The Denison Press (Denison, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 24, 1959 Page: 13 of 22
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Grayson County Frontier Village.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
AS
United States Top
Buyer and Supplier
In Tree Industry
The United States is the world'*
leading source of supply as well as
the top buyer In the Christmas tree
industry—a better than $50,000,001)
business.
The majority of our Christmas
trees come from New England, New
York and Pennsylvania, the north
Mlddlewest, and the Northwest
Pacific regions. In jecent years.
New Jersey has annually marketed
uround 100,000 trees for local use.
Most of the trees for Christmas
sales are cut early In the fall m ,!
the trees uro kept green with plenty
of water until shipped to distribution
centers.
Some mass producers, however,
cut trees early in the new year, niici
treat them with preservatives and
coloring solutions for storage in
chilled warehouses.
Traditions and
holidays have
much in common
Strange as it may seem, most
American Christmas customs
stem largely from pagan rites
practiced long before the birth of
Christ.
The custom of exchanging; gifts
is one of the few thut springs
from the Christian era. Christmas
candles, bonfires and Yule logs
aries from the heathen festivals
observing the winter solstice, De-
cember 21, when the days begin
to lengthen, Thut was a time of
great rejoicing for ancient sun
worshippers who built bonfires to
give strength to the "winter sun-
god."
Pre - Christian Romans orna-
mented their homes with green
boughs and flowers for the Feast
mn
May your holidays be rich in (he pleasant
memories of friendships that have lasted |i i
through the yeat... and may the inspiration
of the spirit of the season be with you
throughout a new year of increasing health, i
happiness and prosperity.
FRANK DARNELL
REAL ESTATE
116 S. Fannin Ave.
Phone HO 5-6515
Christmas Seal
Idea Conceived
In Denmark
n DANISH postal clerk though
if the Idea of attaching stamp:
to Christmas packages and letter;
in 1803, and a few years later the
icheme was tried in America.
This year millions of Americans
will receive a letter from theli
local chapter of the National Tuber
c u 1 os i s association containing
Christmas seals, the seasonal re
minder of the never-ending fight
to stamp out the disease.
Einar Holboell, at work in a
Danish postoffice conceived the
idea of attaching decorative stamps
to Christmas packages, the sale
of which could be conducted by
some worthwhile organization.
He mentioned it to his fellow
workers and they decided it would
be a great help in defraying the
cost of fighting tuberculosis The
Idea reached King Christian, who
approved, and the image of Queen
Louise was placed on the first
seals in 1904.
Jacob Riis, Danish-born Ameri-
can, heard about the idea and sold
it to the American public in 1907
through a magazine article written
for Outlook magazine. A Red Crosr
worker, Miss Emily Bissell, starter!
the first American sales that .ven>
of Saturnalia which began Decem-
ber 19. Druids gathered mistletoe
lor that season, while ancient Sax-
ons used holly, ivy and bay. Mod
ern mistletoe and holly wreaths
come from those peoples. •
Christmas trees, too, spring
from the ancient German days
when Germanic tribes made sac-
rifices to the sacred oak tree of
Odin. When the missionary St.
Iloniface traveled to Germany in
the Eighth century and saw these
celebrations he persuaded the na-
tives to substitute a fir tree for
the oak and to adorn it in a trib-
ute to the Christ Child.
During the Middle Ages the en-
tire Christmas season was cele-
brated in equal fervor with that
now shown on Christmas day. In
some lands the celebrated lasted
110111 December 24 to .January fi
-Twelfth Night—and in others
from December 2l to February 2.
By the year 1C44, Christmas in
England had become such a wild
orgy that the Puritans forbade its
celebration by law.
GREETINGS !
May the joyous Christmas season fill your home with
a spirit of hearty good cheer that promises to endure
throughout the year.
LOUIS SHOE SHOP
116 North Rusk
J
mm 6od
s
BL€SS you
Horsedrawn carriages are a thing of
the past, but wishing our good friends
everywhere a Merry Christmas will never
be out of style*
CHRIS WALTZ SUPPLY CO.
