by admin

On the night of 24th December, Christmas Eve, the residents of Bauble Avenue were woken up by the cries of help coming from the chimney of number 12. Every child and parent stepped out into the street to see what the noise was, and each of them stared up in horror at the scene; Santa Claus had gotten stuck in the chimney. His feet swung about in the air as he tried to free himself yet he failed to get himself out. Some of the local residents found the tallest ladder they owned and attempted to climb up to the chimney to pull him out, unfortunately the ladder was not tall enough to reach the roof. It is believed that Santa put on weight over the past year. As it was found that more and more people have been leaving mince pies out on the Eve of the celebration, and that Santa does not have enough time in the year between making presents and looking after his reindeer to work off all the sugary treats he consumes that night.

What perhaps upset the residents most was Santa’s cries; “You boys and girls won’t get any toys if you don’t pull me out.” after which Father Christmas began to sneeze.

Mothers began to take their distraught children inside to keep them away from the scene, or tried to comfort them and to dry their tears at what Santa had just said. “It’s just awful. It was such a quiet night, not even our pet mice were stirring,” One mother reported, “Santa got stuck in that chimney by himself, and the poor children should not have to suffer because of it.” However, some mothers were sympathetic towards the well-known figure and assured their children that they would still receive their presents for Christmas Day.

“We need to help him out, not to stand here and debate over his words,” Mother of two told us, “It’s not about the presents. It’s about working as a community and doing something to make the world a better place.”

The fire fighters arrived about twenty minutes after the residents discovered that Santa was stuck in the chimney, and they were able to pull him out safely, however it required three of them to pull him out. Once Santa had been rescued, he was brought down into the garden and given a glass of whiskey to calm him down. “It was scary, in there,” Santa Claus told us once he had finished his drink, “I couldn’t see anything in there, even my beard was black. My nose was tickling too.” He even showed us the inside of his sack, which was full of presents but the wrapping on them was covered in the black soot. Mothers and fathers were pleased Santa had been pulled out, and few were even heard asking if they were on the ‘good child’ list. “Well, it’s still a bit of fun to get your presents,” One father told us after just asking Santa himself, “I never grew out of it. And whether I’m on the list or not? Well, he tried to look for my name, but the list is covered in soot as well, so my wife’s trying to brush the soot off now.”

The children were coming back out of their homes once more now that their hero had been rescued and took turns to sit on his knee to tell him what they had hoped for before he gave them their presents. “I’m happy Santa’s free,” one nine-year old girl told us, “I was scared when he said we’d get no presents, but Santa’s a good guy really.”

“I didn’t even expect a present,” One happy boy told us as he showed his present off to his parents, “Mummy would always tell me I’d be on the naughty list if i didn’t keep my room tidy. I did keep my room tidy, but I was always worried that it wasn’t tidy enough for Santa.”

Once Santa had fully recovered, the fire fighters helped him back onto the roof where he reindeer were. He left the avenue’s presents with the family members on the ground, not wanting to risk getting stuck in one of their chimneys again, and he called out to his reindeer to fly on to the next place to deposit the presents. The children chanted the reindeers’ names as they waved him a good night and a Merry Christmas. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had to help Santa out,” One eager fire fighter laughed once he was back on the ground, “It was a night to remember. I hope he remembers me next year!”

 

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• Gifts

by admin

 

When Paul Ecke III inspects his business operations, the effect is like Moses parting the Red Sea. Washed in the milky light peculiar to greenhouses, Ecke glides through an ocean of crimson: ‘Red Satin’, ‘Red Baron’, and, of course, ‘Freedom’.

Ecke pauses to admire one especially pulchritudinous example of this last specimen. “‘Freedom’ is our Michael Jordan,” he says. “It is as good at what it does as Michael Jordan is.”

‘Freedom’ is a poinsettia. If as you read this you have a holiday poinsettia lurking nearby, you have Paul Ecke III and his family to thank.

Euphorbia pulcherrima played a large role in my childhood Christmases. I grew up in Ventura, a Southern California town that styled itself “The Poinsettia City by the Sea.” Out of civic duty, residents annually acquired poinsettias by the truckload, until it seemed to me the flower must have been part of Christmas since the time of the original St.

Nicholas.

The reality is different, I find when I visit the Paul Ecke Ranch, in Encinitas on the San Diego County coast.

