Author: Miss Cellania

Once upon a time, you could hang up a string of lights and call your house decorated for the merriest season. But these days, LEDs, computerized Christmas lights, and projection lights have added new dimensions to decorating—and people are creating bigger and better light shows with each passing holiday season.

1. SARAJEVO 12/24

Robert Pechous of Wheaton, Illinois, synchronized more than 35,000 Christmas lights by computer to create this lovely display in 2013. (The video features just one song—Trans Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24″—but the show had three songs total.) Pechous expands the light show every year, raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in honor of his young cousin, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

2. DUELING JINGLE BELLS

The Brown family of Stafford, Virginia, staged a Christmas light show from 2008 to 2013 to benefit the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank. In 2012, they got a little silly and slipped a novelty song in among the Christmas Carols. You can see their other selections on YouTube.

3. TECHNO MIX

It’s a Christmas rave! This home went techno for Christmas in 2011. We don’t know where the home is located, or the identity of the people who so joyfully decked it out, but they’ve been at it for a while: You can see their other displays here.

4. MUSIC BOX DANCER

Victor Johnson of Paxton, Illinois, used 140,000 lights on his home to create this display in 2013. The music was broadcast on an FM channel so that those driving by could hear it without disturbing the neighbors. You can see more of his Christmas displays over the years at Lighting Up Paxton.

5. CHRISTMAS CAN-CAN

Tom BetGeorge of Tracy, California, is a legend among Christmas light fans. Every year, his meticulous light display helps to raise funds for local charities, and in 2013, the display included the hilarious “Christmas Can-Can” by Straight No Chaser. The 2016 show will still feature his popular Star Wars sequence, in addition to Harry Potter music and, according to BetGeorge’s Facebook page, a “to-scale computer-lighted model of Hogwart’s [sic] castle.” The show kicks off December 16.

6. LET IT GO

A family in Texas, which goes by ListenToOurLights, syncs many songs to their lights every year, and in 2014, the blue lights lent themselves well to the songs of the Disney movie Frozen. You can see the lights dance to other songs in this playlist. The cactus is a family tradition that acts as their signature.

7. AMAZING GRACE

Richard Holdman of Pleasant Grove, Utah, began programming his Christmas lights in 2006. They grew every year, and in 2009, the town was treated to the sequence you see here. A donation box raised $40,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation that year. Holdman no longer puts on a show at his home, but he started a company, Holdman Lighting, and now decorates homes all over the country.

8. PURPLE RAIN

Mike Staudt of Chaska, Minnesota, puts on an annual lights show called Lights on Pascolo. That’s not far from Prince’s home, Paisley Park, so this year’s show includes a tribute to the artist, complete with purple lights. You can see the full 2016 show here. Donations from those who enjoy the show this year will go to Ronald McDonald house charities.

9. STAR WARS/UPTOWN FUNK

In Auckland, New Zealand, where Christmas falls in the middle of summer, Logan Carpenter mixed his own music and programmed lights to match. Take a tour of Carpenter’s yard to see the variety of Christmas decorations and lights.

10. EL PASO CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Fred and Maria Loya of El Paso, Texas, won the The Great Christmas Light Fight in 2014. Their home display has only grown from there. This is their light show for 2016, featuring 450,000 lights.

11. JOLLY’S DEPARTMENT STORE

The new trend in Christmas lights is projection. You can project lights on your house for very little cost, but the most amazing displays use computerized projection mapping. This display on the front of Jolly’s Department Store in Bath, UK, in 2014 shows the possibilities of this technology.

12. WESTERN MALL

In 2006, Joe Noe of Crooks, South Dakota, staged a computerized light show at his home, and the show grew so much every year that it had to eventually be moved to the Western Mall in Sioux Falls. The video above shows the 2011 display. In those years, the light display raised over $225,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. There isn’t a display this year, but organizers hope it will return in 2017.

13. DUBSTEP AT THE ZOO

Matt and Melissa Johnson of San Antonio, Texas, started doing computerized Christmas lights in 2013 at their home, and within a couple of years they were featured on The Great Christmas Light Fight. The display went over so well that Matt started his own lighting business, which was brought aboard to put on a light show at the San Antonio Zoo. See more of the Johnson Family Light Show at their website.

