Friday, December 02, 2005
The Battle of Christmas, Part 1
"I'm dreaming of a White Christmas,Gen. George Washington did not spare the religious feelings of German Hessians or of his own troops when he ferried his ragged army across the icy, hazardous Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776 & attacked Trenton. What a dirty, cheating rebel with no respect for the sanctity of the event! Three regiments of teutonic mercenaries had gotten drunk celebrating the birth of Blessed Jesus & let their guard down on the assumption that those pathetic Americans across the river had done the same.
with every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright,
and may all your Christmases be white"
Irving Berlin, member of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame
Only Christians wage war on Christmas.
It used to be about the "commercialization" of Christmas. That complaint has been around for over 150 years, & the more we spent & the more merchants profited from the month of December the more we griped about it. Christians agreed, yes it's too bad it's become all about Santa Claus & being jolly & we should be more modest & show some restraint, but what can we do? Our children will hate us. It's the same reason the Southern Baptist boycott against Disneyworld failed so utterly.
What did Ebeneezer Scrooge do after he was visited by three ghosts? He bought a fat goose for the Cratchits & then dropped by their place for dinner. God bless us, everyone!
I was 18 years old when I first attended church on a Christmas Eve. It was a Mass at St. Joseph the Carpenter, I went with my beautiful Catholic girlfriend, enjoyed the theater of it all, she liked dressing for the occasion, & afterward we bundled up under a blanket in a car parked in front of her house & committed acts that were definitely illegal in many states at the time. She was 16 & her curfew didn't exactly apply on Christmas Eve when she was technically home & her parents were inside chugging spiked eggnog while wrapping presents for their six kids. I did suspect they were lenient because they wanted her to get pregnant as soon as possible after graduation if not before so she'd move out of the crowded house, & although I wasn't a Catholic at least my grandmother was, & Nana went to St. Joe's, & I'd be easy enough to shotgun. I was so contented that Christmas that I took some of my income from a job driving a delivery truck for a local hardware store & bought my honey a pricy cameo ring she wanted from local jewelry store owned by the father of a girl who later married legendary WFMU DJ Vin Scelsa, both of whom also lived in my town. I'm willing to bet she still has the ring even if she hasn't worn it in decades. It's good to be happy at Christmastime.
Hear me, Bill O'Reilly. I'm writing about America past, present, & future. Hardly anyone roots for the curmudgeon this time of year. Scrooge, Mr. Potter, The Grinch, & now you'll get your comeuppance, too.
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
That story about the Hessians being drunk is just that: a story, and not true. They were very sober, aware Washington was coming, and defended Trenton firecly. Washington won that one fair and square.
See the book Washingtons Crossing for this and sources.
See the book Washingtons Crossing for this and sources.
# posted by 
: 1:46 PM
: 1:46 PM
Well, you know what happened when "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" told the true story to reporters. They wouldn't report it, so John Ford had to film it.
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