“The poinsettia was named for Joel Poinsett,” Ecke tells me. “He was the first American ambassador to Mexico.” In 1828, Ecke explains, Poinsett noticed the plant growing near Taxco and sent it home to South Carolina. It might have remained mere botanical novelty were it not for Ecke’s ancestors.
When Paul Ecke III inspects his business operations, the effect is like Moses parting the Red Sea. Washed in the milky light peculiar to greenhouses, Ecke glides through an ocean of crimson: ‘Red Satin’, ‘Red Baron’, and, of course, ‘Freedom’.

Ecke pauses to admire one especially pulchritudinous example of this last specimen. “‘Freedom’ is our Michael Jordan,” he says. “It is as good at what it does as Michael Jordan is.”

‘Freedom’ is a poinsettia. If as you read this you have a holiday poinsettia lurking nearby, you have Paul Ecke III and his family to thank.

Euphorbia pulcherrima played a large role in my childhood Christmases. I grew up in Ventura, a Southern California town that styled itself “The Poinsettia City by the Sea.” Out of civic duty, residents annually acquired poinsettias by the truckload, until it seemed to me the flower must have been part of Christmas since the time of the original St. Nicholas.

The reality is different, I find when I visit the Paul Ecke Ranch, in Encinitas on the San Diego County coast.

“The poinsettia was named for Joel Poinsett,” Ecke tells me. “He was the first American ambassador to Mexico.” In 1828, Ecke explains, Poinsett noticed the plant growing near Taxco and sent it home to South Carolina. It might have remained mere botanical novelty were it not for Ecke’s ancestors.

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• Gifts

by admin

Sometimes decorating a christmas tree can seem so complicated that you feel like singing “Uh oh christmas tree” rather than “Oh christmas tree”. Whether you are decorating a natural evergreen or an artificial tree here are some tips for making the entire experience a little less disorganized.

1. I know this article is supposed to be about decorating a christmas tree but let’s start first with removing the decorations. Think back to last year. Did you just strip everything off the tree and throw it in a box? Are your christmas tree lights all gnarled up into a snarl? Are the limbs of your artificial prelit christmas trees actually stuffed inside your golf bag? This is how you end up with a bad case of Uh oh christmas tree. I am sure you have heard of that old saying “as it begins, so it ends and so it begins again.” This applies to decorating a christmas tree as well.

This year, you are going to swear to pack up everything in an organized way so that you don’t waste time sorting through damaged ornaments and piles of old tinsel.

2. Whether or not your tree looks really good might be dependent on what kind of tree you choose. Believe it or not there are some species of trees that are easier to decorate than others. Pine is the type of evergreen tree that is voted most likely to lose its needles and turn into a version of the pathetic Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The best types of trees when it comes to holding ornaments are firs and spruces. This is because their branches are the sturdiest. Of course if you are decorating an artificial prelit tree than this tip is really not much use to you.

3. If you are decorating a christmas tree that is real make sure it is fresh. You can tell if a tree is fresh or not by bending the branches. If the branches bend a bit that means it is full of moisture and more likely to support a christmas decoration. If it snaps, don’t buy it. It is too dry to support decorations and likely to spill its needles all over your floor too.

4. If you are buying a natural tree, remember to put the Christmas mat below it before you put it on the stand. Some christmas tree skirts and mats come with a slit in the center and buttons or Velcro fastens others. Make sure you note what kind you have before you t the tree on the stand as you can’t slip a christmas tree skirt over the tree’s head like a person would a sweater.

5. When decorating a christmas tree make sure that you unsnarl the lights before you try to drape them around the tree. It is also safest to make sure all the bulbs are working before you try to do this too. There is a tiny chance that if you try to change burned out christmas bulbs while they are on the tree that a spark could ignite the tree and turn it into a christmas candle.

6. You may have heard that decorating a christmas tree with electric lightbulbs is much safer than decorating them the old fashioned way with candles. This is true as long as you obey one cardinal rule: don’t rest a bulb directly against the branches of the tree. Like the old fashioned candles, hot christmas bulbs can heat up needles and catch fire. This is especially true if you shopped for a christmas tree at the last minute and ended up with a dry tree. The absolutely safest trees to buy are prelit artificial christmas trees as some of them have automatic shut-down features if they get too hot.