PLUMBING AND ELECTRIC SUPPLIES
201-203 W. WOODARD PHONE HO 5-7303
In Virginia, the old Dominion,
itoried land of early American his-
tory, there Is an old tradition ol
the origin of the Yule log that It
retold every Christmas
As the family sits around th«
Vule log and sips their Christmas
eggnog on Christmas eve, the an-
cient legend is recounted again
One very cold Christmas eve,
when the frosty wind howled across
a world of snow, an old man was
sitting in his little cabin wishing
that he had a fire to warm him.
Suddenly he heard the cry of 0
little child away out in the cold. Tht
old man hohl/led to the door and
gazed out across the mow. The wind
and the mow came rustling in and
the old man shivered until hit
"onliest two teel" chattered with
colli
The plaintive cry of the child
came again above the whistle of
the wind. It went straight to the
old man's heart and he wished with
nil his power of longing that he
might have the strength to go out
and find the unfortunate babe.
The cry came a third time — and
then a wondrous thing happened. A
miraculous power tilled the old man's
reins. His muscles became strong and
tense, his crutch fell back into the
cabin and he stepped from his thresh-
old out into the snow
Hurrying over the snow with •
speed he had not owned since boy.
hood, by and by he came to
i little child lying in a snow bank.
He bent down and touched the
child and a great new strength
M rnod over him, a strength which
seemed to give him wings as he
sped back to his cabin.
Arriving there, he placed the
child upon the bed, tenderly drew
the ragged coverlet about it and
then looked to see if thare were a
bit of furniture he could use to
make a fire v/ith which to warm
the little one.
At that precise moment a great
log rolled across the threshold and
into the fireplace. The little child
looked at the log with eyes like
stars—stars which sent gleams of
light that kindled the log with the
most brilliant fire the old man ever
had seen.
The dingy little room immediately
was filled with radiance and warmth,
and as the light enwrapped the child
he laughed and laughed with a mel-
ody lite a song from the heart. The
old man turned his eyes to where the
fire burned and uatched the flames
leap in beautiful rainbow tints over
the log, and as his old eyes watched,
the colors seemed to form the shape
of the Cross in the lire
The flames of the Cross leaped
higher and higher, blue, red, yel
low and white, and as the old man
watched this display, suddenly and
magically there appeared a table
in the center of the room, covered
with a Christmas feast such as
never before had been spread be
fore his eyes And never again was
the old man hungry or cold, and
never after that was there a Chi ist
mas in old Virginia without the
Yule log and the Christinas Child
to give light anu warmtn.
And that la the story of the Yule
log as it !s told in Virginia every
Christmas eve
Home Town News
ARMY PFC JAMES N. SMITH,
whose wife, Carolyn, lives in Ca-
lera, Okla., recently was selected
to be a member of the 50th infan-
try Christmas choir in Germany.
The 150-male voice choir will
sing Christmas songs for soldiers
and their dependents in the Wild-
fleckcn area during the holiday
season.
Smith is assigned to the infan-
try's headquarters company in
Wildfleeken. He entered the ar-
my in May, 1958, and completed
basic combat training at Fort
Carson, Colo.
The 19-year-old soldier attend-
ed Calera public high school. His
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henery C.
Smith, live at 1101 W. Owing.
WILLIAM T. JONES, elec-
tronics technician first class, USN,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Terrell
Jones of 516 W. Gandy, and hus-
band of the former Miss Mable I.
Bettencourt of Dixon, Calif., serv-
ing aboard the destroyer escort
USS Jenkins, is enroute to Japan
with members of a special "Santa
Claus fleet" which is carrying
clothing and toys to the under-
privileged children and orphans.
The fleet, composed of four
destroyers, left I'earl Harbor, Ha-
waii, Dec. 9, with the Christmas
gifti which were donated by the
citizens of our 50th state.
During the five-month cruise
The smallest good deed is bet-
ter than the greatest intention.
"WXaIiie4
WE SPEED YOUR WAY
BEST WISHES FOR A
MERRY CHRISTMAS
FROM EVERYONE AT
JOHN REID
INCOME TAX
SERVICE
112 South Rusk Ave.
Phone HO 5-3557
All through
holidays...
