Letter to Editor: Red Cross Exceeds Goal in Letters to Service Members Campaign

"This time of year generally brings out the best in people, and we have certainly seen that here at the American Red Cross."

This Letter to the Editor is from Cindy Erickson, Regional CEO, American Red Cross. This time of year generally brings out the best in people, and we have certainly seen that here at the American Red Cross. Because Service to the Armed Forces is a key mission area for the Red Cross, during the month of November, we asked the community to help send holiday greetings to service members around the world, their families and veterans in homes and hospitals. While a holiday card might sound like a small thing, we hear every year that it means a great deal to those who are away from their homes and/or families.  Last year, the American Red Cross collected and sent an amazing 1.3 million cards around the world… and 4,000 of those cards came from …

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Christmas 2012: Fun Facts and Trivia

How much will we spend this year? And what's the best-selling Christmas song of all time? Find the answers below.

We know that there were three Wise Men, 12 days of Christmas and that Santa delivers all his presents around the world in one night. But did you know... $23,439.38  How much it would cost to buy your "true love" all the gifts in the 12 Day of Christmas . 12.9 billion hours, $447 billion How many hours Americans were expected to spend shopping, wrapping and returning gifts last year. That was about 42 hours and $688.87 per person.  Get your postman/postwoman a gift According to Hallmark, Christmas is the largest card-sending occasion . Nearly 1.5 billion cards are sent to friends and family every Christmas Season. (That's actually down 400 million cards since 2004.) $983 million The value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from …

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How to Celebrate the Holidays on a Budget

Here are 10 ways to have fun and spread holiday cheer without breaking the bank.

This year’s holiday season can be special for you and your family regardless of your budget. Here are some fun tips for creating new holiday traditions while saving money. 1)    Make your cards from recycled materials. Cards can be made from paper grocery bags, cereal boxes, used file folders and even last year’s holiday cards. Feature your family’s artwork and use recycled wrapping paper or paper from catalogs and magazines for backgrounds. A great resource for making cards from recycled materials is "Creative Correspondence" by Michael and Judy Jacobs, available on Amazon.com.  2)    Have fun together and create a festive decoration by making a gingerbread house. You can bake the gingerbread yourself and use royal icing to construct the …

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Savoring the Sweet History of Sugarplums

Tchaikosky's Sugarplum Fairy made them popular, but few have ever eaten let alone know what a sugarplum is.

Sugarplums have a mottled past. Sugarplum, also written as sugar plum, conjures up a variety of images that may or may not dance in one’s head as Clement Moore wrote in Twas Night Before Christmas.  For many, a sugarplum brings to mind a ballerina or a fairy, the Sugarplum Fairy to be precise, from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite. For others, sugarplums are candy made from chopped dried fruits and nuts, which by the way does not include plums. It’s a candy known as dragee or comfit that’s generally rolled in sugar or panned, a technique that creates a hard shell like an M&M. Without any plums in the recipe one might ask – why call it a sugarplum?  Historians believe in the 1600s sugarplums were named to reflect the shape and size of …

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Five Places to Cut Your Own Christmas Tree in St. Louis

A number of area tree farms offer a classic tree-cutting holiday experience in December 2012.

Don't Forget! Patch's 'Deck the House' Contest Begins Today

Enter our "Deck the House" contest and you could win $100,000 for your local school district and $500 to pay your electric bills!

7 Unusual Things at Walmart To Hang on Your Christmas Tree

What's Christmas without a moose hanging on your tree?

For most families, decorating the Christmas tree is a personal exercise. Branches are filled with kid's ornaments made through the year at school, or items that carry a sentimental value. Some ornaments reflect the decorator's personality or interests, like the glass pickle that hangs on the tree, or the golf ball ornament that has a cherished place each year. If you're looking for something other than those boring glass balls, or the Christmas balls to adorn your tree, here's a selection of odd and unusual things at Walmart to hang on the tree this year: Merry Christmoose -- Looking a lot like a hedgehog with antlers, the Christmas moose is available for $1.97. St. Louis Cardinals Gnome Game -- Sporting a St. Louis Cardinals on his cap, …

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How to Decorate Your House Without Getting Up On a Metal Ladder

Several local companies are available to hang Christmas lights on your house. They take them down after the holidays are over, too.

For some families, "decking the halls with boughs of holly" is a warm and fuzzy Christmas tradition, with all family members participating in decorating the Christmas tree and otherwise putting out all of the home holiday decorations. But there's not a lot of fa-la-la-la-la-ing involved for the person standing on a metal extension ladder on a cold and windy day, untangling stubborn strands of Christmas lights and attaching them to the gutters. Some companies have made a business out of a sometimes irritable task of stringing Christmas lights on your home. Green Print Lawncare is a Barnhart lawn service company in the spring and summer, but it hangs lights during the holiday season as a way to make money and to keep it's lawn service work …

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Butterball Hotline Talks Turkey With Dazed and Confused Cooks

Fifty turkey experts will answer questions on meal prep and turkey emergencies this holiday season.

It's Thanksgiving, the guests are only hours away and your turkey still is frozen. What can you do? Have no fear, the Butterball Turkey talk-line is open and ready to help. For more than 20 years Butterball representatives have talked turkey. The questions run the gamut, from experienced cooks simply looking for tips to make the perfect bird, to panicked hosts trying to avert disaster. "We have many different hats that we wear," said Tara-Rose Groberski, who has worked on the turkey talk line for 10 years. "We're there to alliviate their angst. Will tell them to take a deep breath and walk them through what they have to do." The first turkey talk line had six home economists answer 11,000 phone calls in 1981. This year more than 50 …

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