Currents

Hallmark of the Holidays

BECAUSE OF HENRY COLE, we have Christmas Card Day, which falls on December 9.

Cole, an Englishman, sent the first Christmas card—in 1843.

He fretted over the new custom of sending personalized letters to all his friends. He simply didn’t have the time.

So he printed up 1,000 postcards, below, with the greeting “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”

December 6 National Microwave Oven Day

Your electric cooperative, your trusted energy adviser that strives to help you save money on electric bills, reminds you: Microwaves use about 60% as much energy as full-size ovens.

FINISH THIS SENTENCE I CAN’T BELIEVE I USED TO WEAR ...

Tell us how you would finish that sentence. Email your short responses to letters@ TexasCoopPower.com or comment on our Facebook post. Include your co-op and town.

Here are some of the responses to our October prompt: The best Christmas gift I ever gave was … A stove with a window in the oven door, to my mother-in-law, who proclaimed with joy, “Now I can watch my cookies as they are baking.” To my mother, in 1967, my return from the war.

ALLEN LINDERMAN NUECES EC CORPUS CHRISTI

In 2021, when I surprised our daughter Elizabeth with a book it took me 41 years to write about her much-loved baby sister Rebecca, who died in 1980 at the age of 9 months.

PHYLLIS CRAM PEDERNALES EC AUSTIN

For the Rest of Us

Festivus, the TV holiday that isn’t really a holiday, came into the vernacular 25 years ago.

The December 18, 1997, Seinfeld episode included a storyline about Festivus, a supposed alternative to the pressures and commercialization of the Christmas season.

POSTCARD: WIKIPEDIA COMMONS. VEGETABLES: LESTERMAN | STOCK.ADOBE.COM. WREATH LAYING: WYATT MCSPADDEN. BERRIES: ELENA ELISSEEVA | DREAMSTIME.COM “Nothing smoothes out the past like a present.”

—GLADYS PARKER

Contests and More

ENTER CONTESTS AT TEXASCOOPPOWER.COM

$500 RECIPE CONTEST Berries

FOCUS ON TEXAS PHOTOS Riding the River WIN 2 NIGHTS IN FREDERICKSBURG The prize package of a midweek getaway in this charming Hill Country town includes lodging, food and attractions. Enter now to win.

Wreaths for the Fallen

THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS across the country will honor veterans December 17 by laying wreaths at graves on National Wreaths Across America Day. In Texas, 210,000 wreaths are expected to be placed at 300 locations. We featured Texans’ involvement in this endeavor in Circle of Life in November 2018.

Wreaths Across America grew out of an effort that began in 1992, when Worcester Wreath Co. in Harrington, Maine, had extra wreaths near the end of its busy holiday season. The business arranged for the surplus wreaths to be delivered to Arlington National Cemetery and placed on headstones.