143-485: NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual Christmas -themed program in which North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) simulates the tracking of Santa Claus , who is said to leave the North Pole to travel around the world on his mission to deliver presents to children every year on Christmas Eve . The program starts on December 1, but the actual Santa-tracking simulation starts at midnight annually on December 24. It
286-658: A Festival in the Lutheran Churches , a solemnity in the Roman Catholic Church , and a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion . Other Christian denominations do not rank their feast days but nevertheless place importance on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, as with other Christian feasts like Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. As such, for Christians, attending a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day church service plays an important part in
429-463: A Nativity play ; an exchange of Christmas cards ; attending church services ; a special meal ; and displaying various Christmas decorations , including Christmas trees , Christmas lights , nativity scenes , garlands , wreaths , mistletoe , and holly . Additionally, several related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus , Father Christmas , Saint Nicholas , and Christkind , are associated with bringing gifts to children during
572-467: A Christian context. The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved since the holiday's inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival -like state in the Middle Ages , to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation. The celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within certain groups, such as
715-474: A NORAD Tracks Santa website with all the features available. On Christmas Eve , the NORAD Tracks Santa website videos page is generally updated each hour, when it is midnight in a different time zone . The "Santa Cam" videos show CGI images of Santa flying over famous landmarks. Each video was accompanied by a voice-over until the end of the 2011 season, typically done by NORAD personnel, giving
858-600: A common training ground for generations of journalists. Walter Cronkite , who started with United Press in Kansas City , gained fame for his coverage of World War II in Europe and turned down Edward R. Murrow 's first offer of a CBS job to stay with UP, but who later went on to anchor the CBS Evening News , once said, "I felt every Unipresser got up in the morning saying, 'This is the day I'm going to beat
1001-530: A customary holiday since time immemorial , it was not until 1871 that it was designated a bank holiday in Scotland. Following the Restoration of Charles II, Poor Robin's Almanack contained the lines: "Now thanks to God for Charles return, / Whose absence made old Christmas mourn. / For then we scarcely did it know, / Whether it Christmas were or no." The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of
1144-490: A depiction of Santa's pre-delivery ritual. Since December 2007, Google Analytics has been used to analyze website traffic. As a result of this analysis information, the program can project and scale volunteer staffing, telephone equipment, and computer equipment needs for Christmas Eve. Volunteers include NORAD military and civilian personnel. In 2014, NORAD answered more than 100,000 phone calls. In 2015, more than 1,200 U.S. and Canadian military personnel volunteered to staff
1287-599: A distance in order to ease the pressure of war for the day) to friendly socializing, gift giving and even sport between enemies. These incidents became a well known and semi-mythologised part of popular memory. They have been described as a symbol of common humanity even in the darkest of situations and used to demonstrate to children the ideals of Christmas. Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other Christian holidays—were prohibited in public. During
1430-491: A family-centered festival of generosity, linking "worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation." Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed "Carol Philosophy", Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit. A prominent phrase from
1573-534: A few facts about the city or country depicted. In 2012, the voice overs were replaced with music done by the US Air Force Band. The voice overs returned in the 2013 season. Celebrity voice-overs have also been used over the years. For the London "Santa Cam" video, Jonathan Ross did the voice-over for 2005 to 2007 and Ringo Starr narrated the same video in 2003 and 2004. In 2002, Aaron Carter provided
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#17327903654461716-629: A five-year contract with Google. In 2014, NORAD logged almost 20 million visits to its Santa Tracker. NORAD Tracks Santa relies on corporate sponsorship , and is financed by neither American nor Canadian taxpayers. U.S. military units have provided publicity for the program, including the Northeast Air Defense Sector of the New York Air National Guard and the U.S. Naval Reserve Navy Information Bureau (NIB) 1118 at Fort Carson , Colorado , as have
1859-813: A major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party." The Catholic Church also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity. Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War , England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647. Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury
2002-492: A major way. In 2000, UPI was purchased by News World Communications , an international news media company founded in 1976 by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon . It now maintains a news website and photo service and electronically publishes several information product packages. Based mostly on aggregation from other sources on the Web and gathered by a small editorial staff and stringers , UPI's daily content consists of
2145-422: A more traditional Christmas display. The concentric assortment of leaves, usually from an evergreen , make up Christmas wreaths. Candles in each window are meant to demonstrate that Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the ultimate light of the world. Christmas lights and banners may be hung along streets, music played by speakers, and Christmas trees placed in prominent places. It is common in many parts of
2288-517: A newsbrief summary service called "NewsTrack," which includes general, business, sports, science, health and entertainment reports, and "Quirks in the News." It also sells a premium service, which has deeper coverage and analysis of emerging threats, the security industry, and energy resources. UPI's content is presented in text, video and photo formats, in English, Spanish, and Arabic. UPI's main office
2431-521: A particular year. In September 2008, NORAD started a Twitter account, @NORADSanta, as part of its social media presence. Between 2007 and 2008, people who visited the NORAD Tracks Santa site were told they could track Santa in Google Earth . They were given a link to download Google Earth, and then a KMZ file to download. From 2009 to 2011, the tracking in the Google Earth app was moved to
2574-722: A play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games. It was during the Reformation in 16th–17th-century Europe that many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl , and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. Following the Protestant Reformation , many of the new denominations, including the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church , continued to celebrate Christmas. In 1629,
