A Free Christmas Short: First Wave

This year, I am giving everyone a free Christmas Short that I originally wrote when I heard of Apex Magazine Christmas Invasion Contest. It did not win, but I enjoyed this story so much I wanted to share it on my blog.

Like it? Hate it?
Please comment below.

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas at our house. The puppies are wondering when we are going to open all these presents.

 

A letter to my “devout” relatives and friends– THERE IS NO WAR ON CHRISTMAS!

To all my devout relatives and others who believe in building a society of fear: I’m sick of this War on Christmas crap, I am seriously about to unfriend/unfollow people. Sorry, but I can’t take another Christmas of this. Yes, I am about to censor my relatives, here is why:

In the Unites States, Christmas became a Federal Holiday in 1870 since then it has won and continues to eat holidays in December, November. We barely care about Thanksgiving, except that it opens our way to Black Friday and Christmas Shopping. Though the US has citizens from every major religion, no other religious holiday is a US federal holiday. Winter Solstice, Chanukah, and Ramadan are NOT Federal Holidays so let’s show generosity of spirit and be good winners.

Just so everyone’s knows the US Federal Holidays are
New Year’s Day
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Washington’s Birthday (Sometimes referred to as President’s Day)
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Want more proof on the fake war on Christmas? Look around you.

Santa is in EVERY mall in the United States. Red and Green Bunting is everywhere. f you want to see a Nativity Scene, find a Christian church. While, yes, towns no longer sponsor Nativity Scenes–and I’d say that’s a good thing since we are supposed to have Freedom of Religion–plenty of churches have Nativity Scenes for the season.

Last weekend on the FoodNetwork, I watched Outrageous Christmas, not Outrageous Ramadan. (And I might not celebrate Ramadan, but I’d love a show about the traditions and food of their celebration) Last night, during RAW (WWE Professional Wrestling) Santa and elves showed up. During the breaks, I saw plenty of Christmas commercials, but no Chanukah commercials.

So if your biggest problem is that in certain instances you say to a general group of people “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas,” you have no real problem!

Internet memes ignore the fact the USA is only 238 years old. Our traditions have changed with access to technology and mass media. Don’t believe that in Puritan New England that you could be fined for celebrating. Check out this link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_Puritan_New_England

Christmas hasn’t always even been celebrated on December 25th.

I could go on and on about how the holiday has changed in 200 years, but it is more important to explain what I think of The War on Christmas Memes”  However, here is a link to the history of Christmas in the US, please check it out! http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm

This meme is three years old, but was on my Facebook Feed today:

This is the WORST kind of meme. It tell people of other faiths to LEAVE. That’s is pretty damn un-Christian and un-Americam since our country was founded on Freedom of Religion. Jewish, Muslim, Wiccan, Hindi and Atheist citizens also live (and are *gasp* born) in this country. They have traditions too–some a lot older than America’s version of Christmas.

Please stop filling my Facebook and Twitter feed with this War on Christmas crap, instead show Christmas Goodness such as more pictures of your Christmas trees and cookie recipes and family togetherness…and you can say it’s a Christmas tree on your Facebook posts.
To get this started, I am reposting a picture of Rosie sleeping under my Christmas Tree which was originally posted on Twitter when I explained why I wasn’t #amwriting. 

A vivid childhood Christmas memory

To all my readers, if you celebrate Christmas I hope you have a merry Christmas! If you don’t, have a wonderful December 25th. To celebrate Christmas, I thought I would tell the story of my most vivid childhood memory. While we had a few Christmas traditions in my home and I have many memories of family time, opening presents, watching Christmas specials, but one of my most vivid memories is going to candlelight service.

You see, when I was a child, my family often spent Christmas Eve and Christmas mornings opening presents at my maternal grandparent’s house then went to my paternal Grandparents home for a large Italian Family Christmas dinner.

Candlelight service was special to me, perhaps even magical. Say church and people always think it’s about God, but for me, it wasn’t. I don’t remember any of the sermons. What I loved was holding the candle. My parents didn’t allow me to play with matches. I wasn’t normally aloud to hold a lit candle, but for one evening of the year, I had to take the flame from the candle of whoever sat beside me on the pew and then give the light to the next person. It made me nervous, I knew fire was dangerous, but there I was, holding a white candle with a white paper bobeche to catch the drips of wax. For a short time, I was in control. I was responsible for it. I had to make sure I did not drop it or let it get to close to my little sisters or the hymnals. In fact, since the pews were also wood, I thought I had to keep it safe from the pews too.  The magic happened, because for that short period of time, I was a grown up.

So that is my most vivid Christmas memory. What’s yours?

12 Day’s of Authors December Event

http://yesterdaydaugher.blogspot.com

I’m part of the 12 Day’s of Authors December Event!

Between December 1st –31st, 11 authors are writing 500 word shorts with a winter holiday theme:  Chanukah, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, among others.

On December 23rd, my short story will be posted. It’s about a space travel on different timelines and how that effects holiday celebrations: in this case, Winter Solstice.

Make sure you also enter the drawing, there are lots of great prizes including a paperback copy of Other Systems.