Here are the topics for this morning's Christmas Day blog and in keeping with the season, this week's items are upbeat: holiday advertisements; false legends; Yuletide in Denver and the mountains; Christmas carillon concert.

Tis the season. I know Christmas is approaching when I see the ads for alka seltzer, the clapper, and chia pets. Of course, the alka seltzer ads continue through New Year's; alas, my grocery discount coupons expire on 1/3/2015.

The North Pole and Greenland. Bummer! Seems the North Pole, traditionally thought to be the "home" of Santa Claus, is too far north for both trees and reindeer. By the way, Rudolph should not have horns -- either that or he is not Scandinavian because male reindeer in Scandinavia lose their horns in the winter. Oh, oh!
     Lest we forget, "Yuletide" is a pagan festival period that is now firmly entrenched in the Christian era. I suppose, though, there might be some druid celebrants among my readers.  As I wrote this portion of the blog (mid-day Saturday, 20th), the winter solstice celebration at Stonehenge was less than 24 hours away. I have not been to Stonehenge for any solstice celebrations. No doubt, the modern day congregants/believers and the curious tourists were on the plain to celebrate. For those interested, here is a link to the site. Later weather reports and webcam pictures showed it to have been a cloudy, overcast celebration.

Christmas-time in Denver and Breckenridge. On Thursday (18th), we visited the Denver Zoo to take in their extensive annual light display. For the first time visitor and children of all ages, the colorful animations using bright LED lights make for fascinating displays. A mountain lion that twitches its tail, jumping tree frogs, swimming penguins, all manner of other zoo creatures move about in the darkness. To enter one area you  walk in through the brightly lit "mouth" of a hippopotamus.   
     In Breckenridge it was good fun to see how the town was decorated and to watch the visitors stream in. The Christmas vacationers to the Breckenridge found the previous snowstorm had deposited some 36 inches on the slopes. More is predicted for later Christmas week. Some beginning skiers were probably unsettled as they had to make their first ever runs without being able to "see" their feet. Here in southeast Denver, we had a meager 2-3"; the 4 inches predicted on Christmas Eve night never materialized. Christmas morning has dawned clear with only a few clouds.

Christmas carillon. There was a special Christmas eve concert at Denver University. The university's carillon began with Silent Night and continued with other favorite hymns. It was meant to commemorate the very unofficial truce declared by soldiers along one section of those murderous trenches of WW I, December 24, 1914. Legend has it that the shooting stopped, Yuletide greetings refreshments and small gifts were exchanged, even a soccer game played in the mud of no-man's land. The carillon's wonderful sounds were heard over the entire campus and the story in the Denver Post drew many listeners for something special on Christmas eve, 2014.

Thank you for reading and I do hope your Christmas is enjoyable. Now it's on to the first blog of 2015!