2717-418: A profit from selling that news to papers owned by others. At that time and until World War II , most newspapers relied on news agencies for stories outside their immediate geographic areas. Despite strong newspaper industry opposition, UP started to sell news to the new and competitive radio medium in 1935, years before competitor AP, controlled by the newspaper industry, did likewise. Scripps' United Press
2860-407: A profit. The company had begun to sell Internet-adapted products to such websites as Excite and Yahoo. At that point, UPI CEO Arnaud de Borchgrave orchestrated UPI's exit from its last major media niche, the broadcast news business that United Press had initiated in the 1930s. De Borchgrave maintained that "what was brilliant pioneering work on the part of UPI prior to World War II, with radio news,
3003-737: A protest against the holiday. Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades. European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany , "because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of
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#17327903654463146-641: A reporter in the White House press corps or a bureau covering the United Nations. UPI spokespersons and press releases said the company would be focusing instead on expanding operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, and reporting on security threats, intelligence and energy issues. In 2008, UPI began UPIU, a journalism mentoring platform for students and journalism schools, that allowed recent college graduates to post their work on
3289-489: A sacred and festive season, and established the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast." This was done in order to solve the "administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east." The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in 800. King Edmund
3432-880: A sensation when it was published in the Illustrated London News in 1848. A modified version of this image was published in Godey's Lady's Book , Philadelphia in 1850. By the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America. In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall , Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, and he used
3575-601: A supplier of international news reports engendered opposition from other news agencies and the Foreign Office as BUP was seen as a front group for the American-based United Press and thus represented American rather than British news values. BUP correspondents included future anchors Knowlton Nash and Walter Cronkite . In 1936, BUP launched Canada's first coast-to-coast radio newswire service providing news copy to private radio stations across
3718-535: A supposed sleigh operated by "S. Claus" which it identified as "undoubtedly friendly". During the evening, NORAD claimed that the sleigh had made an emergency landing on the ice of Hudson Bay , where Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) interceptor aircraft claimed to have been sent to investigate supposedly discovered Santa bandaging his reindeer Dancer's front foot, after which the RCAF planes were said to have escorted him when he resumed his journey. Eventually, NORAD, which
3861-611: Is a public holiday in many countries , is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians , as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season surrounding it. The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament , known as the Nativity of Jesus , says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem , in accordance with messianic prophecies . When Joseph and Mary arrived in
4004-543: Is a community outreach function of NORAD, and has been held annually since 1955. Although NORAD claims to use radar and other technologies to track Santa, the website merely simulates the tracking of Santa and displays predetermined location information to users. The program follows the tradition of the September 1897 editorial " Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus " in the New York Sun . On December 24, 1948,
4147-561: Is a sentence in the Chronograph of 354 . Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336. Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian , the early Church Fathers John Chrysostom , Augustine of Hippo , and Jerome attested to December 25 as the date of Christmas toward
4290-638: Is a shortened form of 'Christ's Mass '. The word is recorded as Crīstesmæsse in 1038 and Cristes-messe in 1131. Crīst ( genitive Crīstes ) is from the Greek Χριστός ( Khrīstos , 'Christ'), a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ ( Māšîaḥ , ' Messiah '), meaning 'anointed'; and mæsse is from the Latin missa , the celebration of the Eucharist . The form Christenmas
4433-531: Is another abbreviation of the Greek word). The holiday has had various other English names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as "midwinter", or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from the Latin nātīvitās below). Nativity , meaning 'birth', is from the Latin nātīvitās . In Old English , Gēola (' Yule ') referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which
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4576-529: Is considered by some as Christianisation of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice , which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship ; according to eighth-century biographer Æddi Stephanus , Saint Boniface (634–709), who was a missionary in Germany, took an ax to an oak tree dedicated to Thor and pointed out a fir tree , which he stated
4719-692: Is in the Miami metropolitan area and it maintains office locations in five other countries and uses freelance journalists in other major cities. In 1923, UP founded British United Press as its Canadian subsidiary with headquarters in Montreal . It soon expanded to the United Kingdom and India , and was one of several news agencies supplying news bulletins to the BBC until the broadcaster began hiring its own reporters. The BBC's decision in 1936 to use BUP as
4862-462: Is now a static quantity and so far as I'm concerned, certainly doesn't fit into my plans for the future". He sought to shift UPI's dwindling resources into Internet-based delivery of newsletter services, focusing more on technical and diplomatic specialties than on general news. The rump UPI thus sold the client list of its still-significant radio network and broadcast wire to its former rival, the AP. UPI
5005-637: The Cleveland Press , publisher E. W. Scripps (1854–1926) created the first chain of newspapers in the United States. Because the then-recently reorganized Associated Press refused to sell its services to several of his papers, most of them evening dailies in competition with existing AP franchise holders, in 1907 Scripps merged three smaller syndicates under his ownership or control, the Publishers Press Association,
5148-613: The Canadian Armed Forces . Other U.S. federal agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have helped publicize the service. Former First Lady Michelle Obama participated in the program from 2009 to 2016, answering phone calls. According to Gerry Bowler, a history professor at the University of Manitoba ,
