sts_bs("JWS",[20080623,"","","blank.gif",0,1,1,1,"300px","left",1,3,100,120,0,400,1,1,100,1000,3,24,2,"stEffect(\"scroll(Rate=24,enabled=0,Duration=0.50)\")",-2,60],["ItBS","ItBW","ItBC","GBgC","GBgI","GBgR"]);
sts_til([0,"The Christmas Reporter","left"],["F","FC","FD","BgC","BgI","BgR"]);
sts_pag(["UOtBgC","UOtF","UOtFC","UOtFD","UOvBgC","UOvF","UOvFC","UOvFD","SOtBgC","SOtF","SOtFC","SOtFD","SOvBgC","SOvF","SOvFC","SOvFD"]);
sts_sca(["center","middle","center","middle"],["LtEOt","LtEOv","LtD","LtIW","LtIH","RbEOt","RbEOv","RbD","RbIW","RbIH"]);
sts_sbd([1],["GBS","GBW","GBC","GCnSz","GLtCn","GRtCn","GRbCn","GLbCn","GTBgC","GTBgI","GTBgR","GRiBgC","GRiBgI","GRiBgR","GBtBgC","GBtBgI","GBtBgR","GLBgC","GLBgI","GLBgR"]);
sts_tbd([1],["BS","BW","BC","CnSz","LtCn","RtCn","RbCn","LbCn","TBgC","TBgI","TBgR","RiBgC","RiBgI","RiBgR","BtBgC","BtBgI","BtBgR","LBgC","LBgI","LBgR"]);
sts_ai("i0",[1,"Santa is so excited to be getting his wagon back from Canada the Christmas wagon has been there getting a new coat of paint from  Wunorse Openslae. Wunorse Openslae  has a very important job to make sure all of Santas equipment is in good working order.\r\n\r\nSanta is very excited about his prized team of Belgian horses returning from their summer vacation. Snowflake and Snowball have been resting getting ready for Santas Secret Adventure.\r\n\r\nAlabaster Snowball is in charge of Santas naughty & nice list. This time of the year he works long days to make sure Santa has all the information he needs..\r\n\r\nSugarplum Mary is working very hard on her sweet treats to be ready for Christmas Eve. \r\n\r\nPepper Minstix is busy keeping Santa Secret Place secret this time of the year. \r\n\r\nShinny Upatree, Santas very oldest friend is working hard to assist Santa Claus with the planning of all his Christmas adventures.\r\n\r\nBushy Evergreen the inventor of the magic toy making machine is working around the clock to have all the toys ready for Santas Christmas eve journey. \r\n\r\nNobody has actually seen Santas Secret Place since the passage to it is a secret. Its whereabouts is known only to Santa Claus and the elves. We know that it is somewhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.\r\n\r\nDid you know the elves are the children of Gryla and Leppaludi, their father and mother. Some people say that there are 13 elves, some say 9, some 6. They are very clever and help Santa Claus to design the toys that children and grownups order by email or snail mail. \r\n\r\nThe history of Christmas In ancient pagan times, the last day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere was celebrated as the night that the Great Mother Goddess gives birth to the baby Sun God. It is also called Yule, the day a huge log is added to a bonfire, around which everyone would dance and sing to awaken the sun from its long winter sleep.\r\n\r\nIn Roman times, it became the celebrations honouring Saturnus (the harvest god) and Mithras (the ancient god of light), a form of sun worship that had come to Rome from Syria a century before with the cult of Sol Invictus. It announced that winter is not forever, that life continues, and an invitation to stay in good spirit.\r\n\r\nThe first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere occurs between the 20th and 22 December. The Roman celebrated Saturnalia between 17 and 24 December.\r\n\r\nThe early Christians\r\n\r\nTo avoid persecution during the Roman pagan festival, early Christians decked their homes with Saturnalia holly. As Christian numbers increased and their customs prevailed, the celebrations took on a Christian observance. But the early church actually did not celebrate the birth of Christ in December until Telesphorus, who was the second Bishop of Rome from 125 to 136AD, declared that Church services should be held during this time to celebrate The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour. However, since no-one was quite sure in which month Christ was born, Nativity was often held in September, which was during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (modern-day Rosh Hashanah). In fact, for more than 300 years, people observed the birth of Jesus on various dates.\r\n\r\nIn the year 274AD, solstice fell on 25th December. Roman Emperor Aurelian proclaimed the date as Natalis Solis Invicti, the festival of the birth of the invincible sun. In 320 AD, Pope Julius I specified the 25th of December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.\r\n\r\nChristmas official, but not generally observed \r\n\r\nIn 325AD, Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Christmas as an immovable feast on 25 December. He also introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week, and introduced movable feasts (Easter). In 354AD, Bishop Liberius of Rome officially ordered his members to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December.\r\n\r\nHowever, even though Constantine officiated 25 December as the birthday of Christ, Christians, recognising the date as a pagan festival, did not share in the emperors good meaning. Christmas failed to gain universal recognition among Christians until quite recently. In England, Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas festivities between 1649 and 1660 through the so-called Blue Laws, believing that Christmas should be a solemn day.