Season of Joy with Jim Benes

The Christmas of 2007

2008-03-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

2007 Tuesday, Christmas Day, 2007, dawned bright and blue with nary a cloud in the sky. The forecast called for warming temperatures, approaching 40 degrees. This was a welcome recovery from the weather of the just-passed weekend, which was miserable for travel or play. Saturday, December 22nd, was the busiest day of the holiday period at O'Hare International Airport. But a lot of people weren't going anywhere. The reason was the fog that delayed or caused the cancellation of flights.
That night, the weather got worse. Wind and rain pounded the Chicago area, downing tree limbs and power lines. Some gusts approached 70 mph. As Sunday dawned, the rain had stopped, but the winds stayed strong throughout the day.
Christmas shoppers were confronted by temperatures in the teens and windchills around zero degrees. Strong winds blew snow flurries horizontally. The winds made playing conditions excrutiatingly interesting at Soldier Field, where the Bears were hosting the Packers. Snaps were mishandled, punts were blocked, and the Bears manhandled Green Bay, 35-7, sweeping the season series and gaining some measure of satisfaction in what otherwise had been a disappointing season. Midway through the game, half the seats at Soldier Field appeared to be empty. Those were the seats in which fans would be sitting directly facing the wind. 2007's was a tough Christmas for some prominent Illinois politicians.

On the Friday before Christmas, federal prosecutors made public corruption allegations against Governor Rod Blagojevich. The governor wasn't charged with any crime--yet--but two convicted former political insiders had told prosecutors that Blagojevich had said he "could award contracts, legal work and investment banking to help with fundraising" in one instance, and "You stick with us and you will do very well for yourself" in another.

At the Cook County Board, President Todd Stroger was trying to live down another embarrassing incident. Stroger's well-paid director of media affairs, Andre Garner, had admitted to calling into a talk radio program and praising Stroger's budget proposals that would include a county sales tax increase. Garner had tried to disguise his voice, but it didn't work. It was a tough Christmas on two counts for Mayor Richard Daley. His son Patrick had just shipped out for Army duty in Afghanistan. That was just as disclosures were being made that Patrick and a cousin had been unnamed investors in a sewer inspection company that prospered with contract work from the city. The Mayor told reporters that he didn't know anything about it.

It was also a tough Christmas for Scott Skiles. On Christmas Eve, he was fired as head coach of the Bulls. The team was 9-16 and in last place in the NBA's Eastern Conference Central Division. Skiles had been the Bulls' coach the previous four seasons. On the Sunday night before Christmas, it was a tough broadcast for Channel 7's news team. During the 10 p.m. newscast, a mini-van crashed through the window of the street-level studio on State Street. Nobody was injured. Prosecutors would charge 25-year-old Gerald Richardson with felony criminal damage to property and say he did it because he wanted to be on TV. Relatives would say the Evanston man had been under a lot of emotional stress because of deaths in the family, and that his behavioral problems had gotten worse.

The high price of gasoline (around $3/gallon for unleaded regular) and the home mortgage crisis (large numbers of foreclosures and 10 straight months of declining prices for homes) made for wary shoppers and a tough Christmas for retailers. Data released by MasterCard Spending Pulse on the day after Christmas indicated holiday sales rose by a tepid 3.6% over 2006. Adjusted for gas purchases, that figure was only 2.4%. Meanwhile, an Associated Press analysis of data from the nation's largest credit card issuers found that the value of credit card accounts at least 30 days overdue was up 26% from a year earlier. The number of defaults on cards--when lenders give up hope of ever being paid--rose 18% from October, 2006, to a lost value of nearly $961 million.

It looked like it was going to be a tough Christmas for U.S. Army Sergeant Chris Williams. The 24-year-old Crown Point, Indiana, soldier had taken leave from his unit in Iraq in order to be home for the birth of his son, Gabriel. When the baby developed a lung infection and had to be put on a respirator, Williams requested an extension of his leave. At first, the Army said No. But when his company commander learned of Williams' plight, he extended the leave not once, but twice. As Christmas approached, little Gabriel was showing signs of improvement, and his Dad wouldn't have to report back to Iraq until January third.

It also looked like it was going to be a tough Christmas for Pastor Virgil Jones and his church at 79th and Maryland. During the week before Christmas, burglars stripped the church of just about everything: space heaters, a piano, and all the toys that had been collected for poor children in the neighborhood. As in similar stories in previous years, donors heard or read about the burglary and donations came pouring in. By the time Pastor Jones held a party for the children on Christmas Eve, he had five times as many toys to hand out as before the burglary. Two hundred donors had provided thousands of toys, and Pastor Jones told the Tribune "This robbery was a blessing in disguise."

