Shop Local Falls Church

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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1. Skin Lab Med Spa • 2. Verso Founders Row • 3. Modera Founders Row • 4. Stylish Patina Home 5. Falls Church Holiday Market • 6. Thai Traditional Bodywork and Yoga 7. Dude’s Dog House & Spa • 8. Disturbingly Delicious Foods • 9. Foxes Music Co. 10. Art and Frame of Falls Church • 11. Doodlehopper 4 Kids • 12. VPIS TreeFest • 13. Brown's Hardware 14. Capital Petsitters •15. Providence Players •16. Eden Center

Located in the DMV

Mobility City-Alexandria • Marshall Roofers-Lorton Mather-Tysons • Revelers-DC

See Pages 8-15

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PAGE 8 | NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2023

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Reinvest In the Community By 'Shopping Local' This Holiday Season Continued from Page 1

during the five-day period starting on Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday, totaling a whopping $38 billion in online sales alone.

That sounds like a lot, but in 2022 total holiday spending topped $936 billion — and the NRF estimates total 2023 spending may top 966 billion (a four percent increase). With just under four weeks left before Christmas, there are still a lot of dol-

lars left to be spent.

Last weekend the City of Falls Church announced the return of The Little City Gift Card Program, as well as a $100,000 fund providing bonus gift cards worth 50 percent of each card purchased (limit 3 cards up to $150 per person). The cards operate as prepaid MasterCards, and are exclusively redeemable at over 75 local businesses, stores, and restaurants around Falls Church City that have been approved into the program. Bonus cards must be spent within 90 days, but Little City Gift Cards never

A hot bowl of pho at Eden Center.

Voted best shopping center in the DMV! IT'S GOING TO BE A SMASHING GOOD TIME!

Studios at 307 Open Studio & Winter Market Sun, Dec. 3rd 1 pm to 4 pm

SHOP LOCAL

Come out this weekend to the Studios at 307 Open Studios and Winter Market!

Artists • Vendors • Food • Music • Art Demo • Portrait Session PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELSEA Holiday-themed photo shoots • MAUREEN MINARD Abstract artist • MARA FLYNN Artist JENNY KANZLER Painter • AMANDA WOOD Fiber art, Illustration • DAVID BARR Mixed media artist • IRENE GUTIERREZ Brainstorm • DAVE CURTIS Surreal artist • ANDREA URAVITCH Sculpture • CYNTHIA MILLER Abstract Artist • CASEY WAIT Painter • MEAGHAN DECELLE Artist • STUART HINDLE Artist • JULIA BEZGACHEVA Artist • JOHN BALLOU Painter • BARBARA L. GREENE Artist • SHAUN VAN STEYN Photography • ZARA GONZALEZ HOANG Illustrator • ELISA TORRES Artist • ZOE LINN JARVIS Colored pencil and paper artist • PALETTE 22 Art and catering of small bites • ELEANOR MEEHAN (viola) & JOSEPHINE VAN HOEY (violin) • SCRUMMY GORGEOUS Handcrafted Belgian chocolate • RARE BIRD Coffee, cocoa, pastries, merchandise • THE DULCETONES Acoustic music group • REFIKA PRIBADI Quilling artist • SWEET SUZANNE’S COOKIES • SABRINA CABADA Small scale art, prints, ornaments • MOLLY MCCRACKEN Artist

307 E. Annandale Rd, Falls Church, VA Located inside Art and Frame of Falls Church

expire.

The News-Press, I should mention, is on this list, and Little City Gift Cards may be used to purchase subscriptions to FCNP. Subscriptions make a great gift — and help secure the future of what has become a rarity these days: a local print newspaper (and one that certainly reinvests — heavily — in local businesses, restaurants, and charities)!

With free money on the table, the program has substantial incentive to participate — but the list of approved participants goes further, providing a great starting point for

how and where to spend locally, ensuring your holiday spirit makes the whole neighborhood bright.

The NRF estimates that U.S. consumers will spend an average of $875 each in core holiday purchases. For a community of 14,493, that’s $12,681,375 — and Falls Church is one of the wealthiest places in the country, likely spending significantly more than the average American.

A lot of potential reinvestment is at stake, based on how much we decide to spend locally this holiday season (and beyond).

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2023 | PAGE 9

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Remove the line that says Tree Pick-Up Sunday Remove the lines that say – We invite --- more details Ad our webpage info www.vpis.org

Eighth Annual Falls Church Tree Fest A festive fundraiser for our community service organizations, sponsored by the Village Preservation and Improvement Society (VPIS).