14. WALT DISNEY WORLD

Two years ago, Walt Disney World in Orlando unveiled a show called “A Frozen Holiday Wish,” centered around the movie Frozen. The show leads up to the lighting of Cinderella’s Castle with projected Christmas lights every evening during the season. The actual lighting begins six minutes into the video.

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What a wonderful variety of ornaments we can get to decorate our Christmas trees! Here is an array of ornaments perfect for any U.S. history buff, whether that someone is yourself or a loved one.

1. ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Lest we start to think that Alexander Hamilton looked like Lin-Manuel Miranda (creator of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton), let us remember his portrait is on the $10 bill. It’s this portrait that also graces the Alexander Hamilton Christmas ornament from Mat and Amie of Nestled Pines Woodworking. The quote on the piece—”A promise must never be broken”—is from a 1791 letter to his eldest son, Philip.

2. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Benjamin Franklin has been paraphrased and misquoted for over 200 years. What he said was, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Holly White painted that quote, along with Franklin’s face, on a plush Christmas ornament offered through her shop HollyAndHerHobbies.

3. ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTES

This glass ball has a treasure inside. The curled bits of paper are actually hand-cut from a book titled Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865. Quotes from Abraham Lincoln are carefully excised, curled, and placed inside until the ball is filled. The result is a historically meaningful ornament from Etsy store noveladornment.

4. THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

This wooden ornament is only 4 inches tall, yet it contains the complete text of the Gettysburg Address, as delivered by President Lincoln at the dedication of the military cemetery. It’s offered by Dennis and Nancy Solomon of PalmettoEngraving.

5. SITTING BULL

SarahWoodJewelry has a series of ornaments featuring photographs of Native American historical figures on tin with leather and copper trim. This one features Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man Sitting Bull, who united the Sioux tribes to oppose U.S. government policies toward Native Americans, which included defeating General Custer at Little Big Horn. Other ornaments from the shop depict Chief Joseph and Geronimo.

6. THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Our 26th president led the Rough Riders, championed national parks, and inspired the teddy bear. Now Teddy Roosevelt is a wooden Christmas ornament, handcrafted by Rachael Peden. Her Etsy shop has a wealth of historical figures in wood ready to deck your Christmas tree, from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to Edgar Allan Poe and Davy Crockett.

7. ROSIE THE RIVETER

When American men were sent off to fight in World War II, women stepped into their jobs for the war effort. Over time, those hard-working women came to be represented by a character called Rosie the Riveter. You can pay tribute to the working women of World War II with this pewter Christmas ornament in the style of the iconic poster. You’ll find it at the Etsy shop ARRARosieShoppe, along with other souvenirs depicting Rosie.

8. VJ DAY IN TIMES SQUARE

New Yorkers celebrated the end of World War II with dancing in the streets. Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was in Times Square on VJ Day and captured an unforgettable photo of a sailor kissing a nurse that became the image everyone associates with the war’s end. Nina at AdornamentsNY makes a version of that kiss as a Christmas tree ornament that can be personalized with names.

9. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Kimmy at scrambledpegs offers wooden figurines of famous people from history, and she’ll be glad to add a hook and ribbon so that you can hang them on your Christmas tree. Pictured here is Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Other historical figures from the Etsy shop include peg dolls depicting Mary Shelley, Marie Curie, Sally Ride, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

10. APOLLO MISSION

The Kennedy Space Center gift shop sells Christmas ornaments commemorating notable NASA missions. This one shows Santa Claus and Rudolph in an Apollo lunar capsule, modeled after the ones used during actual missions. Other ornaments in the shop commemorate the space shuttle program, and there are even a couple sporting the classic NASA logo.

MAN MISTAKES JELLYFISH FOR BREAST IMPLANT

An unnamed man at the beach in Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia, found a suspicious gelatinous object in the water. He thought it was a breast implant. He took it to the local police station and handed it over, telling them it may be evidence of a homicide. A short investigation revealed that the object was actually a dead jellyfish, most likely a common blubber jellyfish, that had lost its tentacles. The investigation was closed.

