Happy New Year to all of my blog readers!

Merry Christmas! This is the season of giving!

What was your favorite Christmas gift?

I’ve been busy, purchasing Christmas gifts for my son. Made me wonder about favorite Christmas gifts! Take a moment to answer the following question: What was the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

I’m wishing everyone a safe and blessed Christmas! During Christmas, remember Christ’s amazing birth!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

I’m talking about Saint Nicholas! For some reason, I’ve always been fascinated with why we celebrate Christmas. I’m not sure if it’s because I never celebrated as a child – or, some other reason!

Since it’s Christmas, I thought it’d be fun to share some Saint Nicholas facts.

1. Very little is known about the real Saint Nicholas.

2. He was born in Asia-Minor – which is now modern-day Turkey – in the third century.

3. He was the Bishop of Myra in the fourth century.

4. He attended the First Council of Nicaea.

5. Most stories about Saint Nicholas are legends – his being a secret gift-giver stemmed from the legend of his secretly leaving dowries for a poor widower’s daughters.

6. The beginning of Saint Nicholas becoming our modern-day Santa Claus happened in New York around 1804. Saint Nicolas became our modern-day Santa Claus via a series of New York events:

7. A man named John Pintard met with New York leaders to establish the New York Historical Society. The Historical Society members celebrated the early Dutch-roots heritage of New York by having an annual dinner on December 6th: Saint Nicholas Day.

8. Washington Irving, Pintard’s brother-in-law and a member of the Historical Society, wrote A History Of New York under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerboker. A History of New York mentioned Saint Nicholas several times, further popularizing him.

9. Clement Moore, another member of the Historical Society, had his poem, The Night Before Christmas, published anonymously in the New York Sentinel in 1823, further popularized Saint Nicholas’s character. ***An ongoing debate is the authorship of this poem – either Clement Moore or Henry Livingston was the author.

10. The popularity of this poem gave Saint Nicholas great influence on how we know him today. It was the first widely accepted reference to Saint Nicholas having reindeer and driving a sleigh.

***Prior to this most of Santa’s characteristics were believed to be derived from Odin, a Germanic God.  Odin traveled through the air on a six-legged horse as part of the ghostly Wild Hunt. Odin also had a long white beard, and he visited people, bearing gifts.

Also, The Night Before Christmas gave names to Saint Nicholas’s reindeer. This poem proved significant in developing the modern image of Nicholas’s physical appearance, too – he no longer appeared as a bishop, wearing bishop’s clothing. He now was a red-cheeked jolly man. In this poem, Saint Nicholas made his visit on Christmas Eve – moving his “day” from December 6th (Saint Nicholas Day) to December 24th.

11. Thomas Nast – A New Yorker who was a cartoonist and illustrator at Harper’s Weekly. His drawings had a vast influence on the popularity of Santa Claus. His drawings established the following Santa Claus traits:

Nast’s drawings established Santa as a toymaker living in the North Pole with his elves as assistants. He also established Santa receiving letters from kids as well as kids leaving snacks out for Santa to enjoy. He also showed Santa with his giant book with the names of children.

12. Francis Church, a journalist, answered an editorial letter from a little girl named Virginia O’Hanlon. She wanted to know if there was a Santa Claus and his response was printed in the New York Sun. It was reprinted and embraced by the public each year until The Sun went out of business.

13. Haddon Sundblom – an artist, drew drawings every year for Coca-Cola, further popularizing Santa Claus.

So, there you have it! Those are the main reasons why third-century-born Saint Nicholas became our modern-day Santa Claus!

Can you recommend any books about Christmas or Santa Claus traditions?

I’ve read a few over the years and the two that I enjoyed the most were:

Christmas – A Candid History

The Battle For Christmas

~Cecelia Dowdy~

What are you serving for Thanksgiving dinner?

Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Mothers, what are you doing to celebrate this special day?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

by Cecelia Dowdy

This is a repeat of an old blog post! I thought I’d re-post since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow!

Do you remember your very first love letter?

My blog post about my childhood pen pals made me think about other forms of written communication from my childhood, mainly, my first love letter.

The first time I received a love letter was when I was in the sixth grade and I was eleven years old. I sat at my assigned desk during math class. When I was about to leave, I looked down and saw a piece of notebook paper under my seat. I picked it up and was shocked to see the words from a secret admirer…my secret admirer! I don’t remember what the note said, BUT, I do remember that this person had taken a piece of masking tape and attached a nickel to the note as a gift for me!

Believe it or not, I never did find out who wrote me that letter! I recall being kind of upset that he’d only left me a nickel…it was the seventies and there wasn’t much that you could purchase at the store for five cents! I recall wishing he’d left me a dollar instead!

After that, I don’t really recall writing love letters very much, but, I remember my female friends in high school and college writing letters and secret notes to guys that they had a crush on. The only time I remember exchanging love letters was with my husband and it was via email. We met through an online dating service and while we dated we sent several emails to each other. As a matter of fact, we still exchange emails! 🙂

So do you remember writing or receiving your first love letter? Who was it from? To whom did you address your first love letter?
Leave your response in the comments!