Free Republic

Hard to believe that this much time has passed. On Christmas Eve 2004, I shared this editorial with all my FRiends here, while I was icebound in West Virginia heading back from leave to report for mobilization. And then, on Christmas Eve 2005, while downrange in Ramadi, Iraq, I shared this editorial with all of you again. And this year once again, from our new digs in Florida with The Bride and my new family, I offer this beautiful story, a very favorite of mine, for all my FRiends again. Take the time to read it - REALLY read it...

How’s this for an explanation of Santa Claus: Santa and Mrs. Claus have a twelve-thousand square foot mansion at the North Pole, heated by geothermal power.  The North Pole complex boasts an electrical generation system which directly extracts unlimited electricity from the Earth’s magnetic field for lights and equipment.  Santa’s workshop maintains two million square feet of warehouse space (reaching 30 stories underground with a cubic volume well exceeding Amazon.com’s North American 17 million square foot capacity) and an advanced production facility that combines robotics with elf-based manufacturing. The entire facility is hidden beneath the Arctic Ocean, under almost 14,000...

Earlier this week, a woman wrote in to Slate's Dear Prudence advice chat asking whether it's considered lying to allow her daughter, who is three, to continue to believe in Santa Claus. Prudie's take: Nah. "Reality will eventually out," wrote the columnist, Emily Yoffe, "but there’s so much reality in this life, that one of the delights of childhood, and of being a parent, is to spread a little fairy dust occasionally." Later in the chat, though, another person wrote in saying that his or her parents kept the Santa thing going until the writer was nine, at which point...

CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – The Andrew Peabody School in Cambridge snubbed Santa the day before the winter concert. Principal Jennifer Ford sent a letter home to parents on Thursday letting them know of the change. The letter said in part: “I am writing to you today to inform you of a change in our concert series this winter. Our First through Fourth grade concert as well as our Kindergarten concert will not include a visit from Santa Claus this year.” Robert Thompson has two kids in the school. He said the concert traditionally closed with Santa running through the aisle. He...

Fairy tales and believing in Father Christmas could cause children harm.This is according to controversial biologist Richard Dawkins who warned an audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival about the dangers of make-believe. In typically incendiary style, Dawkins suggested it was 'pernicious to instil in a child the view that the world is shaped by supernaturalism.'The 73-year-old acknowledged that the appeal of fairytales lay in their magic but believes they may be causing more harm than we think.He also questioned whether we should let children believe in the myth of Father Christmas at all.'Is it a good thing to go along...

The Turkey-based Santa Claus Peace Council has said it has written a letter to Pope Francis, requesting the return of the bones of Saint Nicholas. Council Chairman Muammer Karabulut said they were expecting Pope Francis to give a positive response to their request to have a meeting on the bones, which are currently in Bari, Italy. “We have been struggling for the return of the bones since 1995. State institutions have also been involved in this struggle,” Karabulut said. “So far, we have not reached a conclusion.” Saint Nicholas, a historic Christian saint, died in 343 at the age of...

Old St Nick has taken a few hits this holiday season. Over at Slate.com, Aisha Harris (part of the racial grievance industry) wrote a cri de coeur titled "Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore." Never mind that St. Nicholas, the third century monk who was the source of the legend, was white – as was every visual representation of him over the past 150 years. History is so insensitive. Why can't Santa be a Polynesian surfer anyway? "America is less and less white, but a melanin-deficient Santa remains the default in commercials, mall casting calls, and movies,"...

For centuries Christians have been taught that wise men from the east brought gifts for the baby Jesus, but according to polling, one in 10 young adults in Britain now believe that Father Christmas also makes an appearance in the Biblical account of the nativity. Significant numbers also think that Mary and Joseph might have brightened up the stable with a Christmas tree. Over a third of the public think that the Bible records December 25 as the date of the Jesus’ birth. …

MURRIETA (CBSLA.com) — It’s the time of the year when Christmas decorations adorn houses for blocks in communities throughout the Southland. But one entry in the Annual Holiday Home Decorating Contest in Murrieta that features a mythical creature from European folklore has sparked complaints from residents. The house in the 37000 block of Floral Creek Circle features a large handcrafted Krampus, who is sometimes referred to as “evil Santa” or the “Christmas devil” and dates back to pre-Christian Germanic traditions. With a doll on its back and a broomstick in its hand, the clawed black creature is perched on the...