7. If you have lots of pets and children running around during the holiday season an artificial prelit tree might be safer than a natural one with bulbs strung around it. There is less risk of tiny fingers pulling bulbs down or getting electrocuted. There is also less danger of pets and children swallowing the needles that are shed from natural trees.

8. Decorating christmas trees is ultimately all about proportion. When hanging decorations put the largest sized decorations at the bottom and the smallest one at the top. The effect is just more pleasing to the eye.

9. When decorating a christmas tree it is best not to throw clumps of tinsel at the tree as if they were handfuls of spaghetti. The most attractive effect is achieved by hanging clumps of tinsel just at the very edges of each branch. Think a bit about how real icicles look when they are hanging from real trees.

10. Do choose a theme for your tree. Choosing a theme and sticking with it gives you the most fashionable looking tree. You can choose a color theme – sticking to gold, silver and red or pink and gold only (which looks great on a white prelit artificial tree) or you can style the tree after traditions such as the German style tree (decorated mostly with food), the Victorian style tree (decorated with tiny detailed ornaments and lots of angels) or the Country style tree (decorated with glass balls, wooden ornaments and plenty of flocking to simulate snow.)

11. When decorating a christmas tree remember to make it uniquely yours by adding heirlooms that have been passed down from generation to generation. Another nice touch is Christmas cards or cookies and candies that you have made in your own kitchen. This gives your xmas tree a unique personal touch.

12. Whether you are decorating a natural or prelit artificial tree remember that less is always more. Otherwise the tree could look very cluttered is is not just the general rule of thumb of christmas tree decorating. It is a golden rule that applies to all interior decorating.

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• Gifts

by admin

My great-grandfather Albert emigrated from Germany,” Ecke says. Albert Ecke farmed land in Hollywood. He sold produce and cut flowers, including a few poinsettias he had probably found growing wild. These plants had an interesting feature: As December neared, reduced hours of daylight turned their leaves from green to red.

Until then, the plant most associated with Christmas was the cyclamen. But Albert’s son, Paul, realized the red-and-green poinsettia could be a bigger draw. “He took those flowers to florists across the U.S.,” Paul Ecke III tells me. “He said, ‘Here is a plant you can sell at Christmas.’” It was the 1920s, the decade when Hollywood burst onto the American scene, and Ecke benefited from reflected show business glamour. “When Paul Ecke showed up from Southern California, it was a big deal.”

Ecke succeeded in getting countless articles about poinsettias in newspapers and magazines.

His son, Paul Jr., who took over the business in the 1960s, even more successfully capitalized on television. “Oh,” Ecke Sr. says when we bump into him at the ranch lunchroom, “we put poinsettias on the Bob Hope Christmas special. And every year on Johnny Carson.” Says Paul Ecke III, “It was subliminal. When it’s December, you need a Christmas tree and you need a poinsettia.”

The Eckes changed the poinsettia as well. The original plant was leggy and spindly-leafed. The Eckes’ poinsettia breeding programs made it voluptuous and technicolored: not just red but, if you wanted, candy-cane-striped or impressionist pink, although the red ‘Freedom’ remains the biggest seller.

These days, blooming poinsettias constitute a relatively small percentage of the Eckes’ business. The ranch mainly sells cuttings, which are shipped to growers who then use them to cultivate finished plants. In this slightly indirect fashion, the Eckes are responsible for some 80 percent of the poinsettias in the United States and Canada. Theirs is an American success story, and yet, as I walk through the greenhouses with Paul Ecke III, I find myself feeling a bit crestfallen. It is a strange thing about Christmas. You expect all its artifacts to possess the permanence of the original story. To discover that the Christmas flower of my youth owes its success to Bob Hope TV specials is disconcerting, like discovering that Handel’s Messiah was in fact written for Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Ecke shows me one last greenhouse: another sea of red. “Should we sell poinsettias the rest of the year?” he asks rhetorically. “In France and Australia, they do. But I haven’t been convinced.” In his mind, the poinsettia is still the Christmas flower.

And, of course, it is in my mind too. I give in and buy a poinsettia, a very large ‘Freedom’, its leaves the red of Santa Claus’s velvet suit. I belt the poinsettia into the car seat next to me. Throughout the drive home, I keep glancing at it, and every time I do, I think, “Well, Christmas is here.” Just as the Eckes knew I would.

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• Gifts