5291-544: The Puritans and Jehovah's Witnesses (who do not celebrate birthdays in general), due to concerns that it was too unbiblical. Prior to and through the early Christian centuries, winter festivals were the most popular of the year in many European pagan cultures. Reasons included the fact that less agricultural work needed to be done during the winter, as well as an expectation of better weather as spring approached. Celtic winter herbs such as mistletoe and ivy , and
5434-904: The Star of Bethlehem ; in that country it is known in Spanish as the Flower of the Holy Night . Other popular holiday plants include holly, mistletoe , red amaryllis , and Christmas cactus . Along with a Christmas tree, the interior of a home may be decorated with these plants, along with garlands and evergreen foliage. The display of Christmas villages has also become a tradition in many homes this season. The outside of houses may be decorated with lights and sometimes with illuminated sleighs , snowmen , and other Christmas figures. Mistletoe features prominently in European myth and folklore (for example,
5577-518: The United Press International Radio Network , was a spinoff from the newsfilm service and eventually provided news material to more than a thousand radio stations and US and foreign networks, including NPR . UPI came close to the size of the AP in the early 1960s, but as publishing companies began to pare their evening newspapers, it was dropped by papers that could no longer afford to subscribe to both UPI and
5720-609: The United States Air Force issued a communique claiming that an "early warning radar net to the north" had detected "one unidentified sleigh , powered by eight reindeer , at 14,000 feet [4,300 meters], heading 180 degrees." The Associated Press passed this "report" along to the general public. It was the first time that the United States Armed Forces issued a statement about tracking Santa Claus ' sleigh on Christmas Eve , though it
5863-581: The Virgin Mary . In the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to be counted for a census, and Jesus is born there and placed in a manger . Angels proclaim him a savior for all people, and three shepherds come to adore him. In the Gospel of Matthew, by contrast, three magi follow a star to Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus, born the king of the Jews . King Herod orders
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6006-698: The Yule log , Yule boar , and the Yule goat . Often leading a ghostly procession through the sky (the Wild Hunt ), the long-bearded god Odin is referred to as "the Yule one" and "Yule father" in Old Norse texts, while other gods are referred to as "Yule beings". On the other hand, as there are no reliable existing references to a Christmas log prior to the 16th century, the burning of the Christmas block may have been an early modern invention by Christians unrelated to
6149-585: The massacre of all the boys less than two years old in Bethlehem, but the family flees to Egypt and later returns to Nazareth. In the 2nd century, the "earliest church records" indicate that "Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord", an "observance [that] sprang up organically from the authentic devotion of ordinary believers"; although "they did not agree upon a set date". The earliest evidence of Christ's birth being marked on December 25
6292-714: The three kings cake was renamed the "equality cake" under anticlerical government policies . In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor, along with Washington Irving , Charles Dickens , and other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus (for Irving), or Father Christmas (for Dickens). In
6435-534: The "father of the American Christmas card". On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday . During the First World War and particularly (but not exclusively) in 1914, a series of informal truces took place for Christmas between opposing armies. The truces, which were organised spontaneously by fighting men, ranged from promises not to shoot (shouted at
6578-515: The $ 1.0 – $ 1.5 million per month that UPI was already losing. Facing news industry skepticism about their background and qualifications to run an international news agency, Ruhe and Geissler watched an increase in contract cancellations. Despite serious cash flow problems, they moved UPI's headquarters from New York City to Washington, DC, incurring significant additional costs due to construction cost overruns. During this period, UPI's 25-year-old audio news actuality service for radio stations
6721-648: The 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years. As in England, Puritans in Colonial America staunchly opposed the observation of Christmas. The Pilgrims of New England pointedly spent their first December 25 in the New World working normally. Puritans such as Cotton Mather condemned Christmas both because scripture did not mention its observance and because Christmas celebrations of
6864-467: The 1918 armistice ending World War I had been declared four days before it happened. Howard's reputation survived and he later became a Scripps partner, whose name appeared in one of the Scripps subsidiary companies, Scripps-Howard. But the mistake dogged UP/UPI for generations. Still, the agency's reporters were often able to tell stories more quickly and accurately although they were usually outnumbered by
7007-590: The 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement. At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as
7150-486: The 20th century until its eventual decline beginning in the early 1980s. At its peak, it had more than 6,000 media subscribers. Since the first of several sales and staff cutbacks in 1982, and the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to its main U.S. rival, the Associated Press , UPI has concentrated on smaller information-market niches. Formally named United Press Associations for incorporation and legal purposes but publicly known and identified as United Press or UP ,
7293-468: The AP name (as detailed at Associated Press and in AP's 2007 history, Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else , cited in Notes ). Drawing lessons from the battles between the earlier United Press and the various AP's, Scripps required that there be no restrictions on who could buy news from his news service, and he made the new UP service available to anyone, including his competitors. Scripps also hoped to make
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#17327903654467436-450: The AP. UPI's failure to develop a television presence or subsidiary television news service has also been cited as one of the causes of its decline. By the early 1980s, the number of staffers was down to 1,800 and there were just 100 news bureaus. Under pressure from some of E. W. Scripps ' heirs, the Scripps company , which had been underwriting UPI's expenses at a loss for at least two decades, began trying to transfer control of UPI in
7579-419: The Anglican poet John Milton penned On the Morning of Christ's Nativity , a poem that has since been read by many during Christmastide. Donald Heinz, a professor at California State University, Chico , states that Martin Luther "inaugurated a period in which Germany would produce a unique culture of Christmas, much copied in North America." Among the congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church , Christmas
7722-521: The Christian world, dependent on local tradition and available resources, and can vary from simple representations of the crib to far more elaborate sets – renowned manger scene traditions include the colourful Kraków szopka in Poland, which imitate Kraków 's historical buildings as settings, the elaborate Italian presepi ( Neapolitan , Genoese and Bolognese ), or the Provençal crèches in southern France, using hand-painted terracotta figurines called santons . In certain parts of
