Millenium Countdown: 1962

Have front page and an ad from the paper with a smiling santa.

Paper: Daily Appeal - 37 days to the millennium - Monday, Dec. 24, 1962

General Manager: Edwin B. Brown

Editor: Jim Leavy

Managing Editor: Ed Allison

Advertising Director: William Dolan

Circulation Manager: Wallace Colin

Published daily Monday through Friday at King and Division streets.

Telephone: GR2-3461

Christmas is time to lose the blanket of materialism

By Kelli Du Fresne

Times have changed since Henry Mighels begat the Carson Daily Appeal. In May of 1865, a handful of boys delivered papers throughout town and Mighels himself gathered the news that filled the pages.

In today's Christmas Eve edition of the 1962 Appeal, the staff sends "Greetings in harmony with our best Christmas wishes to all of you from the entire staff." The greeting is signed by a list of nearly 50 employees.

Also in the paper was an editorial designed to remind readers of the true spirit of the holiday.

Under the headline "Christmas Values, A Christmas Editorial" the paper wrote:

A brief era of good feeling circles the globe today for honor of the Prince of Peace. A billion adults and children join in celebrating the birth of the Savior, Child of the ages who brought a new sense of values and in so doing changed the course of history.

Two thousand years ago the Savior came to deliver man from bondage and oppression and to point the way to peace and eternal life. His teaching overthrew the Roman Empire and replaced greed and hate with love and compassion. Again, Christmas comes to a turbulent and troubled world dulled by a sense of hopelessness, as we stand on the brink of despair, continual bondage and nuclear destruction. As never before we need to review the teaching of the gentle Nazarene and adopt His Golden Rule as basic by-laws in our relations with men and with nations. When each member of the United Nations can treat other peoples as they wish to be treated we will have no iron curtain, no radar line, no nuclear bombs and no ruthless dictators to exploit helpless humans.

We have seen the winds and waves obey the Master's command. We have seen great civilizations built on His admonition to love the Lord with all our heart and our neighbor as our self. Yet we permit the blanket of grasping materialism to cover our eyes and hide from us the truth which would make men free and the love which would save the world. We ignore His divine promises and accept self-torture instead of clinging to His eternal principles of morality and justice. However, there is still hope. So long as man carries in his breast a deep yearning for universal love and acceptance of the Christ Child as a divine gift and a recognition of the inalienable rights of others, then the miracles of Bethlehem and Calvary will not have been in vain.

Christmas then must be more than a feast for the minorities and the under privileged -something more than an international festival; Christmas must be a reverent and grateful commemoration of the birth of a Savior through whom God to His generosity saw fit to give mankind another chance.

For every reason the Yuletide should be the happiest as well as the holiest day of the year. Let's keep our carols, our candles and our custom of unselfish giving and our mythical old Saint. To survive as history's greatest religious festival Christmas must be staged against a backdrop of unselfish love and child-like faith which for a few days at least bring all men together in a true spirit of brotherhood. While the greatest gifts cannot come wrapped in tinsel, the tangible acts of love and devotion inspired by Christmas continue to gladden hearts and uplift souls through a reminder that it is better to give than to receive. Behind the pagan trappings Santa still portrays a Christ-like spirit of thoughtfulness so direly needed today by both the old and the young.

This year let's try to accept Christmas for what it ought to mean. As much as our mortal ears can comprehend let's listen for the Herald Angels' promises of peace and goodwill in the the inspired carols and the majestic hallelujahs. Behind the enchanting musical melodies let's strive in our reverence to picture in a divine vision what human life might be if all people everywhere could follow the star to the manger and accept the Prince of Peace as the Ruler of the Universe. Truly this is the birthday of humanity's noblest dreams. Again this year there are disappointments but the dream cannot die. It will not die if the day continues as a reflection of God's great Christmas gift to the world.