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A large part of the Christmas season involves songs, gathering with friends and loved ones and food. A local church, El Buen Pastor, has managed to combine all three for the past decade.

In the late 1990s Debbie Arrieta decided to gather the church’s older youth and organize Christmas tiffany jewelry caroling activities. The idea began to gain popularity.

“From there it kind of grew into even the primary-age students wanted to come and sing with us. And then even adults that wanted us to go to there homes wanted to tag along.”

The caroling takes place a few days before Christmas. About 15 church members hop in their cars and go to friends’, relatives’ and other members’ homes to sing. By the end of the evening its not unusual for the caroling group that was less than 20 people to have grown to more than 40 as people being sung to decide to go sing to others.

Andrew Arrieta started caroling with the group when he was 11 years old. He said he’s never tired of the annual activity.

“It’s being together that’s a lot of fun. The cars are all packed with people, you’re blasting Christmas music and you’re trying to be the first one to get to the door,” Andrew Arrieta said.

Some of the older carolers enjoy watching the children participate as much as they do singing themselves silver pendants.

“I really love to see the kids, especially our little kids. Watching them as they’re growing every year, they look forward to it and they have so much fun,” church member Irma Dominguez said. “I think it’s mutual, because we have fun being together first and laughing and joking and singing.”

The children jockey for position to determine who rings the doorbell at each house. But the caroling does not start until everyone has arrived, which can be tricky with a caravan of people trying to follow homemade maps guiding them around the city.

The song list remains the same from year-to-year. There’s about 15 tunes that include many of the classics — “Silent Night,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Jingle Bells,” and others. Alicia Mondragon said her favorite is “Joy to the World” because it captures the true meaning of Christmas, the arrival of Christ.

Each home — there’s about 15 visited each year — is treated to one song. Usually, which song is performed is decided only minutes before the doorbell is rung.

The carolers will go to homes of non-church members upon request. Sometimes the new people they’re singing to don’t know if they should give them gifts or money. Church members say they don’t want anything. They sing for the joy of it.

“It’s a great experience that we do. It’s not a chore, it’s a fun thing that we do,” Dominguez said.

After caroling the group gathers at church member Yolonda Mondragon’s home where there’s plenty of food waiting silver earrings. The carolers are especailly fond of her quesadillas, and the hot chocolate is always nice after singing for a couple hours in 30-degree weather.

The evening for the group can be summed up in the advice Debbie Arrieta gives everyone before they leave to go caroling.

“Make sure you bring Christmas move it, play it really loud, enjoy yourself, be careful, have a good time and keep Christ in mind,” she says.

Food & Drug RETailers ; Price war breaks out among grocers ; Doubts cast over green shoots

Asda has signalled the most cut-throat Christmas for a decade by firing the starting gun tiffany and co on a multimillion-pound supermarket price war.

Britain’s second-biggest grocer pledged to cut prices by pound(s)150m, but was immediately trumped by bigger rival Tesco, which vowed to save shoppers pound(s)250m.

The moves underline the increasingly competitive nature of the sector, with grocers fighting harder for sales as sharp rises in food prices fizzle out and the stores expand aggressively into non-food lines.

Judith McKenna, finance director of Asda, said this year would be “the most competitive Christmas for a decade”. But she insisted: “We are not interested in price wars.”

However, she admitted that Asda had benefited from promotions, including a toy sale where it sold more than 30,000 doll’s houses priced at pound(s)35 each.

Asda reported a rise in sales from stores open for at least a year of 5.6 per cent in the three cufflinks months to September 30, a drop from 7.2 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Ms McKenna said the slowdown was entirely due to increases in food prices coming to an end. She said the volume of products sold was up, while profits were expanding faster than sales.

Families sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday evening watching The X Factor were helping to boost demand for food from pizzas to curries, as well as family favourites such as spaghetti bolognese and sausages and mash.

“It’s just like the 1970s with The Generation Game and Morecambe and Wise,” Ms McKenna said.

While some confidence is returning, she said that consumers remained cautious about the outlook for next year amid expected tax increases and public sector job cuts.

“We believe the green shoots of recovery that we’d all like to see could be held back by a few frosty money clips moments in the months to come,” she said.

She hinted that Asda could hold off from passing the increase in the VAT rate on January 1 on to its customers.

Ms McKenna also played down an internal restructuring of the business carried out in August.

She said the exercise, under which Walmart, Asda’s owner, altered the internal ownership structure of Asda, consolidating 30 separate companies into two,improved the way money flowed through the group and taxes were paid, although she insisted there was no change to the amount of tax Asda paid.

National Collection Week for Operation Christmas silver jewellery Child begins Monday.

Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project for kids, is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, the international relief organization run by Franklin Graham.

In this effort, OCC asks residents to fill a shoebox with items that a child money clips would enjoy.

Things like toys, school supplies, toiletry items and hard candy and gum bring lots of joy to a child who lives in poverty or is suffering from disease, famine or the harmful effects of war.

If you’d like to participate, determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl and the child’s age category: ages 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14. Mark the top of your box with a label identifying your choices.