Speaking of the Tribune, on the Thursday before Christmas, real estate billionaire Sam Zell closed his deal to buy the Tribune Company and take it private. "There's a new sheriff in town and the name of the game is excellence, relevance tied to revenue," Zell told a news conference in Tribune Tower. He was optimistic: "I'm sick and tired of listening to everyone talk about and commiserate over the end of newspapers. They ain't ended and they're not going to end. I think they have a great future."

A memorial service was held on the Saturday before Christmas for Rose Tani of Lombard. The 90-year-old mother of astronaut Daniel Tani had been killed three days before when her car was hit by a freight train. Dan Tani couldn't be there; he was orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station. A videotaped message from the astronaut was played at the memorial at the First Church of Lombard United Church of Christ. Dan Tani told his sister Christine that he had been comforted in space by emails from friends and family, but that he was frustrated about not being able to attend the memorial.

Under the Christmas tree, you might have found a GPS unit or--believe it or not--a turntable. The Global Positioning System industry was reporting quadruple the sales of 2006. One research company was reporting that they were outselling video game consoles and digital video cameras. At Abt Electronics, president Michael Abt was telling WBBM Newsradio that he was having trouble keeping in stock two popular models of Sony turntables. They were popular because they came equipped to allow the transfer of vinyl record collections onto CDs or I-pods.
Movies of the Season included Johnny Depp as "Sweeney Todd"; Nicolas Cage in "National Treasure Book of Secrets"; Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"; Will Smith in "I Am Legend"; the widely acclaimed "No Country for Old Men" and "The Kite Runner." Movies on TV on Christmas Eve included "It's a Wonderful Life" on NBC; the 1984 version of "A Christmas Carol" on AMC; "The Santa Clause 2" on the Disney Channel; "Polar Express" on the Family Channel; "A Christmas Story" on TBS; "The Bishop's Wife" on Turner Classic Movies; and "Casper's Haunted Christmas" on the Cartoon Channel. The Top Tunes on the Billboard Hot 100 list included: "Low," Flo Rida featuring T-Pain; "No One," Alicia Keys; "Apologize," Timbaland featuring OneRepublic; "Kiss Kiss," by Chris Brown featuring T-Pain; and "Clumsy," by Fergie.

On the Friday before Christmas, Gretchen McCarthy shared with the Chicago Tribune her memories of designing the window displays at Marshall Field's State Street store during the 1960s and 70s. She had been hired by Field's in the early 1960s, a few years after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she said Field's was one of the best places for new artists to work at the time, even though it didn't pay much: "Field's had this mystique that was unique to the store. The building was beautiful and the store had everything. I could buy my daughter her Brownie suit, pick up a bottle of aspirin at the Field's pharmacy and even eat dinner at the Walnut Room." When she became a senior designer and was assigned to the Christmas displays, she and her colleagues would be given several weeks to come up with a theme for the Christmas windows. Their decision would be made by early Spring, the rest of the year would be devoted to producing the ornaments and figures for the windows, and all of it would be kept a secret until it was time for the unveiling of the displays. Echoing the kind of newspaper advertising Field's did back then, McCarthy noted that the windows weren't about commercialism: "The Christmas windows were unique because the store didn't use them to promote their merchandise...We were always allowed to be as creative as we wanted. That's really what made the windows pure magic."

McCarthy's daughter Megan recalled for the Tribune how her Mom used to take her to see her work when she was little. She now does the same with her son, even though the store is now Macy's, not Field's anymore. Gretchen McCarthy summed up her career: "It was always Christmas at Field's," she said.

Christmas 2005

2006-08-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

2005

First of all, it seemed like it was going to be a proper, old-fashioned December in Chicago, one that promised comparisons with winters of old.

The snow came early and stayed late--and it was one of the coldest Decembers on record.

There were two big snowstorms early in the month, dropping six-to-eight inches of snow on parts of the metropolitan area. Then Chicago went into a period of sub-freezing temperatures that didn't break until just about Christmas Eve.

The result was a gray, cloudy and foggy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with a light covering of remaining snow on grassy areas. The forecast called for a high temperature of 36 degrees on Sunday, Christmas Day.

The high cost of staying warm for Christmas was on everybody's mind. Natural gas prices were up 40% over the December of 2004. Applications for low-income heating help in Cook County totaled 120,000 in December, 2005, or two-thirds as much as the total for all of 2004.

