On The Fly

In this episode - Santa’s Address . . . Christmas gift-giving may be over for this year, and Santa has retired for his long winter’s nap, but the spirit of the Holiday lingers far into the New Year. So, next year as your children (or you) prepare your wish list for Santa, be sure to address your letter as follows, but first, a little history. Did you know children have been sending letters to Santa for longer than the United States Postal Service (USPS) has existed to deliver them? Though today, they’re far more likely to get a response if you include the correct address. In early America, children’s holiday wish lists were often written out and left by the fireplace or burned in hearths, with the belief that the ashes would rise through the chimney and out to the holiday helper himself. Today, there’s no fireplace necessary — just a stamp — since the United States Postal Service gave Santa Claus his address: 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888. After the creation of the Postal Service in ...

In this episode - Tracking Santa . . . This Christmas Eve, people worldwide will download the NORAD Tracks Santa Claus app from iTunes or Google Play to follow his progress through U.S. military radar. This all started in 1955, with a misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper and a call to Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup’s secret hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD. The story has it a young boy dialed the unlisted phone number of the Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, believing he was calling Santa Claus after dialing a number from a promotional Sears ad in a local newspaper. The commander on duty that night, Colonel Shoup, quickly realized the mistake and assured the youngster that Air Command would guarantee Santa a safe journey from the North Pole. “So asked him, “Have you been a good boy and, ‘May I talk to your mother?’ The mother got on and said, ‘Have you seen the paper yet? There’s a phone number to call Santa. It’s ...

In this episode - Christmas 2014 . . . Has it been eight years already? With Christmas quickly approaching, I’m reminded that 2014 was about re-inventing myself; I’d asked Santa for a new electric guitar, and I began dreaming. Why a guitar? Allow me to set the stage for you. Bradley University, Saturday night, 1977, Peoria, Illinois, the rock band Boston had just released their first album the previous year titled “Boston.” I wore that album out, playing it repeatedly. When Boston played on stage that night, it was magic. We were there! I fell in love with the idea of playing guitar. “It’s more than a feeling; when I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling), I begin dreaming.” Why wait? I thought, do something! Everything I’d read kept encouraging me; dare to dream, re-invent yourself go back to what you loved as a child. It’s never too late to learn something new. So, I did. Every morning I began practicing on my old acoustic guitar. At first basic chords, man, was t...

In this episode - Frosty the Snowman . . . Frosty the Snowman is a 1969 American animated Christmas television (TV) special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. It’s the first television special featuring the character Frosty the Snowman. The program aired on December 7, 1969, on the CBS network in the United States, broadcast immediately after the fourth showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Frosty the Snowman has been televised annually for the CBS network’s holiday season ever since. Based on the Walter E. Rollins and Steve Nelson tune of the same name, the TV special featured the voices of comedians Jimmy Durante as the film’s narrator, Billy De Wolfe as Professor Hinkle, and Jackie Vernon as Frosty. Durante was one of the first  to record the original song released in 1950 (though, at the time, the song had slightly different lyrics); he re-recorded the music for the TV special.  TV Guide  ranked the special number nine on its 10 Best Family Holiday Specials list. ...

In this episode - Keeping Christmas . . .  by Henry Van Dyke, read by Lori Ball Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr. was an American author, educator, and clergyman born November 10,1852, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Educated at Princeton, Van Dyke graduated from its theological seminary in 1877 and became a Presbyterian minister. His early works, “The Story of the Other Wise Man” (1896) and “The First Christmas Tree” (1897), were first read aloud to his congregation in New York as sermons. These quickly brought him recognition. Other stories and poems were gathered regularly during his career into several printed works. From our house to yours, may the Spirit of the Holidays be with you throughout the New Year. I’m Patrick Ball; thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.