Friday, December 1st, 5 pm to 9 pm & Saturday, December 2nd, 1 pm to 9 pm* *Bidding stops at 8:30 p.m.

Ireland’s Four Provinces

105 West Broad Street, Falls Church

www.vpis.org

On Sale Now! Avaliable at News-Press Office.

Contact us at ads@fcnp.com or 703-532-3267

Give the Gift of a News-Press Membership

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NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2023 | PAGE 11

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Christmas Tree, Traditions Explored in “A Beautiful Happiness”

by Mark Dreisonstok

Have you ever been curious about the origins of the Christmas tree and the evergreen wreath? Follow a priest on his investigations into the early medieval pre-Christian North in two intriguing books!

In his book "Tree of Salvation" (Oxford University Press, 2013), Father G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., explores the origin of Christmas trees and their use during the holiday season. Father Murphy, professor emeritus at Georgetown University’s Department of German, tells us: “The Christmas tree harks back to the myth of Yggdrasil which, according to the Icelandic Edda of Scandinavian mythology, is the great central tree that stands in the middle of the universe. It is the axis of the world, the world tree that holds up the skies, and the tree of life. Medieval artists in the North depict Yggdrasil on occasion as a stolid evergreen spruce, the highest of trees.”

“Perhaps the most famous of the many functions of Yggdrasil is to provide protection, especially at the time of the end of the world, Ragnorak, the twilight of the gods.

Yggdrasil, seeing and feeling the destruction of the whole world which

the tree supports and protects, will open to the last man and woman, or boy and girl, to admit them and provide protection for them throughout the end of the world. A new earth will emerge from the sea, eternally green.”

This myth became so enshrined in the pagan Scandinavian mythic world that people would cut down evergreen trees and bringing them into their homes to decorate, yielding the Christmas trees of today.

In a more recent book, "The

Heliand, a Beautiful Happiness" (an extended interview with Dr. Murphy conducted and written by Sister Nectaria McLees, an Eastern Orthodox nun), there are further fascinating parallels between holiday traditions today and pre-Christian pagan mythology. First, however, what is the Heliand of the title?

In the book (St. Nicholas Press, 2021), Father Murphy answers this directly: “… it is a poetic paraphrase of the [Christian] Gospel […] written in Old Saxon, the language of

the Saxons who did not migrate to England around AD 450.” It is written in the style of medieval epic poetry and was composed by an anonymous author between 800 and 850 with the purpose of narrating and explaining the Gospel to an audience new to its message.

Thus, "The Heliand" (which means “savior”) becomes a story imbued with heroic values in which “blessed are the peace-makers” is rendered into something more understandable to Germanic warrior culture: “Blessed are those who do not like to start fights,” says Father Murphy in paraphrase.

This desire and ability to appeal to the local, pre-Christian belief system is especially clear in the Nativity narrative so prominent during the seasonal holidays: “When the Wise Men go [to the manger], they present their gifts, kneel down, and greet Christ in a royal manner.” Yet in early Germanic culture, gift giving had to be reciprocal, so in the The Heliand, Mary the mother of Jesus gives the Wise Men a gift in return: they are allowed to hold the Christ child, an event not mentioned in the four traditional Christian gospels.

Other holiday traditions are explored in "The Heliand, a Beautiful

Happiness" as well. For example, we find the roots of the twelve days of Christmas. According to Father Murphy, “Before Christianity, the twelve days originally celebrated the turning back of the sun. […] Now, of course, the twelve days of Christmas are Christian.” The phrase “yuletide” heard so much at this time of year also has associations with Northern pagan traditions and the sun, for “yule means a turning or wheeling, when the sun, which had gone as far south as it could on the horizon, wheeled around to begin its northern ascent. The ceremonial Yule logs were to burn hot because the sun needed help […] to pull itself back up north along the horizon.”

Father Murphy concludes his interview in "A Beautiful Happiness" with these words: “The Christmas tree, the wooden manger, the Norns, the Cross, the male driftwood and the female ivy, the tree stave church and runes on wooden twigs of Yggdrassil; they are all promises to us of the intercommunication of all things in the Lord of all life and in his beautiful happiness” Briefly interviewed for this article, Father Murphy wishes Falls Church News-Press readers: “Merry Christmas and Glad Yule!”

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NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2023 | PAGE 13

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PAGE 14 | NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2023

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2023 | PAGE 15

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