\r\n\r\nWhen many Protestants escaped persecution by fleeing to the colonies all over the world, interest in joyous Christmas celebrations was rekindled there. Still, Christmas was not even a legal holiday until the 1800s. And, keep in mind, there was no Father Christmas (Santa Claus) figure at that time.\r\n\r\nChristmas becomes popular\r\n\r\nThe popularity of Christmas was spurred on in 1820 by Washington Irvings book The Keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall. In 1834, Britains Queen Victoria brought her German husband, Prince Albert, into Windsor Castle, introducing the tradition of the Christmas tree and carols that were held in Europe to the British Empire. A week before Christmas in 1834, Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol (in which he wrote that Scrooge required Cratchit to work, and that the US Congress met on Christmas Day). It was so popular that neither the churches nor the governments could not ignore the importance of Christmas celebrations. In 1836, Alabama became the first state in the US to declare Christmas a legal holiday. In 1837, T.H. Herveys The Book of Christmas also became a best seller. In 1860, American illustrator Thomas Nast borrowed from the European stories about Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, to create Father Christmas (Santa Claus). In 1907, Oklahoma became the last US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday. Year by year, countries all over the world started to recognize Christmas as the day for celebrating the birth of Jesus.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHave a merry Christmas \r\n\r\nToday, many of the pagan uses are reflected in Christmas. Jesus was born in March, yet his birth is celebrated on 25 December, the time of solstice. The Christmas celebrations end the 12th day of Christmas (6 January), the same amount of days that the return of the sun was celebrated by ancient and Roman pagans. It thus is no surprise that Christian puritans - or even conservative Christians - often are upset that Christmas is not as religious as it was meant to be, forgetting that Christmas was not celebrated at all until fairly recently.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe 25th of December is celebrated as the birth date of Jesus Christ. The Bible does not mention Christmas, and early Christians did not observe the birthday of Christ. Christmas as we know it became widely popular only in the 19th Century.\r\n\r\nChristmas starts on 25 December and ends 12 days later on 6 January with the Feast of Epiphany also called The Adoration of the Magi or The Manifestation of God.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe concept of Peace and Joy over the Christmas season originates from the pagan believe in the magical powers of mistletoe. Enemies meeting under mistletoe had to call truce until the following day.\r\n\r\nIn Finland and Sweden an old tradition prevails, where the twelve days of Christmas are declared to be time of civil peace by law. It used to be that a person committing crimes during this time would be liable to more stiff sentence than normal.\r\n\r\n\r\nAn early Christmas card\r\n\r\nDuring the Middle Ages, many churches were built in honor of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. Wearing his red and white bishops robes, he would ride on a donkey to deliver gifts to children. In 1860, illustrator Thomas Nast introduced Santa Claus in the fashion we now know him.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFather Christmas\r\n\r\nThe figure of Father Christmas (Santa Claus) is based on the patron saint of children, Saint Nicholas (270-310AD), who became one of the youngest bishops ever at age 17. At age 30 he became the Bishop of Myra, a port town on the Mediterranean Sea, that is part of modern-day Turkey. He hailed from a rich home and became well known for supporting the needy. He would often be seen, clad in red and white bishops robes and riding on a donkey, handing out gifts to children.\r\nDuring the Middle Ages, many churches were built in honor of Saint Nicholas. In the 11th century, his remains were enshrined in a church in the Italian city of Bari. It is told that the first Crusaders visited Bari and carried stories about Nicholas to their homelands. The anniversary of his death, 6 December, became a day to exchange gifts.\r\nDuring the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Martin Luther tried to stop the venerating of saints and the feast of Saint Nicholas was abolished in some European countries. The gift giver took on other names: in Germany, he became Der Weinachtsmann (Christmas Man), Pre Nol in France, Father Christmas in Britain and the colonies, and many other names. \r\n\r\nSanta Claus in New York\r\n\r\nThe Dutch, under Peter Stuyvesant, founded New York - named New Amsterdam under the Dutch and renamed when the British took over the colony - and brought with them the celebrations of Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas. Santa Claus is the American pronunciation of Sinter Klaas.\r\n\r\nAs early as 1773 St. A. Claus was mentioned in the American press. In 1809, Washington Irving (the author of Tales from Sleepy Hollow) wrote about Sinterklaas in his A History of New York. Irving described Sinterklaas as a rotund little man in a typical Dutch costume, with knee breeches and a broad-brimmed hat, who traveled on horseback on the Eve of Saint Nicholas. In 1822, Clement Clark Moore, a poet and professor of theology, published the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (also known as The Night Before Christmas). Moores Santa is a jolly old elf who flies around in a miniature sleigh with eight tiny reindeer. Moore even named the reindeer by the names we know them today, and the method by which Santa returns up the chimney.