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Why a Charlie Brown Christmas Endures

There were many things in my home growing up that were part of my family’s Christmas tradition. Like millions of Americans, we had a tree in the living room, adorned with lights and ornaments. As Catholics, we had a nativity creche under that tree. While my sister and I loved the decorations and traditions, what was on TV was a big part of the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

My sister and I watched all the holiday specials in the 1980s. From Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Jack Frost, we’d grab our hot chocolate and marshmallows and clad in our pajamas, we’d sit and watch these holiday cartoons.

Religion Unplugged

When Was Jesus Born? Italian Researcher Puts Christ’s Birth in December, 1 BC

An interview with researcher Liberato De Caro of the Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council in Bari, Italy

ROME — As Christmas approaches, debate often arises over when exactly Jesus was born. Did the Nativity really happen during winter in Bethlehem 2,020 years ago? Recent research by a group of Italian researchers suggests that it did.

Liberato De Caro, Ph.D., of the Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council in Bari, Italy, who led the research, proposes that the date of Jesus’ birth can be ascertained through an understanding of the Jewish pilgrimages that took place at that time, and how their connections with Mary’s visit to Elizabeth — and Mary’s reaction to Elizabeth expecting John the Baptist, and the death of Herod the Great — point to the date of Jesus’ birth taking place in December 1 BC.

National Catholic Register

Covid Has Made All of Us Lepers

I rounded the corner at the grocery store not long ago and came across a woman who froze stock still. Her whole body became rigid, as if she had seen a fearful specter ready to drag her down to hell. She plastered herself along the opposite side of the aisle and stepped ever so gingerly side by side past me, all the while staring wide-eyed. Finally, she was passed me and safe.

I watched a masked woman running alone on a sidewalk near our house. She spied someone approaching in the opposite direction. She practically jumped out of the way, right into a busy street. Seemingly she would rather endanger herself with a car than her fellow man.

Crisis Magazine