Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 60, Number 301, Decatur, Adams County, 22 December 1962 — Page 25

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1962

In Hie First Year of Our lord

■ w— • , — Wong ago when the world wm young, a miracle came to past that changed men’s thoughts — and the Spirit of Christianity waa bora on earth. And for nearly 2,000 years this Spirit has lived—-point-ing the way for the morals of the world wherever men of good heart live and heed the teachings of Him who preached, “Love thy neighbor M thyself.” And the way the story goes, it was in the year 3761 by the old calendar, that Caesar ' ed that a tax Would .cd on everyone in the realm, and so each to hie own native city travailed, among them Joseph and his wife Mary, she heavy with child, Foor these two were, sore beset fcy travail as they journeyed from Galilee to the city of David, known as Bethlehem, to do the biddiog of Caesar;

Merry Christmas

* *' if/ * Wf M Ik. it- - * jjirX S ~ ' inW MmoruiM —i 111 A < w Miiilii 1 ZT> ' ■«■ g-S_ JjlwWwWwifc^ay l ■ —<p-<WjSk (Vy Jr m ML. tY ' MMMI* a ■, • ■ ' ■ to All of Our Fr iends ■MB in the Decatur Area! One of the greatest pleasures of this happy season A is the opportunity it offers to turn aside from the m workaday cares of business and pause to remember ’flHHfl fl , mel zoss our friends and customers ... to be grateful for bill zoss your confidence and cooperation ... to extend holiday greetings to each of you, most warmly and sincerely. And so, from all of us to all of you, our hearty good wishes for all the joys of the Christmas 2 season and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. i ' r ~y ; , ~ u ~ t —r- —— :—t —— * —*—■— ”~~ ~” .•»-•• ■rv... - v ' ' -♦ . ‘ " ... . ■ Cloyce Burnworth - Jim Rosinski Paul Boomershine Fred Pickford Marion Pearson Vaughn Hilyard John Sprinkle Fritz Faurote Larry Mankey’ T Joann Wolfe Jim Brown Dick Baumann Harold Miller Bill Miller Paul Wilkinson Wayne Ware Kenneth Marks Kenny Hollopeter Sharon Foor - - « . - ■• ■• BILL ZOSS CHEVROLET - BUICK, INC. 305 N. 13th Street Decatur, Indiana Phone 3-3148

And !t came to pass that when they arrived in Bethlehem, Mary brought forth her first-born Son, jand because there was no room at the inn when Joseph begged shelter, her infant

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Jesus was born fa a manger. Mary wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and gloried in His beauty. And in this country too, were shepherds who tended

—— their flocks by day and guarded them by night; and it came to pass that three of them were visited by an Ange] of the Lord one night when the sky was spangled with stars; an angel who

came upon them during the? vigil and made himself known through the glory of the Lord that shone about them. And they were sore afraid.

THE DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT, DECATUR, INDIANA

A-nd the angel sidd unto them, “Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. “For unto you Is born this day in the City of David a

Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. “And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the Heavenly Host prais•ing God and saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away

from them to Heaven, the shepherds said one to another, “Let us now go unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass which the Lord hath made known to us.” And 10, the Star which they saw in the east went before them until it came and stood over where the Cjiild was: And they cable with haste and found Mary and the Babe lying in the manger as they were told. And then there were the three kings—the three wise men who gazed into the brilliance of the Heavens, and there shining in the east was one Star greater than all the rest. ■ And when they saw the Star they rejoiced with exceeding joy and prepared to go to Him born of Mary ia the manger. And when they were come into the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh in the first year of our Lord.

Santa, SO Years Old, Made In B. S. 1

Claims to the "new look” have come from various quarters of |he globe, Paris and its Dior included, but the one indisputable fact emerges from all ciaimers of fame for the naming of the tag, and that is, Santa Claus was the harbinger of the “new look’’ back in 1882 with a “Made in U.S.A.” label indelibly stamped on the seat of his pants. That doesn’t mean to say that the spirit of Santa Claus isn’t a composite one, nor that his very make-up isn’t a combination of many things from many lands beginning with St.vblicholas thru the Germanic Kristkindl and back to ancient and even pagan times. But it’s the round-bellied, jovial, ruddy faced character with the flowing white beard driving his reindeerdrawn sleigh across the night sky on Christmas eve, to which reference is made, and this is definitely as American as turkey and apple pie. It started, however, with Santa as a severe looking character, tall and grim, and to boot, he was riding a tall, thin horse. A far cry from our present day conception of the old boy. Then followed the name, and the English children borrowed the Christmas Saint from the Dutch, but it became a problem for the small-fry as well as their parents pronouncing his name, and through trial and error, many variations came to pass until the name Santa Claus was adopted to remain for all time.

miiMl 1 j||||eH | ■ * B Bm |j • 1 2 f«i JiTTiTuSS Ife wl IRB I lIIS B R s 8 I L Mgßgft *-4®Jr 5pS ■■ K & 811 K » tSSSE ■■■><■ll W, n W fir/* ■nw / |W‘ V w z . y jf. i— tr / --> This is the season ? /$/ ■ when all hearts are * -JFfilled with a prayer for peace... when </ <5 we wish every blessing to you and yours. Habegger - Schafers

But that wa« only a change in the name. The figure remained Washington Irving put pen to paper and wrote his t “Knickerbocker’s History of New York.” He tried his hand at creating a Santa Claus. H& I Irving, an early chronicler of American Colonial days was of course, influenced by the early Dutch settlers in New York and what came out as a result of his efforts was a Santa Claus that wore a broadbrimmed hat, sported big baggy breeches and smoked a long stemmed pipe. Very Dutch. To top it all off he had his “Santa” driving a wagon, which too, was symbolic of the early Dutch settlers in New York - Then came the year 1882 and with it two men who were destined to change the entire concept of Santa Claus in America, and who were responsible for the “new look” of the old gentleman and Christmas that

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has swept th© world. Clement Clark Moore, a professor of divinity at a New York theology seminary, sat himself down one day and began a poem that went, “Twas the night before Christmas, and dll through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; . . , • Os course it was a poem that became famous overnight and has retained its popularity through the years. The name of it is, “A Visit From St Nicholas” and is known in every English speaking nation in the world. — * It was Moore who described Santa Claus as a round-bellied, twinkly-eyed jolly old man with rosy cheeks. But that wasn’t the end of it. He also added the sleigh and reindeer. When Thomas Nast, a famous cartoonist for the Hearst newspapers, read the poem, he was inspired to illustrate it. And it was his creation of the Santa Claus we know today that took hold of the imagination of the people and was firmly established as the accepted Santa Claus, potbelly, rosy cheeks, twinkling eyes, flowing white beard, reindeer, sleigh and all. Actually, Santa Claus — U.S.A, version — is only 80 years old, but the ‘‘new look” created in our time has come to be accepted throughout the Christian world, and even if he isn’t the giver of gifts in all countries, he nevertheless is as much the symbol of Christmas as anything else at Yuletide.