\r\nThomas Nast, the illustrator and caricaturist who created the donkey and elephant images to depict the US Democratic and Republican parties, contributed his own vision of Santa for Harpers Weekly magazine from 1860 until the late 1880s. Nast depicted Santa in a red, fur-trimmed suit and a wide leather belt. Each year he added more details to his version of the Santa legend, including the home-workshop at the North Pole and the Naughty & Nice list.\r\n\r\nSanta Claus in the North Pole\r\n\r\nIn 1885, Nast sketched two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santas journey from the North Pole to the United States. The following year, the American writer, George P. Webster, took up this idea, explaining that Santas toy factory and his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole.\r\nIn 1931 Haddon Sundblom presented Santa as a plump human rather than an elf, with a jovial face and big beard in a Coca-Cola advertisement. (Coca-Cola was a client of Sundbloms advertising agency from 1924 to until his death in 1976.) Today, it is Sundbloms Santa that slips down chimneys around the world.\r\n\r\nSantas address discovered\r\n\r\nIn 1925, it was discovered that there are no reindeer at the North Pole. There are, however, lots of reindeer in Lapland, Finland. In 1927, the great secret of Santas address was revealed by Markus Rautio (Uncle Markus) who compered the popular Childrens hour on Finnish public radio. He declared that Father Christmas lives on Laplands Korvatunturi Mountain. \r\nKorvatunturi - literally Mount Ear is in the Savukoski county, Lapland, Finland, on the Finnish-Russian border. At 500 m (1,640 ft) high, it actually is only a big hill. But its three summits points to the answer the children of the world had been asking for years: Yes, there really is a Father Christmas (Santa Claus). And his official Post Office is in the town of Napapiiri, near Rovaniemi, near the Korvatunturi mountain. The mountain itself is out of bounds to people.\r\nThere are more than 2,700 languages in the world, with more than 7,000 dialects. Santa speaks all of them fluently! In addition, he speaks a secret elf language. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nChristmas Carols\r\n\r\nThe Apostles sang songs of praise, many based on the Psalms. As founders of the churches, their enthusiasm inspired their new congregations into song. But unfortunately they did not leave us any copies of the musical scores.\r\nOne of the earliest known Christmas songs is from the 4th Century, Jesus refulsit omnium, composed by St. Hilary of Poitiers. During the 12th Century, St Francis of Assisi formally introduced Christmas carols to church services. As patron of the arts, he inspired the composers and poets of the day to deliver Christmas music. The lighter joyous Christmas songs were introduced many years later in Renaissance Italy - the 1400s, the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo The earliest known copy of an English carol was written by Ritson about 1410. Throughout the years, monks also contributed significantly in composing music themes from the Bible.\r\nWhen Johannes Gutenberg started his printing press rolling in 1454 copies of carols could be distributed fairly freely. However, keep in mind that Christmas celebrations were suppressed by puritans at that time; Christmas did not become widely popular until late last century. Thus, many of the Christmas carols that we know today are not quoted directly from the Bible and were composed fairly recently.\r\n\r\nCarols are banned but bounce back\r\n\r\n\r\nChristmas carols were banned between 1649 and 1660 in England by Oliver Cromwell who thought that Christmas should be a solemn day. (Cromwell also abolished the monarchy.) When Protestants, inspired by Martin Luther, took to the joy of Christmas carols, many had to flee Europe under pressure from the Catholic Church. They took the Christmas carols with them to their new homes across the world. In 1649, John de Brebeur wrote the first American Christmas carol, called Jesus is Born.\r\nFortunately, in Europe, when carols couldnt be sung in Churches, they found a stage elsewhere. The worlds most famous religious play, the Passion Play, was staged in Oberammergau, Germany in 1634 (and has been performed every 10 years since). In the 1700s, the music by Mendelssohn and Hndel was adapted and used as Christmas carols.\r\n\r\nHndels Messiah\r\n\r\nGeorg Friederich Hndel was born in Germany in 1685. The Royal Houses of Britain and Europe had always been closely interrelated, and the Act of Settlement of 1701 secured the Protestant succession of Anne to the Crown. Hndel, who had studied and performed in Europe, left Italy early in 1710 for Hanover, where he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector, George Louis. In August 1714, at the death of Queen Anne, George became George I, king of Britain. Hndel followed George and adopted British nationality. By invitation of the Duke of Devonshire, who was anxious to further music in Dublin, Hndel moved to Ireland. In 1742, he gave the first performance of the Messiah in the Music Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin in aid of several charities. By 1170, the famous Messiah was performed in Colonial America, 2 years before its first performance in his native Germany.