7865-417: The Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world. The English word Christmas
8008-426: The Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem , a fact recorded by The School Journal in 1897. Professor David Albert Jones of Oxford University writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus . Additionally, in
8151-440: The Google Earth Web API on the NORAD Santa website. In 2011, an iOS and Android application was introduced, which features updates and an interactive game similar to the Christmas levels in Angry Birds Seasons , called Elf Toss . From mid-January until November 30, when one arrives at the NORAD Tracks Santa website, one is greeted with a message to come back on December 1 to track Santa with NORAD. During December, one finds
8294-464: The Martyr was anointed on Christmas in 855 and King William I of England was crowned on Christmas Day 1066. By the High Middle Ages , the holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates celebrated Christmas. King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten. The Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmas feasts. Caroling also became popular, and
8437-416: The NORAD Tracks Santa program is "one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa Claus story that have stuck." Bowler stated that the program "takes an essential element of the Santa Claus story—his travels on Christmas Eve—and looks at it through a technological lens," therefore bringing the Santa Claus legend into the modern era. Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating
8580-432: The Presbyterian Church of Scotland discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, attendance at church was scant. The Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been "purged of all superstitious observation of days". Whereas in England, Wales and Ireland Christmas Day is a common law holiday, having been
8723-446: The Roman date of the spring equinox. Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar , which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendar , which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, believing that God came into
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#17327903654468866-541: The Santa-tracking hotline would receive an automated message. The 3D depiction of Santa Claus on the tracker showed him wearing a mask while in his sleigh until 2022, where the feature was removed. The NORAD Tracks Santa program has always made use of a variety of media . From the 1950s to 1996, these were the telephone hotline , newspapers , radio , phonograph records , and television . Many television newscasts in North America feature NORAD Tracks Santa as part of their weather updates on Christmas Eve. Since 1997,
9009-424: The Scripps-McRae Press Association, and the Scripps News Association, to form United Press Associations, with headquarters in New York City. Scripps had been a subscriber to an earlier news agency, also named United Press , that existed in the late 1800s, partly in cooperation with the management of the original New York-based AP and partly in existential competition with two Chicago-based organizations also using
9152-430: The U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so." In Reading, Pennsylvania , a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas—threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate
9295-509: The UP-INS merger involved another business component that was to hurt the new UPI company badly in later years. Because INS had been a subsidiary of Hearst's King Features Syndicate and Scripps controlled several other newspaper syndicates, both companies feared possible antitrust issues. So they deliberately kept their respective syndicates out of the combined UPI company. That move cost UPI the revenues of its previous United Feature Syndicate subsidiary, which in later years made large profits on
9438-454: The United States after the American Revolution , when it was considered an English custom. George Washington attacked Hessian (German) mercenaries on the day after Christmas during the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, Christmas being much more popular in Germany than in America at this time. With the atheistic Cult of Reason in power during the era of Revolutionary France , Christian Christmas religious services were banned and
9581-438: The agency away to two inexperienced businessmen, Douglas Ruhe (son of David Ruhe , a member of the Universal House of Justice , the supreme governing body of the Baháʼí Faith ) and William Geissler, originally associated with two better-known partners, who soon departed. Ruhe and Geissler obtained UPI for $ 1. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Scripps first injected UPI with a $ 5 million cash balance, in acknowledgement of
9724-438: The agency was among the largest newswire services in the world, competing domestically for about 90 years with the Associated Press (AP) and internationally with AP, Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) . At its peak, UPI had more than 2,000 full-time employees and 200 news bureaus in 92 countries; it had more than 6,000 media subscribers. With the rising popularity of television news, the business of UPI began to decline as
9867-416: The anniversary of the Savior's birth." The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois , "although of genuine Puritan stock", was 'preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864. By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday. In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans. He has been called
10010-456: The birth of Jesus Christ , observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world . It is a feast central to Christianity . In the liturgical year , preparation for Christmas begins on the First Sunday of Advent (the fourth Sunday before), and it is followed by Christmastide , which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night . Christmas Day
10153-492: The circulation of afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fall. Its decline accelerated after the 1982 sale of UPI by the Scripps company. The E.W. Scripps Company controlled United Press until its absorption of William Randolph Hearst 's smaller competing agency, INS, in 1958 to form UPI. With the Hearst Corporation as a minority partner, UPI continued under Scripps management until 1982. Since its sale in 1982, UPI has changed ownership several times and
10296-491: The city, the inn had no room, and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds , who then spread the word. There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus's birth . In the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25, the date of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar. It is nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also
10439-520: The competition. In 1950, for example, UP reported the invasion of South Korea by North Korea two hours and forty minutes before its archrival, the AP. The New York Times later apologized to UP for refusing to print information on the invasion until the AP had confirmed it. Frank Bartholomew, the last UP president to ascend to the agency's top job directly from its news, rather than sales ranks, took over in 1955, and according to his memoirs cited in Notes ,