The high cost of gasoline, it appeared, would not dissuade millions of people from traveling at least 50 miles to have Christmas dinner with family. The AAA Motor Club was predicting that 63.5 million Americans would make travel part of their Christmas holiday weekend. Eighty-one percent of that group would be going by car, despite the fact that the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in Illinois was up by 26 percent from December, 2004--to a cost of $2.27/gallon.

And about that Christmas dinner.

Just when to serve it posed a dilemma for thousands of households. The first-place Bears were playing their arch rivals, the last-place Green Bay Packers, on Sunday, Christmas Day. The kickoff was scheduled for 4 p.m. Should Christmas dinner be before the game? At half-time? After it was all over? What to do? What to do?

The fresh Christmas turkey of 2005 cost $1.19/lb at Dominick's. A 64-oz carton of eggnog was $2.50. Safeway Select coffee was $5.99/lb. An 8-inch Mascarpone cheesecake was $8.99.

One of the most compelling news stories of the day was the discovery of newly-born twins on the Wednesday morning before Christmas.

A custodian at the North Austin Lutheran Church at 1500 N. Mason Avenue found a baby carrier inside the church's vestibule at about 8:15 that morning. Inside were a sleeping baby boy and a sleeping baby girl. They were taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where they were pronounced fit and given the names Joseph and Mary.

Within two days, the hospital had received close to two dozen calls from people, many of whom wanted to adopt the babies. Some of the calls came from as far away as California.

On Christmas Eve, however, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services placed the babies in a registered foster home.

Under Illinois law, mothers can leave newly-borns without penalty in certain safe havens, like hospitals and fire stations. Churches, however, were not on the list, and at Christmas police were looking for the parents.

It was just before Christmas that the parents of 6-year-old Joshua Woods finally spoke out about the accident that caused the death of their son.

The Woods family was in their car on Central Avenue at the northwest corner of Midway Airport on a snowy December 6th, when a Southwest Airlines jet crashed through the fence and crushed the car. The plane had been unable to stop after landing.

Sitting in the living room of their home in Leroy, Indiana, Lisa and Leroy Woods told the Chicago Tribune that the family was having a hard time of it, getting through Christmas without Joshua. "I'm angry towards the pilot and the tower," Mrs. Woods said. "I feel something could have ben done to prevent all this. Why weren't they redirected somewhere else?"

In Iraq, elections had been held ten days before Christmas, but sectarian violence was picking up over the Christmas weekend. On Christmas Day, bombs hit Iraqi army and police patrols and destroyed an American tank in Baghdad. Street protests continued over the results of the election.

American retailers had fewer shoppers in their stores than they had hoped for over the 2005 holiday season. Sales were forecast to improve by only three to three and a half percent.

But business was brisk for one Chicago department store that was observing its last Christmas with a name that had been synonymous with Chicago for more than 150 years.

Marshall Field & Co. had been sold to Federated Department Stores earlier in the year, and in September Federated announced that the Field stores would become Macys in September, 2006.

This didn't sit well with a lot of Chicagoans, who associated Christmas shopping with Field's State Street store and all the ambience that implies, such as lunch under the Giant Tree in the Walnut Room, the Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Holly characters, and gazing at the wonderful window displays.

As a result, there was a run on all things Field's, with shoppers jamming the store to purchase every last ornament or trinket that bore the Marshall Field name or pictured its iconic clock. Frango mints were a big-selling item, as well, even though they hadn't been made in the store since the turn of the century.

Bonnie Miller Rubin of the Chicago Tribune put it this way: "During this final December, many visitors have felt a need not just to savor nostalgia but to marinate in it."

Federated had decided on the brand name change to facilitate national advertising at its Macy's stores. The company argued that its own poll of Chicago-area shoppers indicated that most people wouldn't mind the change in name. Opponents weren't buying it. They organized a www.keepitfields.org Web site and collected thousands of names on electronic petitions.

On the Friday before Christmas, Field's was advertising last minute gift ideas, including cashmere gloves ($24.99), hat ($29.99) and scarf ($59.99); a Waterford crystal pierced star ornament ($39.99); a holiday gift basket with cookies, candy & more ($74.99); and the ubiquitous gift of the early 21st century: gift cards, any denomination from $5 to $1,000.

Some of the most-desired toys of the season were running in short supply. They included the Xbox 360, the interactive Amazing Amanda doll, the electronic I-Dog that hooked up to digital music players, and the two-way radio communicator ChatNow.

