Christmas 2012
Christmas 2012 plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Blessed Yule. However you like to celebrate it, I hope it is an extra special day. This is the one day of the year that we tend to forget all the issues of things like the fiscal cliff and the end of the Mayan calendar and our attention goes to our families. Well mine goes to that right jolly old elf that has spent his entire evening magically traveling around the entire Earth delivering presents to one and all. Is there a Santa? I know there was a Saint Nicholas. But come on...North Pole and elves making toys and...well that just seems as bit out there, right? To that I say, hoooey. Over the years I have had the distinct pleasure of helping out the old man by dressing in that wonderful red suit and listening intently to children, and some adults, as they pass along what bright and shiny things they’d like to see under the tree. You would have to sit in Santa’s boots to see the magic in those eyes and trust me when I tell you...there really is a Santa.
Now with more on Christmas, here’s Lacy Gray with today’s Food Forethought.
Christmas has been around officially for only a little over 100 years. Most states did not actually celebrate Christmas until the late 19th century. Back then Christmas was celebrated on a much simpler scale than we do today. Families enjoyed the holiday, but there were still cows to milk, livestock to feed, and firewood to chop. Small gifts were occasionally exchanged and often were domestically inclined; fabric for making clothing, churns, crockery, brooms or tools. Ornaments were displayed but usually reflected an agricultural theme consisting of painted pinecones, nuts and clove studded fruit. Trees were often small tabletop size with strands of cranberries and dried apples. Children were thrilled to find their stockings filled with raisins, nuts or hopefully an orange, an exotic and rare treat for 1870. One thing that remains constant though is the gathering of friends and family, if not in body than in heart. And isn’t that truly what the Christmas spirit is all about. Merry Christmas to you and your family from all of us here at the Ag Information Network.
Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