10582-507: The context of a Christian celebration of Christmas, the Christmas tree, being evergreen in colour, is symbolic of Christ, who offers eternal life; the candles or lights on the tree represent the Light of the World —Jesus—born in Bethlehem. Christian services for family use and public worship have been published for the blessing of a Christmas tree, after it has been erected. The Christmas tree
10725-529: The country. In 1940, the Canadian government suspended the broadcast licenses of BUP and Transradio Press Service both of whom, unlike Canadian Press , sold commercial sponsorships for its news bulletins in violation of government policy. Transport minister C.D. Howe , who was responsible for broadcasting policy, announced that the two wire services must “show their news source is accurate” in order to retain their licenses. After complaints by Transradio that
10868-715: The cultural aspects of Christmas, such as gift-giving, decorations, and Christmas trees. A similar example is in Turkey , being Muslim-majority and with a small number of Christians, where Christmas trees and decorations tend to line public streets during the festival. Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus's birth, with some claiming that certain elements are Christianized and have origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity ; other scholars reject these claims and affirm that Christmas customs largely developed in
11011-462: The cultural conflict between the holiday's spiritual significance and its associated commercialism that some see as corrupting the holiday. In her 1850 book The First Christmas in New England , Harriet Beecher Stowe includes a character who complains that the true meaning of Christmas was lost in a shopping spree. While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in
11154-700: The custom of kissing under a mistletoe, are common in modern Christmas celebrations in the English-speaking countries. The pre-Christian Germanic peoples —including the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse—celebrated a winter festival called Yule , held in the late December to early January period, yielding modern English yule , today used as a synonym for Christmas . In Germanic language-speaking areas, numerous elements of modern Christmas folk custom and iconography may have originated from Yule, including
11297-523: The day often involved boisterous behavior. Many non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England. Christmas observance was outlawed in Boston in 1659. The ban on Christmas observance was revoked in 1681 by English governor Edmund Andros , but it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region. At
11440-400: The day, allowed them much freedom in chronicling the events of the civil rights struggle. White House reporter Helen Thomas became the public face of UPI, as she was seen at televised press conferences beginning in the early 1960s. UPI famously scooped the AP in reporting the assassination of US President John Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. UPI White House reporter Merriman Smith
11583-539: The early 1980s. It tried to bring in additional newspaper industry partners and when that failed, engaged in serious negotiations with British competitor Reuters , which wanted to increase its US presence. As detailed in "Down to the Wire", by Gordon and Cohen, cited in Notes , Reuters did extensive due diligence and expressed an interest in parts of the UPI service, but did not wish to maintain it in full. Scripps wound up giving
11726-441: The early TV operation of ABC News . In subsequent decades, it underwent several changes in partnerships and names, becoming best known as United Press International Television News (UPITN). Senior UPITN executives later helped Ted Turner create CNN , with its first two presidents, Reese Schonfeld and Burt Reinhardt , coming from UPITN ranks. The UPI Audio actuality service for radio stations, created in 1958 and later renamed
11869-409: The early-19th century, writers imagined Tudor -period Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol , which helped revive the "spirit" of Christmas and seasonal merriment. Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion. Dickens sought to construct Christmas as
12012-516: The end of the fourth century. December 25 was the traditional date of the winter solstice in the Roman Empire, where most Christians lived, and the Roman festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus , the 'Invincible Sun') had been held on this date since 274 AD. In the East , the birth of Jesus was celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6. This holiday
12155-465: The events of 1955 appears to be that on November 30, a child trying to reach Santa on a hotline number provided in a Sears advertisement misdialed the number and instead reached Shoup at his desk at CONAD. However, when a member of Shoup's staff placed a picture of Santa on a board used to track unidentified aircraft that December, Shoup saw a public relations opportunity for CONAD and he asked CONAD's public affairs officer Colonel Barney Oldfield to inform
12298-715: The extraordinary coverage costs. In its heyday, newspapers typically paid UPI about half what they paid AP in the same cities for the same services: At one point, for example, the Chicago Sun-Times paid AP $ 12,500 a week, but UPI only $ 5,000; the Wall Street Journal paid AP $ 36,000 a week, but UPI only $ 19,300. The AP, which serviced 1,243 newspapers at the time, remained UPI's main competitor. In 1959, UPI had 6,208 clients in 92 countries and territories, 234 news and picture bureaus, and an annual payroll of $ 34,000,000, ($ 355,369,863 in today's dollars). But
12441-585: The feast of St. Martin of Tours ), now known as Advent. In Italy, former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent. Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 – January 5); a time that appears in the liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days. In 567, the Council of Tours put in place the season of Christmastide , proclaiming "the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as
12584-589: The fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", old Father Christmas and carol singing. During the ban, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret. It was restored as a legal holiday in England with the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared null and void, with Christmas again freely celebrated in England. Many Calvinist clergymen disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland,
12727-660: The first commercial Christmas card was produced by Sir Henry Cole . The revival of the Christmas Carol began with William Sandys 's Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), with the first appearance in print of " The First Noel ", " I Saw Three Ships ", " Hark the Herald Angels Sing " and " God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen ", popularized in Dickens's A Christmas Carol . In Britain, the Christmas tree
12870-566: The following century. The Georgian Iadgari demonstrates that Christmas was celebrated in Jerusalem by the sixth century . In the Early Middle Ages , Christmas Day was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in western Christianity focused on the visit of the magi . However, the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St. Martin" (which began on November 11,
