My wife and I began a new Christmas tradition a couple years ago, and we’re trying to spread it. There is a beer – a very remarkable beer – that’s named after the season’s favorite saint: Samichlaus . Every year on December 6th, the Feast of St. Nicholas, the good beer brewers of of Austria begin … Read more
As my readers are probably aware that Christmas Day is approaching, I will flag another religious event that is indirectly related. This is not outwardly a Christian event, nor alternatively “multicultural” either; nor really “upcoming,” since it is already here. Nor is it an “event” in the sense of a holiday, holy day, or anniversary, … Read more
The more Americans know about the new healthcare bill before the Senate, the less they like it. That’s the unmistakable trend in polling on the issue. But as Michael Cannon at Cato notes, that’s not stopping the Democrats from moving at full steam. Rather than go back to the drawing board and write a better … Read more
I’ve never seen this much snow in Maryland and I’ve lived here almost nine years. We had about two feet in Baltimore — our car was almost invisible under a pile of the white stuff, and everything was shut down. People are now digging out. There’s something magical about a snowstorm in the city. Everything … Read more
I’ve never seen this much snow in Maryland and I’ve lived here almost nine years. We had about two feet in Baltimore — our car was almost invisible under a pile of the white stuff, and everything was shut down. People are now digging out. There’s something magical about a snowstorm in the city. Everything … Read more
Time for your Friday morning links: Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had been excommunicated for illegally ordaining priests and for marrying a Korean woman, has at last been defrocked as well. The top five YouTube videos of 2009. Number one might surprise you, in a good way. Gorgeous book cover designs. I want to hang … Read more
Time for your Friday morning links: Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had been excommunicated for illegally ordaining priests and for marrying a Korean woman, has at last been defrocked as well. The top five YouTube videos of 2009. Number one might surprise you, in a good way. Gorgeous book cover designs. I want to hang … Read more
“How can you lie to your children?” one mom demanded of another on an online message board last week. Â “How can you deprive your children of the magic of Christmas?” came the retort. Â It happens every year — let the Santa Wars begin! Â On one side, we have the Die-Hard Believers. These … Read more
Time for your Friday morning links: Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had been excommunicated for illegally ordaining priests and for marrying a Korean woman, has at last been defrocked as well. The top five YouTube videos of 2009. Number one might surprise you, in a good way. Gorgeous book cover designs. I want to hang … Read more
Time for your Friday morning links: Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had been excommunicated for illegally ordaining priests and for marrying a Korean woman, has at last been defrocked as well. The top five YouTube videos of 2009. Number one might surprise you, in a good way. Gorgeous book cover designs. I want to hang … Read more
Well, it looks like today’s Video Day. Margaret’s posting of that wonderful Sufjan Stevens rendition of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” has inspired me. Every year on the Christmas episode of The Late Show, David Letterman invites the magnificent Darlene Love to close the show with a rocking performance of “Christmas (Baby, Please Come … Read more
Since 1992, the Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, has donated and placed thousands of Christmas wreaths on tombstones at the Arlington National Ceremony. Morrill Worcester, owner of the holiday decoration company, drives a tractor trailer full of wreaths every December all the way down to northern Virginia, where volunteers assist him in laying the wreaths. The … Read more
Having properly celebrated the Christ child’s mother yesterday, Father James Martin thinks it’s only right that, during the Christmas season, we should remember to celebrate His earthly father, too. Poor St. Joseph gets short shrift sometimes — he appears in only one carol that I can think of, and it’s not a very flattering picture; … Read more
As the holiday season comes upon us, and Catholic teenagers everywhere prepare for their high school dances — searching for the perfect gowns, tuxedos, and corsages, and pondering how, whether, and when to find a date — the subject of freak dancing will not likely come up. While some high schools have implemented policies that … Read more
Father’s Day is almost upon us, and this time I really don’t want to blow it. Greg is a wonderful dad to our seven children. There has to be some present that expresses how much I appreciate him. Top gifts this year are the same as every other year: golf bags, fishing gear, and leather … Read more
Our Christmas tree still blinks in the window, though most of our neighbors have taken down all signs of Christmas. Our nativity remains on the front lawn, too, and will until after the Feast of the Epiphany. Each year it seems we struggle harder to “keep Christmas” amid the marketeering that now characterizes what most … Read more
Several years ago, I picked a fight with some Darwinist or other. This was in print, as part of my day job as a newspaper pundit, I hasten to add: No humans were injured in the making of this controversy. I must have had a lot of time on my hands, for the time … Read more
The hallway on Christmas morning: We children stood, youngest in front of oldest, not allowed past an invisible line on the floor separating the hall from the living room. We were close enough to see the lighted tree, the fireplace, and the wrapped presents — but not close enough to see the unwrapped presents left … Read more
It is customary this time of year for the Human Toothache Brigade to break out the ol’ secular-humanist signs and try to dampen Christmas spirit, while oversensitive culture warriors overreact with “War on Christmas!!” hyperventilation. It’s all good fun, but I find myself less and less moved by either side of it. Â If uptight, … Read more
The other night, along with many other Americans, I watched the Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, the movie has become a Christmas staple — but it was not always that way, and how it attained its holiday status has as much to do with the intricacies of … Read more