The Apollo 8 Astronauts, from left to right,were mission Commander
            Frank Borman, Lunar Module Pilot William Andres, and Command
            Module Pilot James Lovell. After coming out from the back side of
            the Moon,the crew read ten verses of the book of Genesis from the
            Bible. This was during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, a portion
            of this broadcast is below.

                    

        The crew members of Apollo 8 were the first Americans to directly
        see the far side of the Moon and the first humans to see the planet
        Earth from beyond it’s low orbit.

The popular Christmas carol was composed by Franz
Xaver  Gruber, an Austrian primary school teacher and
church organist. The lyrics were written by Rev. Joseph
Mohr, pictured below.

                A first edition copy of Dickens Ghost Story of Christmas.

                            English author Charles Dickens

The first Christmas Seals went on sale December 7, 1907
at the Wilmington, Delaware post office. Emily Bissell,
pictured below, was and active member of The American
Red Cross and had considerable experience with fund
raising. She was asked by her cousin, Dr. Joseph Wales
to help keep a sanitarium in operation through the winter.

Emily got the idea for the stamps from Denmark where a
group had raised money to help people with Tuberculosis.
She talked the local post office into selling the stamps in
the lobby for 1-cent. Bissell spent the remaining years
of her live promoting Christmas Stamps and helping
eliminate TB. She died in 1948.

                                 Emily Perkins Bissell

         Conducting the first sale of Christmas Stamps.

Johnny Galecki in the role of Rusty Griswold in
National lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989).

                This is Johnny today at 35.