Quite a bit of news today!  First of all, through private negotiations Jesus has struck a deal with the executives of Macy's Department Store, in New York, and has withdrawn the curse against them and their family members that He put on them because of the transvestite marching in the Thanksgiving Day Parade dressed as Mrs. Clause.  I have no idea what they have agreed to.  Jesus has not advised me.  But anyway, the curse is gone.  It has already served its purpose, however, and helped spread the pestilence The Kingdom Of God prepared for this year.  So, in reality, has performed its function.
Found an interesting article on Yahoo about schools in Virginia named after confederate generals and Jefferson Davis, and that the local people want to rename the schools because they say it is inappropriate for schools to be named after people that fought for slavery.  Several schools in the south are named after Robert E. Lee.  So I sent my Worker to contact him, and to get his comments.  As Lee is often spokesman for all southerners who fought for the confederacy in The Afterlife this is the response he gave my Worker.
"My gracious thanks for this opportunity to speak on this subject!  I am in total agreement with those who want to change the name of any school named after me.  And I will inform you that Jefferson Davis, and, Stonewall Jackson also wish any school named after Them to be renamed.  We thought ourselves men of honor, fighting for the rights of our states.  Because those in my general vicinity treated their slaves well, I considered all slaves were treated well.  I closed my eyes to the evils of slavery, much as many in America now close their eyes to the evil of homosexuality.  I shook off reports of slavery's horrors as northern propaganda, lies told about confederate gentlemen.  I led men in an unjust and unholy war, and caused the deaths of thousands.  I cannot understand why, but soldiers on both sides of the battle forgave me.  But I cannot forgive myself.
 It is the tradition of The Children Of The Lords, The Spiritists, to remove names of evil from Their history books, to record the facts of what happened but not to mention the names of men that did evil.  I will be very glad when their history books are written and my name is struck from the memory of man.  I would appreciate it, also, that they remove my body from my grave, cremate it, and spread my ashes to the wind so that there will be no place for misguided and ignorant men to go and worship me, and praise that that I did.
I would also much appreciate it that the name of Washington Lee University be returned to merely Washington University.  Whatever good I did after The Civil War could do nothing to erase the shame of what I did during the war!  Good men can often do very bad things.  And my leading of The Confederate Army and causing so much slaughter in the name of the right for men to own other men, is the greatest shame that any man could do!  The greatest peace I can have is when my name is a forgotten memory.  I thank you for this opportunity to speak!"
That ends The General's comments.  My Worker circulated them to the rest of the people that served the confederacy and asked if they wanted to add any comments.  Their answer was "No.  The General has spoken quite well!"

 We have mentioned the comparable holidays on The Old Worlds to Thanksgiving.  How about Christmas?  Was there any holiday on The Old Worlds to compare to this Earthly holiday?
The answer is, strangely, no!  There was no holiday on any of The Old Worlds that could even be slightly compared to Christmas!
Among The Havens friendship was very rare, and the giving of gifts thought very strange.  Many would even look down on someone for giving them a gift because they would feel this individual was saying they were inferior and could not fend for themselves, and had to have his assistance.  A very strange idea to humans, but very prevalent in The Haven culture.  So the giving of gifts was quite uncommon to Them.
The Hashons were a kind and generous people and often gave gifts to people They admired on Their birthdays, and were very generous to heroes, either military heroes, or even civilians that did some heroic act would be showered with gifts and often remembered by those he or she had helped when their birthday came.  But no Christmas-like holiday with the general exchanging of gifts existed among The Hashons, either.
The Peepians, too, were very generous to heroes, took very good care of Their military veterans, police, and fire fighters, and They, too, had a tradition of giving gifts on a person's birthday to show Their appreciation for their service.  But They, neither, had any kind of holiday to compare with Christmas.
Out of curiosity I asked this question of our alien friends, also, and I found that only about a third of them had any kind of holiday that compared, at all, to Christmas.  The general exchange of gifts for no particular reason, does not seem to be an idea that is shared by a great many in The Galactic Community.  Christmas seems to be a holiday special to Earth.