Bring the box to the collection site at Jonesboro Heights Baptist Church at 316 W. Main St. during pendants National Collection Week. The hours for collection are 2-6 p.m. Nov. 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 21 and 1-5 p.m. Nov. 22.

As the season of good will is nearly upon us, the British public are being urged tiffany to help the forces as much as possible by refraining from sending Christmas parcels to troops in Afghanistan.

Soldiers serving in theatre are literally being overwhelmed by support from the British public who generously post unsolicited parcels, putting a massive strain on the Forces Post Office in Camp Bastion, resulting in packages from friends and family taking longer to reach the intended recipients.

Many of the parcels are addressed to chaplains who have long left theatre, but whose legacy continues. The intention is that the current generation of padres will distribute the parcels to troops on the front line.

Padre Richard Downes, who is the British chaplain at Camp Bastion, said:

“The Enduring Families Free Mail Service enables families and close friends of Service personnel to send packages out to theatre. While such unsolicited parcels are without doubt popular with recipients, the all-important personal mail from soldiers’ families becomes significantly delayed.

“Occasionally the perceived needs of recipients have become somewhat confused,money clips as one chaplain discovered to his dismay when he opened a welfare parcel addressed to him personally, but which contained amongst other things a glossy pin-up calendar!”

Padre Richard Downes

Only a small fraction of the unsolicited parcels make it to the front line, the rest are processed by staff in Camp Bastion and the contents held in storage in welfare rest areas and churches until they can be sent on.

Some of the contents, including toiletry items, lie untouched for months at a time and one chaplain reported that he had 70 brand new toothbrushes in the back of his church in a Forward Operating Base (FOB).

In response to the growing problem, the Ministry of Defence is working with the forces charity SSAFA to enable generous members of the public to donate money to the charity as an alternative to sending parcels.

The Operational Welfare Fund is focused on providing support direct to the front line pendants and enables commanders on the ground to bid for those items which they know will boost the troops’ morale.

Padre Downes said:

“The postal service puts on a massive extra push at Christmas and put extra flights on to get the stuff here. But getting the mail out to the FOBs also takes longer, as mail must fit in around operational transport priorities.

“I thank the British public for their support but I would ask that they keep the pressure off the earrings postal system over the Christmas period. The British military are a generous bunch and the troops will always share with those whose parcels may have been held up.”For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Toys for Tots is giving Santa Claus a run for his money.

The Marine Corps’ annual drive has increased its goals for the tiffany Philadelphia region this year because the recession and high unemployment threaten to deprive many children of getting a gift over the holidays.

This year’s goal is 150,000 toys, up from last year’s original target of 60,000, announced Brian P. Tierney, chief executive officer of Philadelphia Media Holdings, at a news conference yesterday.

Hopes were boosted by the overwhelming public support of last year’s drive.

By early December last year, donations were falling far short, when the company that produces The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com stepped up to the plate.

“This was 10 days before Christmas, and there were thousands of children who tiffany cufflinks weren’t going to have a Christmas,” Tierney said.

A “toy emergency” was declared, the word was spread with help of newspaper and online ads, and the public responded big-time.

The final tally: about 139,000 toys.

Even more are needed this year because of the troubled economy, said Tierney and Gunnery Sgt. David Pierson, speaking behind an array of footballs, plush toys, dolls, and games in the lobby of the Inquirer Building.

The collection, worth $5,000, was a new gift from the company, in addition to $4,500 in other donations.

The Inquirer Building, at Broad and Callowhill Streets, and the company’s printing plant in tiffany money clips Upper Merion Township are just two of dozens of locations throughout the area — including schools, museums, offices, and restaurants — where toys can be dropped off.

Lincoln Financial Field will be a major collection point Dec. 20, when the Eagles play the San Francisco 49ers.

To find a spot, go to www.toysfortotsphila.org . For locations, click on “Donate Toys,” and be sure to click “Next” in the upper right to browse for additional listings.

Money can be donated through the Web site or by mailing a check payable to Toys for Tots of tiffany pendants Philadelphia to 2838-98 Woodhaven Rd., Philadelphia 19154.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.

The 76-foot-tall Norway spruce that was set up early Thursday morning in New York City’s Rockefeller Center has tiffany jewellery hometown roots.

The towering tree, which will be the centerpiece for the midtown Manhattan landmark’s Christmas festivities, was cut down Wednesday on the North Park Avenue property of Maria Corti.

About 160 neighbors, relatives and the curious turned out for the operation, joined by dozens of staffers from Rockefeller Center, who were handing out green sweatshirts, red scarves and breakfast treats. The activity turned usually placid North Park Avenue into a beehive of activity, with about 60 cars parked on the street and police officers directing traffic.

“I called Rockefeller Center last spring, thinking that I had a possible tree for Christmas,” tiffany earrings Corti said, adding that she moved into the ranch home only about a year ago. “They suggested that I send in a picture of the tree with someone in the picture for proportion. So, that’s what I did.”

