As snow starts to fall in Chicago, many of us are busy getting ready for the holidays. There are cookies to bake, decorations to hang and parties to plan. If our schedule is this full, Santa Claus must be really swamped! When I need a break, I try to find time to enjoy a good…
5 Teen Christmas-Themed Reads
Christmastime is the best time of the year. Coming together with family, enjoying the feeling of giving (and receiving) and spending time with those you love the most is a most awesome experience. Suffice it to say, Christmastime is also a great time for romancing it up with our book boyfriends. What better way to…
Quiz: How Well Do You Know Holiday Music?
Silver bells, sleigh bells and jingle bells are ringing out of every radio and speaker this time of year. As we celebrate the sounds of the holiday season, how well do you know holiday music? Take our quiz and find out…
Making a List: Historical Holiday Shopping
Long before Cyber Monday, folks who didn't live close enough to a city to visit shopping districts downtown would order their holiday gifts through the mail using paper catalogs. If they were ordering those presents between around 1870 and 1920, it's likely they were ordering from a Chicago company. In 1872, just after the Great Chicago Fire, A. Montgomery Ward's…
The Ghost of Christmas Past, Shopping Edition
Christmas will be here in just a few days. Have you finished your shopping? These days, last-minute Christmas shopping usually involves a click on a screen and waiting for the items to arrive at your house. Not so long ago, though, Chicagoans got all dressed up and traveled downtown to do their holiday shopping. Take a break from your…
Christmas Around the World
Have you ever wondered how people around the world celebrate Christmas? There are lots and lots of traditions from other countries that you may recognize from your own family's celebrations, such as decorating a tree or a visit from Santa Claus, but just where did these traditions come from? If Santa Claus has ever visited…
Quiz: A Christmas Carol
The debate over the best film adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is sure to rage at many a holiday table again this year. To put you in the spirit, our bloggers Jennifer, Joanna and Laura compiled this quiz to see how well you know the classic holiday tale and its many adaptations. For more of the miser we all…
Quiz: Test Your Holiday IQ
For many of us, books, movies and music put us in the holiday spirit and shape our traditions with family and friends. So what better way to celebrate the titles we love than a holiday quiz? Our bloggers Beth, Katie, Laura, Mary, Michelle, Municipal_Reference_Guy and Shilo created this quiz to give you something fun to share this holiday season…
Take the Express Train to Holiday Traditions
A "tradition" is a custom or a belief passed down from generation to generation. Some of my favorite traditions happen during the winter holiday season! I love my family's tradition of eating monkey bread while we open presents on Christmas morning. My friends and I share the tradition of riding the CTA Holiday Train each year. The holiday concerts at Harold…
O Christmas Tree!
I love Christmas! It’s my favorite time of the year. I love everything about it: the lights, the toys, the gingerbread houses, Santa Claus. But nothing says Christmas like the Christmas tree. In my house we make a big production around erecting good ole Tannenbaum. It’s a time filled with music, laughter, hot chocolate, popcorn…
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