In Naperville, Rob Golden was selling copies of the "Leg Lamp" that was made famous in the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story." The lamp resembles a woman's leg in a fishnet stocking with a fringed lampshade atop it that looks like the bottom of a skirt. In the movie it was a "major award" given to the father of the family.

Golden told the Tribune that he'd been making and selling versions of the lamp for three years. Smaller versions cost $69.99, and large 50-inch versions cost $339.99. For that extra effect, the lamp could be shipped in a wooden crate filled with wood shavings for an extra $149.

The hope of Mayor Richard M. Daley was that his legacy to Chicago would be the 2016 Olympic Games. Just before Christmas, 2005, the Chicago Tribune was reporting that it had learned that the Mayor had privately floated the idea of bringing a second National Football League team to Chicago, one for whom an Olympic-sized stadium could be built. Observers considered it a longshot because of the high cost of such a venture, both in building a stadium and in compensating the Chicago Bears for an encroachment on their territory.

"This sounds like the ultimate trial balloon that turns into a lead zeppelin," Sports Business Journal editor-at-large Terry Lefton told the Tribune.

Movies of the season included Steven Spielberg's "Munich;" "Rumor Has It" starring Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine and Mark Ruffalo; "The Chronicles of Narnia;" "Casanova," "The White Countess;" "Breakfast on Pluto;" and Steve Martin in "Cheaper by the Dozen 2."

On Christmas Day there came word that the actress who played the worried wife of Mr. Martini in the Frank Capra classic film "It's a Wonderful Life" had died in Rome. Argentina Brunetti was 98.

On stage, the Broadway musical "Wicked" was early into its long run at the Oriental Theatre. "Little Women" was playing at the Cadillac Palace. And, as usual, Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was wrapping up its annual run at the Goodman.

The political polarization of the United States in 2005 was also being played out in an argument over the proper Christmas greeting.

Some conservatives were taking offense at the secular greeting "Happy Holidays." Talk show personalities made an issue of it, arguing that secularists were trying to take the meaning out of Christmas. Some groups even organized boycotts of retailers whose ads said anything other than "Merry Christmas."

Others argued that "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" had been around for more than 100 years, and that it was all a ploy to divert attention away from some of the other issues that were plaguing Republicans.

Most Americans seemed to be in the middle, however, thinking that the entire argument seemed rather ridiculous.

For years, one of the controversies in America's suburbias has been the replacement of perfectly adequate homes with what are dubbed by some as "McMansions," oversized domiciles that dwarf their neighbors and fill up nearly every square foot of available lot space.

One result of this trend was noted in December, 2005: the sale of giant Christmas trees to go into the great, high-ceiled living rooms of these mansions had steadily been on the rise. Marshall Stacy, the owner of the Pinetum farm in Maryland, told the Washington Post that sales of trees taller than 10 feet had been increasing three to five percent a year for the past ten years.

Such giant trees were selling from $100 to $1,000--and they also required new, giant tree stands, and in some cases, oversized ornaments.

Some Christmas facts from various government agencies:

--1.9 billion, the number of Christmas cards sent to friends and loved ones every year;

--20.8 million, Christmas trees that were cut in the nation in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available;

--$561 million, the value of Christmas tree ornaments imported to the US from China between January and August, 2005.

(no subject)

2005-12-11T04:36:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like the Christmas of 2005 will be a White Christmas. All this snow! I know the Retailers association thinks that a little bit of snow will put Christmas shoppers in the right frame of mind, but I'd rather just walk down the street with my wife and enjoy Walking in a Winter Wonderland, as we did last night.

I would like to thank everyone who has purchased a copy of Season of Joy; Chicago Celebrates the Holidays. A lot of people have told me how the book evokes personal memories. Just today I got an email from a woman who remembers the snowy Christmas of 1951 for the snow--and also because it was the first time in her life that she ever tasted pizza!

Thanks to Chuck Schaden for having me on "Those Were the Days" on November 26th--and thanks to Bob Letterman for calling in a correction. I'll go to work on it.

Next appearance: a booksigning at "Christmas Around the World and Holiday of Lights" at the Museum of Science & Industry on December 17th, 1-3pm.

Welcome to my blog

2005-12-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Testing one---two--three. Hey welcome to my blog. This should be a great way to connect with readers and add thoughts about my book. Please comment and respond to Season of Joy: Chicago Celebrates the Holidays.