“I thought: ‘That would be the end of that,’ so to speak, because I’m sure a lot of people write in thinking that they have a tree worthy enough for Rockefeller Center.”

Corti, a fifth-grade teacher at Cider Mill School in Wilton, said that within a few days she was contacted by David Murbach, Rockefeller Center’s gardens manager.

“Actually, it is a tough job,” Murbach said when asked how he goes about finding the perfect tree. “It’s one in a million. You think that there are

a lot of good trees around, but they’re not perfect like the ones that we need. We look for perfection tiffany key rings.”

Murbach said that he goes aloft in a helicopter to find trees. From the chopper, Murbach said that he spotted the Corti spruce from miles away.

“I was hoping that it was someone else’s tree, because then I’d have one for next year,” he said.

About 10 a.m. Wednesday, the lumberjacks’ buzz saws fell silent and the tree was lifted off its stump and lashed onto a 115-foot tractor-trailer flatbed for the trip to New York City.

A flock of grade school children immediately descended on the stump to count the rings.

“Forty-three!” confidently announced Kate McKinnon, an 11-year-old student at West Rock Middle School in tiffany necklaces Norwalk. “I counted twice.” She was with her 6-year-old sister, Claire, and both said that they would be sure to see the tree after it’s decorated.

The next step is to decorate it with 30,000 lights. The tree-lighting ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. Dec. 2, and it will be broadcast live on WNBC-TV, Channel 4.

The tree is the second from the region in two years to be chosen. In 2007, a Norway spruce from Shelton got the distinction.

Tree timeline Historical milestones for Rockefeller Center tree: 1931: Workmen on a muddy construction site put up frank gehry jewelry the first Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. At the time of the Depression, the workmen placed the tree in the middle of a construction site. 1933: First formal Rockefeller Center tree-lighting ceremony takes place. Tree is decked with 700 lights in front of the 8-month-old RCA Building. 1936: Two trees, each 70 feet tall, were erected. For the first time, the lighting ceremony included a skating pageant on the newly opened Rockefeller Plaza outdoor ice skating rink. 1942: Three trees were placed on Rockefeller Plaza, one decorated in red, one in white and the other in blue to show support for troops in World War II. 1949: Tree was painted silver to look like snow. 1951: The center’s tree lighted for the first time on national television on the Kate Smith Show. 1966: The first tree from outside the United States was erected. It was given by Canada, in honor of the centennial of its confederation. 1980: For 50th anniversary of tree lighting, a 70-foot-tall Norway spruce came from the grounds of the Immaculate Conception Seminary of Mahwah, N.J. Bob Hope participated in the lighting. 1999: The largest tree in Rockefeller Center history, 100 feet high, from Killingworth, Conn. 2007: For the first time, the tree is lit with 30,000 energy-efficient LEDs. Hundreds of solar panels atop one of the Rockefeller Center buildings help power the new LEDs.

Army Maj. Brandon Crull of Peoria returned just two weeks ago from a year’s active duty in tiffany shopping Iraq. He’s still adjusting to being home and introducing himself to his son, born while he was overseas.

But he came with his family Saturday to tell those ready to stuff Christmas stockings for Operation Santa what those stockings might mean to their recipients.

It’s the simple things, soap and toothpaste, things that come in handy and mean so much, Crull told the crowd gathered to help the Decatur chapter of Operation Santa, adding that sometimes it can be difficult in a combat zone to get the kinds of items the stockings hold.

But it’s also the letters from children and the project’s symbolism of the patriotism of the people of Central Illinois that count as well, he said.

“The kids write off-the-wall things, and they are phenomenal,” he added.

Crull, who serves with a Army Reserve unit based in Darien, said he’d only been gone two weeks last year when his sister, Julie Hensley, started the Decatur chapter.

“I didn’t expect it,” he said.

Last year, with just six weeks to work, Hensley said they were able to supply the Peoria-based frank gehry group with 1,260 stockings. This year, the number was 6,600 stockings, made and stuffed to be shipped to active duty military personnel.

Jennifer Albright said she brought 72 stockings she and her mother, Shari Bowen, made in honor of her cousin serving active military duty. Darla Zinn brought another 70 she had made, honoring the service of her son, former Marine Tyler Zinn.

“I’m an experienced box shipper,” Zinn said.

And Sherry Gant of Mount Zion said she came just to help stuff, though she has a nephew who just completed boot camp with the Marines.

This year, not only did the group expand its goal, but it added canine stockings. Crull said different breeds of paloma picasso dogs serve alongside the engineers in a variety of capacities.

“I can’t believe the job they have done,” said Gary Crull of Weldon, father of Hensley and of Brandon Crull. “I just couldn’t be prouder of this,” he added, noting that the Decatur chapter’s contribution made 20 percent of the total number of stockings that will be shipped.

“We’re so proud of Decatur, so proud,” said Lori George, who co-chairs the Decatur chapter with Hensley. “(Items) to stuff are still coming in.

“We’re already planning next year,” George continued. “If Decatur can do over 6,000, let’s shoot for sterling christmas tree 10,000 (stockings).”

On the Web: operationsanta.info