Another blue blog: Christmas 2010

Where the christmas socks came from

Indsendt af Jim Rasmussen Saturday, December 5, 2009 kommentarer (0)

Helo everyone! And happy 5 December :) Today im going to tell you all about the christmas socks.
There is actually nice little story behind :)

The christmas socks
We all know that it is the socks as we hang up at Christmas. A sock for each child in the family. And not the parrents! :)

But why is it that we hang theese socks up at christmas?

While there are no written records of the origin of the Christmas stocking, there are popular legends that attempt to tell the history of this Christmas tradition. One such legend has several variations, but the following is a good example:Long ago, there lived a poor man and his three beautiful daughters. He had no money to get his daughters married, and he was worried what would happen to them after his death.

Saint Nicholas was passing through when he heard the villagers talking about the girls. St. Nicholas wanted to help, but knew that the old man wouldn`t accept charity. He decided to help in secret. He waited until it was night and crept through the chimney.

He had three bags of gold coins with him, one for each girl. As he was looking for a place to keep those three bags, he noticed stockings of the three girls that were hung over the mantelpiece for drying. He put one bag in each stocking and off he went. When the girls and their father woke up the next morning, they found the bags of gold coins and were of course, overjoyed. The girls were able to get married and live happily ever after.[1]

This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.

The tradition began in many European countries. Originally, children simply used one of their everyday socks, but eventually special Christmas stockings were created for this purpose. Today, stores carry a tremendous variety of styles and sizes of Christmas stockings, and Christmas stockings are also a popular homemade craft.

Many families create their own Christmas stockings with each family member's name applied to the stocking so that Santa will know which stocking belongs to which family member.

That was the story of the christmas socks! :) Thanks for reading!

The end

I won't tell you what i'm going to post tomorrow! That's a suprise :)
Best of luck! From Jim Rasmussen :)

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Why do we have a Christmas Tree, and how did it originate?

Indsendt af Jim Rasmussen Friday, December 4, 2009 kommentarer (0)

Hey there everyone! And happy 4 December :) Today i'm going to tell you all about the christmas tree and why we have it.

The christmas tree

Well, a christmas without a christmas tree, wouldn't be the same! Right? :)

Back in the 7th century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, traveled to Germany to spread the Word of God. Legend has it that he used the triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to the German people. The German people started to revere the Fir Tree as "God's Tree". In the next 5 centuries, the tree became a symbol of Christianity, and was being hung upside-down from the ceiling as a sign of Christianity.

So now we know why we use it at christmas eve! :) But when did the first known "decorated" tree apear.

The first known decorated Christmas Tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510. Martin Luther decorated a small Christmas Tree in 1535 with candles for his children, to show them how the stars twinkle through the night. Cute right? :) Since then, the decoration of the christmas trees has evolved. Earlier trees were more biblically symbolized as the "Paradise Tree in the Garden of Eden". The many food items were symbols of Plenty, the flowers originally were only red (for Knowledge) and white (for Innocence). Today we have all sorts of things decorating the "Christmas tree"

So now you know a little more about the christmas tree :)

The end

Come back again tomorrow and read about "Where the christmas socks came from"

Best of luck from me, Jim Rasmussen.

See you tomorrow:)

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Where the first snowman came from

Indsendt af Jim Rasmussen Thursday, December 3, 2009 kommentarer (0)

Hey everyone! :) And happy 3 Decemper.

Today i'm going to write about the snowman and why we make them.

I found this short article on the internet, which describes why we make smowmen.

It's a well-documented fact that the very first snowman was made in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on January 7, 1809 by a Mr. Vernon N. Paul and his nine-year-old daughter, little Yetty Paul. According to Mr. Paul, he told his daughter that the snowman was intended to frighten away the Boxing Day elves. (Popular legend said Boxing Day Elves reclaimed Christmas presents.) Once the Paul family's neighbors saw the snowman, and little Yetty explained to her friends how easy it was to make (and no doubt, how effective it was at keeping the Boxing Day elves away), children all over the town were making snowmen.

Word soon spread and the New York Times dispatched a writer named Hillary Sherpa to check out rumors of a town poulated by snow men. Of course, she found that Eau Clairre was not really populated by snow people, but instead, effigies of people, made of snow, "seemed to virtually populate every corner of the town." According to the Ms. Sherpa's article, even though the snowmen and snowwomen "had an appearance bordering on abysmal, indeed abominable, even" the trend caught on and soon spread nationwide by the eve of the Civil War. When war broke out in South Carolina in 1861, the Times of London (and a host of other international newspapers and news reporting agencies, including Berlin's leading newspaper, Der Kruller) came to the US to report on the war. The TRime os London actually was the first international newspaper to pick up a story on the tradition of snowmen, more as a human interst story than anything else. And as they say, "the rest is history."

That's cool, right? :) So we better get going! And get thoose snowmen built! :D

The end

Come back again tomorrow, wherei will post "Why do we have a Christmas Tree, and how did it originate?"

Best of luck, from me! :) Jim Rasmussen

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Things to know about santa

Indsendt af Jim Rasmussen Wednesday, December 2, 2009 kommentarer (0)

Helo everyone! And happy 2 Decemper :)

I hope that you all enjoyed the game-sites i posted yesterday? Todays post is going to be about santa and things you should know about him! :)

Santa and CocaCola

Before the 1931 introduction of the Coca-Cola. Santa Claus created by artist Haddon Sundblom, the image of Santa ranged from big to small and fat to tall. Santa even appeared as an elf and looked a bit spooky.

So if it wasn't for CocaCola, santa wouldn't look anything like he does today! :)

Santa and the devil

There is an old saying, that santa is made by the devil to make us forget jesus!

The end

Come back again tomorrow, where I will post "where the first snowman came from"

Best of luck, from Jim Rasmussen! :)

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1 Decemper

Indsendt af Jim Rasmussen Tuesday, December 1, 2009 kommentarer (0)

Hey everyone! :) And happy 1 December!

Today i'm going to post a list of 2 great christmas game-sites :)

Miniclip-Christmas
A known game site, where you can find hundreds of games! But they have a category for christmas related games too. :) Check it out!

Santagames.net
This is a flash based website, with chritsmas related games and other funny things :)