We first visited St Michael’s Church on the site of the first Anglican Church built south of Virginia. Erected in 1680 as St Phillips Church and subsequently rebuilt several time to replace buildings destroyed by fire or grown too small for the congregation, the current building was opened for services in 1761. The church exterior is dominated by a near 200 ft steeple and weathervane. The interior is very intimate with the native cedar pews almost on top of the altar and galleries hanging over on three sides. The pews have doors at each end, perhaps to ensure the the right people sit there. To the left of the very high pulpit is a small platform where the very small Nativity Set was placed. We thought this an insufficient display for such an historic and inspiring church.

We had been advised to visit the French  Huguenot Church, built in the ” French Quarter” of  Charleston in 1844. The Huguenots were French Calvinists who faced suppression in France and were very nearly wiped by successive Louis Kings. Growing up English Protestant in Montreal. I can remember being surprised to hear of a French Protestant school surviving in a sea of French Catholics. The present Huguenot church in Charleston, like St Michaels, was rebuilt after a fire and survived damage from the Civil War and the Charleston Earthquake. When we visited, the church was closed for major exterior renovation. Not surprisingly services are conducted in English, except for an annual service in French to  celebrate spring.

We then visited the main Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, which is a newly constructed but large and inspiring version of classic church design.As is usual in Catholic churches, there were about five different things going on at the same time. I have always been impressed with their level of activity and utilization of their facilities on days other than Sunday. A very good business model.

We had lunch at S N O B, which is not elitist but stands for Slightly North Of  Broad (street). Reservations were required and the food was a wonderful blend of southern and foreign influences.

After lunch we went looking for a Nativity customer who had purchased our Christmas Nativity 40″ and had asked us to drop by when we were in Charleston. The city is a small area and much easier to walk around than drive. Our customer was in a classic Charleston house on a corner of the Historic Area south of Broad Street and  sheltered from the street by a wall and wrought iron fence. With luck, we found the creche and had a nice chat with the family. They plan to buy a a larger stable and add new pieces to the Nativity,  including the  camel.

That doesn’t have to be the case, though. The holiday spirit is one that people should work to spread all year long, and it can start with you.

Decorate

Decorating doesn’t have to just be for the holidays. When you take down the Christmas decorations and your nativity sets, try putting up something else in their place. Maybe keep some white lights around to mimic the ambiance of having a Christmas tree in your home. Keep winter-scented candles out and burning to bring back that cozy, wintery feel in your home. Stick with winter-themed colors (whites, reds, greens, even some shades of blue) when adding decorations for now, and come springtime, switch it up with brighter hues to lighten up your home.

Keep Baking

There’s just something about holiday baking that brings the whole family together and really warms up a home. So keep baking! Think about cinnamon breads or muffins - even baking something as simple as blueberry muffins can bring back that warm holiday feel to your house. Gather the kids and make some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. Get back in the giving mood by sharing with family members and neighbors.

Start New Traditions

Every family has its own holiday traditions, whether it’s putting up your outdoor Christmas decorations together or setting up life size toy soldiers for your annual Christmas party or gathering around the fire for a holiday story. So why not continue the trend by creating some new wintertime traditions? Maybe you take the whole family sledding after the first big snow storm every year. Or maybe you all go to a huge ice skating rink in a nearby city for a weekend every winter. Maybe it’s just that you all sit down and enjoy the same movie on the same weekend of every year. Get creative - and start making traditions that you can keep throughout the winter, not just around the holidays.

Spread the Cheer

Have you ever noticed how everyone seems to be in such a good mood around the holidays? Some of that cheeriness tends to disappear after the New Year as people start to focus on their resolutions and starting a fresh year. Keep that cheer alive. If you start by smiling at 5 people every day, those 5 people will likely smile at others throughout the day, and the cheer will spread as quickly as it does around the holidays. Remember what Christmas feels like, and try to mimic that feeling in your every-day life, then share it with others.

With these few simple ideas, it will be easy to keep the holiday spirit around all year long, and come next Christmas, you’ll be prepared to spread even more cheer than you already have for the past 11 months!

Apparently global climate change and instability is also a major factor in caribou herd reduction. In their normal environment, as harsh as it is, who would have thought that too much ice and snow would harm them-but it make it difficult to find their food sources under the snow pack. Combined with unpredictable weather and the increased number of forest fires and tundra fires caused by this, there is much higher calf and female mortality.

Since everybody talks about global weather instability (Global Warming) but nobody does anything about it, global politics will ensure that this source of caribou decimation will only get worse.

And, given that hydrocarbon sources in the Middle East will become more and more unstable and risky, development of these resources in the far north of Europe, Asia and North America, ironically made easier by Global Warming, will continue more rapidly in the coming decades.

Sadly, we must conclude that the decimation of the vast caribou herds once found in Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin,, Michigan, Vermont,New Hampshire, Maine, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick will continue. A natural result of the growth of human population  and human enterprise.

So, along with the historical Nativities and St Nicholas(Santa Claus) and fanciful Toy Soldiers and Nutcrackers we will eventually remember the reindeer as either  Christmas Holiday history or myth