Christmas is only a couple of days away! Who is getting excited?
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
12/22/15
12/19/14
Bright Nights
Not sure what to do this holiday season? Sick of the holiday
gift shopping and need a little break? If you answered yes to the second
question, we found the perfect place for you. Bright Nights is a Christmas
lighting display spectacular. Located in Forest Park of Springfield, MA, the
annual event brings holiday cheer to all. With various sponsors and an array of
themes, the drive through Forest Park can make any night a fun family night.
The themes include:
the Winter Garden,
Seuss land,
the Victorian village,
Never,
Never Land
and much more.
Can’t make it to see the light this year? No worries! The website
has a virtual tour of the lights that even including the moving displays. Just
be sure to play cheerful music in the background because if you were there in
person, loud and cheerful music would be coming from your car’s speakers!
12/5/13
Time to Give Back
It is the season of giving! We thought it would be nice if
we gave all of our amazing readers a few ideas of how to give back. After all
Christmas is not all about the gifts, at least that is what the Grinch tells us!
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The first thing way to give back is to volunteer. Giving back doesn’t have to mean money. Volunteering at a soup
kitchen or shelter can be just as rewarding as donating gifts or clothes,
possibly even more. This is a great website that lists 25 ways you can donate your time.
Probably the most popular holiday donation is toys! Nothing makes you feel better than knowing you are helping a child. There are a couple of ways to do this.
- You can go to a local school and donate toys
- Visit Toys ‘R’ Us website here and chose from a huge donation list
- Drop off toys at any Toys for Tots location. The huge list of locations is here.
Hopefully this blog was helpful in providing you all with
basic information about giving back during the Christmas season. Feel free to
let us know how your donating activity went.
12/24/12
12/23/11
12/16/11
Toys for Tots Needs Gifts!
As Christmas nears, Toys for Tots collections are lagging
By Jeff Gammage
Donations to the city Toys for Tots campaign are down nearly 80 percent, and organizers say they fear thousands of needy children will go without presents on Christmas.
Last year, the operation delivered 113,000 toys. This year it has collected 25,000.
Organizers appealed Tuesday for people to donate a new, unwrapped toy. Toys can be dropped off at any Philadelphia fire station or at one of four Toys R Us stores.
"The toys are not coming in," said Marine Staff Sgt. Marc Palos, in charge of the effort and part of the Third Battalion, 14th Regiment. "We try to get at least one toy to every child that needs it."
Palos said the stagnant economy has hurt people's ability to donate.
Last year at this time, mountains of skateboards, soccer balls, basketballs, dolls, and books filled containers at a processing center in Northeast Philadelphia. This year, the center has moved to 2501 Ford Rd. in Bristol, a warehouse "twice as small and twice as empty," Palos said.
The phone continually rings with requests. Palos tells callers: We don't have any toys to give.
Each of the more than 60 fire stations is a collection point, as are Toys R Us stores on Cottman Avenue, South Third Street, Aramingo Avenue, and Franklin Mills Circle.
Every toy is inventoried, which is how the Marines know how many are collected. Two years ago, the final figure was 93,000.
This year toys are being distributed in Bristol as well as Philadelphia. Registered charities can apply for toys, which the Marines distribute on a first-come, first-served basis.
Locally, this week is supposed to mark the campaign's final push, with delivery set for Tuesday through Dec. 22.
"It's not looking too good," Palos said. "If we continue at this rate, we're not going to get close to what we did last year. And that means the children aren't going to get toys."
If you are interested in donating, you can click here for more information!
12/24/10
12/17/08
More Letters to Santat
I love these stories! Put's me in the holiday spirit!
Chattanooga: Postal workers ‘help’ Santa with letters
Santa has some pretty high expectations to meet.
Just in the Chattanooga area, children have asked for their own personal elf, a girlfriend for daddy and plenty of puppies in addition to more conventional presents like Hannah Montana gear and video games.
“We’ve actually gotten one saying, ‘Don’t bring my brother anything; he doesn’t deserve anything,’” said Judy Mahaffey, customer service supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service General Mail Facility on Shallowford Road.
