Monthly Archives: December 2025
HISTORIC DANCE: CONGA LINE
Popular at any kind of celebration, people often get conga lines going on New Year’s Eve. https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/the-conga-dance-people https://www.diy.org/article/conga
HISTORY-MAKING KIDS: TILLY SMITH AND THAILAND’S 2004 TSUNAMI
https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/atg/NHQ_PDFs/Tsunami_Activity.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOopnMkIVUl8Lvu9fQdkg7otwnDZ5TaQM_l5fIl8eOV_4mSfifkbO Other kids have been tsunami heroes and heroines too.
CHRISTMAS HELPERS: SANTA’S ELVES
’Tis Christmas Eve, and every child who celebrates Christmas knows that Santa’s elves are already busy loading up his sleigh with all the toys they’ve made. His elves are a more recent addition to folklore than regular elves, but they’ve still been around quite a while. https://wheelandcross.substack.com/p/a-history-of-santas-elves-the-nice https://www.christmascentral.com/resources/christmas-traditions/why-are-elves-associated-with-christmas/?srsltid=AfmBOopaScPdlgB8N3ryBex_pjyqTNUBi1JhCOO-xIuBh31odGoQ90x9
HISTORY TIDBIT: SEASONAL GREETING CONTROVERSY
‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy Christmas’ are traditional festive greetings during the Christmas holidays, with ‘Merry Christmas’ more common in North America, and ‘Happy Christmas more common in the UK. But even though the first commercial Christmas cards and Dickens’s Christmas story, A Christmas Carol, made it popular again, ‘Merry Christmas’ was once considered sacrilegious. Why? […]
CHRISTMAS BIRDS: ENGLISH ROBINS
Like turkeys and geese, the little English robins that decorate British Christmas cards, Christmas cakes, and some Christmas trees are recognizable Christmas symbols, and even have a legend. https://www.songbird-survival.org.uk/post/robin-folklore
HISTORIC CHIVALRY: WORLD WAR TWO COMPASSION
For teens wanting to read more about this story, there’s a book entitled A Higher Call by Adam Makos.
CHRISTMAS NOSTALGIA: CHRISTMAS MUSIC ALBUMS
With the exception of Brenda Lee and Pat Boone, all the performers whose Christmas albums are pictured above are gone now. But their voices can still be heard in shopping malls and via You Tube singing vintage Christmas songs as only they, and others of their era, could.
BLATANT SELF-PROMOTION: BOOKS FOR HISTORY AND SCI-FI AND LOVERS
Books are a welcome present for the young/old history or sci-fi lovers on your Christmas shopping list, so here are some excerpts from my contributions to those fields. (The travel memoir counts as history because, well, it was over fifty years ago.) GENERATIONS FIVE: THE TIME ROSE PREQUEL * * This excerpt is from Generation […]
Time Travelling With Kids 