LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Christmas: Christmas Eve
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Christmas cards should be dedicated to the person they are given to. Nowadays a wonderful present is a handmade card, it is really more liked than the obvious ones that you can find in every shop. People will value more the handmade card because it shows the personal touch…
In the United States and Canada, many elements of modern Christmas celebrations did not emerge until the 19th century. Before then Christmas had been an ordinary workday in many communities, particularly in New England, where early Puritan objections to Christmas celebrations remained highly influential. Among some groups, Christmas was an especially boisterous event, characterized by huge feasts, drunkenness, and raucous public revelry. In an English tradition that survived in some parts of North America, Christmas revelers would dress in costume and progress from door to door to receive gifts of food and drink. Most holiday gifts were limited to small amounts of money and modest presents passed from the wealthy to the poor and from masters to their servants. Families almost never exchanged Christmas gifts among themselves.
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From the 16th through the 31st, you can enjoy the royal experience of the ‘breaking of the plates’; eating buñuelos (a classic Christmas dessert) and drinking hot chocolate and then smashing the ceramic plates to the ground. Beside the Cathedral, restaurant stands serve chocolate and “bunuelos” out of bowls which are then thrown against the sidewalk and smashed. It is said that this has something to do with the ancient Indian custom of destroying all of one's belongings every 52 years, at the end of a cycle proscribed by the Gods. It is ... suggested that this comes from Moctezuma’s habit of never eating from the same plate twice. Don't worry, these unglazed dishes are made expressly to be broken tonight!
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Whatever Christmas light scheme your dad cooked up as a kid most likely pales in comparison to these four Canadian families, who connected their Xmas lights together in a network-choreographed way. As you can see in the video, the lights go off according to pre-programmed timers (like the water fountains at the Bellagio) that are posted on their website so you can sync your own house up to them. Better yet, you can even log on and change their patterns yourself either from your desktop or your BlackBerry. Best. Lights. Ever.
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Among all the festivals and holidays of the Christian Church year, Christmas remains the most observed and most popular. Of course, much of that popularity, especially in the West, is due to the commercial promotion of the holiday. In many Protestant churches through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Christmas was noted but not really celebrated. While observed in some church liturgies, there was very little in the way of gift giving and family celebration that marks the season today. In fact, until relatively recently, in the middle to latter nineteenth century, Christmas was a regular work day. In many areas of the world today, it remains a comparatively insignificant holiday even among Christians. Still, the Christmas story captures the heart in a way that transcends all the commercial hype.
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For Christians at Christmas evergreens symbolize the everlasting life offered by the Christ Child. The color red used to accent the green, as holly berries in a wreath, are said to represent the blood Jesus shed in giving the gift of everlasting life.
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Christmas Eve