Al’s Christmas Tea: The Last Hustle Before the Holy Night
Welcome back in for Al’s Christmas Tea, our final chance on this Christmas Eve Eve to stop and sample some of the stories of the season.
It’s also officially winter now, and Old Man Winter is proving to be bitter in large chunks of the country. Or perhaps he’s just misunderstood.
Americans Hit the Road and Sky for Christmas
Over the river and through the drive-throughs to Grandmother’s house we go.
“Are we there yet?”
“Ask Siri.”
If you are hitting the road this Christmas, you are not alone. AAA estimates more than 119 million people will travel more than 50 miles between last Saturday and New Year’s Day. That would break the travel record set in 2019.
The skies also will be busy. An estimated 54 million people are expected to fly during the 19-day period between last Thursday and January 6. That’s up 6% from last year.
A tip of the cup to those intrepid souls who are working the travel stations on the nation’s highways and byways. Thank you for being there to ring up the Red Bull and pretzels at 2 a.m. with a smile, or telling us, “Oh, go ahead” and take the cup of ice for our dog at no charge. Or offer no judgment when after eight hours on the road we’ve lost the ability to figure out how to correctly put our debit card in the reader.
You make getting to Grandma’s house a lot easier.
What’s This Year’s Toys for Tots Tally?
Another triumph for the United States Marine Corps: According to Lt. Gen. James Laster, USMC (Retired), CEO of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, 2024 was a banner year for the charity.
“In 2024, the Marine Toys for Tots Program reached unprecedented milestones, delivering nearly 25 million toys, books, and gifts to over 10 million disadvantaged children across the Nation” he said in a statement saluting discount retailer Ollie’s for raising over $1.1 million for Toys for Tots.
While our eyes are on the military …
Bing’s Toughest Day in Show Biz
Legendary crooner Bing Crosby was at the top of the entertainment world from the 1920s up until his death in 1977. One day, his nephew, Howard, asked Crosby, “What was the single most difficult thing you had to do in your career?” Howard told Fox News. “I didn’t know if he was going to say, ‘Well, it was, you know, learning lines for the movies or working with a difficult director.’”
Crosby did not miss a beat. It was 1944, and the singer was with a USO troupe performing an open-air concert in front of 15,000 U.S. and British troops in France. He and fellow performers Dinah Shore and the Andrews Sisters “were having a lot of laughs and the boys were having a wonderful time” — until the end of the show.
“I had to sing ‘White Christmas.’ And I had to get through the song with 15,000 guys in tears and not break myself up,” Crosby told his nephew. “And a lot of those boys died the next week in the Battle of the Bulge.”
Right now, roughly 170,000 active-duty U.S. service members are serving overseas. Please share a prayer for their safety. It may be Christmas, but protecting our nation takes no holiday. Just yesterday, two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down in a “friendly fire incident” over the Red Sea. Fortunately both pilots were able to safely eject, with one suffering only minor injuries.
Tiny Homes for Those Impacted by Helene
Just in time for Christmas, NASCAR delivered the last of 17 micro homes in Charlotte built with the help of Lowe’s for victims of Hurricane Helene. All told, the home improvement giant has helped bring 100 of the tiny homes to those in need.
Local builder Danny Kelly had been to western North Carolina to lend a hand after the hurricane. “When I drove through Swannanoa and saw the destruction six weeks after it happened, it looked like it happened yesterday. I was shocked at the state of it,” said Kelly. “ As a homebuilder, I felt obligated to help build shelter and homes, and it’s difficult when they’re two or three hours away.”
He set out to build the micro homes, sketching out and building the prototype himself. Lowe’s jumped in with the materials.
“From a Lowe’s standpoint, we said: ‘Okay, if you can bring the builders, we can bring the products,’ and so that’s how we got involved,” Julie Yenichek, Lowe’s senior director of community relations, told ABC 13 News in Charlotte.
But would they be able to find the needed volunteers so close to the holidays? Yes. As many as 400 skilled laborers offered a helping hand.
BeLoved Ashville is also involved in getting tiny homes built and deployed in the wrecked region of the state. Codirector Amy Cantrell sums the effort up in three words: “Love in Action.”
A Child Is Born
There is no greater example of love in action than God sending His own begotten son, who would give His life for us all at Calvary. We at The Stream will be off tomorrow, preparing for the celebration of Christ’s birth. However, tomorrow also will bring the conclusion of my five-part series “Born on Christmas Day,” which breaks down why it is perfectly reasonable to believe Christ was actually born on December 25, regardless of what the culture tries to tell us.
And that birth came in a tiny village, not in Jerusalem, or Rome, or Athens.
“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
We gather together not only in grand cathedrals but also in places of worship not much bigger than the stable that welcomed Jesus, sharing those “tidings of great joy.”
God is with us. Whatever darkness may be around us, whatever troubles hound us, God is with us.
On the Stream Menu…
LIFE Today Live talks to Katie J. Trent about “How to Bring the Real Jesus Back into ‘The Holiday Season.'”
Meanwhile, frequent contributor Michael Giere has a Christmas reflection called “Great Expectations.”
Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.