13013-548: The hell out of AP.' That was part of the spirit. We knew we were undermanned. But we knew we could do a darn good job despite that, and so many times, we did." Despite that, like all agencies that deal with huge volumes of timely information, UP and later UPI had its share of remembered mistakes. As recounted in the various printed histories of UPI cited in Notes , the most famous one came early in its history. UP's president, Roy W. Howard , then traveling in France, telegraphed that
13156-614: The legend of Baldr ); it is an evergreen parasitic plant that grows on trees, especially apple and poplar, and turns golden when it is dried. It is customary to hang a sprig of mistletoe in the house at Christmas, and anyone standing underneath it may be kissed. Mistletoe has sticky white berries, one of which was traditionally removed whenever someone was kissed under it. This is probably a fertility ritual. The mistletoe berry juice resembles semen. Other traditional decorations include bells , candles , candy canes , stockings , wreaths , and angels . The wreaths and candles in each window are
13299-561: The move was an attempt by “selfish publishing and monopolistic interests … to destroy independent news services throughout the Dominion”, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , which at the time was also responsible for regulating private radio broadcasters, agreed to reinstate Transradio's and BUP's licenses while also announcing a plan to enforce the ban on commercial news broadcasts by editing dispatches by
13442-522: The new UPI and the columns of popular INS writers, such as Bob Considine , Louella Parsons and Ruth Montgomery , were carried by UPI. Rival AP was a publishers' cooperative and could assess its members to help pay the extraordinary costs of covering major news—wars, the Olympic Games, national political conventions. UPI clients, in contrast, paid a fixed annual rate; depending on individual contracts, UPI could not always ask them to help shoulder
13585-612: The news agency was created by the 1907 uniting of three smaller news syndicates by the Midwest newspaper publisher E. W. Scripps . It was headed by Hugh Baillie (1890–1966) from 1935 to 1955. At the time of his retirement, UP had 2,900 clients in the United States, and 1,500 abroad. In 1958, it became United Press International after absorbing the International News Service (INS) in May. As either UP or UPI,
13728-412: The observance of Christmas, claiming it undermined Islam . In 2023, public Christmas celebrations were cancelled in Bethlehem , the city synonymous with the birth of Jesus. Palestinian leaders of various Christian denominations cited the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in their unanimous decision to cancel celebrations. Christmas Day is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday in countries around
13871-452: The pagan practice. Among countries with a strong Christian tradition , a variety of Christmas celebrations have developed that incorporate regional and local cultures. For example, in eastern Europe Christmas celebrations incorporated pre-Christian traditions such as the Koleda , which shares parallels with the Christmas carol . Christmas Day (inclusive of its vigil , Christmas Eve), is
14014-570: The phone lines. In 2018, more than 1,500 volunteers staffed the phone lines despite the shutdown of the US government . In December 2019, the noradsanta.org website received 8.9 million visitors. In 2020, NORAD announced they would continue the Santa Tracker, despite the COVID-19 pandemic . They would operate with a limited number of volunteers answering calls and some people who try to reach
14157-533: The picture component of Hearst's INS to the Bettmann Archive . Bettmann was later sold to Microsoft founder Bill Gates 's separate Corbis Corporation , storing them underground in Pennsylvania and digitizing them for licensing, frequently without any notation of their UPI origins. In August 2011 Corbis announced a deal with AP to distribute each other's photos to their clients, effectively combining
14300-418: The pieces used to make the representation are considered a valuable family heirloom . The traditional colors of Christmas decorations are red, green, and gold. Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus, which was shed in his crucifixion ; green symbolizes eternal life, and in particular the evergreen tree, which does not lose its leaves in the winter; and gold is the first color associated with Christmas, as one of
14443-548: The pre-1983 UPI library with that of its former main rival for some marketing purposes. In 2016 Corbis sold to the Visual China Group. UPI's remaining minority stake in UPITN was also sold and the agency was renamed Worldwide Television News (WTN). As with its photographs, UPI thereby lost all control of its newsfilm and video library, which is now held by WTN-successor Associated Press Television News , which entered
14586-421: The press that CONAD was tracking Santa's sleigh. In his release to the press, Oldfield added that "CONAD, Army , Navy , and Marine Air Forces will continue to track and guard Santa and his sleigh on his trip to and from the U.S. against possible attack from those who do not believe in Christmas." Over the following years, the legend of how the annual event originated began to change. By 1961, Shoup's version of
14729-411: The program has had a highly publicized internet presence. As mobile media and social media have become popular and widespread as methods of direct communication, these newer media have also been embraced by the program. The layout of the NORAD Tracks Santa website and its web pages have changed from 1997 to the present due to changes in internet technologies, and changes in partners and sponsors for
14872-698: The recognition of the Christmas season . Christmas, along with Easter, is the period of highest annual church attendance. A 2010 survey by LifeWay Christian Resources found that six in ten Americans attend church services during this time. In the United Kingdom, the Church of England reported an estimated attendance of 2.5 million people at Christmas services in 2015. Nativity scenes are known from 10th-century Rome. They were popularised by Saint Francis of Assisi from 1223, quickly spreading across Europe. Different types of decorations developed across
15015-518: The regular phone on Shoup's desk, that it was a misprint in an advertisement that led the child to call him rather than the child misdialing the number, and that a flood of calls had come in from children on Christmas Eve 1955 rather than from just one child on November 30. Shoup did not intend to repeat the stunt in 1956, but Oldfield informed him that the Associated Press and United Press International were awaiting reports that CONAD again
15158-563: The same time, Christian residents of Virginia and New York observed the holiday freely. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, predominantly Moravian settlers of Bethlehem , Nazareth , and Lititz in Pennsylvania and the Wachovia settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes. Christmas fell out of favor in
15301-487: The story was that he had not been gruff with the child but instead had identified himself as Santa Claus when he spoke to the child on the phone. Shoup and his family later modified the story further, adding that the child had dialed the "red telephone"—an impossibility, because the hotline was connected with the Strategic Air Command by an enclosed cable, and no one could dial in from the outside—rather than
