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The festive holiday spirit will never be complete without Christmas decorations and Christmas lights. There is just something beautiful and mysteriously enchanting about twinkling lights and decorating Christmas trees. No matter how much it feels good to prepare for the holidays, however, sometimes we just can’t help but worry about the increase of electricity costs that comes with our Christmas decorations. Huge electric bills can be a pain but you don’t have to let it affect your holiday lighting plans.

This holiday season marks the 20th anniversary of Fantasy in Lights® — named one of the top 48 events in the world by the Chicago Tribune — at Callaway Gardens, a 13,000-acre destination south of Atlanta.  Fantasy in Lights features 8 million lights stretching more than five miles, creating 14 larger-than-life holiday scenes.  As the most spectacular holiday light and sound show in the South, Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens sets Pine Mountain, Ga., ablaze from November 18 through December 30, 2011.  Advance ticket prices range from $16 to $22 …

Nothing brings out the winter blues like a divorce – whether you’ve only been separated a few months or it’s been a few decades already. If you don’t have any children, you may suffer from loneliness. If you do have little ones, you will assuredly suffer from guilt. Even if you’re on relatively good terms, you still won’t feel good facing your ex’s new squeeze. Traditions are sacred and it’s the breaking of these bonds that really rips us up inside. As complicated as things get, it’s important to remember …

Each year, two million letters arrive at a special post office in New York’s main post office in midtown Manhattan. Unofficially, US Postal Service Santas have been responding to letters and providing gifts of good cheer since the 1920s. Today it’s Pete Fontana, head of the “Operation Santa” project, who has been overseeing Santa’s responses to all those letters. What strikes Pete most about this year’s letters is that kids no longer want toys.

This New Year’s Eve get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and ring in the new year with dancing and dining at the Callaway GardensÒ New Years Eve Celebration. Wake up New Year’s Day to a relaxing day in the Gardens.

In the previous article, we suggested some Christmas CDs that “swing”. This next list contains other favorites that aren’t jazz or swing per se.

Season’s Greetings – The Allentown Band
America’s oldest continuous town band – since 1828 – put a concert band spin on 12 Christmas tunes which range from bombastic to pensive. An organ is on hand to assist with the “bombastic” selections. An interesting aspect of this album is that while they do indeed play some Christmas classics, they have added some seldom heard pieces …

For the record or – in this case – CD, the 12 Days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day. Boxing Day in England is the day after Christmas. The Sherlock Holmes Christmas story “The Blue Carbuncle” takes place on Boxing Day, not Christmas Day. In my youth, my parents put up the tree on Christmas Eve or shortly before and we decorated it on Christmas Eve. During the years that I did time working for radio stations, one of my pet peeves was programmers’ concept …

Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse Gallery presents their Second Annual Holiday Pottery Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 11, 2010. The event features potters from North Carolina and the Southeast who will be showing a variety of beautiful, hand-crafted pottery, sculpture and clay art that is perfect for holiday gift giving.
Taste Full Beans is offering free gourmet coffee to pottery show shoppers. The show will feature wheel-throwing pottery demonstrations by Jason Outlaw of Outlaw Pottery Studio, School & Gallery, as well as guest …

Getting together at the holidays always reminds me that the “one-recipe-fits-all” concept is rather dated. Today, people are allergic to nuts, gluten, anise, and lactose. They have aversions to meet – or even anything containing animal byproducts whatsoever. There are people with diabetes who need to watch their sugar intake, people with high cholesterol who need to cut back on saturated fats, and dieters who just don’t want to consume so many calories. So what’s a baker to do? You may not be able to appease everyone, but here are …