Christmas Story

The unfettered hucksterism of the Christmas season leaves many people wondering whether it's less about the birth of the Christian messiah than it is about shopping, Bob Hope TV specials, overeating and cheesy mail-order albums of yuletide tunes performed by Steve and Eydie.Still, not all Christmas commercialism is humbug. As an arrangement between a church and a garden center in Clarksville shows, it can do some good and even under score the seasonal theme of caring.For the opening chapter of this Christmas story, go back to last Oct. 17, when a fire damaged the sanctuary and other sections of the Linden-Linthicum United Methodist Church on Clarksville Pike.

There is a most magical hour every Christmas season, and it is not the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, when the darkened church glows with candles in anticipation of a child's birth. It is not dawn on Christmas morning, when excited children wake their parents so they can see what Santa has left under the tree. And it is not that moment on Christmas night, as in "A Christmas Story," when parents tuck the exhausted children into bed and then sip a quiet glass of wine by a dying fire.

As a 2004 Olympian and national sailing champion, Carol Cronin knows a thing or two about wind. The Bethesda native was named for the Category 3 storm that rearranged part of the East Coast landscape from North Carolina to Maine in 1954. But that's not how she came to write her first book, Oliver's Surprise, about a young boy and the Great Hurricane of 1938. The story was a Christmas gift last year for her 11-year-old nephew that downsized to become a paperback. More about that later.

The Associated Press has dispatched its annual story on the current cost of giving the gifts enumerated in "The Twelve Days of Christmas. " It is, you well know, among the holiday cliches to be deplored . The economic information, meretricious as it is, is generated each year by PNC Wealth Management, which thus gets mentioned prominently. But even more than a free ad for a bank, the story is in its own category a kind of Platonic ideal in American journalism: a light holiday feature that is guaranteed to arrive and which requires absolutely no imagination or initiative.

A long line of cars inched slowly along the perimeter of Wesley Freedom United Methodist Church on Sunday evening.Engines idled but no tempers frayed. No one blared horns or hurled epithets.Everyone waited patiently, some as long as 30 minutes, for a view of the Nativity scenes, performed by the Youth Group at the Eldersburg church.The teen-agers quoted Scripture and played the Christmas story for about 200 cars, many full of children marveling at the sights.For this one occasion, the youngest children could ride on the driver's lap, as a parent added a further word of explanation.

It's a wonderful leg. On mild-mannered Cottonwood Drive in Severna Park, Raymond Murphy's "leg lamp" shows off its fishnet stocking and black stiletto heel in the front window of his home. Shaded by black fringe, the thigh is lit for almost all to admire. "I can't tell you what my wife called me," Murphy says. But it was said in love - just not love for the leg lamp, which has become a highly personal gift for fans of A Christmas Story. The 1983 holiday cult classic again airs for 24 hours on TBS beginning at 8 p.m. Christmas Eve. Although It's a Wonderful Life and A Charlie Brown Christmas probably get more attention this time of year, A Christmas Story has cultivated its own following.

Phillips Brooks, Rector of Trinity Church in Boston in the late 19th century, captured the awe and majesty of the Christmas story in his hymn "O Little Town of Bethlehem" with the lines "yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting Light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." What a difficult time of year this is. The "dark streets" seem to be winning, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and murder still have a hold on our city, and gentle carols of love and good will are stomped to death through overexposure in supermarkets and stores.

ROBERT CLARK, 67 `Christmas Story' director Film director Robert Clark, best known for the beloved holiday classic A Christmas Story, was killed with his son in a car wreck Wednesday in Pacific Palisades, Calif., the filmmaker's assistant and police said. Mr. Clark specialized in horror movies and thrillers early in his career, directing such 1970s films as Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. His breakout success came with 1981's sex farce Porky's. In 1983, A Christmas Story marked a career high for Mr. Clark.

In a scene from the 1983 film A Christmas Story, little Ralphie Parker watches as his father opens a box marked "Fragile" to reveal a lamp in the shape of a go-go dancer's leg. "Fragilay," says Mr. Parker. "It must be Italian." On TV The 2007 World Series of Pop Culture airs on VH1 at 9 tonight.

I HAVE TO CONFESS, IT WAS my daughter who introduced me to A Christmas Story, the movie about Ralphie Parker's quest for the BB gun even Santa thinks is a bad idea: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." She asked for a copy several Christmases ago and, for a while, I thought she had had a conversion experience and was asking for a dramatization of the Nativity. My feelings were kind of hurt. I'd prided myself in my comprehensive management of the cultural literacy in the house - we had covered the classics from Sleeping Beauty to West Side Story - and here was a phenomenon that had gotten right by me. Now, thanks to TBS' annual 24-hour Christmas Story marathon that has begun each Christmas Eve for more than a decade, the movie is as much a fixture of our holiday as the ham after Mass and my husband's late-night gift-wrapping frenzy.