Ms. Mahaffey and two other postal service workers in Chattanooga are deputized as elves every Christmas when bundles of letters addressed to the North Pole with backward letters and drawn-on postage stamps start coming in.
“We’re Santa’s helpers. We make sure he gets his letters and make sure he gets the responses back,” she said.
Some of the letters written to Santa are repentant: One writer swore to never play with matches again if he could only have one particular gift.
Others are more demanding.
“He said, ‘Bring that fat boy or don’t come at all,’” Ms. Mahaffey said of one letter writer.
At times the letters tug at heart strings. Last year a letter came telling Santa the writer had been really, really good this year and beged him to not forget her — like he did the year before.
“They’re funny, they’re touching and some of them are actually sad,” Ms. Mahaffey said.
Ms. Mahaffey and others receive about 300 to 700 letters to Santa and see to it that those with return addresses get responses.
Debbie Birchfield, a clerk in Ms. Mahaffey’s office who helps with the letters, said the letters come in year-round. They’ve already gotten a letter written to the Easter Bunny for next year.
“You’ll get one here and there all year,” she said. “You wouldn’t think they’d even be thinking about Christmas in April.”
The writers use crayons, markers, pencil and drawing or stickers when words fail to get their point across. Some even include packets of sunflower seeds for the reindeer.
“You can tell the ones that are like 2 or 3 (years old),” said Rhonda Layne, the plant manager’s secretary who helps with the letters. “There are a lot of zeros.”
It’s usually easy to tell where the writers intended for their letters to go — whether it’s addressed to Santa, HoHo or simply the North Pole.
“We’re pretty sure that’s to Santa,” said Ms. Mahaffey, holding a letter with two Christmas trees, a big S and several illegible letters penciled on it.
Sometimes parents might wish the letters were a little less readable, according to Ms. Mahaffey who guessed parents didn’t read some of the letters. One of the letters asked for Santa to take care of the writer’s mother who had just “had surgery on her private part.”
“I think if parents knew what some of these letters said they’d be mortified,” Ms. Mahaffey said.
12/15/08
A Lovely Holiday Story
| Postman Delivers On Santa Letters | ||||||
| Stonington mail carrier makes sure kids' requests get a response | ||||||
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| | ||||||
But for the past several years some lucky children who live just outside Stonington Borough have been finding letters from Santa in their mailbox a few days after they sent off their lists to the North Pole. A recent letter to two children on stationery featuring an angel whispering into the ear of St. Nick, and a return address on the envelope of a drawing of Santa's face, reads: ”It is wonderful to hear from you both. It is nice that you wrote me so soon, you know this is my busy time of the year! From what I know, you have been good at home for Mom & Dad, and are doing well at school. All these things are very important. As for what you kindly asked for on Christmas Day, I'm hard at work and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. I'll be visiting soon.” Santa P.S. The reindeer and elves send their greetings.”
It's enough to keep some children believing. For the past several years, mail carrier Greg Kuflik has taken home the Santa letters left in the mailboxes on his route and crafted replies. A few days later, in the time it would take for the letters to get to the North Pole and back, he slips the letter from Santa into the children's mailboxes. In a separate plain envelope he includes the original letter, which some parents have not yet seen, so they know what their child has asked for. ”I love my job. I love talking to the people on my route,” he said. “I look at it as just a nice thing to do for the kids. They deserve the special attention.” He said some other carriers do the same thing. ”By no means am I special,” he said. Kuflik said it's nice when parents come outside when he delivers their mail and thank him. ”They say, 'I can't believe you did that.' It's nice to know they appreciate it,” he said. A native of Detroit, Kuflik first came to the area to serve aboard the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul and was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton. It was during that time that he met his wife, and today they have a 16-year-old daughter and a son in college. After serving four years in the Navy, he worked at several other jobs before joining the Postal Service a dozen years ago. He has had his current route for the past 3 1/2 years. Kuflik said his daughter helps him decipher some of the writing. In some cases, he may just receive a drawing. ”I'm not up on the latest electronic toys, so she helps with that. We have a good time at home doing it,” he said. Kuflik said he tries to personalizes each letter and includes information he knows about the children from their parents. ”I try not to say they're getting everything on the list,” he said laughing. “I don't want to put their parents in a difficult position.” |
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