\r\nHndel died in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, recognised in England as the greatest composer of his day. His Messiah was as popular then as Bing Crosbys White Christmas is today.\r\n\r\nSilent Night, Holy Night\r\n\r\nPerhaps the best known Christmas carol is Silent Night, written in 1818 by an Austrian assistant priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be repaired in time for Christmas Day. Saddened, he sat down to write three stanzas that could be sung by choir to guitar music. Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht was heard for the first time at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation listened as the voices of the Fr. Joseph Mohr and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohrs guitar. Today, Silent Night, Holy Night is sung in more than 180 languages by millions of people.\r\nThe popularity of Christmas was further spurred on in 1820 by Washington Irvings book The Keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall. In 1834, Britains Queen Victoria brought her German husband, Prince Albert, into Windsor Castle, reintroducing the Christmas tree and carols to the British Empire. In 1837, T.H. Herveys The Book of Christmas became a best seller. Printed books were more popular then ever. The Bible was selling marvellously well. Christmas was here to stay. But it was another title that took Christmas right into peoples homes.\r\nA Christmas Carol\r\nCharles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1834. Dickens was one of the first to show his readers a new way of celebrating the old Yule holiday in modern ways. He adapted the 12-day Yule feast to a one-day party any family could hold in their own home instead of gathering together an entire village, as was the tradition. Dickens introduced the nuclear family of Fred, the Cratchits, and Scrooge into a rewarding Christmas environment. A Christmas Carol is filled with magic, mystery, and song. The joyous carol had come home.\r\nChristmas carols big business\r\nOliver Cromwell might be turning in his grave. The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosbys White Christmas, soundtrack of the holiday movie classic Holiday Inn. More than 30 million copies have been sold. In fact, only Elton Johns Candle in the Wind 97 has sold more copies, at 33 million. Every Christmas season, record companies rush to release Christian and secular Christmas songs by artists young and old.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe word carol is derived from the old French word caroller, which means dancing around in a circle. It was derived from the Latin choraula, which in turn was derived from the Greek choraules.\r\nSilent Night, Holy Night was written in 1818 by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr.\r\nIt Came Upon a Midnight Clear was written in 1849 by Edmund Hamilton Sears. The score was provided the next year by Richard Storrs Willis, a New York organist.\r\nIn 1865, after a trip to the Holy Land, Rector Phillips Brooks wrote the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem. Three years later, Lewis Redner wrote the score.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nChristmas gifts\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nGifts were exchanged in the Roman ceremonies of Saturnalia, the festivities of solstice, the origin of our Christmas celebrations. We know the exchanging of gifts best from the three magi mentioned in the Bible. But as mentioned in the History of Christmas, during the previous centuries Christmas was a solemn affair. Religious puritans reminded Christians that the Magi gave gifts only to Jesus, not to His family or to each other. But since the celebration of Christs birth was incorporated with the solstice festivities outside the official church, and since Christmas really became widely popular during the last century, it has become a commercial phenomenon.\r\nThe figure of Father Christmas Santa Claus or Sinterklaas is based on Saint Nicholas 270 - 310, the bishop of Myra who, clad in red and white bishops robes and riding on a donkey, bestowed gifts on children. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children. During the Middle Ages, many churches were built in his honour throughout Europe. The anniversary of his death, 6 December, became the day to give gifts, especially to children.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe first mention Christmas stockings being hung from or near a chimney were made only earlier this century by the illustrator, Thomas Nast, through his pictures and the writer, George Webster, in a story about a visit from Santa Claus. The story quickly caught on. \r\nDuring World War II it was necessary to mail Christmas gifts early for the troops far way. Merchants joined in the effort to remind the public to shop early and the protracted shopping season was born.\r\nToday, Christmas shopping is a rush. 86% of consumers do their Christmas shopping during December, 70% do not save for the Christmas period, and up to 87% decide at the point of purchase what they will buy. About 30% use their credit card as their main means of buying Christmas goodies, often leading to the Christmas blues by January and February. The use of credit is cited as a major cause of non-business bankruptcy, second only to unemployment. Statistics show that people with high, medium and low income groups spend about the same amount on Christmas gifts.