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Despite the pandemic, Charleston, South Carolina, is donning its Christmas finery to celebrate the season. Heirloom recipes, treasured traditions and glorious music mark the holiday.

One of the best ways to discover a city is by taking a guided tour. And Charleston is no exception. Numerous high quality tours are available to help capture the holiday spirit.

Get a glimpse of seasonal decorations on the two-hour Charleston Strolls Holiday Walking Tour of the historic district. The route moves along side streets and hidden alleys where carriages and buses are not allowed. Given Charlestons mild wintertime climate, this is an ideal way to see historic courtyards and well-tended gardens.

Most of the congenial, experienced guides are longtime residents. They share their knowledge of fascinating stories and traditions passed down from the citys earliest families. Tour groups stop by the Four Corners of Law, where government buildings come together at the intersection of Broad and Meeting streets. The group then strolls along The Battery overlooking the harbor and through exclusive neighborhoods.

Organized tours offer a chance to see some of the citys renowned antebellum museum mansions adorned with garlands of greenery. The 1825 Edmondston Alston House is decorated in Christmas splendor and has some of the familys original pieces.

The Charleston Tea Party Private Tour is for the discerning visitor who wants to experience Charleston as a guest, not a tourist. Owners Laura Wichmann Hipp and June McKnight are natives who love and know their city. They take visitors to friends private homes and gardens.

This is the ultimate insider experience and a rare opportunity to see the real Charleston. The two-hour walking tour ends with a genteel silver tea service including Lauras homemade calamondin marmalade.

The Holiday Festival of Lights at James Island County Park is an annual favorite through Dec. 31. Two million lights shimmer in a display of charm and wonder. This year the event is a drive-through tour. The park has restrooms, and concession food can be brought to the cars.

Narrated carriage rides through the city are a festive and fun way to enjoy the holiday and learn about Charlestons 300 years of history. Certified guides cover 2.5 miles and 30 blocks of the historic district, pointing out the stories behind the mansions, churches and gardens with historical facts, lore and humor.

Charleston is a repository of art and culture. With a premier collection of more than 10,000 American works, the Gibbes Museum of Art promotes and protects the citys rich cultural heritage. Permanent exhibits feature local artisans portraying the Lowcountrys water themes, as well as the Charleston Renaissance from 1915 to 1945, when the city became a destination for artists. It still is.

Most hotels have Christmas packages. Hotel Emeline has a special holiday spirit package, including welcome cocktails and a $50 credit to the Keep Shop. Emeline, the citys newest luxury boutique hotel, offers holiday meals at Frannie and The Fox restaurant and signature cocktails at a socially distanced window in the Foxhole. The hotel has a spacious courtyard.

Charlestons culinary scene pulls out all the stops for the holidays. Sugar Bakeshop has a holiday menu featuring red velvet cake, a Southern specialty, gingerbread house kits and cookie gift tins.

As an alternative to holiday treats and local seafood, Stellas Greek restaurant is an all-time favorite here. The vibe is lively and friendly, and there is always a line waiting to get in. As I am half Greek, I favored the spanakopita and lamb frites. Menu items are under $20.

A mask ordinance is in place in Charleston and across the region effective in public places and in most restaurants. For more information contact explorecharleston.com or 843-853-8000.

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A Carolina Christmas: Charleston dressed in its best for the holidays - HollandSentinel.com

A Christmas throwback from 2015:

Merry Christmas and I mean it. I like saying it. Something about it makes me feel good and I suspect that's true for a lot of people.

Saying Merry Christmas is not a political issue. It is a simple wish for peace or joy or happiness, if only for a season or just one day.

If you find it offensive, you need to grow up.

Whether you're a Jew, Muslim,Shaolin monkor an atheist,you should accept those good wishes like you would any other. Consider it a once-a-year elevation of the mundane, Have a nice day.

Wishing someone Merry Christmas isn't like proselytizing. No one's trying to foist their religious beliefs on you. It's not about religion at all.

Santa Claus has nothing to do with anyone's faith. He's just a guy in in a cool outfit who comes down your chimney to give you presents. You don't even have to lose any teeth to summon him.

There's no litmus test for being merry. You don't have to believe in Jesus or God or anything to enjoy the spirit of Christmas. Even terrorists can get into it.

All you have do, Achmed, is chill out for a day. You can always blow yourself to kingdom come after New Years.

Earth can be an unwelcoming place, so a day when people wish each other well should be cherished. Merry Christmas is both simple and exquisite.

We wish each other a happy 4th of July without considering the social impact of the Boston Tea Party. Most people don't know the significance of Labor or Memorial Days, but they still tell you to have a good one.

Even people who hate the Irish wish each other a happy St. Patrick's Day. Most of us will never even know the joy of puking onRush Street.

Growing up Jewish, we always searched out friends who celebrated Christmas, just so we could horn in on their festivities.

Still have fond memories of Christmas Eve with the Chelemengos clan.

Even as an atheist, I take comfort in those magical words. Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be likeif we all worked a tad harderto spread a little joy.

