21 days till Christmas

21 days till Christmas
December 4th
Movie of the day: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Aslan's return ends the ceaseless winter and as the White Witch loses her grip on Narnia, they are able to once again have Christmas. This book/movie celebrates (however briefly) the magic side of Christmas. I grew up with the British version but the remake is also pretty good.

Christmas Carol of the day:
The First Noel
http://www.christmas-carol-music.org/Lead_Sheets/FirstNoel.html
I had an old video of classic Christmas cartoons when I was young. One of them featured an orphanage where on Christmas morning when the children awoke they ran out to collect their toys. To their complete and total sadness they all found that their presents were broken so they all went back to bed. A kindly inventor happened by and created some great toys out of things they already owned. They played a really wobbly sad version of the first noel at the beginning. Basically Gramps saves Christmas for some little kids. It really ends with a bang.
Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gW3rznLI_g



Christmas Trivia
(brought to you by howstuffworks.com)
What is the Meaning of the Word “Xmas?”
Some people think of Xmas as a contemporary, sacrilegious abbreviation of the word Christmas. On the contrary, the first letter of the word Christ in the Greek language is chi, which is identical to the modern Roman alphabet's X. Therefore, Xmas is an ecclesiastical abbreviation that has been used for almost as long as Christmas has been in existence.
http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/games/christmas-trivia2.htm

I don't remember Xmas ever being a sacrilegious thing. It was always interchangeable with Christmas when I was growing up. I remember it most written in big permanent marker on the boxes we used to store all the Christmas decorations in. We had between 11 and 15 boxes of decorations when I was in elementary school. That all changed when we moved to a third floor apartment before my 7th grade year. All the ornaments got condensed down to one box and the tree went in another that year. They are a little more fragile packed in all together but it beats making 10 trips up and down 3 flights of stairs.