15444-628: The syndication of Peanuts and other popular comic strips and columns. UPI had an advantage of independence over the AP in reporting on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Because the AP was a cooperative essentially owned by the newspapers, those in the South influenced its coverage of the racial unrest and protests, often ignoring, minimizing, or slanting the reporting. UPI did not have that sort of pressure, and management, according to UPI reporters and photographers of
15587-420: The tale, "Merry Christmas" , was popularized following the appearance of the story. This coincided with the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism , which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances. The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser , with the phrase "Bah! Humbug!" becoming emblematic of a dismissive attitude of the festive spirit. In 1843,
15730-748: The three gifts of the Magi , symbolizing royalty. The Christmas tree was first used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strassburg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer , Martin Bucer . In the United States, these "German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees." When decorating
15873-475: The totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday" and that "Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies." As Christmas celebrations began to spread globally even outside traditional Christian cultures , several Muslim-majority countries began to ban
16016-528: The tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas ). The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance. This also started
16159-409: The twenty-five hours from 2 a.m. on December 24 until 3 a.m. MST on December 25. A website called NORADSanta.org was established to allow project access for Internet users. Not only does NORAD simulate the tracking of Santa's sleigh, but it also tells the user the exact amount of presents he is "delivering" at any moment on Christmas Eve. NORAD begins "tracking" at 12:00 a.m. MST, and even provides
16302-898: The video news field long after UPI left it. Years of mismanagement, missed opportunities and continual wage and staff cuts followed. By 1984, UPI had descended into the first of two Chapter 11 bankruptcies . Mario Vázquez Raña , a Mexican media magnate, with a nominal American minority partner, Houston real estate developer Joseph Russo, purchased UPI out of bankruptcy for $ 40 million, losing millions during his short tenure, and firing numerous high-level staff. In 1988, Vázquez Raña sold UPI to Infotechnology, Inc., an information technology and venture capital company and parent company of cable TV's Financial News Network , both headed by Earl Brian , who also became UPI chairman. In early 1991, Infotechnology itself filed for bankruptcy, announced layoffs at UPI and sought to terminate certain employee benefits in an attempt to keep UPI afloat. At that point, UPI
16445-564: The voice-over for three videos. Since 2012, Analytical Graphics, Inc. has used their Cesium platform to build a 3D map for visualizing Santa's location with more accurate global terrain and satellite imagery than before. NORAD reported that for Christmas 2013, it logged 19.58 million unique visitors to its website on Christmas Eve, and 1,200 volunteers answered 117,371 calls. Through social media, it had 146,307 Twitter followers and 1.45 million "likes" on Facebook. That year, NORAD contracted with Bing Maps to provide 2D map tracking, ending
16588-554: The wire services before they were distributed to radio stations. In 1958, when United Press merged with the International News Service to become UPI, British United Press was renamed United Press International of Canada. In 1979, 80% of UPI Canada was sold to the Toronto Sun newspaper chain and renamed United Press Canada. In 1985, UPC was sold to Canadian Press , which absorbed it. Beginning with
16731-403: The world for town squares and consumer shopping areas to sponsor and display decorations. Rolls of brightly colored paper with secular or religious Christmas motifs are manufactured to wrap gifts. In some countries, Christmas decorations are traditionally taken down on Twelfth Night . The tradition of the Nativity scene comes from Italy. One of the earliest representation in art of the nativity
16874-489: The world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity rather than knowing Jesus's exact birth date is considered to be the primary purpose of celebrating Christmas. The customs associated with Christmas in various countries have a mix of pre-Christian , Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular holiday traditions include gift giving ; completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath ; Christmas music and caroling ; watching Christmas movies ; viewing
17017-411: The world, including many whose populations are mostly non-Christian. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Countries such as Japan, where Christmas is popular despite there being only a small number of Christians, have adopted many of
17160-442: The world, notably Sicily , living nativity scenes following the tradition of Saint Francis are a popular alternative to static crèches. The first commercially produced decorations appeared in Germany in the 1860s, inspired by paper chains made by children. In countries where a representation of the Nativity scene is very popular, people are encouraged to compete and create the most original or realistic ones. Within some families,
17303-527: Was a more fitting object of reverence because it pointed to heaven and it had a triangular shape, which he said was symbolic of the Trinity . The English language phrase "Christmas tree" is first recorded in 1835 and represents an importation from the German language. Since the 16th century, the poinsettia , a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas carrying the Christian symbolism of
17446-567: Was a one-time event, not repeated over the next several years. The program originated before the actual formation of NORAD, as an annual event on December 24, 1955. According to legend, a Sears department store placed an advertisement in the Colorado Springs newspaper The Gazette , which told children they could place a call to Santa Claus and included the number ME 2-6681 . A call allegedly came through to Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center as one digit
17589-672: Was aimed at creating a stronger competitor for the Associated Press and a stronger economic entity than either UP or INS. The newly formed United Press International (UPI) had 950 client newspapers. Fearing possible antitrust issues with the Eisenhower Administration Justice Department , Scripps and Hearst rushed the merger through with unusual speed and secrecy. Although all UP employees were retained, most INS employees lost their jobs with practically no warning. A relative few did join
17732-399: Was also deeply involved with the newer visual medium of television . In 1948, it entered into a partnership with 20th Century Fox subsidiary Fox Movietone News to shoot newsfilm for television stations. That service, United Press Movietone, or UPMT, was a pioneer in newsfilm syndication and numbered among its clients major US and foreign networks and local stations, including for many years
17875-552: Was also used during some periods, but is now considered archaic and dialectal. The term derives from Middle English Cristenmasse , meaning 'Christian mass'. Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in the Greek [Χριστός] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |literal= ( help ) , although some style guides discourage its use. This abbreviation has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where Χρ̄
