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<meta name="Author" content="MARK GIAMMALVO">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.8 [en] (Win95; U) [Netscape]"><title>Sam Giammalvo's Auto Sales & Service Inc. - Holidays Page</title></head>
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<center><font color="#ff0000"><font size="+2">Welcome to the Giammalvo
Holiday Page!</font></font> <br>
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<p><font color="#009900">The entire staff at Giammalvo's, wishes you
a happy and joyous holiday season!</font> <br>
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<p><a href="xmasmusic.htm"><img src="new.gif" border="0" height="39" width="38">
</a><font color="#000000"><font size="+1"><a href="xmasmusic.htm">Click
Here To Listen To FREE Christmas Music!</a></font></font></p>
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<p> To our Christian customers, we wish you a Merry Christmas!</p>
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<p> To our Jewish customers, we wish you a
Happy Hanukah! </p>
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<p><a href="gift_tags.html"><img src="new.gif" border="0" height="39" width="38">
</a><font size="+1"><a href="gift_tags.html">Click Here For Printable
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<center><font color="#000000"><font size="+2">
<b>Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897 </b></font></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000"> Yes, Virginia, There is a
Santa Claus ! </font> <br>
<font color="#000000">We take pleasure in answering thus prominently
the communication below, </font> <br>
<font color="#000000">
expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author
is numbered among the friends of The Sun: </font>
<p><font color="#006600">
Dear Editor,</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says,</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
"If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Virginia O'Hanlon</font> </p>
<p><font color="#006600">
Virginia, your little friends are wrong.</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
They have been affected by the</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
believe except they see. They think that</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
nothing can be which is not</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
comprehensible by their little minds. All</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
children's, are little. In this great universe</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
his intellect as compared with the</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
boundless world about him, as measured</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
by the intelligence capable of grasping</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
the whole of truth and knowledge. </font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
exists as certainly as love and generosity</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
and devotion exist, and you know that</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
they abound and give to your life its</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
would be the world if there were no Santa</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Claus! It would be as dreary as if there</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
were no Virginias. There would be no</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
to make tolerable this existence. We</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
should have no enjoyment, except in</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
sense and sight. The external light with</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
which childhood fills the world would be</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
extinguished. </font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
well not believe in fairies. You might get</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
your papa to hire men to watch in all the</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
chimneys on Christmas eve to catch</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Santa Claus, but even if you did not see</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Santa Claus coming down, what would</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
that is no sign that there is no Santa</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Claus. The most real things in the world</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
are those that neither children nor men</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
proof that they are not there. Nobody can</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
conceive or imagine all the wonders there</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
are unseen and unseeable in the world. </font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
what makes the noise inside, but there is</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
a veil covering the unseen world which</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
not the strongest man, nor even the</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
united strength of all the strongest men</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith,</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
poetry, love, romance, can push aside</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
that curtain and view and picture the</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
nothing else real and abiding. </font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives and</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
lives forever. A thousand years from now,</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
now, he will continue to make glad the</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
heart of childhood. </font> </p>
<p><font color="#006600">
Merry Christmas and a Happy New</font> <br>
<font color="#006600">
Year!!!! </font></p>
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<p><a href="xmas_lyrics.html"><img src="new.gif" border="0" height="39" width="38">
</a><font size="+1"><a href="xmas_lyrics.html">Click here to read the
lyrics of popular Christmas Songs.</a></font> <br>
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<center><img src="toboggn2.gif" height="100" width="100">
<b><font color="#ff0000"><font size="+3">Christmas Traditions </font></font></b></center>
<p>
Christmas marks the celebration of the birth of Christ, for Christians the
<br>
world over. It is also a time of peace and goodwill and as such is <br>
celebrated by many people who choose not to celebrate its religious
<br>
connotations. The word Christmas is derived from "Christ's Mass" - the
<br>
special church service which celebrates the birth of the Christ child. It
is <br>
doubtful that the birth of Christ actually took place on December 25, but
<br>
whatever your beliefs or customs relating to Christmas, it is still, for
<br>
many, one of the best-loved times of the year. </p>
<p>
The origins of Christmas as we know it today, lie not only in religion
<br>
but also in history. Since early times people in the northern hemisphere
<br>
have celebrated the Winter Solstice around December 25. This time has
<br>
long been considered special as it was mid-winter, (supposedly the <br>
shortest day of the year) and signaled the start of longer days as summer
<br>
approached. People held ceremonies in honor of the sun and to <br>
welcome its returning strength, but to help it grow. These solstice
<br>
festivals or ceremonies often included bonfire celebrations, torch-lit
<br>
processions and much eating and drinking as well as the exchange of gifts. </p>
<p>
In Scandinavia, Germany and Britain the solstice celebrations were <br>
marked by the burning of a large log, or sometimes a whole tree trunk
<br>
which would burn for three days! The logs were often prettily decorated
<br>
and would not only keep the celebrators warm but were a message to the
<br>
sun to start rising in the sky once more. The ash from the log would be
<br>
kept as a source of good luck for the coming year. This burning of the
<br>
"Yule Log" would be accompanied by feasting and celebrations. Some <br>
North European cultures believed the spirits of their dead joined them
<br>
during these celebrations. This is still an aspect of the Christmas
<br>
celebrations in Finland where lighted candles are placed on family <br>
graves on Christmas Eve. Another old belief was that at the first stroke
<br>
of midnight on Christmas Eve animals are able to speak and evil spirits
<br>
temporarily lose their powers. </p>
<p>
In Ancient Rome the winter Solstice festival or Saturnalia as it was
<br>
called then was a very popular festival. Saturnalia, was named after the
<br>
Roman god of agriculture, Saturn. It was a big public festival during
<br>
which people exchanged gifts. No war was declared or fought during <br>
this festival and no man was sent to prison or punished. It is not <br>
surprising that when Christianity became the official religion of Rome
<br>
that people still wanted to retain this festival. The leaders of the early
<br>
Christian Church sensibly attached the birth of Christ to this popular and
<br>
happy festival and many of the traditions of the Saturnalia festival were
<br>
retained and incorporated into the new Christmas festival. </p>
<p>
As Christianity spread to other lands, the local traditions associated
<br>
with the winter solstice festival there, were adopted. Little has changed
<br>
in the way people celebrate Christmas since these times. The meaning of
<br>
the traditions we still keep may have become lost, however they still
<br>
remain. We still decorate our homes with evergreen plants such as holly
<br>
and ivy. While to us they are merely "Christmas plants" in early times
<br>
they must have served as a reminder of the coming summer and that the
<br>
powers of nature still prevailed. Mistletoe was a sacred plant to the
<br>
Druids of Britain and has no significance to Christian celebrations at
<br>
Christmas, yet it is still pinned over the fireplace or the entrance to many
<br>
British homes. This tradition was carried around the world as the British
<br>
Empire grew and so too were many other European traditions with the
<br>
rise of imperialism in the 19th century.</p>
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<p> <font size="+1"><a href="xmas-tre.htm">Click here for history
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