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Merry Christmas to you, whether you like it or not - ChicagoNow

In the wake of a popular vote and Electoral College victory for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, some Republicans are not done fighting for President Donald Trump.

Despite warnings from Senate GOP leadership, several House Republicans are reportedly plotting to overturn the Electoral College results when a joint session of Congress convenes Jan. 6, 2021, to ratify those results.

And the differences among GOP members arent just in Congress. The decision to accept the election results and focus on the future of the party sans Trump has also divided state party officials and elected GOP officials.

But fighting for Trumps unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged wont stop the inevitable: President-elect Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 as the 46th President of the United States. And Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will make history as the first woman to hold the nations second-highest executive office.

On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson held an oversight hearing to examine the irregularities in the 2020 election. The Wisconsin senator and longtime ally of Trump said the hearing before the the Homeland Security and Government Affair Committee, which he chairs, will go ahead even though he acknowledged that the election results were legitimate.

I havent seen anything that would convince me that the results the overall national result would be overturned, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Johnsons evolution from ideologically driven standard-bearer of the tea party to one of Trumps most stalwart defenders mirrors the arc of his party over the past decade, The Washington Post reported. With Johnsons term expiring in 2022, Wednesdays hearing could be both the last stand of Trumps most fervent Senate follower and the first act of a post-Trump Republican Party,

The hearing comes the day after Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated incoming President-elect Biden on his Electoral College victory, and later joined party leaders in warning Senate colleagues to stop contesting the election.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, Trump retweeted a post that attacked McConnell who won his seventh term last month as NOT a Patriot and said that it was too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!

On Jan. 6, in a joint session of Congress, lawmakers will ratify this weeks Electoral College and declare Biden and Harris the victors.

The New York Times reported that Trump loyalists in the House are plotting to challenge the election results in swing states Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin on the House floor during the joint session.

There is almost no chance they will succeed. But if they could persuade at least one senator to join them, they could force a vote on the matter, transforming a typically perfunctory session into a bitter last stand for Mr. Trump, The Time reported. Under rules laid out in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, their challenges must be submitted in writing with a senators signature also affixed.

As of Wednesday, no senators had agreed to join the small group of House Republicans, according to the Times, appearing to stand fast with McConnell.

A spokesman for Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee told The Hill the senator has no plan to support the efforts of House Republicans. Lee has been a loyal supporter of the president and campaigned for Trump earlier this year.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as recently as Tuesday afternoon, had not acknowledged that Republicans lost the presidential election, CNN reporter Many Raju tweeted.

The election causing divisions within the GOP were further detailed in a story from conservative digital media publication The Dispatch on Wednesday. The story titled Begun, the GOP Civil War Has shows how state GOP officials have attacked the high ranking state Republicans for distancing themselves from the one-term presidents ongoing fight against official election results.

Pundits promised a GOP civil war if Donald Trump lost his reelection bid. Its here, with ones degree of loyalty to the outgoing president serving as the line of demarcation, The Dispatchs Declan Garvey wrote. Degree is the operative word here, because both sides of this post-election conflict are and have been incredibly loyal to the president.

For example, The Dispatch cited GOP turmoil in Arizona and George where party leadership has attacked Republican public officials for appearing to stand against Trumps unfounded claims of election fraud regardless of their former devotion to the president.

How is it that the governor of Arizona (Republican Doug Ducey) could surrender to the mob and abandon our great President, all while working behind the scenes to undermine and get rid of our brave and beloved chairwoman (Kelli Ward)? No loyalty!, the Arizona Republican Party tweeted last week.

Earlier this month, Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer announced that the Republican National Committee would join together in suing the states top election official, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

David Shafer and the Georgia GOP need to stop passing the buck for failing to deliver Georgia for Trump and actually focus on getting out the vote in January, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said in response to the lawsuit, reported WTVM, in Columbus, Georgia.

In Utah, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and Gov.-elect Spencer Cox condemned Republican Attorney General Sean Reyes decision last week for joining a Texas a lawsuit challenging election results in Pennsylvania and other states that Trump lost.

The Supreme Court, which includes three conservative judges appointed by Trump, rejected the lawsuit on Friday.

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Some Republicans arent done fighting the election and among themselves - Deseret News

Tom Petty's video for "Don't Come Around Here No More" cast him as the Mad Hatter from Alice In Wonderland, and it gave MTV viewers nightmares.

The music video for Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" featured the late, great singer as Alice In Wonderland's Mad Hatter, and it scarred a whole generation of MTV viewers. Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland is one of the most popular fantasy novels ever written and follows the titular heroine as she falls through a rabbit hole and emerges into a world populated by all kinds of bizarre creatures. Since it was first published in 1865, Carroll's seminal work has been adapted into just about every medium.

While it received mixed reviews, Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland -which cast Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter - was an enormous financial success. The book also received a cult video game in the form of American McGee's Alice, Rose Reynolds played the character in the final season of Once Upon A Time, and even the original Resident Evil movie is a loose adaptation of the novel. Milla Jovovich's character is named Alice who awakens in a bizarre, underground facility and faces off with an A.I. dubbed the "Red Queen," who likes to decapitate victims.