FISH FROZEN INTO SKATING RINK

A theme park in Japan had a creative idea: they installed an ice skating rink with 5,000 fish embedded in the ice! There were also crabs and shellfish in the ice. The idea was to give skaters the illusion of skating on the sea, but the stunt backfired when advertisements sparked complaints on social media. Space World manager Toshimi Takeda was shocked at the backlash. 

Takeda told CNN the park would unfreeze the skate rink to remove the fish, hold an “appropriate religious service” and then reuse them as fertilizer.

He added the fish were purchased at a local fish market, and were dead before they were frozen.

BOY GETS TO BLOW STUFF UP

A 12-year-old cancer patient in Sydney, Australia, named Declan was approached by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and asked about his dearest wish. The boy replied that he wanted to “blow stuff up.” And so you shall.

The Australian Federal Police organized a training day for Declan with their Specialist Response Group. The family traveled to the squad’s Majura headquarters in Canberra, where Declan was put into various police scenarios where he saved the day by detonating explosives. He also learned about bomb demolition and police procedures. A good time was had by all.

CAT FENCE ERECTED AROUND VOLCANO

The nation’s longest cat-proof fence has been unveiled in Hawaii. The five-mile fence around the Mauna Loa volcano is six feet tall and took three years to build. The fence is not to protect cats from volcanic activity, though. It’s to protect the endangered Hawaiian petrel from the cats.

Mauna Loa’s lava-covered slopes make for some seriously forbidding landscape, but that hasn’t deterred cats, which have adapted to the Hawaiian islands just fine since arriving on explorers’ ships. So fine, in fact, that the little invasive predators are now a mortal threat to the endangered Hawaiian petrel, a seabird that breeds on Mauna Loa. Several thousand of the birds live in Hawaii, but only about 75 breeding pairs are on the Big Island.

The fence features an outward curve at the top, which should deter any but the most determined feral cats.  

WOMAN RUNS TRIATHLON, BREAKS BONES, DELIVERS BABY, AND SERVES THANKSGIVING DINNER

On Thanksgiving Day, Rhonda DiCostanzo of Tacoma, Washington, woke up early and put the turkey in the oven. Then she went out to participate in the YMCA triathlon. Crossing the finish line, she fell and broke two fingers. At the emergency room, she saw a woman in active labor. Since DiCostanzo is a certified midwife, she volunteered to deliver the baby, since the maternity staff would take too long to arrive on a holiday. As if that wasn’t enough activity for the day, DiCostanzo made it home in time to serve Thanksgiving dinner to 16 people. And how was your holiday?

Some of our favorite historical figures were born in the month of December. We couldn’t possibly name them all, but here are just a handful whose lives we’ll be celebrating.

1. WALT DISNEY: DECEMBER 5, 1901

Walter Elias Disney was a sketch artist from an early age, and his cartoons from the 1920s were so successful that he eventually opened his own studio, where Mickey Mouse was born. Always looking for bigger and better things, Disney produced the first full-length animated feature in 1937 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), was an early adopter of television, and opened Disneyland in 1955. But to build an empire, you have to exert some serious control—even over unlikely things. Case in point: For 43 years, employees at Disney theme parks were forbidden from growing facial hair. That all changed in 2000 (four years after Disney’s death) when the company decided to let male employees sport mustaches, a logical choice since Disney himself wore one throughout his life. There is a catch though: Employees must already have one when they get hired or grow it out on vacation. The trash ‘stache look is not allowed. 

2. SAMMY DAVIS JR.: DECEMBER 8, 1925

Sammy Davis, Jr. was destined for show business. Born to two vaudevillians, he began performing on stage at age four, and you can watch his film debut at the age of seven in the short Rufus Jones For President (1933). Davis’s career included vaudeville, standup comedy, singing, dancing, Broadway musicals, movies, and TV. He was a member of the infamous Rat Pack, along with Frank Sinatra, whose birthday is also this month. He was also particularly known for his celebrity impressions, which you can see here, including an impressive Michael Jackson mimic.

