A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

christmas

Season of giving

I need a quick post today, so allow me to give a word about this season.

Life isn’t always great for others. Life can always be worse for you. If you are reading this, hopefully life is at least decent.

So take this season to give a little. Maybe it’s a toy drive. Maybe it’s “adopting” a person in a holiday present drive. Whatever it is, do your best to give back. Our world isn’t the nicest right now — so no matter your beliefs, take this time of year to give back a little. I’m doing my best to do it and I hope others will do the same.

Take away religion — and remember that this season is about being happy and trying to pass that along to others. At least in my mind.

Be kind to one another. We need a lot more of that in our world.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Make up our minds, Mother Nature!

The Christmas season is upon us, it seems.

Lights are popping up all over the place. People seem to be somewhat festive. The holiday music is all over, especially on two channels on SiriusXM.

Snow is again in the forecast in the coming days. That is not so fun.

I don’t mind a little snow, but I’d rather not be dumped on again. Especially during the week as it makes going to work not so fun. This weekend, there are plans, too, so the weather would be a total downer.

Alas, it’s part of living in the Northeast.

That being said, I do want to see snow on Christmas. The whole green Christmas thing is just not fun.

Last year was mild. This area set records for the lack of snow. I think we ended with like 19 inches – total. We might have that by the end of December!

So we’ll get some snow the next few days. Then it’ll be gone. And who knows what Christmas will bring.

Mother Nature needs to make up her mind, though! Damn her.

How’s the weather near you? Feeling like the holidays yet?

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It’s beginning to look a lot like …

OK, maybe not.

But it seems like the “Christmas” season starts sooner and sooner every year. This year, it was tip-toeing into October.

Sooner or later, the Christmas sales could start in July and August!

Look, I like Christmas. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. With the music and the festivities, and everything else … it’s really a wonderful time.

But stores are starting much earlier.

Can Halloween and Thanksgiving at least be done before we start the sales and displays?

That being said, I’m going to admit that I’ve had the “Holly” channel on SiriusXM a few times already. Not non-stop by any means, but I’ve played a few songs when I hear something I like. I can’t lie that I love holiday music. It makes me cheery, so I can dig it. But I’ve had to turn it off after a song or three because it’s just not “time” yet.

That being said, once Thanksgiving goes by, I’ll be more apt to listen to holiday tunes. The music is pretty much uplifting and joyous, which makes it nice.

But there’s a limit, too, hence why waiting until after Thanksgiving to really crank it up.

Alas, this is still November and Thanksgiving hasn’t happened yet.

Stop rushing things … Christmas comes once a year. It doesn’t have to be for two or three months!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Merry Christmas!

Please allow me a moment to wish everybody out there a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season. Be safe and healthy.

To family, friends, and all those in the blogging universe — make this season one to remember and enjoy the time with your loved ones. For those who celebrate this day, enjoy yourself, have fun and appreciate the day for what it is. It’s definitely a time we should reflect on the good and try to make positives out of any negatives.

Remember, also, that this day goes beyond materialistic items. Whether it’s a truly religious day for you or one where you spend it with family and/or friends, take it all in. Gifts are fun to exchange, but in the end, keep it in perspective.

Enjoy the day! And have a wonderful holiday season!

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Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Yes, Virginia … timeless words for the holidays

In 2011, I published this post on the blog. I thought it would be a good one to bring back last year after a few tweaks. I want to repeat that post in the holiday spirit. Enjoy!

More than 100 years ago, one of the most famous lines in newspaper history was printed in the New York Sun.

“Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus.”

Virginia O’Hanlon, via Wikipedia public domain.

Those words were penned by Francis Pharcellus Church, one of The Sun’s editors. The words were in response to a letter written by 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.

As the story is told, young Virginia asked her father whether or not Santa Claus was real. To that, Dr. O’Hanlon told his daughter to write The Sun, which was one of the top newspapers in New York City at the time. As Virginia noted in her letter to the Sun, her father told her “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”

Her letter made its way to Church. The editorial, which is reprinted on a yearly basis in newspapers and on websites, has been used in books, for songs and movies. It is the most reprinted editorial in history, according to Newseum, which also noted it was an editorial without a byline.

Though it has a Christmas theme to it and is mainly reprinted around Christmas, the original ran Sept. 21, 1897.

Virginia wrote this to The Sun:

“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

Enter Church, a former Civil War correspondent.

His response is an amazing work. Somewhat buried in the paper, it reportedly got quite the response. And as history has shown, that response is one of the most famous things in a newspaper.

Even in today’s standards, this is one heck of a good piece of work. (Realize that the style of writing between 1897 and now is night and day).

So, without further ado and with the history of this piece done, allow me to give to you — in the spirit of Christmas — Church’s excellent response to young Virginia O’Hanlon.

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VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Church, via Wikipedia public domain.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

This editorial originally was published in The New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897.

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