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When I first saw the images from the White House Christmas decor, I immediately thought “Melania is honoring her heritage!” Melania Trump is from Slovenia, one of several Central European-Balkan nations that include “companions” in their holiday traditions – typically frightening beasts who acommpany St. Nicholas for some reason or another, manifesting the consequences of […]
When I was a child growing up in West Mifflin, a blue-collar suburb of Pittsburgh, there were a few consistent holiday rituals. These included: making Advent wreaths at CCD; watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special; and fire truck Santa. Each year the local volunteer fire department would drive around the neighborhoods with Santa on a […]
We are once again gearing up to help our LGBTQ neighbors during the holiday season. This year we are highlighting several organizations conducting their own holiday drives. Please give what you can to help those who need our support. Of course, financial gifts to any LGBTQ organization are very welcome, but we know that some […]
Behind the scenes, this information is some of the most frequently sought from my blog this time of year. So I’m going to make it as accessible as possible. There are two major two distributions that are open to the public. Play It Forward will distribute gently used toys, books and similar items on Saturday […]
Perhaps not the direction you expected me to go after spending the day asking you to donate to help the #PghSavesXmas project? Actually, writing that hashtag over and over really had this question front and center for me all day long. I was resisting using phrases like “It’s a miracle” or “I’m crying” when someone […]
In early November, I published a list of holiday things that I’d like to do this year. My plans were unexpectedly derailed when I learned that my 13 year-old dog has cancer. In fact, just today he had surgery to remove the growth and will spend the next two weeks recuperating. So my holiday things-to-do […]
I’ll take the tweet seats any time – especially if I can enjoy the local arts scene while using my phone with full-on permission of the folks in charge. Bricolage invites local twitter users (like @PghLesbian24 and @Ledcat) to attend performances and provide a live tweet review throughout the evening. So we toddled Downtown last […]
Alexander and Amadeus came to me when they were seven weeks old – part of a litter of 7 that were rescued from a neglectful situation. They were being fed cat food with whole milk poured over it. At seven weeks. After some vet care and fluids for Amadeus who was dehydrated, they spent weeks […]
Elf on the Shelf is creepy. The face, the disproportionate limbs, the mythology dating back to the mid-1990s – it is all creepy, commercialized and secularized. Obviously, it is destined for greatness. The history of Christmas as a holiday and tradition is rife with cultural appropriation, secularization and lots of red-n-green washing. Trees became mainstream […]
For the first time in a decade or longer, I’m not working on a holiday gift project of some type like a toy drive or a food or blanket drive. No drives. Organizing a drive or a giving tree is exhilarating and rewarding, but it consumes hundreds of hours. My personal seasonal activities were usually […]
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