LAST LIVE SHOW TONIGHT AT 7:00 P.M. EASTERN!!!

Last Live Show Tonight at 7:00 P.M. Eastern!!!

(or is it?)

Tune in to hear the last live broadcast of the season!!!

(or is it?)

You all have been great!!!



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Christmas Tree Crisis in Europe!!!!

The BBC News is reporting that the European Nations are facing a Christmas Tree shortage!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
"As Europe endeavors to get into the holiday mood, one key element is in short supply: Natural Christmas trees. Snowbound Britons and Irish revelers have been hit particularly hard, British tree grower Pierce Lavane tells the BBC, but "it's not a UK shortage, it's a European shortage and the weather's not helping." The continent uses about 50 million live trees a year, roughly 25 percent more trees than Americans consume. What's behind the crisis, and how bad will it get? (Watch a report about Christmas trees in Germany)

Where does Europe get its trees?While Germany, home of the tannenbaum, is Europe's most important Christmas tree market and its biggest Christmas tree grower, Denmark is the biggest exporter, supplying many nations, including the Great Britain, with trees. The mountains of Ireland and Scotland also supply the the U.K. market.

What's behind the shortage?A mixture of basic supply-and-demand issues with unseasonably cold weather. A six-foot Christmas tree takes at least six years to grow, and a profit-dampening glut of trees in the early 2000s drove some growers out of the market. At the same time, more Europeans started buying real trees over artificial ones, driving up demand. "It's only six or seven years later that everyone's realized that actually there's not enough to go round...," says British tree supplier Christopher Hood.

What does the weather have to do with it?Heavy snowfall has thrown a wrench into the tree harvest, making it harder for mountain-based growers to both cut the trees and send them down icy roads to market. "It would have been a super Christmas," says Roger Hay, secretary of the British Christmas Tree Growers' Association. "But weather conditions over the last two weeks have changed that."

So how big is the crisis, really?The estimated shortfall is between four million and five million trees, and the tug-of-war between Britain and Germany for the limited supply has driven up prices. But it's not just the number of trees. Europeans now favor the Nordmann Fir over traditional varieties such as the Norway Spruce and the Fraser Fir, because the Nordmann's needles are softer and less likely to fall off. But the true extent of the crisis won't be clear until Christmas, says Irish grower Christy Kavanagh. "It is amazing how many people leave buying their tree until the last minute."

Sources: BBC News, Financial Times, Irish Central, Irish Times, Wikipedia

Live Show Tonight 7:00 P.M. Eastern!!! GODZILLA TOO???!?!??!?!?!!!!!!

Ready for another great show tonight? WE ARE!!!! Plus, listen throughout our show and we will let you know what Godzilla has in common with the Holiday Season!!!

See you tonight!

Very Weird Cleveland, Ohio Christmas Rituals!!!

According to Diane DiPiero. Yahoo! Contributor Network, there are several rituals that Clevelanders participate in every year. Do to the rich heritages the Cleveland embraces, here a few rituals that appear every year at this time:

Feast of the Seven Fishes

Even a die-hard fish lover might get a little squeamish at the sight of a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner. But those of Italian heritage know that the Feast of the Seven Fishes signifies the beginning of the Christmas holiday. Traditionally, the seven fish are baccala (dried cod), boiled squid, boiled shrimp, steamed clams, boiled crab, baked flounder and steamed mussels or oysters. If you've managed to have at least a bite of each, you've earned your dessert, typically panatone served with espresso. You can host your own Feast of Seven Fishes, or a variation with just a few varieties. Local Italian specialty stores in Cleveland will be stocking up on cod, squid and other fish in time for Dec. 24. Among them are Alesci's in South Euclid and Gallucci's in Cleveland.

The Chocolate Christmas Hippo

Never heard of this one? That's because it's fairly new. Last year, Baker Candies in Cleveland introduced the chocolate hippo in time for the holidays. The candymaker was approached by a customer who asked them to make a sweet treat to honor his mother's least favorite holiday song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." The customer's mother loves Christmas but hates the commercialization of it. Proceeds from hippo sales last year, which totaled about $5,000, went to two charities. This year, the hippo is back, and so is the philanthropic sentiment behind it. Money raised will go to the local Wounded Warrior chapter.