\r\n\r\nChristmas Tree\r\n\r\nIt is told that Saint Boniface, a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, England who established Christian churches in France and Germany in the 7th Century, one day came upon a group of pagans gathered around a big oak tree about to sacrifice a child to the god Thor. To stop the sacrifice and save the childs life Boniface felled the tree with one mighty blow of his fist. In its place grew a small fir tree. The saint told the pagan worshipers that the tiny fir was the Tree of Life and stood for the eternal life of Christ.\r\nIt is also told that Saint Boniface used the triangular shape of the fir tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. By the 12th Century, Christmas trees were hung from ceilings as a symbol of Christianity. However, in that time, for a reason no one could yet explain, the trees were hung upside down.\r\nTrees as symbols\r\nTrees were a symbol of life long before Christianity. Ancient Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the shortest day of the year in December as a symbol of lifes triumph over death. Ancient Finns used sacred groves instead of temples. Romans adorned their homes with evergreens during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honour of Saturnus, their god of agriculture. Druid priests decorated oak trees with golden apples for their winter solstice festivities. During December in the Middle Ages, trees were hung with red apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve, and called the Paradise Tree.\r\n\r\nThe first Christmas trees\r\n\r\nThe first reference of a fir tree decorated for Christmas is at Riga in Latvia in 1510. In 1521, the Princess Hlne de Mecklembourg introduced the Christmas tree to Paris after marrying the Duke of Orleans. There also is a printed reference to Christmas trees in Germany, dated 1531. Another famous reference, to 1601, is about a visitor to Strasbourg, Germany (now part of France) who noticed a family decorating a tree with wafers and golden sugar-twists (barley sugar) and paper flowers of all colours.\r\nThe Christmas tree was introduced to the United States by German settlers and by Hessian mercenaries paid to fight in the Revolutionary War. In 1804, US soldiers stationed at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) hauled trees from surrounding woods to their barracks.\r\nBritain was introduced to the Christmas tree in 1841, when Queen Victorias German husband, Prince Albert brought a Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family. The custom of of the Christmas tree spread quickly to the middle class, to working people, and throughout the colonies (where the Empires flag would sometimes top the tree).\r\n\r\nChristmas tree decorations\r\n\r\nTrees were decorated with apples, cakes and candies for many centuries. Martin Luther was the first to use candles on trees in the late 16th Century. In 1842, Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees to the US in Williamsburg, Virginia.\r\nIn 1850s, German company Lauscha, based in Thuringia, began to produce shaped glass bead garlands for Christmas trees. They also introduced the Rauschgoldengel, the Tingled-angel, dressed in pure gilded tin. The glass ornaments reached Britain in the 1870s, and North America around 1880. In 1882, ornaments were complimented by electric Christmas lights. Edward Johnson, a colleague of Thomas Edison, lit a Christmas tree with a string of 80 small electric light bulbs which he had made himself. By 1890, the Christmas light strings were mass-produced. By 1900, stores put up large illuminated trees to lure the customers.\r\n\r\nChristmas factoids\r\n\r\nIn 1851, Mark Carr hauled two sleds loaded with trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York and opened the first retail tree lot in the US.\r\nThe popular Goose Feather Tree was invented in the 1880s in Germany to combat the damage being done to fir trees at Christmas time. The first brush trees were created in the US by the Addis Brush Company. The Tom Smith Cracker Company - named after the inventor of Christmas crackers - also produced artificial Christmas trees for a while.\r\nEvery year since 1947 the people in Oslo have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster. The gift is an expression of goodwill and gratitude for Britains help to Norway during WWII.\r\nThe US tradition of National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn was started in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge.\r\nThe legend of the tinsel on the Christmas tree tells about a woman who had to care for a large family of children after her husband died. One Christmas, she prepared a tree to surprise the children. But because she worked alone to bring food to the table, she often had to work late into the night. When she wanted to bring the Christmas tree out, she saw that spiders had made webs all over it, from branch to branch. The Christ Child saw it and to spare her from sorrow, He changed the spiders webs into shining silver.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","","_self","m12.jpg",96,120,"center"],["ItBgC","OtF","OtFC","OtFD","OvF","OvFC","OvFD"],"i0","i0");
sts_es();