public school.
By jwho?
“It’s too bad,” Sylvain-Williams said after the morning show for students in grades 1 through 4. “I like to see to the joy in the children’s faces when they see him.”
In a letter sent Thursday, principal Jennifer Ford informed parents that Santa would not be paying a visit this year. She said, however, that Santa would be making an appearance at the end of a family sing-along on Dec. 23.
“I am sensitive to the fact that you may not want your child involved in this event,” Ford wrote. “If you prefer that your child spend time with me that afternoon, please let me know. I will be in the library, playing games and reading books with the children.”
As one parent quipped, “Only in Cambridge!”
Jeffrey Young, superintendent of the city’s schools, said he had been unaware of Santa’s absence at the Peabody, but was finding it hard to muster too much outrage.
“Our mission is around education,” Young said. “Santa’s not on the top of my list.”
This time of year, Santas aren’t exactly hard to find, Young noted. So he didn’t see the need to have the jolly old elf make a special visit to a public school, where many students don’t celebrate Christmas.
“I just don’t know why he has to be in the school,” he said.
Young also said he believed Ford handled the situation “in a sensitive and smart way,” but was more concerned about the students finishing the year strong. Ford could not be immediately reached for comment.
“There’s no anti-Santa sentiment,” he said. “It’s just that there’s no pro-Santa sentiment, either.”
At the school, Sylvain-Williams said she always liked seeing the children try to guess which one of their teachers was dressed up as Santa. She missed that this year, but she saw the other side, too.
Other parents said they didn’t miss Santa at all. The children were the stars of the show, they said.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” said one mother of a third-grader who declined to give her name. “It was a beautiful show.”
Another mother, Salina Frazier, said it made sense to have Santa skip the show, given the diversity of the school.
“It’s more about the music,” she said.
Some parents were surprised Santa wasn’t on the guest list this year, but said it didn’t take away from the fun.
“It’s really not a big deal” said Mary Ann Mesina, who was walking her daughter Veronica home from school.
Mesina said she liked that Santa would be at the singalong, just two days before Christmas.
Veronica, 9, said she had thought Santa would be there like other years, but that the pupils weren’t too upset. It wasn’t like it was the real Santa, after all.
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Related:
Marshfield unplugs DPW’s bid to spread Christmas cheer
At least there was some cheer at the hospital.
And I don't want to nitpick, but they have indeed declared war on Christmas (but not on Chri$tma$).
Look what is in your stocking:
"In Poland, Nazi toys for fun and education" Washington Post December 12, 2014
This Christmas, some Polish children might receive some unusual — and highly controversial — presents: Nazi-themed toys including Nazi soldiers, tanks, anti-tank guns, or jeeps.
The Polish company producing the toys is, needless to say, being roundly criticized. But it has defended its product. Lego-like figures featuring swastikas and Third Reich emblems are a ‘‘fun way’’ to teach children history, Robert Podles, chief executive of Cobi Toys, told the Ruptly news agency, which is part of Russia’s RT network. Cobi Toys did not respond to an interview request on Tuesday.
The toy soldiers bear similarities to Wehrmacht soldiers and officers with the Gestapo, the Nazis’ horrifying secret police force. Often referred to as the ‘‘worst of the worst,’’ Gestapo officers were allowed to arrest suspicious people and send them to Nazi concentration camps. Many of those arrested never returned.
Despite the criticism, Cobi says it plans to continue producing the items. While Ruptly quoted Podles as saying that some of the tanks and vehicles feature swastikas, that symbol does not appear in an advertisement on Cobi Toys’ website. However, it does depict black crosses that were used as emblems of Germany’s Wehrmacht (as the Third Reich’s armed forces were known).
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I also thought I saw some baseball cards in there.
"Gloucester tradition cast in new light with Lobster Trap Menorah" by Trisha Thadani, Globe Correspondent December 15, 2014
The Lobster Trap Christmas Tree is a tradition that only a historic fishing community like Gloucester could pull off. This year, the Jewish community at the city’s Temple Ahavat Achim wanted to join the holiday excitement — and thus was born the idea for the Lobster Trap Menorah.
Related: A Tour of Gloucester
Phoebe Potts, director of the Sylvia Cohen Religious School at the temple, said the Lobster Trap Menorah is a way for the small Jewish community in Gloucester to “share their holiday lights” with the city.
“Santa kind of has this [month] locked up; it’s his gig,” Potts said. “This is a way for Jewish kids of Gloucester to share in . . . the season.”
The 14-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide menorah is made of 22 lobster traps, nine buoys that represent the candles, and LED lights. It will be lit outside the temple at 86 Middle St. Tuesday evening to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.
“It’s funny because we don’t eat lobster,” Potts said, citing the Jewish community’s kosher diet.
Potts said the city’s lobster trap Christmas tree has always been a way for Gloucester to highlight its lobstering history, which dates back to the 1600s, as well as celebrate the holidays. The menorah will serve a similar purpose, she said.
“We’re from Gloucester, and we’re different,” Potts said. “We’re resourceful and loyal to where we’re from.”
Related: Sunday Globe Insults: Jews Were Tory Traitors
Potts said the menorah, which will be around the corner from the tree, has been widely embraced by the city government, as well as the lobstermen, who donated their traps for the tree and the menorah.
Lot of lobsters out there this year?
“The energy around this is amazing,” Potts said.
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Related: Self-Centered Jewspaper
There is really no denying it.
I'll bet the best gift for a fisherman from Gloucester is a new job.
That wasn't in my stocking, how about yours?
Landlord’s plans for Faneuil Hall trouble some merchants
The landlord, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., said that it intends to evict only a small number of pushcart vendors.
Must be a character flaw of that bunch.
Behaving a little like the Chinese, aren't they?
Well, the Globe says take a break, and I already am. Almost time for Rudolph to be making his way with Santa in his sleigh. Winter is finally here. Be careful leaving church tonight.
As for me, I'm going to spend the rest of the night wrapping gifts for presentation to you tomorrow.
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, dear readers.