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If you’re reading this on Christmas Day, you already know that it has shaped up to be a very spring-like holiday! Still, the vision of evergreen trees, frosted in white and glistening under twinkling lights, is hard to let go of, especially for those of us in the midwest for whom Christmas is, well, usually snow globe perfect.
A Bit of White Christmas Trivia
The Irving Berlin song “White Christmas” sums it up: “May your days be merry and white, and may all your Christmases be white.” Interestingly enough, Berlin, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, wrote the song in warm and sunny California. It was not instantly a hit. It wasn’t until after the attack on Pearl Harbor that the Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song.
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Sung in both the movie “Holiday Inn” and then “White Christmas,” the lyrics’ melancholy tone mixed with comforting images of home struck a heart chord with World War II listeners. In 1999, NPR included the song in their 100 top American songs of all time. It made number two only after “Over the Rainbow.”

Library Holiday Hours & Little Free Library
Peninsula Community Library will be closed on December 25, December 31 and January 1. Feel free to drop off books in our exterior drop box – all returns will be backdated to the date we were last open. Desperate to have something to read? Thanks to Fred Zwemer’s craftsmanship skills, we have a Little Free Library. Take one and if you have one, leave one. But feel free to take and return, as well!
Christmas Decorations Around the Library
Many many thanks to the Friends of Peninsula Community Library for funding our Christmas Tree and its decorations. Interior designer Rebecca Bercini is responsible for the glorious farmhouse style look in and out of the library. Rebecca and her husband John, a PCL Trustee, put up everything! The outdoor tree on Center Road was decorated by Lee and Candy Gardner, and yours truly decorated the tree in the Community Room. Library patron Walter Lee is responsible for all the beautiful origami trees around the library. A community made all this happen, and we are most grateful!
Have an Original Copy of “Delightful Dodd”?
In this season of gifts, we are looking for an original copy of the book “Delightful Dodd” by Elliott Flower for our historical collection. Set partially on Neahtawanta, it is a rare find, available only as a facsimile online. If you have a copy of the original that you are willing to donate, please let me know. We promise to take care of it forever!
The last scene in the film “White Christmas” is iconic. As the barn doors are opened, a beautiful snowy scene is revealed – classic Vermont, but it could also be classic northern Michigan. Not even that, however, was real snow. Film critics say that asbestos was used for the scene. It was a common procedure, along with flour or paint-drenched corn flakes, soap flakes, marble dust and gypsum. Today, with the miracles of technology, making it snow in a movie is not quite so risky!
Whether you are hoping for snow or perhaps having your holiday coffee outside, the Board and Staff of Peninsula Community Library wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and the best in the New Year!
You are a part of our PCL family. Whatever the weather brings, enjoy being with family and friends!
SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette
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