18018-476: Was an eyewitness, and he commandeered the press car's only phone to dictate the story to UPI as AP reporter Jack Bell tried—without success—to wrest the phone away so he could call his office. Smith and UPI won a Pulitzer Prize for this reporting. United Press had no direct wirephoto service until 1952, when it absorbed co-owned ACME Newspictures , under pressure from parent company Scripps to better compete with AP's news and photo services. By that time, UP
18161-497: Was celebrated as one of the principal evangelical feasts . However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of popery " or the "rags of the Beast ". In contrast, the established Anglican Church "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became
18304-516: Was claiming to be tracking Santa Claus. Shoup agreed that Oldfield should announce it again, and the annual tradition was born. In 1958, the North America Air Defense Command (NORAD) took over the reporting responsibility from CONAD, and the reporting became more elaborate as the years passed. On December 24, 1960, for example, NORAD's northern command post at Saint-Hubert, Quebec , Canada , provided regular updates of
18447-553: Was considered "a scrappy alternative" news source to the AP. UP reporters were called "Unipressers" and were noted for their fiercely aggressive and competitive streak. Another hallmark of the company's culture was little formal training of reporters; new hires were often thrust into a "sink-or-swim" situation of reporting on an unfamiliar subject. They were weaned on UP's famous and well-documented (though frequently misappropriated and misquoted) slogan of "Get it first, but FIRST, get it RIGHT." Despite controversy, UP (and later UPI) became
18590-596: Was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force: when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule. The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on
18733-511: Was down to 585 employees. Later that year, UPI filed for bankruptcy for the second time, asking for relief from $ 50 million in debt so that it could be sale-able. In 1992, a group of Saudi investors, ARA Group International (AGI), bought the bankrupt UPI for $ 4 million. By 1998, UPI had fewer than 250 employees and 12 offices. Although the Saudi-based investors claimed to have poured more than $ 120 million into UPI, it had failed to turn
18876-619: Was eventually equated with Christian Christmas. 'Noel' (also 'Nowel' or 'Nowell', as in " The First Nowell ") entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël , itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs) meaning 'birth (day)'. Koleda is the traditional Slavic name for Christmas and the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times. The gospels of Luke and Matthew describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem to
19019-517: Was found in the early Christian Roman catacomb of Saint Valentine . It dates to about AD 380. Another, of similar date, is beneath the pulpit in Sant'Ambrogio, Milan . United Press International United Press International ( UPI ) is an American international news agency whose newswires , photo , news film , and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers , magazines , radio and television stations for most of
19162-638: Was introduced in the early 19th century by the German-born Queen Charlotte . In 1832, the future Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with lights , ornaments , and presents placed round it. After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert , by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain. An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle created
19305-528: Was misprinted. In some versions of the story, the calls were coming in to the "red telephone" hotline that connected CONAD directly to command authorities at the Strategic Air Command . Colonel Harry Shoup, who was a crew commander on duty, answered the first call and supposedly told his staff to give all children who called in later a made-up "current location" for Santa Claus. Shoup responded gruffly to one child who called and no additional Santa Claus-related calls came in to CONAD. A more accurate description of
19448-694: Was not primarily about Christ's birth, but rather his baptism . Christmas was promoted in the East as part of the revival of Orthodox Christianity that followed the death of the pro- Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced in Constantinople in 379, in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the fourth century, probably in 388, and in Alexandria in
19591-409: Was obsessed with merging UP with the International News Service , a news agency that had been founded by William Randolph Hearst in 1909 following Scripps' lead. Bartholomew succeeded in putting the "I" in UPI in 1958 when UP and INS merged to become United Press International on May 24. The new UPI now had 6,000 employees and 5,000 subscribers, about a thousand of them newspapers. The merger
19734-450: Was originally performed by a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form. " Misrule "—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there
19877-574: Was purchased in May 2000 by News World Communications , a media conglomerate founded by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon , which also owned The Washington Times and newspapers in South Korea, Japan, and South America. The next day, UPI's White House correspondent, Helen Thomas , resigned her position, after working for UPI for 57 years. In 2007, as part of a restructuring to keep UPI in business and profitable, management cut 11 staff from its Washington, D.C. office and no longer had
20020-580: Was renamed the North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1981, openly published a hotline number for the general public to call to get updates on Santa Claus' supposed progress. NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible. Each volunteer handles about 40 telephone calls per hour and the team typically handles more than 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than two hundred countries and territories. Most of these contacts happen during
20163-554: Was renamed the United Press International Radio Network . But faced with recurring cash shortages and difficulty meeting payroll, the Ruhe-Geissler management sold UPI's foreign photo service and some rights to its US and foreign photos to the Reuters news agency. It also sold UPI's U.S. photo library, which included the archives of predecessor Scripps photo agency Acme and the pictures and negatives of International News Photos,
20306-572: Was special Christmas ale. Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated ivy , holly , and other evergreens. Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord. The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting, and card playing escalated in England, and by the 17th century the Christmas season featured lavish dinners, elaborate masques, and pageants. In 1607, King James I insisted that
20449-457: Was twice in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. With each change in ownership came deeper service and staff cutbacks and changes of focus and a corresponding shrinkage of its traditional media customer base. Since the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to its one-time major rival, the AP, UPI has concentrated on smaller information market niches. It no longer services media organizations in
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