Upside-down Christmas trees

According to legend, the upside-down Christmas tree was created so specialty shops could display delicate ornaments and decorations in a minimum of space. But those of Eastern European descent might know that the earliest Christmas trees there were displayed upside down. Christians in Poland and what is now Slovakia began this tradition in the 7th or 8th century. The story goes that St. Boniface hung a fir tree upside down to represent the Holy Trinity with the shape of the tree mimicking a cross. Today, you can actually buy artificial upside-down trees, or you can admire the decorated example displayed this season outside North Royalton United Methodist Church. A variety of other trees will also be on display throughout the season to celebrate Christmas tree traditions.

Live Show Tonight! 7:00 P.M. Eastern!!!!

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Latvia, Estonia Fight Over Who Had the first Christmas Tree!!!

RIGA (AFP) – Latvia and its Baltic neighbour Estonia are exchanging friendly jabs over the claim that each was home to the first-ever town Christmas tree some five centuries ago.

As the Latvian capital Riga marks what it says is the 500th anniversary of its tree, its Estonian counterpart Tallinn has hit back.
"I received a present from the mayor of Tallinn, Edgar Savisaar, a short Christmas tree," Riga's mayor Nils Usakovs told AFP.
"He congratulated us on the 500th anniversary of the Riga Christmas tree and reminded us that Tallinn is celebrating the 569th anniversary," Usakovs said.
"It's good that the sole topic of disagreement between Riga and Tallinn is who has the oldest Christmas tree," he joked.
In the ongoing jousting, Latvia's tourist office rented billboard space in Tallinn inviting locals to see the home of the tree -- at Riga's festival.
According to researchers who back the Latvian side, the first tree wasn't actually the classic evergreen known today.
In 1510 a group of merchants built a pyramid-shaped wooden structure dubbed a "tree", decorated with dried flowers, fruit and vegetables, and even straw toys.
They are thought to have paraded it around their meeting hall before burning it to signify the end of the old year and the beginning of the new.
Estonians, meanwhile, insist that the world's first Christmas tree was erected in front of Tallinn town hall in 1441 as part of a winter ritual where merchants and single women danced around the tree and later set it on fire.
"The Latvians' claim that the first public Christmas tree was put up in Riga is not correct," art historian Juri Kuuskemaa wrote in Estonian largest daily Postimees this week.
Both Riga and Tallinn at the time were home to guilds of unmarried merchants, known as the Blackheads, who were traders from German statelets.
Mike Johnson, a Riga-based American who has researched the history of the Christmas tree, said the origin debate was in any case fairly academic.
"It is after all a legend, much like Santa Claus, and what right does Finland have to call itself Santa Claus's home?" he told AFP.

Christmas at the White House 2010

The White House has just released it's theme for this year's Christmas Season! The theme is "Simple Gifts". Below is a list of how each room is decorated this year. For more photos of the White House this Holiday Season, go to 

http://dc.about.com/od/christmasphotos/ss/ChristWhiteHous.htm

East Wing visitor's entrance: Magnolia and oak leaf garlands, and paper white flower blossoms; a "military appreciation tree" decorated to honor the five branches of the military; handwritten season's greetings notes collected from White House guests to be delivered to service members in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world.


East Colonnade: Eight wreaths, one in each window, made of natural materials, including oranges, pears and dried flowers.

Children's area: A small tree featuring gingerbread ornaments decorated by 300 children of military parents; a larger-than-life version of Bo, the Obama family dog, fashioned from 40,000 black and white pipe cleaners

East Room: Four large Christmas trees and hand-crafted decorations in turquoise, purple, green and gold with a bird and floral theme, and decorated with fake peacocks; wreaths hanging from the mirrors; a late 18th century Italian presepio, or creche.

Blue Room: The official White House Christmas Tree, an 18 1/2-foot Douglas fir anchored to the ceiling to keep it from tipping over, with a theme honoring county and state fairs, and decorated with prize ribbons from each state and territory. Students from the Savannah College of Art and Design helped design the ornaments using natural, locally sourced materials.

Red Room: Decor in deep plum, fuschia and red; red lacquer magnolia wreaths, used last Christmas, hanging in each window.

State Dining Room: Decorated as it might be for a holiday gathering with family and friends; garlands of fruit and foliage decorate trees, mantels and wreaths; two trees with leaves spray painted in gold and ornaments shaped like lemons and red and green pears.

Gingerbread House: A larger-than-scale replica of Bo, the Obama family dog, made of almond paste and condensed milk, according to White House pastry chef Bill Yosses. It weighs 350 pounds and is made of gingerbread covered in white chocolate. Thirty pounds of honey from the White House beehive was used to make the gingerbread. The house has cutouts to show the East Room and the State Dining Room. There is also a replica of Mrs. Obama's fruit and vegetable garden, made of almond paste.