Very Funny Santa Claus Explanation (video).

My nomination for the dumbest comment of the week by a television host on a news channel goes to CNN's Brian Stelter. While talking to Slate's Aisha Harris about the reaction to her article calling for Santa Claus to be a penguin, the new Reliable Sources host wondered if Megyn Kelly wouldn't have been so adamant about Santa being white if Fox News had more black viewers (video follows with transcript and commentary):http://www.mrctv.org/videos/cnns-stelter-megyn-kelly-mightnt-have-insisted-santa-was-white-if-fox-had-more-black-viewers BRIAN STELTER: You know, to tell you what I think for a minute, I kind of wonder if FOX had a different audience demographic, if she would...

Santa Claus came early to San Francisco this year, but he forgot his long pants. As did quite a few of the hundreds of other Santas, and several of their helpers, who gathered by the Christmas tree in Union Square on Saturday. The Santas were kicking off the start of this year's SantaCon, a worldwide event that features a daylong bar crawl that sends many of its participants to the naughty list. The jingling bells, holiday-colored sequins, mistletoe and fake, cottony beards met in Union Square before heading off to the bars in various other neighborhoods throughout the city. Many...

Why does Santa need a fighter escort? Children's groups outraged as NORAD militarises Christmas Eve tracker • NORAD officials say the inclusion of jet fighters is a nod to the true mission of the agency - which is to track and intercept airborne threats Outraged child advocates are blasting NORAD's new 3D Santa Tracker program because it includes a fighter jet escort for jolly old Saint Nick. Some say the new online portrait could give kids the wrong impression about Santa Claus - associating him with the military and violence. But Pentagon officials argue the North American Aerospace Defense Command...

• Racism controversy dampens Holland's Sinterklaas tradition Children across Europe eagerly await the arrival of St. Nicholas on December 6. But in Holland, the tradition has racist implications that the Dutch aren't quite willing to give up. For the Dutch, Sinterklaasavond (St. Nicholas Eve) on December 5 is the biggest celebration of the year - bigger than Christmas. That evening, families gather and exchange presents, and children leave out their shoes in the hopes that Sinterklaas will have fill them with candy by the next morning. What seems like a harmless holiday devoted to gifts, candy, and children, has a...

Exclusive: Pamela Geller traces death of the republic to 2 short words The United States of America was created as an independent nation whose founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Freedom. Ayn Rand said that “freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion.” America was the first moral government based on individual rights, the nation of the Enlightenment. In this age of Obama, that ideal has been tossed aside for … “free stuff.” I have, for some time, struggled with the new reality: America void of her reason, existing without the reason for her existence, her...

I lost the argument with my wife. Should we encourage our childrenÂ’s faith in Santa Claus? I was concerned that doing so might later undermine both our credibility as parents and our childrenÂ’s belief in God. It may not be a conversation that most couples have. Then again, must couples donÂ’t include a former JehovahÂ’s Witness who was raised without holidays. As a child, I absorbed the cold hard truth dispensed from my parents. There was no Santa Claus. Other childrenÂ’s parents cruelly lied to them. The privilege of knowing the truth served as consolation for receiving no presents.Though...

No Christmas passes by without depictions of Santa Claus, and yet we know little about St. Nicholas, the real man behind the red-suited, white-bearded legend. A U.S. scholar, who discovered the truth about him, offers insights on what the "original" Santa was known for. While the vast majority of saint stories that circulated in the early church involved extraordinary miracles and healings or dramatic martyrdoms and confessions of Christ, the story of Nicholas was about a regular family facing a familiar crisis to which ordinary people could relate, writes Adam C. English, author of The Saint Who Would Be Santa...

1941: Santa in a Jeep “The panzer “Santa”, with well-filled sack of radios, books, cookies, and other gifts dear to soldiers hearts, glides up to the door of the barracks in Camp Lee’s Quartermaster Corps and it isn’t hampered by lack of snow in Virginia. Camp Lee, Virginia, Quartermaster Replacement Center” - US Army Center of Military History