Footle and Grok – Page 66 – Messing about with empathy

Do you believe?

Posted on December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

Day 5 – Write a letter to Santa. How does he know what you want if you don’t tell him? Read them out loud when you are done so Santa can hear you.

Yes, Virginia, I do believe in Santa Claus. Quantum physics makes his Christmas Eve trip work. If you want the details, check out this week’s podcast at Big Picture Science (my favorite podcast.)

Santa has a great history. Someday I’m going to write a book about this humble bishop who now hangs out in malls all over America. It’s been an interesting journey.

If you have kids or are a kid at heart, Santa has his own podcast. He encourages children to be kind, not just because they will stay on his good list (which he checks twice) but because it is the right thing to do. He had an episode every day until Christmas.

Tomorrow is Sinterklaas Day in Holland, and I talk about that holiday on the Footle and Grok podcast then. Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

If you want the ultimate Santa Claus movie (no, it’s not The Santa Clause), watch Miracle on 34th Street. Black and white, original version only, please. No colorization, no remakes. My favorite scene is the end courtroom scene. I don’t want to spoil it, so watch it with a tissue ready.

Last August, I visited Santa at the North Pole. North Pole, Alaska that is. This festive town is outside of Fairbanks, and at the Santa Claus House, you can see Santa, Mrs. Claus, and his reindeer all year long. It was entertaining watching organized families in matching pajamas getting a photo with Santa for their Christmas card so early.

Most of the Santa Claus House is a store with every imaginable Christmas item for sale. While waiting in line to pay for a cute moose ornament, I saw a bright idea. There were letters to Santa that covered every type of child and adult. There were ones for good kids, bad kids, mostly good kids, adults who believe in Santa, adults that don’t believe in Santa, and many more. The packets included a fancy letter and envelope with stickers. All a person had to do was fill in the blanks. I didn’t buy one, but I thought it could be a fun thing to do with a child.

Why not start a new tradition with your family and follow Santa’s trip across the sky with the help of NORAD? On the website or app, you can track Santa on Christmas Eve and play lots of other games throughout the year. It’s fun to watch quantum physics at work.

Well, they do tinkle

Posted on December 4, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

Day 4 – Give to the poor. Does that foodbank need some canned food? Do you have some clothes that could be donated? Donate every time you see a Salvation Army bell ringer.

I thought I would find out why the Salvation Army kettles are red, but apparently, they just are. The idea of collecting donations for the poor in a kettle started in San Francisco in 1891. It spread quickly to other Salvation Army regions, and now the red kettles are found around the world.

Some of the bell ringers are volunteers, and some of them are paid minimum wage. It turns out the bells are more interesting than the kettles. In 1900 in New York City, a volunteer named Amelia bought a 10-cent bell to ring while asking for donations, and many more people paid attention to her. With that success, other volunteers started using bells, and now we hear them everywhere. I personally like the sound and love seeing a kettle outside of stores.

Here is the best part about the bell ringers. The song “Silver Bells,” one of my favorites, was inspired by the Salvation Army bell ringers. Those are the silver bells mentioned in the song. Here is the article from Holidappy:

“Silver Bells” was written for the movie, The Lemon Drop Kid, starring Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in 1951. It was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, who were very reluctant to write a Christmas song as new ones had never made the hit list. Their uncertainty about taking on such a project also stemmed from the fact that their contracts were coming due and they had not written a hit in a while. Another flop would have sealed their fate.

Because the studio was insistent on a new Christmas song being written for this movie, the duo wrote a song based on department store Santas and Salvation Army workers tinkling their bells on New York street corners. They named their song, “Tinkle Bell” and fortunately for all of us, Jay told his wife about the song, including their name for it. Asking Jay if he was out of his mind, she proceeded to inform him of the slang meaning of ‘tinkle’ understood by most people.”

Luckily, Jay listened to his wife, and Tinkle Bells” became “Silver Bells.”

I always carry change with me in December, so I can drop a few coins in every kettle I see and wish the bell ringers a Merry Christmas. Every little bit can help.

The more Christmas spirit, the better

Posted on November 30, 2019November 30, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

Day 1 – Keep a Christmas tape in your car. Play it as you drive so that you remember to display Christmas spirit with other drivers.