3. EMILY DICKINSON: DECEMBER 10, 1830

Renowned poet Emily Dickinson spent most of her life at home in Amherst, Massachusetts, surrounded by family. While she’s often remembered as a recluse, Dickinson did have a noteworthy social life—even to the point of scandal. We can only speculate how her many rumored paramours may have contributed to the passion in her romantic poems.

4. ADA LOVELACE: DECEMBER 10, 1815

Augusta Ada King-Noel died at the age of 36, but she managed to make a serious mark on humanity in her short life. As a young woman, Lovelace worked for professor Charles Babbage, who developed a theoretical computer in the 1830s. He assigned young Ada with figuring out how to input data to make the computer, well, compute. A brilliant mathematician, she was up to the task, and developed the world’s first computer software, a century before there was an actual computer to use it. Take that, modern coders. 

5. FRANK SINATRA: DECEMBER 12, 1915

Frank Sinatra might have had an air of ease about him, but began his life the hard way. The forceps used to bring him into the world left a lifelong scar on his left jaw and mangled his ear. And while he was always self-conscious about his looks, it didn’t stop him from becoming an icon. “Ol’ Blue Eyes” started his singing career with the big bands of the 1930s, effortlessly moved into the role of a teen heartthrob in the ’40s, and began appearing in movies, where he proved to be a natural. In the 1950s, Sinatra had his own TV show, and won an Oscar for From Here to Eternity (not to mention his many Grammy Awards). When his record sales flagged, Sinatra became a record company executive, but ultimately made comebacks with his music in both the ’60s and the ’70s, while constantly adding to his acting credits.   

6. SHIRLEY JACKSON: DECEMBER 14, 1916

In the 1940s, Shirley Jackson was a housewife and mother of four with serious literary chops (and aspirations). One day in 1948, she sat down to write about an idea she’d been mulling over. In just two hours she produced the short story “The Lottery” [PDF], about a small town where every year, residents draw slips of paper, and one unlucky “winner” is stoned to death. Published in The New Yorker, it was an immediate sensation—because readers were horrified. The magazine was flooded with calls and letters, people canceled their subscriptions and others still, believing it was nonfiction, inquired as to how they could witness the ritual in the story. Jackson said nothing, preferring her work to speak on its own. She went on to write several more well-received novels, mostly horror and some humor. “The Lottery” has since become a classic think piece, and required reading in many schools.

7. JANE AUSTEN: DECEMBER 16, 1775

Jane Austen wrote her heart out from an early age, but did not publish her first novel until 1811, when she was 36 years old. Sense and Sensibility sold well, so Austen published Pride and Prejudice in 1813, a novel she completed when she was only 21. Two more novels followed, all published anonymously. It was only after Austen’s death at age 41 that her true identity was revealed to the literary world. Two more of her novels were published posthumously.

8. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: DECEMBER 16, 1770

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven was in the right place at the right time to fill the void left by the death of Mozart. Beethoven became a rock star in the royal courts and concert halls of Europe, and had an ego to match his fame. When his hearing began to fail at around age 30, he stopped performing and dedicated his life to composing. Beethoven made his comeback in 1824 when he debuted his Symphony No. 9, which became his most famous work ever.     

9. CLARA BARTON: DECEMBER 25, 1821

Clarissa Harlowe Barton (who preferred to be called Clara) was working as a clerk in Washington D.C. when the Civil War began. She saw a need and went to work supporting Union troops with food, supplies, and medical care. Barton sought permission to bring food and medical supplies to front line clinics, where she was considered an “Angel of the Battlefield.” Barton also searched for missing soldiers and worked to identify those in graveyards. She learned about the International Red Cross during a visit to Europe in 1869, and volunteered with the organization during the Franco-Prussian War. Her service impressed Red Cross officials in Europe, and Barton spent the next several years lobbying for the United States to open a chapter—the American Red Cross—which was established in 1881.

10. HENRI MATISSE: DECEMBER 31, 1869

Henri Matisse was the leading artist of the Fauvist movement, though his art evolved during his more than half a century of work. Best known for his paintings, Matisse was also a sculptor and printmaker, but before all of that, he pursued a more practical career path: law. Matisse earned a legal degree and was working as a clerk in a law office when he came down with appendicitis in 1899. His mother brought him paints to use while he was recuperating, and the rest was history. 

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