Related: Alice: Madness Returns - Hysteria Mode Explained (& How To Use It)

If an Alice In Wonderland soundtrack existed, it would be filled with the many, many songs it has inspired, including Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles. "Don't Come Around Here No More" is one of Tom Petty's most famous videos, and while the song itself wasn't penned with Alice In Wonderland in mind, the video is a major ode to Carroll's work. The song itself was featured on Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers album Southern Accents, and the title came from an argument producer Dave Stewart witnessed between Stevie Nicks and an ex, with Nicks uttering the phrase.

The Tom Petty Alice In Wonderland video was a staple on MTV back in the day and it gives off a distinctly trippy tone. Actress Wish Foley plays Alice, who sits across from the Tom Petty Mad Hatter at a recreation of the Mad Tea Party passage from the book. She drinks from a cup of tea - which is prone to changing sizes - as Petty's Hatter leers at the camera. The hallucinations come thick and fast around the midway point, with scenes such as Alice trapped in a cup of tea as giant lumps of sugar are thrown in the cup, or seeing an image of herself turning into a pig.

"Don't Come Around Here No More's" Alice In Wonderland homage ends with the fairly unsettling image of Alice being turned into a giant cake. Tom Petty's Mad Hatter and his guests then proceed to eat her alive, with the final image being Petty swallowing Alice and burping. While it's fairly tongue-in-cheek and tame by modern standards, the sight of Alice being turned into a living cake scarred some viewers back in 1985 and is said to be partly responsible for Tipper Gore co-founding the Parents Music Resource Center. In a retrospective interview with Yahoo! the video's director Jeff Stein laughs about the video even being accused of promoting cannibalism with the sequence.

Next: Alice In Wonderland 2 Easter Egg Revealed The Fate Of Crispin Glover's Villain

Why The Mandalorian Let Baby Yoda Touch His Face

Its pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now thats out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if hed like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site. A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU - where Hawkeye is clearly the best character - to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle. He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

Continued here:
Tom Petty's Mad Hatter Music Video Scarred The MTV Generation - Screen Rant

Daisy Troop 15099 members gathered for a photo before leaving the holiday tea Monday evening. Back row, from left are Sophia, Bella and Willa. Seated on the floor are Cheyenne and Isabella. Toni Milbourne

SHEPHERDSTOWN As many things have gone virtual this year, the Shepherdstown Community Club holiday tea was no exception. The tea did, however, take an in-person turn when members of Daisy Troop 15099 held their awards ceremony and joined the tea in-person Monday evening.

The five members of the troop, along with their moms and one grandmother, arrived in fine array for the tea that was then livestreamed to club members who joined in from their homes.

We had 17 baskets picked up by club members that included everything that the tea offers tonight, said SCC President Jen Wabnitz.

Each Daisy and her guest, seated at separate tables, enjoyed the fare together from cucumber sandwiches to croissants and tasty holiday shortbreads and other cookies.

SCC member Steve Campbell and his daughter, Kyleigh, arrived to handle the video feed just as surprise guest, Mrs. Claus, arrived to share stories with the girls and the audience at home. Mrs. Claus, who normally reads The Night Before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the towns tree lighting ceremony, explained she was unable to do so in-person this year, and shared how happy she was to be able to read for the tea attendees.

Santa sent candy canes to each of you, Mrs. Claus said as she handed out the sweets. He also said to make sure you are wearing your masks, socially distancing and washing your hands. You know hes still watching!

The girls took the opportunity to ask Mrs. Claus some pointed questions, including whether Santa Claus wears his mask, as well as how he watches everyone from the North Pole.

He definitely wears his mask, Mrs. Claus said. And, he is magic. He knows lots of tricks, that guy.

You know he comes down the fireplace and if you dont have a fireplace, he has a magic key, she said.

The group also had a lively conversation about all of the adventures their Elves on the Shelves have had this season.

In addition to enjoying the tea and their visit with Mrs. Claus, the five members of the Daisy Troop received the badges and petals they have earned up to this point at the event. Troop leader Angelina Gray recognized each girl and their accomplishments.

We celebrate today what we have done in the last few months, Gray told the girls.

Members of the troop earned their Respect Myself and Others petal, Responsible for What I Say and Do petal and their Counting Up leaf. In addition, they received badges that included Celebrating Yoga, Virtual Campout, Fill a Stocking, Thanksgiving Parade and a Tea Party patch. The girls also received their Investiture badge.

According to Gray, the girls will now focus on cookie sales.

The goal is for each girl to sell 125 boxes. The overall troop goal is to sell enough to raise funds to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore, she said, mentioning the girls had voted on that activity as an overall goal.

Those interested in purchasing Girl Scout cookies and helping the troop meet their goals are encouraged to contact Gray at gstroop15099@gmail.com.

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Tea time: Shepherdstown Community Club and Daisy Troop join together for holiday celebration - Shepherdstown Chronicle