For Bryan Voltaggio, this holiday season is about beginnings. His latest restaurant venture - and the first outside Frederick - is slated to open. It will be his family's first Christmas in their new Urbana home. And with a son age 5 and a daughter who's not quite 2, that tender age when he's pretty sure Christmas memories start to truly cement, the chef and father is determined to do it right. No surprise, he'll be making most of it happen in the kitchen - Santa's workshop with cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel and peppermint.

"Women are not dying because of disease we cannot treat; they are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving. " — Dr. Mahmoud Fathalla, author of the "World Report on Women's Health" A young woman, large with child, took a long journey with her husband; during the trip she went into labor and delivered her baby in a barn. There was no room at the inn, nowhere else for her to go. After delivery, she made a bed for the baby out of a feeding trough.

Reminiscing about favorite holiday shows in and around Annapolis seems a pleasant diversion as the new year begins. Although my celebration with my husband began with the Annapolis Chorale's "Celebration of Christmas" concert and then "The Nutcracker," I'll concentrate on three other events: Standing O's "A Christmas Story," the Annapolis Chorale's "Messiah" at St. Anne's Church and "Stef and Sue's Christmas Show" at the Powerhouse. Standing O's humorous presentation of "A Christmas Story" — a favorite spanning generations that I had somehow entirely missed until now — is based on the Indiana boyhood reminiscences of radio personality Jean Shepherd.

Preparing for Christmas Sunday School students at Galilee Lutheran Church will help worshipers prepare Christmas through presentations in words and music at the 10:45 a.m. service on Sunday, Dec. 12, at the church, 4652 Mountain Road, Pasadena. Refreshments will be served in the Fellowship Hall after the service. Information: 410-255-8236 or galileelutheranchurch.org. Christmas programs The Chesapeake Christian Center, 206 Weston Woods in Pasadena, is sponsoring these free holiday programs: •"The Splendor of Christmas": Broadway-style musical tells the Christmas story through dance, drama and song at 10 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 12. •"Candy Cane Lane": Dove Award-winning musical teaches God alone can satisfy his children.

IMAX AT THE MARYLAND SCIENCE CENTER: The Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St., is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and two IMAX films will be screened. To get ready for the big day, "A Christmas Carol: 3D" is at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. For the more artistically inclined, "Van Gogh: Brush With Genius" is at 1 p.m. There are also showtimes for both films on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $10 to $12. Go to mdsci.org. POP-UPS AT HARBOR EAST: If you're the kind of person who gets a kick out of waiting until the last possible moment to buy your gifts, several temporary boutiques have set up shop on the first floor of the Legg Mason Tower at President Street Circle.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY: The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St., might be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but there's still plenty of time to reflect on the meaning of the holiday. "The Christmas Story: Picturing the Birth of Christ in Medieval Manuscripts" includes medieval illustrations based on the events of the Christmas story as recounted in the New Testament. This exhibit runs through Feb. 28. Admission is free. Call 410-547-9000 or go to thewalters.org. DANIELIA COTTON: This rock-and-roller influenced by the likes of Tina Turner, AC/DC and Joe Cocker comes to Rams Head on Stage, 33 West St. in Annapolis, at 8 p.m. Kat Parsons also performs.

TO: All PersonnelFrom: PC HQRe: The HolidaysIt has come to our attention that certain activities have been undertaken throughout the organization to celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday. Please be advised that such ''celebrations'' may well violate the holiday-observance standards recently issued by our Department of Appropriateness. (See, e.g., 11/93 memorandum, ''Who(m) Are You Calling a Turkey?'')Accordingly, we are issuing these further guidelines for Christmas observances. We expect all personnel to study them carefully, and to incorporate their recommendations into all remaining holiday behavior.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY: The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St., might be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but there's still plenty of time to reflect on the meaning of the holiday. "The Christmas Story: Picturing the Birth of Christ in Medieval Manuscripts" includes medieval illustrations based on the events of the Christmas story as recounted in the New Testament. This exhibit runs through Feb. 28. Admission is free. Call 410-547-9000 or go to thewalters.org. DANIELIA COTTON: This rock-and-roller influenced by the likes of Tina Turner, AC/DC and Joe Cocker comes to Rams Head on Stage, 33 West St. in Annapolis, at 8 p.m. Kat Parsons also performs.

1 Hawaiian punchless: It's mediocrity at its finest, as Hawaii (7-6) hosts Notre Dame (6-6) in the Hawaii Bowl (8 p.m., ESPN). The Irish are looking to end a nine-game bowl skid. 2 Getting ready: for Jags: Learn about the Ravens' preparations for Sunday's crucial game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Ravens Report (7 p.m., MASN). 3 It's in the hole!: It's not exactly It's a Wonderful Life, but Caddyshack is worthwhile viewing anytime, even on Christmas Eve (7 p.m., Versus). 4 It's better to give: Take the money you were saving for that Mark Teixeira Orioles jersey and buy the wife something nice for Christmas.