To plt-ase the crowd,
have plenty of 7-Up. Get the
24-bottle supply!
ffy i
Nothing does it
like Seven-Up!
in the Par East, the vessels will
operate as units of the U. S. sev-
onth flet, participating in anti-
submarine and amphibious train-
ing exercises.
Besides visiting Japan, the "sa-
maritan" crews will have liberty
in Hong Kong and ports in For-
mosa and the Philippine Islands.
Dallas stages the
greatest of all
rodeos Dec. 26-30
DALLAS — Fourteen Texas
cowboys arc among those who
qualified for the historic First Na-
tional Finals Rodeo to l.c . taged
December 2(i-.'i0 in the State Fail-
Livestock Coliseum in Dallas.
A total of <i!i cowboys from 17
states and Canada were certified
by the Rodeo Cowboys Association
a= contestants for the first "world
series of rodeo" following a CPA
audit of the standings for the
regular rodeo season at RCA head-
quarters in Denver.
There are fifteen contestants in
each of the five standard rodeo
events in the national finals; how-
ever, six of the cowboy-; qualified
in more than one event. The con-
testants include the defending
world champions for 1958 in each
event, and eight other former
THE DENISON PRESS, DENISON, TEXAS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1959
world champions as well.
Runner - up to Texas for the
honor of having the most qualified
contestants in the finals was Ok-
lahoma, with 12 contestants. Oth-
er states represented are Cali-
fornia with seven, New Mexico
ix, Idaho six, Arizona four, North
Dakota two, Wyoming two, Mon-
tana three, Colorado two, Nevada
two, Utah one, Nebraska one,
Washington one, Louisiana one,
Wisconsin one, South Dakota one,
and Alberta, Canada, three.
The national finals is the first
rodeo in history where the con-
testants are limited to only the top
fifteen money-winners of the year
in each of the fi\e events, which
are saddle bronc and bareback
riding, brahma bull riding, cnlf
toping and steer wrestling.
PAGE SEVEN
LIGHT IN THE STORM
A light outside the door is a
welcome sight for anyone coming
home in a winter's stoim. For
guests, and members of their own
household, too, more and more
families are installing Ll'-Gas gas-
lights in their front yards. They
not only light the way, but they
create a sort of "old world"
charm.
tanon
C. /„« of M.
Jr. WJf ProU lJ
B,j Religion, JUa
.aw
On a shelf-like plateau, COO feet
above the Mediterranean. the
world's oldest Christmas trees stand
where iliey nave stood lor centuries
VI u cedars of Lebanon, 400 of
them, are protected by religion and
law from harm at the hands of
eitht i the Moslems or the Maronite
Christians.
The magnificent trees "that sing
of the nativity" were venerated as
rnonarchs among trees long before
Jiidah had her first king. Some ol
them have a girth of 40 feet and a
branch circumference of 300.
In the days of the conquerors
thousands of conscripted Hebrew
workers were sent into the Leba-
.■tons to take to Jerusalem "cedar
tr< i s without number"; the result ol
on. of the first building contracts,
between Hiram of Phoenecia and
King Solomon.
Today, ho ever, the trees are pro-
tected by law and the department
of agriculture of the government
sponsors the planting of seedlings,
so that the giant cedars will grow
forever.
J
— v '
l~ §■'
|Pf- *>}f
_ tfPr
|H
F ; \
WE HOPE THIS CHRISTMAS V/ILL BE ESPECIALLY
PLEASANT FOR YOU, YOUR FAMiLY AND FRIENDS.
F0XW0RTH-GALBRA1TH
LUMBER COMPANY
"THE YARD OF PERSONAL SERVICE '
Phone HO 5-1410
400 So Rusk
\
Ml
%
A
•
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Anderson, LeRoy M., Sr. The Denison Press (Denison, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 24, 1959, newspaper, December 24, 1959; Denison, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329162/m1/13/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Grayson County Frontier Village.