Tape? What year did I make this list? I still have several Christmas cassettes, but this year I’m transferring them into iTunes as I have done with all my other tapes. I do have a cassette player, but I rarely pull it out, and it’s easier to play the music on my phone.

My dad had a speaker in every room that connected to his record player and stereo. In December, we would put a stack of 33s on the rod and listen to all the side A’s as they dropped. We’d then turn the stack over and listen to the other sides. Dad had Spike Jones, Mitch Miller, Elvis Presley, The Mormon Tabernacle, and others. It was fun to listen to as we wrapped gifts or hung lights.

When I went to college, I copied most of his records onto cassettes so I could play them in my dorm room. Some of them I have since bought on CD, but others are really hard to find, so I’ll just add them as they are.

I don’t know why I added the part about reducing road rage, but it’s probably true. It’s hard to be mad at other drivers when you are singing “Rudolf, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Whether you listen to the radio, an 8-track, a cassette, a CD, your phone, or SiriusXM, I hope you’ll play some festive music in the car and be courteous to other drivers. We’re all a little crazy this time of year.

24 days of fun

Posted on November 30, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

I wanted to do something fun with Footle and Grok in December.

After several ideas floated around my mind, I settled on the following plan. Many years ago, I made advent quilts for family members. This hanging quilt had twenty-four pockets, and each pocket held an index card. The cards had the day on one side and an activity on the other. The idea was that you would put the card in the pocket and do whatever activity was listed.

I didn’t make one for myself, but I still have my list of activities. So each day, I will blog about one of the activities. This will be fun for me because I haven’t read the list in years, so it will be a surprise and possibly a challenge to write about the activity of the day. Hopefu,lly, it will be fun for you because you’ll have an idea for a festive activity and you’ll learn something about the holidays.

The quilts I made were large, two feet by four feet. I think I’ll design a new, smaller advent calendar that incorporates the activities. That could be a nice gift for people next year. As you know, I like to get my gifts done as early as possible.

Thanksgiving is over. Hang the lights, decorate the house, and play the carols. It’s finally Christmastime!

Christmas music overload

Posted on November 28, 2019November 29, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

It’s time to make some fun December goals.

One of the things I want to focus on this year is Christmas music. Now that it’s after Thanksgiving, I love listening to the festive songs on the radio, but I rarely play all the Christmas CDs I have. This year I’m going to change that.

I plan to listen to a different CD each day. I don’t have 24 CDs so I checked some out from the library and added them to my iTunes. I tried to get a variety so I have country stars, English chants, and children’s choirs. I’ll intersperse them with my own favorite Christmas CDs.

The new songs may not all be good, but I’ll get to experience lots of Christmas music which should be a fun Christmas goal.

A tradition worth celebrating

Posted on November 27, 2019November 27, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

Happy Thanksgiving. As you prepare your stuffing and prep your turkey, before family and football, why not listen to a thought-provoking podcast? Seth Godin, an insightful person and a marketing guru, has a podcast called Akimbo. In this week’s episode, he talks about Thanksgiving traditions and the power of marketing.

Can I have some blue milk with my dinner?

It was interesting to learn about the history of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. If you think that this podcast is an anti-holiday rant, it isn’t. Seth has a great message. He believes you should enjoy your family traditions because they mean something to you, not because it’s what society expects. I can get behind that idea.

Handwriting vs. printing addresses

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Jennifer Vandenberg

There are a lot of debates when it comes to Christmas cards.

Photo cards vs. traditional cards. Christmas letter vs. handwritten note. Mailed cards vs. ecards. But I’ve never seen anyone discuss handwriting the address on the envelope vs. printing labels.

I’ve been sending cards out for about twenty-four years. For all those years, I handwrote the address on each envelope. However, this year, I entered all my Christmas card addresses into Excel and made sure I had the correct address for everyone. There were a lot of errors.

I did a mail merge in Word, and I’m printing labels this year. My hubby thinks I should handwrite the envelopes like always. I receive envelopes addressed both ways, and I don’t care. What do you prefer?

Do you handwrite your envelope addresses? Do you use labels? Have you ever considered doing something different? Do you feel that labels are impersonal? Let me know in the comments. I’ve already printed my labels this year, but I can always change back next year if it matters.